Christmas Poetry from the Bible

In God's own form existed he,

and shared with God equality,
deemed nothing needed grasping.

Instead, poured out in emptiness,
a servant's form did he possess,
a mortal man becoming.

In human form he chose to be,
and lived in all humility,
death on a cross obeying.

Now lifted up by God to heaven,

a name above all others given,
this matchless name possessing.

And so, when Jesus' name is called,
the knees of everyone should fall
wherever they're residing.

Then every tongue in one accord,
will say that Jesus the Messiah is Lord,
while God the Father praising.

----------------

In grace our Savior God appeared,

     His love for mankind to make clear;

'twas not for deeds that we had done,

     But by his steadfast love alone,

He saved us through a second birth,

     Renewed us by the Spirit's work,

And poured him out upon us, too,

     Through Jesus Christ our Savior true;

And so, made right by his own grace,

     Eternal life we now embrace

-------------------

In flesh was he revealed to sight,

kept righteous by the Spirit's might,

adored by angels singing.

To nations was he manifest,

believing souls found peace and rest,

our Lord in heaven reigning!*

Merry Christmas to all our family and friends.  

*This came from Philippians 2:6-11; Titus 3:4-7; and 1 Timothy 3:16 of the ISV (a translation I highly recommend mainly because the translators tried to capture the literary quality and convey it in their translation).  There are some other great examples of poetry in this translation here.

My latest opportunity to preach

I recently had the privilege to preach twice at Union Christian Church.  In case anyone was interested, I thought I would post them here (or you can go to the church's sermon page and find me under "speaker").

Click here to open the player.  (go to "sort options" then pick "speaker" to find me)

Dominion and Dynasty - Book Review

Stephen G. Dempster, Dominion and Dynasty: A Theology of the Hebrew Bible, IVP Academic, 276 pgs.

I praise the Lord that God has surrounded me with thinkers who have influenced me positively towards a better understanding of the Old Testament.  This is important for myself who is specializing in the field of New Testament studies.  Thank you, Todd and Stephen, for being that OT influence on me and encouraging me to read in this field and this book.

I just recently finished Dominion and Dynasty: A Theologyof the Hebrew Bible by Stephen Dempster.  This book was a biblical theology of the OT that focused on genealogy and geography or "scion and Zion" in the OT.  Or to say it another way, it focused on a place for God to dwell with his people – a dominion and dynasty. 

One of the many advantages of this book is that it treats the Tanakh as a Text rather than composed of 22 separate texts.  He interprets the OT (and really the Bible) as a whole book with interlocking themes and intertextual links.  Such a view is really where I am theologically and interpretively in Scripture.  With my next reading venture to approach narrative theology, this book is a great example of treating the Bible as a single book telling a single, overarching story.  There is great interpretive value in that.

I am also currently, however very slowly, reading through Pentateuch as Narrative by John Sailhamer.  This book is a brief commentary on the Torah (the "t" of TaNaKh) which reads the 5 books as one Text.  It brings continuity and cohesion to Genesis through Deuteronomy.  Dominion and Dynasty is similar to that, except it has a wider scope of the entire OT and not just the Pentateuch.  Yet it is smaller or more focused than Drama of Scripture which puts the entire story of the Bible on display as one Text.  And so you can determine if this book would be a good fit for you as you read the Bible as a Text or single story. 

The value of this book as that its presentation was concise and simple.  Yet the writer did an excellent job bringing out Hebrew punning and wordplays that clearly and intentionally drew the reader's attention to some of the most defining themes of the Tanakh.  I wish I had read this a month ago when I was doing the OT section of my Sunday School lesson of the Bible as one story.  It is that helpful for making sense out of the OT.  This is much needed today not only for the impact that the OT story has on the NT, but mainly because most modern Christians only see the OT as moral examples and pithy lessons on what or what not to do, along with great Psalms and Proverbs thrown in the mix.  (But many are not sure what to do with the prophets outside of a few obvious passages.)  This book will develop a Christian's theology of the OT like few other books can.

The downside I have with this book is that while I appreciate emphasizing the Hebrew canonical order, and even how that order teaches theological truths, I felt that Dempster could have spent more time developing his canonical methodology and deal with issues like (1) why the order is what it is and (2) give a more theological understanding of inspiration as it relates to canonical ordering.  What I mean is, the 2 Hebrew Bibles that I own display the Tanakh in a slightly different order than Dempster's.  (I know many Christians are not even aware that the Christian OT is not a proper ordering of the books).  Dempster moved Isaiah after Ezekiel rather than leading off the latter prophets (which makes better chronological sense) and Ruth to the beginning of the writings rather than after Proverbs (linking the woman in Prov. 31 with the example of Ruth).  These minor changes do make a difference in the story that Dempster is telling, though not a great deal of difference.  I would have liked him to explain his canonical ordering in more detail rather than just leaving it to a brief footnote.

