Avoiding A Spiritual Caldera

Caldera. I like that word today. A caldera is a basin like depression formed by the explosion or collapse of the center of a volcano. You have all the heat and energy and activity. Then the bottom falls out of the top and you have a caldera. A kind of sunken look, a mere shadow of the former power and energy you once saw flowing from that volcano, when it was full in its' passion and activity and rocking the world immediately around it.

Doesn't sound like a good idea to have a spiritual caldera, does it? Who wants a collapse, when we need the fires to be burning as hot today as when we came to faith in Jesus, as hot tomorrow and each day until He comes back or calls us home.

I clearly want to keep the fire stoked, don't you? So I am in the Word daily, recently I started participating in an on-line bible study (my first) on Psalm 119 with some really cool and very godly women (and a guy or two), I work at an  evangelism training and outreach ministry, I attend seminary part time, I try to focus hard on my prayer life.

I am stoking my fires as best I know how right now. (Know how right now. How now, brown cow? Not sure where that came from. Possibly a mini-caldera, an attention implosion.) I am a little shy of 8 years into my faith walk, and I want to make sure that fore keeps burning bright. 

I know it isn't about the volume of activity but the level of intensity. So I am trying to do all these things as deeply, as sincerely, with as much fire as I can. I hope I am succeeding. I will keep going. I choose to avoid the caldera of a cooling passion for the Lord. I want the fire kept hot so I am stoked for the Lord, but that the fire also burns away what is worthless in my life, what is worthless in the pursuit of the Lord and the giving to Him of all glory.

I hope you are doing things to keep your fires stoked up to their full potential. Anything less than a blazing bonfire is not giving God the glory He so richly deserves from each and every one of us.

We (I) are open to suggestions as I (we) keep stoking things up at our (my) end.

The Beginning of the End

Today in my seminary class we move on from Daniel into Revelation, where will be for the remainder of the semester. I cannot wait to dig into this part of the study. I have always wanted to spend time in the Book of Revelation, but have never done a detailed study. This one, led by Dr. Pentecost, will be from the pre-millennial, pre-tribulation school of thought. Which is fine, as that is what I hold to personally, I would probably not be studying where I am if I wasn't of that frame of mind.

As I go through the reading of this section, as I hear the events laid out in the bible and compare them to what is going on on the world, I see things developing in a way that one can see Revelation playing out in the future. I am not saying today nor tomorrow as no one knows the day except our Father in heaven, if I may paraphrase Matthew 24:36 a bit.

I can imagine how John struggled to get his mind around this divine revelation, how he must have struggled to put it on paper. (And remember, he had to do it in Greek with all those funny squiggles. You can tell I am not taking languages in school). What did he see, how did he describe it as he did? I am sure without divine inspiration he would be completely lost understanding what it is that was revealed to him. I wonder if he saw it in his mind like we see on a TV or computer (maybe a little 3D or HD action?), if he saw it as it will happen or in images his mind could grasp from the world around him.

That we are heading towards the end of days, I have no doubt. I mean, we are a day closer each day. Will it happen in my lifetime, or the lifetime of anyone alive on the earth today? Who knows. But it is possible that this is more likely true today than it was yesterday, and will be more so tomorrow. All I know is that it will happen when God wills it, and I will be in it those days if that is His will for me.

I do not know what to expect, but I know what to do. Follow hard after the Lord as I walk down The Narrow Road.

Off To A Good Start

Started class today, Daniel and Revelation, started with the Book of Daniel. We made it almost all the way through Daniel 1:1 before class ended. A great start.

Seriously, a great start because of all the background we did in Deuteronomy 28-30 (on the blessings of Israel, on the curses on Israel, on obedience and disobedience. You can guess which one gets you the blessings and which one doesn’t). A bit of time on Ezekiel 10 and 11 (the call for repentance of the nation and the departure of the Shekinah glory from the Temple) and a little side detour into 2 Chronicles 7:14 (for a biblical concept of repentance - humble yourself, pray, seek His face, turn from your wicked ways).

I am not feeling that great today, but those 50 minutes were quite the boost. If only the rest of schoolwork jazzed me up like the lectures do, I’d be working on my doctoral dissertation right about now (the second or third one, that is).

It is going to be fun in class, whatever the rest may hold!

School Redux

Today I start class again at Dallas Seminary. I say class because I am taking one class this semester, that is all I can handle while working full time and all the assorted other stuff that has attached itself to me like so many magnetic mines over the course of the past 30 years or so.

