Now, where did I put that blog series on that topic?
Occasionally, I’ll get a comment, or email, or Facebook message from someone asking for a link to a blog series that I wrote on a certain topic. I’m certainly not bothered by those requests, but I often have a hard time finding the links myself.
So, I’ve decided to put together a separate “Series” page that lists some of the series that I’ve written over the last few years. (I think I wrote my first blog series during 2006, which would be just over 5 years ago now.) I’ve only added a few of my series to the page so far, but I’ll add more as I have time (and find the series).
If you have a favorite series, feel free to request it in the comments, and I’ll add it sooner.
You can find the link to the “Series” page in the menu bar at the top of the blog.
But, as always, if you’re looking for a series or a post and can’t find it, drop me a note. I’ll still be glad to hunt it down for you.
What Kind of Christian Are You?
I grew up in a background that included Southern Baptist churches primarily. I continue to attend a Southern Baptist seminary, and I’m part of a church that associates with the Southern Baptist Convention. Does “Southern Baptist” then, define the kind of follower of Jesus Christ that I am? No. Certainly my background and education has worked to shape me, but my goal is not to be the best Southern Baptist that I can be. While I appreciate many things associated with the Southern Baptist Convention, there are others that I think are not helpful to the church.
Today, I am often associated with the simple church or organic church movement. I’ve read (and reviewed) many books associated with these types of churches, and I’ve agreed with many of the things that I’ve read. Does that mean that “organic church” defines the kind of follower of Jesus Christ that I am? Nope. That doesn’t either. While I appreciate many of the things that I’ve learned from those who are part of simple or organic churches, and while I focus on the relational aspect of Christians sharing their lives together in Jesus Christ, I am not part of the movement.
I’ve also enjoyed reading and interacting with people who are Anabaptist, Reformed, Lutheran, Catholic, Methodist, Pietist, Presbyterian, Anglican, Charismatic, and many, many other “kinds” of Christians. However, I do not identify myself with any of those different groups.
My goal, then, is to identify myself with Jesus Christ without separating from any brothers and sisters in Christ who may identify with a particular group or denomination or organization or whatever.
The funny thing is, if I refer to completely identify with one group, it’s often difficult for others to interact with me. Perhaps it’s because I don’t fit many of the molds. I’m not baptist enough for many baptists. I’m not organic enough for some in the organic church movement. I’m not reformed enough or separatist enough or traditional enough or whatever else.
And… I’m okay with that.
You see, I’m fine with asking people to respond to me as a person in Jesus Christ and not as a certain denomination or organization or set of doctrines.
Often, people will assume I believe certain things or do certain things or refuse to do certain things because of my background or education or some other association. I like to surprise people, and then interact with them one-on-one instead of denomination-to-denomination or system-to-system.
So, whatever you think about me, I’m probably not that kind of Christian. And, when we interact with one another, I will try to treat you as a brother or sister in Christ and not like a system of beliefs.
Hopefully, this approach – either online or in person – will lead to encouraging and helpful dialog in which we both grow in maturity in Christ.
More thankful for what God has given; less wishing for more
This coming Sunday, we’re doing something a little different when we gather together with the church. Instead of having a particular passage to study and having someone designated to guide us through that passage, we’re simply setting a theme: thankfulness. Everyone is planning to come together with a song, a passage of Scripture, a lesson, a prayer request, etc. concerning thankfulness and gratefulness.
(Yes, I know that many believers meet together in this way all the time. We’ve met together this way before. However, this is not the way we normally meet together.)
As Margaret and I were talking about being grateful to God this week, I kept thinking about a passage in Habakkuk. Yes, Habakkuk. This is actually one of Margaret’s favorite passages.
To set the passage in its context, Habakkuk foresees the coming invasion of the Babylonians. They are growing in strength, and he knows that God is going to use that nation to punish Israel for its disobedience.
At the end of this short book, Habakkuk records this prayer/song:
Though the fig tree should not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the LORD;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
GOD, the Lord, is my strength;
he makes my feet like the deer’s;
he makes me tread on my high places.
(Habakkuk 3:17-19 ESV)
The prophet looks forward to a time (perhaps after the Babylonians invade the land) when there are no figs, no grapes, no olives, no grain, no sheep, no cows, nothing. The people will be starving.
Yet, in this midst of these, Habakkuk says that he will find joy in God. This is the attitude that I want in my own life.
There have been many struggles in our life lately, and we often do not find joy in the presence of God, even though we know that he is with us. In spite of our struggles, we have never been in a situation where we had nothing, where we were hungry.
If Habakkuk can look ahead to a time when he has nothing and yet continue to see himself finding joy in God, surely I can do the same thing.