Also, since this kind of thinking for many Christians is extremely novel, perhaps a bit more about how ordering books in a certain way has a theological value that adds, dare I say, divine revelation to the story of the Text.  That means that inspiration was not a definite point but a process for the OT.  I have a feeling Dempster intentionally avoided blazing that trail, although I would have liked to see him touch on it for those of us not engulfed in OT theological issues like canon formation and ordering. 

Aside from that, this book receives a hardy 2 thumbs up from me.  Student, scholar, pastor, or laymen alike should read this for its informative value on the theology of the OT.

First Package

After living here for a year and a half we finally received our first package.  A big thank you to Luke and Ruth for the surprise gifts :-)  Here is a little picture of all the goodies.  Abigail is already being spoiled by these friends!

Changes Coming

SCHOOL
There are so many things going through my mind that it's hard to keep them all in order.  In 2 1/2 weeks I will be finished teaching until April!  Therefore, I have to make lesson plans, organize everything in my classroom, and explain my class procedures/routines with my good friend, Laura, who will be taking over while I'm gone.  That has consumed a lot of time and energy during my breaks at school.

BABY FURNITURE
Also, I've been trying to plan and prepare for this sweet little girls arrival.  At times I feel like I have no idea what I'm doing or how to prepare.  But I praise the Lord for our school and how well they take care of us.  For the families that teach here, they supply all household furniture and appliances.  Since they didn't have a baby bed and changing table/dresser, they are going to purchase new ones for us.  What a huge blessing and one less thing I have to worry about in my preparations.

REGISTRY
Most people are able to go out to different stores and register for items they need.  Here in Honduras things are a little different.  But I did enjoy going online and registering at Target and Babies 'R' Us.  It was so fun looking at all the little girls clothes and fun baby items that can be very difficult to find here.  FYI: We are listed under Elizabeth Decker, Virginia, January 30th. 

PRAISE
We have been praying for guidance in who to hire to take care of Abigail when I have to go back to work in April.  I had just been praying about the very issue one Saturday morning when someone from school called and said that someone perfect had just requested to come back to ALP to work for a family.  Tim and I interviewed Gloria (who is a mother and grandmother and has been a nanny for a previous Pinares family) and loved her.  She will begin at the beginning of February while I'm still at home to get to know her and learn what I do to take care of Abigail.  She is Honduran only speaks Spanish, so Abigail will grow up bilingual.  Hopefully while I'm home with Gloria I will be able to learn a lot of Spanish as well. :-)  

PRAYERS
There are a few things that are still running through my mind that need to be taken care of before Abigail arrives.  1) We are looking for a car/SUV now and trying to save the money to purchase the best one for us.  There are only 8 weeks left before my due date so I'm starting to feel that time is running out fast.  2) Many items still need to be purchased for Abigail.  I'm not sure how or when everything will come together but please pray I don't start to stress about anything.  3) I must admit that I'm getting a little (actually a lot) nervous about the delivery.  Mostly because hospitals here are a little different and the nurses only speak Spanish.  Please be praying that everything goes smoothly.

The Challenge of Jesus - Book Review

For a long time, Jesus-research has been divided as either a historical pursuit or a theological one solely.  Things like the Jesus seminar and the “quest” for the historical Jesus has been much about de-mythologizing Jesus or un-theologizing him.  Then again, when theologians responded with their theological replies, it tended to miss the point of the gospels of the Bible (asking it questions it never was meant to answer) and misinterpret history altogether.

One thing that draws me to N. T. Wright as a scholar is that he is both a judicious historian and a sharp theologian.  In his book The Challenge of Jesus, Wright skillfully intertwines both as he presents a strong case for re-evaluating common notions of Jesus from a historical perspective allowing that to shape our theology.  Christians often read the gospel accounts as theological treatises to answer questions posed by skeptics (i.e. “Is there a god?  If so, who is he?” to which Christians replied “Jesus is God.” which is a response that the accounts weren’t intended to provide).  This book will help inform them as to Jesus’ place in the narrative of Scripture.  On the other hand, skeptics and historians (aka “questers”) have a difficult time giving credence to the gospel accounts scenario of events along with 2^nd temple Judaism.  They run the risk of presenting Jesus in a completely unacceptable fashion for Christians to accept.  Thus you have the great divide.

