Simply Lovely

 

 

Shackin’ Up

I am not a fan of pop evangelical fiction. But I am doing something that I normally don’t do. I am reading The Shack by William Paul Young upon the suggestion of my co-worker and sister in Christ.  I  bought the book yesterday started the book last night and I am now halfway through the book. I’m witholding my full opinion of the book until I complete it tonight. So far what I’ve read is interesting (my favorite euphemism for various reactions going through my head).

I’m reading this in between my reading of Robert W. Jenson’s Systematic Theology: The Triune God. A rich and complex book that is!  Of course, it wouldn’t be fair to compare these two books.  I have to read Jenson’s book very carefully, because I have a tendency to speed read. I think I’m gonna have to read Jenson’s first volume twice.

As for The Shack, I’ll finish that tonight and will let you know what I think of  the in a later post. Pax!

Hiatus

 I will be taking a brief hiatus from blogging. I will post sparingly during this period. The subsequent posts will be brief observations and reflections from my readings of some of the books I’ve recently purchased i.e. Hays’ The Moral Vision of the New Testament: A Contemporary Introduction to New Testament Ethics; Harper and Metzger’s Exploring Ecclesiology: An Evangelical and Ecumenical Introduction; and, soon-to-be delivered, Robert W. Jenson’s two volume Systematic Theology.

So I will return full speed once my feet are planted in the soil of Durham, North Carolina. See you when I get to Duke! Until then, keep seeking, trusting, and praising God.

Pax!

Duke, Here I Come

After a week of thinking and praying, I’ve decided to cast my lot at Duke Divinity School this fall. School starts in August so I’ll be wrapping up a lot things here in PA. God has truly blessed me in the past year. I was accepted to one of the most prestigious culinary programs in America, Johnson & Wales University – Charlotte and to three amazing theological schools: Duke, Fuller, and San Francisco. Though I will always love all things gastronomic, I’m choosing to put off culinary endeavors to experience this wonderful opportunity. To learn from scholars like Haeurwas, Hays, Carter, Wainwright, Fulkerson, and others….wow, what a treat!

Duke University Chapel

Duke was my one number pick to receive a well rounded theological education out of the three. I have to admit the first theological school I considered was Regent University School of Divinity.  I did like the program but I decided to look for another context.   One of my dearest friends now attends the school and is thrilled with the program. I am so proud of her!

Duke will definitely be a challenging and rewarding experience. God be praised!

Just Floored! Seminary Update

The Lord is great and greatly to be praised!

So I’m sitting at my office desk and I receive an incoming call with a 919 area code. I answer the call. The Director of Admissions at Duke Divinity School is on the other end of the phone. The Director offered me admission into the M.Div. program for this fall. I am just floored! I’m still trying to hold back tears as I’m writing this. You can tell this was one of the top choices on my list of seminaries, but I won’t make a decision until I prayerfully weigh all the options. Then there is that Johnson and Wales University – Charlotte campus offer I got a couple months back for the one-year Culinary Arts program I have to weigh as well.  So many wonderful choices……Lord help! LOL!

Hell is Not?

Jason Goroncy has a provoking and stimulating post on the Church’s doctrine of hell over at Per Crucem ad Lucem. Here’s a sneak peak:

If Hell is the nemesis of hope, can it be part of the Gospel? If Christ came to “free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death” (Heb. 2:15), should the fear of Hell keep the Church in business?² If not, what on earth does “hell” mean in the New Testament?

 

 

By the Bay

Here’s another seminary update: Yesterday I got an acceptance letter from the San Francisco Theological Seminary. I was accepted into the Master of Divinity program for Fall 2009. This is really cool. Now I’m waiting to hear back from Duke Divinity School which won’t be until mid-May. I’ll keep you guys posted.

Morning Devotion with Oswald Chambers

Oswald Chambers

 The Light That Fails

 “We all with open face beholding . . . the glory of the Lord.” 2 Corinthians 3:18

A servant of God must stand so much alone that he never knows he is alone. In the first phases of Christian life disheartenments come, people who used to be lights flicker out, and those who used to stand with us pass away. We have to get so used to it that we never know we are standing alone. “All men forsook me … notwithstanding the Lord stood with me” (2 Tim. 4:16-17). We must build our faith, not on the fading light, but on the light that never fails. When “big” men go we are sad, until we see that they are meant to go, the one thing that remains is looking in the face of God for ourselves.