I am doing well in class, at least when I contract for a grade that can be classified as doing well. But I have been struggling as a student since I got here, being a student has not changed all that much for me since the 70’s. I really do not like it all that much.

This is a great institution, I just do not like student-hood. I view it as a negative form of childhood I guess. I will soldier through, I have a plan mapped out in my head that gets me to a desired end in a time frame and frame of mind I can live with. I am working the plan and getting it done.

I will enjoy this course, it is on Daniel and Revelation and is taught by Dwight Pentecost, a favorite for me here at DTS. I hope I will be educated enough over the semester to be in a position to share some of it with you.

Details to come.

Now it is off to school, where’s my lunch pail?

The Momentum of Inertia

I have not posted a blog entry in over a month, and I have to tell you the time pretty much sped by, blog-wise at least. At first it did not bother me, then I started to feel like maybe I should pout a post up, but nothing came to mind. Then an very interesting feeling set in; I felt it had been so long that any post needed to be deep and profound, as if to justify my lack of activity. It was sort of, hey, I know I have been missing, but look at what I have for you now. Aren't glad I waited? Aren't you glad you did too?

Well, this is not that post. Sorry, and I do not mind if you stop reading now. No profound revelations are forthcoming, so profound to allow you to revel in the profundity of the moment.

Just spent the last two weeks in a seminary course, 3 hours every morning studying the Gospels. Great lectures by Dr. Mark Bailey at DTS, but oh so fast the material sped by. Bible study should be a marathon, not a sprint. But I think I got through, although time will tell if I made the grade when it posts on my transcript. We shall see.

So, having spent two weeks studying the most profound text in existence, I decided I needed to post an entry here and break the string. One of my goals was to keep the blog alive in 2010. This post is tantamount to me yelling "Clear!" and trying to shock it back to life. The text of truth led me back to one realization; I can never get as deep as scriptural revelation; and no one is expecting me to anyway. So I might as well jump back in the fray.

I hope things get deeper moving forward, but I know that things at least need to get started. No one goes deep standing still. One goes stale instead. If you are struggling with your own blog posts (and I know some of you are), take comfort from the fact that movement is movement and

That's the depth of things today.

My Education Experiment

Being back at work after a two year break, I am trying something different this semester at seminary. An on line course, which allows me the maximum flexibility as to when I do all the work.

I just started it, having completed one unit of nine for the course. I am not sure I like it. I do like i can set my own pace, but it is just not the same as being in the class room to hear a lecture. They try for interaction, but it is a little forced and artificial because we are all doing this at dirffering times and paces. Interaction that is basically text or email driven is harder to get deeper with. Attending a chapel service on line is not the same as being there in person, you cannot draw off the strength of the faith of others sitting in front of your laptop by yourself.

It is what I needed to do this semester, but it is a poor second to being on campus. It fills a need but creates a void. It may be a generational thing, I am a boomer, we tend to lag the upcoming generations in embracing on line experiences with the same receptivity. It may be we are missing out, but somehow, it is not as rich an experience for me.

Hey, I use Twitter, Facebook and Linked In, more than I lot of my generation does. But it is not the same.

I feel a little sorry for the generation that passes the tipping point and this becomes the primary means of communication. Maybe in the past the same was said about the telephone and television.

I do not know. I am probably a dinosaur.


Technorati Tags: DTS, Dallas Seminary, education, Twitter, Facebook, Linked In, dinosaur

A Colossians 1:18b Christmas

I just finished the Fall 2009 semester at seminary. Christmas is straight ahead with school in the rear view mirror for a month. A time to reflect on what the season means, a time to reflect on my Lord. And here turns out to be a great place to start:

and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything.
Colossians 1:18b (NASB)

This is the Bible reference one of my professors for this term, Dwight Pentecost, put with his signature in a couple of his books (Things To Come and The Words and Works of Jesus Christ. Great stuff) I asked him to sign yesterday. Did not get to ask him why, I did not see them until I got home and school is done so it will have to wait. But it means something to him, enough to write it with his signature twice. And the class I took was a study of Hebrews, but no quote out of there (Another great book, Faith That Endures. I love reading him). Something about patient endurance or about let us go on, two phrases he used to summarize Hebrews yesterday. Or maybe this one:

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
Hebrews 13:8 (NASB)

I wrote my notes right in my copy of Faith, I have a bible study of Hebrews all lined out just by following what he taught us this semester. It was an incredible privilege to study it under him.