Unfortunately, today, I still look at times when my wants are not met (my wants, not my needs), and I still seek others things for my joy.
I recognize that in order to live continuously and consistently in a state of gratitude and joy in the Lord, I must be content in him and only in him.
Run with me
Okay, so I’ve written about running a few times on this blog, but I have tried to tie it back to the spiritual aspects of life. However, from the responses that I’ve gotten on the blog, on Twitter, on Facebook, and in person, many people are interested in running itself.
So, I’ve decided to put together a simple blog for those who want to learn more about my running progress. I plan to write about why I run, how I run, when I run, who I run with, what races or events I run, and where I run.
If you’re interested in “following” my running progress, then jump over to my “Running Report” blog. If you’re not interested in running, then… don’t go to that blog. 🙂
SEBTS hosts the Southeastern Regional meeting of ETS on the topic of Biblical Theology
So, if you’ve read my profile or if you’ve been around here for a while, then you probably know that I’m a PhD student in Biblical Theology at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (SEBTS).
A few days ago, I noticed that Southeastern Seminary is hosting the southeastern regional meeting of the Evanglical Theological Society on March 23-24, 2012. And what is the topic of this regional meeting of ETS? Biblical theology. Three prominent writers in the field of biblical theology will be highlighting the meeting: Paul House, Scott Hafemann, and Andreas Köstenberger. I’ve read a couple of books by House and Hafemann, and I’ve read books by and attended seminars by Köstenberger. I expect they will provide a great plenary session.
Now, since this meeting will be held very near my home (6 miles) and in the same complex where I work as a web developer, and since the topic will be within my own field of study, I really should try to present a paper at the meeting.
But… on what topic? There are so many good topics in the field of biblical theology. Of course, I could present a paper on any topic, not just biblical theology.
Maybe I’ll think of a few topics that go along with my dissertation and list them here for your input…
Topic 1: Prophecy and Tongues as Paradigms in 1 Corinthians 14
Topic 2: Edification by the Whole Church in 1 Thessalonians 5:11-14
Topic 3: A Kingdom of Priests: The Priesthood in Action in Hebrews 10:19-25
What do you think? Do any of those topics sound interesting to you? (Of course, as always, I reserve the right to choose any of the above topics… or even a different topic. However, I would appreciate your feedback.)
What are you eating?
If you’ve been reading my blog over the last three months, then you probably known that the doctor told me that I needed to change my eating and exercise habits or I would be headed toward a very unhealthy lifestyle. Actually, my lifestyle was already unhealthy, but it would become even more unhealthy. So, I changed what and how I was eating, and I began exercising – walking and then running eventually.
At the beginning of this week, I reached a milestone. I had lost 30 lbs since I went to the doctor almost exactly 3 months before. I posted a notice about this on Facebook, and several people asked me what I diet was doing to lose weight. I’m not really on a particular diet, but I thought I would share what I’m eating in case it would be helpful to others.
To begin with, I eat throughout the day. As Margaret says, I’m always eating. I typically begin about 9:00 a.m. with a bowl of high fiber, low sugar cereal – generally one made by Kashi. (I eat one serving size or less. I don’t eat an entire bowl full, which is typically 2-3 servings.) Then, throughout the day, every 1 1/2 – 2 hours, I’m either eating lunch, dinner, a piece of fruit, or a handful of almonds (again, check the serving size). I’ve found that eating throughout the day like this helps me eat smaller servings without every feeling hungry.
I’ve already mentioned serving size twice. So, let me focus on that here. We realized early on when we were changing our eating habits that we were eating too much meat. Mainly, we ate too much meat because of the size of the servings we were eating. So, we reduced our serving size of everything except fruits and vegetables. One serving of meat is about 3 ounces for red meat and poultry or 4 ounces for fish. Also, I rarely eat more than 1 serving of red meat per week. Often, I only eat meat (chicken, turkey, or fish) at dinner. Occasionally, I’ll have an even smaller serving of meat at lunch, but that’s rare.
When it comes to fruit, I try to eat four servings per day. Also, we try to eat different pieces of fruit each day. To be honest, this is getting to be the most difficult change, not because I don’t like to eat fruit – in fact, I love it! But, fruit is expensive, and it is much more difficult to find different types of fruit now that it’s getting closer to winter.
I try to eat 6-8 servings of vegetables each day. We’ve stopped counting legumes (beans and peas) and corn as vegetables. Green leafy vegetables are best, so we eat alot of salads made with mixed greens and spinach (with less than 1 Tbsp of oil/vinegar or an olive oil based dressing). Please we eat other green leafy vegetables as much as possible.