Allow nothing to keep you from looking God sternly in the face about yourself and about your doctrine, and every time you preach see that you look God in the face about things first, then the glory will remain all through. A Christian worker is one who perpetually looks in the face of God and then goes forth to talk to people. The characteristic of the ministry of Christ is that of unconscious glory that abides. “Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with Him.”

We are never called on to parade our doubts or to express the hidden ecstasies of our life with God. The secret of the worker’s life is that he keeps in tune with God all the time.

——————————————————————————————————–Retrieved from Oswald Chambers: My Utmost For His Highest Online. April 22, 2009

Seven Last Words

 

The Crucifixion of Jesus Christ

Since I will be at work this Good Friday, I am posting the Seven Last Words. These are the seven last phrases uttered by Christ at his crucifixion before his death. They are as follows:

 

THE FIRST WORD 

Luke 23:33-34 — When they came to the place called “The Skull,” they nailed Jesus to the cross there, and the two criminals, one on his right and one on his left. Jesus said, “Forgive them, Father! They know not what they do.”

THE SECOND WORD

Luke 23:39-43 — One of the criminals hanging there threw insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” The other one, however, rebuked him, saying: “Don’t you fear God? Here we are all under the same sentence. Ours, however, is only right, for we are getting what we deserve for what we did; but he has done no wrong.” And he said to Jesus, “Remember me, Jesus, when you come as King!”  Jesus said to him, “I tell you this: Today you will be in Paradise with me.”

THE THIRD WORD

John 19:25-27 — Standing close to Jesus’ cross were his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene. Jesus saw his mother and the disciple he loved standing there; so he said to his mother, “Woman, here is your son.” Then he said to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” And from that time the disciple took her to live in his home.

THE FOURTH WORD

Mark 15: 33-34 — And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Elo-i, elo-i, lama sabach-thani?” which means, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”

THE FIFTH WORD

John 19:28 — After this Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the scriptures), “I thirst.”

THE SIXTH WORD

John 19:29-30 — A bowl was there, full of cheap wine mixed with vinegar, so a sponge was soaked in it, put on hyssop and lifted up to his lips. When Jesus had received the wine, he said, “It is finished.”

THE SEVENTH WORD

Luke 23:46 — Then Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, “Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last.

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Compiled by: Chickenbones: A Journal for Literary & Artistic African-American Themes

Peace with the Other

I have this thought I’ve been pondering since applying to seminary. How does one view the Other who vehemently disagrees with your beliefs about volatile issues which threaten to split denominations? For instance,  some Episcopal students at Duke Divinity School try to maintain a sense of fellowship with one another while holding conflicting theological stances on homosexuality in the face of overall threat to schism in the worldwide Anglican Communion. Yet both sides come together around the Lord’s Table for Holy Eucharist.

 Are gay Christians and other progressive Christians really Christian? Are conservative Christians really Christian? What does it mean to be Christian when both sides claim to be serving Christ’s cause when defending their beliefs. Progressives and revisionits generally view themselves as prophetic witnesses against what they view as a long-standing sexism, heterosexism and homophobia in the institutional Church. Conservatives and traditionalists generally regard progressives with the utmost disdain regarding them as borderline or thoroughbreed heretics on the verge of renting the Church of Jesus Christ apart. This cosmic drama being performed on the world’s stage tarnishes the witness of the Church.

I am not calling for a moratorium on dialogue and debate.  I’m calling for is humility and respect, peace with each other during the remembrance of the week of our Lord’s Passion. During this time  and always we must remember we all were his enemies on that gloomy day on Golgotha. Our hatred, our scorn, and our ungodliness nailed him to the Cross. For our salvation he rose from the dead. Please make with someone with whom you disagree this week in remembrance of the Crucified and Risen Lord. Maybe invite each other over for Easter dinner. (Okay I admit that’s a stretch!)