Getting back to Colossians, I will think about this verse, what it means to me, what it might mean to him. And his meaning will go way deeper than mine. after all, he has been teaching over 50 years, and ministering over 70. With a love of the bible that is awesome to see in a man in his 90's. I hope I remember to ask him next time I see him, which might take a while since I will not be on campus next semester as I am taking an online course.

Jesus is my hope and my assurance, my comfort and my strength. He has become the great constant in my life in a world that is ever-changing and more rapidly so as time goes past. Yes, it is the season of His birth, I need to meditate on it, and I have been pointed in a specific direction by a professor I admire deeply and have come to both respect and love. Thanks, Dr. P!

Let me know what you think of the verse and maybe I will come up with something pithy by the time I have to respond in the comments box.



Technorati Tags: Dwight Pentecost, Hebrews, Colossians, DTS, Dallas Theologicial Seminary, Christmas, seminary

Time is Short

I just recently listened to this chapel service from Dallas Theological Seminary. It is a sobering message to say the least. If you have the time, give a watch.

It makes you think what we should be doing to be responsible citizens as well as responsible Christians. Given the current economy and our deficit spending that is only growing, you have to wonder when it reaches a breaking point. An interesting message to hear in a seminary chapel service, not the daily topic, I can assure you. Which makes it all the more intriguing to listen to.

All this was addressed recently in a chapel featuring Ethan Pope, founder and president of Foundations for Living, based in Dallas. Mr. Pope gives a lot of food for thought. As he says in the talk you may disagree, but what if he is right? Are you ready for the type of scenario he is depicting? Can anyone really be ready, or can we just be prepared to face it?

Humility

Humility:

the quality or condition of being humble; modest opinion or estimate of one's own importance, rank, etc. Synonyms: lowliness, meekness, submissiveness. Antonym: pride.

The above is a dictionary definition of humility. It focuses on self. But here is a definition we discussed last week in seminary in a class that covers angels, man and sin with Dr. Lanier Burns. Humility is God centeredness. Humility is living with God as the focus of your mind. Jesus was humble but bold in His actions. He was submissive to the will of the Father but boldly went about His ministry. You think not, try the following:

And He found in the temple those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. And He made a scourge of cords, and drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen; and He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables; and to those who were selling the doves He said, "Take these things away; stop making My Father's house a place of business." John 2:14-16 (NASB)

The apostle Paul was humble in Christ but fierce in proclaiming the Gospel. You think not, try the following:

But Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and having won over the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing him to be dead. But while the disciples stood around him, he got up and entered the city. The next day he went away with Barnabas to Derbe. Acts 14:19-20 (NASB)

You do not go into a building in the center of town in broad daylight with a whip, you do not get left for dead outside of town and head right back in if you are not focused on God and His purposes. True humility is making the Lord the center of your life. You do not have the strength, the courage, the passion to do so without His presence in the center of your life.

Never Ending

One of my professors at seminary this semester, Dwight Pentecost made a very simple but very powerful statement in class the other day:

The wealth of Scripture is inexhaustible.

It was made in the context of his reviewing a passage in Hebrews and how he now views it, how his thoughts about it have changed, and changed for the better in his opinion. For the purposes of this post, it really doesn't matter what the point he was making is (another story for another day). The point is the power and grace and faithfulness we get from a loving God when we seek Him in awe and obedience. A seminary professor since 1955, 94 years old, and God, through patient and devoted study and reflection, is revealing a little more of His truths on a daily basis. Incredible how loving and patient with us our Lord is.

God will never tire of revealing Himself to His children

How lucky I am to serve such a wonderful God.

Burn Out

I have often wondered about people working in ministry who appear to be suffering from burnout or have actually burned out and have stepped away; often with lives broken, family hurt, the glory of God seeming to fade a little bit intot the background. Have heard some chapel services at DTS preaching on something similar.

I say to myself, how can that be? Why would God allow it? The answer is, as usual, with us and not God. I like the way my dear friend Mr Chambers addresses it in these excerpts:

Beware of any work for God that causes or allows you to avoid concentrating on Him. A great number of Christian workers worship their work. The only concern of Christian workers should be their concentration on God... A worker who lacks this serious controlling emphasis of concentration on God is apt to become overly burdened by his work. He is a slave to his own limits, having no freedom of his body, mind, or spirit. Consequently, he becomes burned out and defeated. There is no freedom and no delight in life at all. His nerves, mind, and heart are so overwhelmed that God’s blessing cannot rest on him. But the opposite case is equally true--once our concentration is on God, all the limits of our life are free and under the control and mastery of God alone. There is no longer any responsibility on you for the work. The only responsibility you have is to stay in living constant touch with God, and to see that you allow nothing to hinder your cooperation with Him.