We don’t eat anything fried. Nothing. If we use oil, we use olive oil or canola oil. I don’t eat as much bread, rice, pasta, corn, potatoes, or other starches as I once did… and I LOVE bread.
Finally, we don’t count calories. I can’t tell you how many calories that I eat in a day.
Oh, and I almost forgot – Water! Water, water, water. We drink water all the time. No sodas; no sweet tea; no fruit juice. (I do drink 1-2 cups of coffee during the week when I’m at work though.)
So, how is this change in eating habits working? Well, like I said, I’ve lost 30 lbs in about 3 months. Margaret has lost alot of weight also even though she’s mainly walking and not running as much as I am. Also, we both have more energy, and we feel better overall.
(By the way, as the image attached to this post shows, we do “cheat” occasionally, although I don’t really consider it cheating.)
So, that’s what and how I’m eating.
A roller coaster of a week
Okay, so this last week wasn’t really up-and-down like a roller coast, but I wanted to get some of kind of state fair reference in the title.
Last Saturday, I had the opportunity to run in my first 5k race. It was sponsored by Southeastern Seminary, and the proceeds benefited two different charities: one to help Haiti and one to help support diabetes research. I was very happy with how I ran for my first race. I didn’t come close to winning, but I beat the goal that I had set for myself. If you’re interested, I’m in this video that was made for the race. I’m the blurry guy at the beginning of the video. Plus, you may be able to catch a few glimpses of me at the race start.
By the time this post is published, I should have finished my second 5k race. This race is sponsored by the Franklin County (NC) Humane Society and is called “Paws for Life.” My wife and daughter help out the humane society, and we often foster dogs that are left at the local animal shelter. We’ve volunteered for the 5k before, but this is the first time that I’ve run the race. This has been a tough running week, so my goal is to simply finish well, not necessarily to beat my time from last Saturday.
Also, last Wednesday, I had the opportunity to teach for a friend in a New Testament introduction class in a local community college. I had 50 minutes to teach the students about the Book of Hebrews. That’s right… 50 minutes for the entire book. Of course, I was barely able to scratch the surface, but we did touch on manuscripts, transmission, authorship, dating, destination, purpose, and content. The students asked very good questions!
On Thursday, I took my daughter and one of her friends to the NC State Fair. We spent about six hours at the fair and had a great time! Believe it or not, we spent less the $20 between the three of us. Plus, we had been given some ride tickets, so they were able to ride three of the carnival rides. Miranda had entered a photo in the competition, and we saw her entry and learned more about the kind of photo that she should enter next year.
Now… on the down side of the roller coaster. My wife Margaret has had bronchitis for last 10 days to 2 weeks. Whenever she gets bronchitis, she always struggles to get over it. She started her second round of antibiotics yesterday. So, if you think about it, please pray for her.
That’s what’s been going on with us for the last week or so. What’s going on with you and your family?
Replay: Lessons from the Appalachian Trail
Three years ago – and it’s hard to believe that it has been three years – I joined my son, Jeremy, and a friend of mine and his son on a three day hike on part of the Appalachian Trail in Pennsylvania. When we returned home, I wrote about several “lessons learned” in a blog series. (The first post was called “Lessons from the Trail 1 – Introduction.”) The introductory post is below, as well as links to the other posts. I really enjoyed our time on the trail, in spite of the problems that I encountered. I hope I’m able to do something like this again soon.
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Lessons from the Trail 1 – Introduction
From Thursday, October 9, through Saturday, October 11, my son, Jeremy, and I joined my friend, Jim, and his son, Jason, on a hiking and camping trip through a very small portion (21 miles) of the Appalachian Trail in Pennsylvania. If you are not familiar with the Appalachian Trail, it winds its way through the Appalachian Mountains for over 2100 miles from Maine to Georgia. We started in Pennsylvania where the trail ran near the home of Jim’s father, who dropped us off at our starting point, picked us up at our destination, and offered wonderful hospitality before and after our trip.
Our hike started in Pine Grove Furnace State Park and ended just over 21 trail miles and just over 50 hours later in picturesque Boiling Springs, PA. During the hike, we saw many beautiful sites, almost ran out of water, battled very sore muscles, and learned alot about ourselves. In fact, this series is not going to be about the hike, per se. I am not going to share my trip diary, although I did keep one. Instead, I want to share some “life lessons” that I learned on this trip.
Now, I recognize that 21 miles is not a long way to hike for many people. In fact, we passed some hikers who were walking the entire length of the AT over several months. One man who passed us was running our route in less than one day. However, for two 40 (+) year old men and two teenage boys, it was a long hike.
