This is another new post for
February 1, 2012 — lance_grigsbyaggregatin testing
hoping this will get deleted.
I Am Back for Scriptures II
January 21, 2012 — ReaganBefore I begin this process of blogging on the Old Testament post II Chronicles, I should note that prophetic Biblical literature is certainly the genre that I feel the least comfortable with in interpreting and applying Scripture. I fear that in the process of living as a Christian for the past decade and a half, I have often overlooked the prophets because I did not understand them. Well, no more! Over the course of this semester (and ideally for the rest of my life) I will be exploring these important Scriptural works in an effort to see how they fit into the entire story of God and man.
My time in seminary (particularly the last two semesters) has left me entirely persuaded that the New Testament leans heavily upon-even depends upon-the prophets to set the backdrop for Jesus and the early church. Some may disagree with me, but I think it correct to say that we as Christians cannot understand the total theological narrative of what God has done and continues to do through Jesus, Paul, and the early Church without reading and understanding the prophets. Intentional ignorance of these passages is not acceptable, particularly for those who plan to teach within the church. Thus begins my trek to struggle and engage with the prophets and the wisdom literature.
One more note of importance: many of the things that I write in this blog may very well be delivered with conviction and confidence. However, I am still in a formative stage in understanding and interpreting Scripture, therefore my exegesis and theological takeaways from each given passage are certainly subject to change. If I end up saying anything that upsets anyone, please be patient with me. I am still learning, and any errors of mine are likely to be corrected in time. I hope that this is a constructive process for me as a theological thinker and teacher, and I pray that this may also be helpful and encouraging to others (the maximum of 5 or so people) who encounter these posts.
The new semester begins
January 19, 2012 — stephen_reidThe semester is beginning. What a way to begin a blog post. This semester I am teaching a course on Hebrew Narrative, what we at Truett call Christian Scriptures 1 Genesis through 2 Kings. I am also teaching Prophets and Writings, what we call at Truett Christian Scriptures 2. Today we have two speakers coming in to introduce us to the possibility of learning through blogging.
The new semester begins
January 19, 2012 — stephen_reidThe semester is beginning. What a way to begin a blog post. This semester I am teaching a course on Hebrew Narrative, what we at Truett call Christian Scriptures 1 Genesis through 2 Kings. I am also teaching Prophets and Writings, what we call at Truett Christian Scriptures 2. Today we have two speakers coming in to introduce us to the possibility of learning through blogging.
Dr. Wiles & Uzziah
December 2, 2011 — runnerloverLast Sunday, my husband and I attended First Baptist Church Arlington and heard Dr. Wiles the pastor preached on Isaiah 6. Dr. Wiles is also an adjunct proffesor at Truett teaching preaching 2 on Wednesday 
mornings. His sermon included a section about King Uzziah found in 2 Kings. I really enjoyed how his brought the context of Isaiah into his sermon and even made practical apllication out of the choices King Uzziah made eventually leading to his death and ruin of his reputation. I would encourage you to listen to this sermon from Dr. Wiles. below is a link to his sermon from this past Sunday titled, “Holy, Holy, Holy.”
http://www.fbca.org/sermonarchive#!/swx/pp/media_archives/15898/episode/27670
Man’s Best Friend
November 30, 2011 — truettarian
So he brought the troops down to the water and the Lord said to Gideon, “All those who lap the water with their tongues, as a dog laps, you shall put to one side; all those who kneel down to drink, putting their hands to their mouths, you shall put to the other side.”
-Judges 7:5
Today if we were trying to decide which army to take to battle from the way they drank from a stream of water, I think most of us would choose the group that knelt down cupped the water into their hands and up to their mouths. If someone laid on the ground and lapped the water up like a dog, we would think they were crazy! Cupping your hands to drink seems like the logical, most intelligible thing to do. However, when the Lord was dividing the army up to attack the Midianites with Gideon, He chose the 300 men who lapped the water like a dog. To some, this may come as a surprise, but not to me. God always seems to choose the ‘path less taken’. God can always look at our faults and see perfection. Where we see failure, God sees victory. He sees inside of our heart and not the outside that the world sees. He doesn’t judge us they way we judge ourselves and others. We may see a homeless man and his dog, God may see a future influential leader and a top championship breed dog! We cannot look at the outside and judge people on their actions. We must leave that to God to see inside the person’s heart. 
A Zimbabwean Wedding
November 29, 2011 — runnerloverI work with a man from Zimbabwe named Jericho. He was telling me about weddings in his countryand as he was describing the 
process I found some similarities between this culture and the cutlure in the Old Testament. In Zimbabwe a man must get consent from the brides father and pay the bride price. Most of the time this would be cattle like cows or goats. Jericho said that when he got decided he wanted to marry his wife now he was very poor like in the case of Jacob in Genesis 29. Luckily for Jericho he did not have to work for forteen years to finally marry the woman. It would have been customary to give his bride’s father a gift but her family are Muslims and that culture does not require such gift. 
Jericho also said that is would not be unusual for for the bride’s family to be extremely demanding of the groom and often times grooms go poor trying to fulfill all of these demands and are left with no money for the wedding or even a ring. As a pastor in Zimbabwe Jericho has had to work with young couples with trying to live up to cultural standards of a wedding along with the cultural demands of the bride’s price.