Oswald Chambers - My Utmost For His Highest: April 23 Devotional

I need to remind myself that when I feel the burn (or more appropriately, the burn out) building, I need to step back and over to the center, back onto God's path. He will not let me burn out if I am in His will and His way. He will not let anyone else either.

If it is happening, you or I are doing something very wrong. We should be able to do God's work and fulfill our responsibilities to spouses, family, and those around us. Because that is God's work too.

And God does not give us more that we can handle.

Lasting Prayer

Yesterday I wrote about being able to engage in deeper, more meaningful prayer. Then at seminary we had a prayer chapel in anticipation of the World Evangelization Conference we are having next week. So it was a bunch of people all praying together for evangelism efforts and ministry around the world. I guess that was why it was on my heart yesterday.

It made me think that not only did I want deeper prayer, that which I called fasting prayer, but I also want longer prayer, for things that would stay on my heart and in my mind.

Lasting prayer.

I want it to be heartfelt and soulfelt. I want to it be with me through the day so it brings me back to Him on a regular basis to talk, to ask for intercession, to seek His voice and His guidance.

Deep and longlasting. A serious antedote to the pain of this world.

Following Jesus-Part IV

This is the last day of my posting about the session at Dallas Theological Seminary hosted by the Center for Christian Leadership entitled Following Jesus In a World Like Ours.

We have covered Assessing Ourselves in Our Cultural Climate, Engaging One Another in Community. and Engaging God in Worship. The final topic is Mark Young covering Engaging Our World in Missions. Dr. Young started with some basic statements:

• It is naive to think that as Christians, we can live outside of the culture around us
  
• That culture was created by people and we need to be more interested in people than in culture
• When we view culture as the enemy we withdraw from it or fight it. That moves us towards the fringes of the culture.

Young gave a definition of culture as a shared way of life designed to achieve a shared vision of common good with shared patterns of behaviors lived out through shared institutions. As such, culture is not intrinsically good or evil, but it is created by people who are by Christian definition sinful and depraved (that includes us as well). We have terminal values that are the idealized end state (i.e., independence) that are arrived at by practicing instrumental values (i.e., individualism). Culture needs to be looked at as a gift from God so we could live together and enjoy the world He created for us.

Young described the Bible not as a book about God, but one about God and humanity.Everything we know about God is through the lens of human interaction with the divine as revealed in Scripture. We need to understand that we are in the image of God, image as revealing and representing His creation.

How do we live in mission within the culture? We need to be right (tell the truth of God), relevant (tell it in a manner understandable within the culture) and redemptive (people have to want what we have in our relationship with God). Young pointed to 1 Peter 2:9-25 as the type of morally blameless, non-retaliatory, trusting and sacrificial living we need to engage in.

During the day, I had posed this question anonymously, and it was used to wrap up the session. With all that was covered today, what is the one key take away each speaker would have us leave with:

• Bock: Spiritual formation (conforming ourselves to image of Christ) is not enough; we need to help people we are called to love by bringing Christ to them.

• Bingham: Scripture is the basis from which all perspectives are to proceed out from.

• Jones: We need to be bi-lingual; speaking the languages of both tradition and culture.

• Young: seek to live good lives amongst non-believers, They may argue with you but they will see your good deeds and lives and God will be glorified by that.

I thoroughly enjoyed this seminar and what each speaker had to offer. I hope you enjoyed my meager summary thes epast four days.

Following Jesus-Part III

This is the third day of my posting about the session at Dallas Theological Seminary hosted by the Center for Christian Leadership entitled Following Jesus In a World Like Ours.

We have covered Assessing Ourselves in Our Cultural Climate and Engaging One Another in Community. Now, Barry Jones will take us through Engaging God in Worship. Dr. Jones began with a very basic premise: we worship God because He deserves it. Our worship has that one purpose but many consequences as you candle God's faithfulness against the faithlessness of people. Jones noted that as a culture we deal less with theological concepts of spirituality and more with psychic well being. We are interested as a culture with feeling good more than we are with feeling God.