I was surprised at how much I learned about life during this hike. Some of these lessons I learned through my own quiet meditation (well, mostly quiet… there was some grunting and groaning) during the hike. Other lessons I learned while talking with Jim or the boys. It seemed like every turn in the trail, every ascent or descent, every rocky ridge, every ache and pain offered more lessons, if I was willing to learn. I tried to learn. Perhaps you can help me.
As I share these various life lessons, I encourage you to help me and others learn about life together. Perhaps you have a story to share; then please share it. Perhaps you have another perspective; then share that. Please use my hiking and camping trip as an opportunity to “exhort one another”.
(By the way, if you’re interested, I’ve posted pictures from our trip in a Facebook album.)
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Lessons from the Trail Series:
1. Introduction
2. Preparation
3. Watching
4. Burdens
5. Leaders
Running down a dream
A few years ago, I noticed that my body and my health were changing. Until that time, I could eat and do almost anything that I wanted, and it did not seem to affect by health. (It probably was affecting my health, but I didn’t notice any outward signs.)
So, when I noticed my health getting worse and my waistline expanding, I changed what I ate. That worked great for a couple of months, and I even lost alot of weight. But then I fell back into the same patterns of eating, and I regained all the weight that I had lost.
Later, I decided to try exercise. I started running, but soon had to stop because of pain in my shins. This annoyed me because I had always been able to run for exercise before. About a year later, I tried to run for exercise again. Once more, I had to stop because of shin pains.
Last summer, I went to the doctor, and he told me what I already knew: if something didn’t change in the way I was living, I was headed for a very unhealthy life that included high blood pressure, diabetes, and perhaps more.
He recommended changing both my diet (what I ate) and my exercise (that is, do something for exercise). So, Margaret and I both adjusted what we were eating, and we began walking for exercise. We started walking slowly for short periods of time, then eventually increased the pace and time of our walking.
Soon, I began to wonder if I could run. The first time that I tried, I ran for just under a mile. I waited a few days, and found that I did not have any shin pains. Next, I ran for just over a mile. Again, I did not have any pain in my shins. I continued increasing my pace and distance, and I continued to be able to run without shin pain. (After doing some research, the absence of shin pain could have been due to my losing weight and/or slowly increasing my exercise.)
So, things were going wonderfully. Margaret and I were still walking together, and several times per week, I would run as well. I loved the exercise.
Then, one week, I found running to be extremely difficult. I could not run as fast or as far as I could the week before. It wasn’t as fun as it had been. I wasn’t in pain; it was just more difficult to run.
Several people told me that this was to be expected. Everyone had off weeks, but they encouraged me to keep at it.
I decided that I needed an incentive to keep running so that I wouldn’t give up. So, I registered for two different 5k races. I kept running, even though it was hard. Within about a week or so, running was again a joy, and I was again increasing my pace and distance. I decided to register for a 10k race as well.
Now, guess what? My first 5k race – which seemed so far away when I first registered – is this Saturday! Yep. And, the second 5k race is the Saturday after that. Then, I get a weekend off before running the 10k race on November 5.
I may be a glutton for punishment, but I’m actually looking forward to the next few weeks. Not only am I enjoying running and exercising (both by myself and often with others), I also feel better and have more energy. (And, yes, Margaret and I have both lost over 20 lbs.)
Note: This post is not intended as a metaphor or allegory of the church. It’s just a quick note about what’s going on in my life. Sorry if you’re disappointed. 😉
(p.s. The title of this post – “Running down a dream” – is the title of a Tom Petty song, which, ironically, is not about running at all.)
Members together with one another
For the last few days (and for the next few days), our family and some friends are in Williamsburg, VA. This morning we gathered together with some brothers and sisters in Williamsburg.
I’ve known Danny for a few years. Last year, he and I even traveled to Ethiopia together with Dave Black. About a month after we returned from Ethiopia, Danny moved back to Williamsburg. One of the reasons that we came to Williamsburg was to spend time with Danny and his family and some of the brothers and sisters in Christ that he had met.
This morning we had a chance to get together with them. We sang together, prayed together, read Scripture together, and encouraged and edified one another together. We shared the bread and cup together and ate salad, spaghetti, and sausage and peppers together. We sat around outside and enjoyed the fall afternoon and continued our conversations and fellowship.
Even though we live in North Carolina and they live in Virginia, we immediately recognized ourselves as and spent time together as members together with one another. Members of what? Members of some man-made designation of “local church” with whatever name we might give it? No. Co-members of the church – the body of Christ – not through some distinction or decision of man, but because we are all children of God and therefore brothers and sisters to one another.
What a great day so far! I thank God for the brothers and sisters (the church) that we gathered with this morning. Some of them I knew; some I had never met before. But, we were all members together with one another.