Thousands of years later the culture of the Old Testament is still seen in numurous countries like Zimbabwe. Some people old true to what the Bible says at all cost even if it means paying a hefty bride price.
Tangible God Sightings
November 28, 2011 — Stephanie 
A few weeks ago, I wrote a blog post on presence. You can read it here. (For those of you reading from our Scriptures 1 class, it was a post I did not tag for class.) In that post, I share my thoughts on the presence of Jesus with us specifically when we pray. Perhaps this is why the presence of God at the dedication of the temple in 1 Kings 8 stood out to me.
In 1 Kings 8, Solomon has finally completed the temple, and the time has come to dedicate it. The author tells us as the ark was brought to the temple Solomon and the people were “sacrificing so many sheep and oxen that they could not be counted or numbered” (1Kings 8:5 NRS). What a joyous day in the life of Israel. They had finally constructed a permanent dwelling place for God. After the ark was installed in “the most holy place,” the inner sanctuary of the temple, “a cloud filled the house of the LORD, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud; for the glory of the LORD filled the house of the LORD” (1 Kings 8:10-11). What an amazing theophany of God’s presence among God’s people!
Sometimes I wish God would show up in such a visible way. Often, our experience of God’s presence while tangible, is nearly indescribable. However, I wonder, if God did show up in a visibly tangible way, would we recognize Him? Or would our western, scientific brains have some explanation for the theophany? Is our view of God big enough to allow for such unexplainable events?
A quick story. One summer during camp, rain was threatening our last night of worship which was to take place in an amphitheater overlooking a lake. Rain was imminent according to the radar and the clouds. Swimming and other outdoor activities had been rained out several times through the week. So I prayed for God to hold the rain until after our service which on the last night of camp could be quite lengthy. We started our service with the distant rumble of thunder, but as we watched the clouds (and the radar) the rain split and went right around us. It was raining nearby, but not at the camp. We were able to finish our worship service, time of response and prayer, and eat s’mores around the bonfire. The rain came right as our campers headed back to their cabins. One of the workers at the camp facility tried to tell me the lake had some impact on preventing the rain, but I choose to believe God acted on our behalf protecting our time of worship and displaying his glory for all to see.
A Simple Prayer
November 28, 2011 — AaronHave your eyes ever hurt standing in line of the supermarket or at least your head? The magazine rack is beaming with bright colors with familiar faces. Faces that we hold up as heroes for some almost in a Greek pantheon way. Not only do we lift up Hollywood, but we all too often lift up the names in the Bible as unreachable humans. Instead of seeing Abraham or Ruth as a man or woman just like you and me perhaps you, like me, see them as a Superman figure that God had a highly unique relationship. Then there are some stories that explode this view.
The time had come Sarah had passed and Abraham knew that he wanted to see his son, Isaac, married. He called in his servant gave him instructions to bring a wife from his ancestors back to Isaac. The servant made an oath that he would faithfully complete this task and
he set off to land of Ur.
The servant arrived in the village of Nahor. He strode arrogantly in with his procession of fine goods he had brought as gifts to the bride to be. Then upon inquiring of Abraham’s family began a beauty pageant to see who would be selected. Sorry nope. No King Xerxes here.
The servant stops at the village well and prays. Whoa! Wait I thought God only had a relationship with those he picked out. This is before the ten commandments and Israelite religion. Here is a servant praying,
“LORD, God of my master Abraham, make me successful today, and show kindness to my master Abraham. 13 See, I am standing beside this spring, and the daughters of the townspeople are coming out to draw water. 14 May it be that when I say to a young woman, ‘Please let down your jar that I may have a drink,’ and she says, ‘Drink, and I’ll water your camels too’—let her be the one you have chosen for your servant Isaac. By this I will know that you have shown kindness to my master” (Genesis 24:14).
This is one of my favorite prayers in the Bible. It is humble, simple, and the servant expects God to show up in a big way. He asks God for a very specific sign you can tell he is taking this oath to his master seriously.
Another reason I gravitate toward this prayer is its searching for discernment. The servant is concerned both with fulfilling his oath, and also carrying out God’s wishes “let her be the one you have chosen”. There is a hint of familiarity in the servant’s prayer that indicates to us reading it that this was not the first prayer uttered by this servant.
The last aspect of this prayer is its tone. The tone is so friendly. If it stopped after the opening line “O LORD, God of my master give me success today” it would sound official and impersonal. Instead. The second line sounds more like a face to face conversation “See, I am standing beside this spring…”. The servant goes on to explain his predicament and how God can help him through it.
This simple servant had somewhere along the way learned to pray to Abraham’s God who was now their God. Abraham makes it to Hebrews 11 the servant’s everyday faith doesn’t, but it is one I can really grab onto. So I tip my hat to us common everyday faithful saying God may never use us to start a nation, marry a tyrant to save your people, or to call down fire from heaven, but he is still God with us.
As the last words of the servant’s prayer are dripping from his mouth God begins acting. There before him was the girl for Abraham’s son. The servant anticipated the arrival of God he prayed as if God always shows up. Entering into advent I am mindful of the anticipation of Christ’s coming both present tense and future tense. Do I have the faith of this servant who expects and prays in anticipation of God who always shows up?