Jones covered four acts in the drama of worship:

• Gathering: the coming together in worship and attending to God. We need to pay attention to God. We need to pay attention to what is said about God. The concept of lex orandi, lex credendi, lex vivendi (The law of prayer is the law of belief is the law of life; or as the church prays and worships, so she beleives, so she lives life). We need to pay attention to the Christian past. Do not just ask is it relevant, ask if it is ancient, has it passed the test of time.

• Word: we need to recover a robust theology of preaching, to focus on the importance of the sermon. We need to make the Gospel the center of the sermon. We need to preach by naming the idols we follow after in life. Bold, robust preaching.

• Table: we need to reconsider the weight of history, to note the spiritual nourishment in partaking in the Lord's Supper, to counter the logic of consumerism, of giving to get. Our spirituality has to be holistic, embracing our minds and bodies.

• Sending: worship has to be at the heart of our missionary zeal. Worship that doesn't result in mission is abortive, it does not give life from the sending out of the church.

Jones concluded by noting that worship should lead to living transformed lives serving others in mission. Tomorrow I will wrap up with Engaging our World in Missions.

Following Jesus-Part II

Monday I got the chance to attend a really good session at Dallas Theological Seminary hosted by the Center for Christian Leadership. It was entitled Following Jesus In a World Like Ours.

Yesterday I posted on Assessing Ourselves in Our Cultural Climate. Today I will talk about Engaging One Another in Community. Jeff Bingham presented this portion of the session. Dr. Bingham started with some statements of what is necessary for us to be authentic Christians:

• Authentic worship requires us to be reconciled to each other within the community
• Authentic language about loving God demands loving relationships with each other
• Authentic devotional life requires honorable relationships within the community, especially that of marriage
• God did not create us to be alone with Him; He created us to be with Him in community

Bingham discussed that we have reduced community activities due to items such as television and computers making leisure and entertainment making it easy to go it alone; with suburbanization making it more difficult to get together. Bingham went on to descibe several false concepts of Christian community:

• Individualism: thought that it is not essential to be spiritually nurtured in a communal fashion
• Tribalism: a commmunity is adequate unto itself without interfacing with other communities
• Presentism:the community is perfectly governed and provided for in the present without connection to past Christianity
• Concertism:if you get people in same place witnessing same event, you have Christian community without regard for whether there is actual communal interaction

Bingham pointed to scripture to deal with these false concepts, most specifically 1 Corinthians 12:4-11 for the utilizing of different giftsd together in community; Romans 12:4-5 for the concept that believers gather together and complete each other and Ephesians 2:11-22 for a description of a new Christian community. Practical steps included:

• Enhancing the communal nature and frequency of the Lord's supper
• Adapting the communal identity before the individual identity
• Acknowledge that some of the most significant spiritual growth occurs in community and not all in an individual personal relationship
  
• Establish accountability with other communities including the Chrisitian past

Tomorrow we will discuss how to engage in worship.

Following Jesus-Part I

Monday I got the chance to attend a really good session at Dallas Theological Seminary hosted by the Center for Christian Leadership. It was entitled Following Jesus In a World Like Ours. I will attempt a couple of blog posts to cover the information discussed. Four main speakers, all on faculty at DTS: Darrell Bock, Jeff Bingham, Barry Jones and Mark Young. All did a great job presenting and were very accessible to participants after presentations and on breaks throughout the day.

Dr Bock opened things up with a session entitled Assessing Ourselves in Our Cultural Climate. He laid out a road map of the issues facing the church today, that the follow on presenters would address. Dr. Bock noted 5 main issues from his perspective:

• Post-modern relativism: an entitlement culture that extends all the way to things of God. Will come up against the concept of grace, which would define us as not entitled. No revelation from above, the creator-creature interaction is obliterated.

• Pluralism: there are no valid exclusivity claims by any religion. Bock saw people moving down one of two tracks here; either towards more fundamentalism within their respective religion or more secularism, with both blocs trying to impose their worldview on others. Bock saw three potential reactions: 1)Dig in-and hold your line, 2)Withdraw-and step out of the culture or 3)Engage-both to understand other viewpoints and explain yours.

• Personalized Globalism: distance between people is shrinking, more diverse people moving into our culture generating fear and uncertainty in how to engage. We have mor epersonal knowledge of cultural differences than before.

• Materialism: An oldie but a goodie. it has been around a long, long time. Keads to life being defined by possessions and an excessive individualism. Religion is reduced to a transaction or consumer product-what can God do for me?

• Omnipresent Technology: open and instant access to information at an emotive level with much multiprocessing.

Bock gave a brief idea on how to tackle these issues which he would sum up as engage, engage, engage. Don't shrink away, understand the person before you explain your position, look for a Gospel message that is trans-national to fit a globalizing culture, use technology and use God's gifts to serve.

That is a mouthful, I hope I got it right. More tomorrow, but you can see the issues to be addressed in following Jesus today are not insignificant.

Who Do You Think Of During The Day?

Yesterday morning driving to class I was without my iPod. Somehow it froze up and I have not been able to get it working. As a result I was not listening to The Confessions by Augustine on an audio book. I was humming a tune, a song from my past, running over a few verses in my mind. I mean you cannot hum Augustine; not much of a beat and hard to dance to. I stopped for a cup of coffee at the local Starbucks to begin the journey into DTS.

As I got back in the car, I turned on the radio and on the station that was playing came up the song, the exact song I was humming just a few minutes before. An auspicious start to the day.

The song? Pride and Joy by Stevie Ray Vaughan. Don't ask why, I'm the guy who wakes up with Barry White playing in my head at 3am.

"Yeah I Love my baby, she's long and lean.
You mess with her, you'll see a man get mean."

That was the verse and it came on about 10 seconds after the radio went on. Could not believe it. One of my favorite two liners in rock (OK, blues-rock). I liked this song long before I got to Texas in 2003.

Guess because I always think of my wife and what I would do if someone messed with her. (Not very Christian thoughts, but hey, that is what forgiveness is for. You can mess with Texas before you can mess with my bride.)

Guess it means I was thinking of her 6am in the morning getting heading out for a day of classes. Guess it means I think about her all through the day. I usually send a text message from campus at a point in time I cannot have a conversation. I get a response back, either immediately or when I am sitting in class. Either way is sweet.

Who loves ya, baby.

Thoughts From Seminary-II

Some additional thoughts based on readings, assignments, lectures or comments picked up from my seminary studies:

• Our goal is to be mastered by the Bible, not to master it.
• Saved by Christ, that is the basis. Saved through Christ, that is the means.
• Christ came first to serve not to rule. So in the Upper Room, He took off His outer robe (sign of superior as Rabbi) and took up the towel (sign of subordinate as servant).
• The Psalter is a special Book of the Bible: recite the words as if you were speaking them to God, not someone else.
• Develop a clear sense of your mission so you can say "No" to the good and "Yes" to the best
• Our God is impossible to impress, but easy to please
  

I need soak in these, and soak these in.

Eating the Elephant

Yesterday was the first day of classes at DTS. Today I am laying out my work for the semester, meshing all the assignments and readings into one calendar so I can plan out what to do and when.

As anyone who goes to or has been to seminary knows, it is a lot of work and reading. It is my Spring 2009 semester elephant.

But as one of my professors said in class yesterday, the best way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time.

I am starting to chew.

A Great Trip

We are back from a long weekend in Branson, MO and we had a great time visiting friends. We got to spend Sunday worship at Telos Bible Church where our friend Bernard is pastor. It was a great sermon on some of the resurrection appearances of Jesus (and the fact that I appeared that weekend in Branson is pure coincidence, do not read anything into it). It is always good to worship in a strong bible based church when you are away from home. There is none better on the road than Telos.


We spent Sunday evening and all Monday morning with the 2009 class and staff at the Kanakuk Institute. This is a great group of young men and women intensely studying the bible for a year and nurturing strong hearts for service in the Lord. This is a great ministry to pray for and support. Wed listened to a lesson on Esther that was taught by a fellow who is going to be a classmate of mine in Trinitarianism at DTS in the spring session. And we both had to go to Branson to meet for the first time. Small world!

It is very heartening to see a new generation of leadewrs developing right before your eyes. I expect wonderful things in the name of the Lord from all these folks at the Institute.




We stayed at the Chateau on the Lake while we were there. It is a great property and a fun place to spend some time. However, the weekend following New Year's is a bit slow in Branson so the hotel was quite slow. I do not want to say how slow, but the day we left I saw a kid riding a tricycle down the hall saying "Red Rum". I immediately located all the fire axes and checked out quickly (Here's Johnny!). For those of you who are wondering what I am talking about, I said my sense of humor was a bit off kilter.

We are going to be going back to Branson probably once or twice a year because of some stuff I will be doing out there. We love visiting all our friends out that way. It is becoming a home city away from home for us.