What is most remarkable is that Wright does this on a laymen’s level in this book.  However, I’ve read many other books by Wright wherein he repeats much of the same things at different depths and levels.  For example, he covers in a very brief manner some of the most important points brought out in his Origins of Christianity series.  And he later re-emphasizes some of these points in one of his latest books, How God Became King.  So there is a lot of overlap in regards to Wright and his presentation to Jesus.  Each one is great, but it is not necessary to read all of them to have an adequate understanding of his views. 

I would recommend starting with Challenge  if you want to enter the fray.  If your interest in this kind of presentation to Jesus is piqued, then move on to some of his other books.  If you are really wanting to be challenged by Wright’s writings, then move on to his Origins series.  Ironically, I read him in the exact opposite order to what I am recommending.  So I’d like to think that if read the way I am encouraging, you will only increase in your understanding of his presentation instead of continually reading summations of them as I did. 

Either way, I highly recommend this book as a good distillation (the word my pastor used to describe this book) of Wright’s understanding of the Israel story and Jesus’ relationship to it.  Wright will increase your understanding of the Bible’s grand narrative and its great continuity between the testaments.  It will make sense from a historical perspective why Jesus was executed.  You will see how his actions were meant to be seen as highly symbolic reinterpretation of the OT Israel story played out in the final Exodus of God’s people.  I encourage readers of all levels to read this as an introduction to Wright.  I am assuming most in the scholarly field have already been exposed to Wright, so I would encourage you to read it as a synopsis of what you know of Wright already.  No matter what, read it!

How to Make a Snowman in Honduras

When we moved to Honduras, I didn't bring all my wonderful snowmen for Christmas decorating.  Therefore, I had to be a little creative. :-)

To kill two birds with one stone, I jumped in the picture so the family can see how well Abigail is growing.

Abigail @ 29 weeks 4 days

We had our monthly doctor's appointment this weekend and the doctor seems very pleased with the progress.  Abigail now weighs 3 1/2 pounds and loves to move around (a lot).  Of course she had her hand in front of her face again so it was difficult to get a good picture.  The doctor pushed her around enough to finally capture this one.  She is so cute!

January is coming fast and in less than a month I begin my maternity leave.  There is still so much that we have to do to get ready for Abigail's arrival.  Please pray for us during the next few months!

Greek Quiz: How would you do in my class???

Here is a quiz I gave out to my HS Greek students.  Try it out and see how you would have done.

Write the correct word in Greek (spelling counts)

1. meat
2. he/she/it eats
3. pot
4. cup of water
5. empty
6. again
7. chair
8. chariot
9. grapes
10. hand

Write in English, putting your translation in correct word order in English as well.  (FYI... I don't know how to type all the accents and breathing marks in this format... sorry.  However, we are not really teaching that as of yet.)

1. ελαυνει ο παις τον καμηλον.
2.  επι το εδαφος ο αρτος πιπτει.
3.  τον αρτον ο ανηρ αιρει.
4.  ειτα ο ανηρ τιθησιν αυτον επι την τραπεζην.
5.  ειτα ο ανηρ καθηται εν τη καθεδρα και τον αρτον αυτος εσθιει.

If you think these last 5 were hard, just think... I said this orally to the students.  They didn't get to see it.  They translated it from hearing me speak it.

Teaching Greek as a living language is proving to be a tremendous way of learning to read the GNT.  These students are not just translating in their heads.  They are learning the language!!!

See this post to understand how exactly we are teaching with this method.

Abigail Update

Living out of the country and being pregnant can sometimes be difficult for me, but I also know it's hard for our family back in the states.  The easiest way to keep everyone updated is by sharing what's going on through the blog.

This is only being posted because Tm made me.  I hate having my picture taken!

Many people have been worried about us staying in Honduras to have Abigail.   I must say that I feel very comfortable staying here for delivery.  We have a great doctor, and for each visit we get an ultrasound.  Our doctor gives us a DVD of the whole thing and printed pictures of our sweet girl.  The great thing is the price.  We pay 900L ($45) a visit and our insurance reimburses us about half of that.  So really we're only playing $20-25 to have an ultrasound each time.

This past week we went for our 6 month (24 week) appointment.  Abigail is now 1 1/2 pounds.  She must be all muscle because she has a hard kick already.  This is my favorite picture of her.  Her arm is ALWAYS trying to cover her face (she's already like her Momma and hates having her picture taken), and her mouth is open (she's already like her Daddy and fussing about something).   

This has been such a fun 6 months and we look forward to spending the rest of our lives loving on this little girl! 

My Gospel Pedagogy

Whether we consciously realize or are willing to admit, Christians have a philosophy of presenting the gospel (or avoid presenting it).  My experience from the States and my former theological heritage has made me realize how often it is extremely lacking, ineffective, and bordering "another gospel" (cf. Galatians 1:6-7).  So I'd thought I'd share with you my thoughts on a good presentation of the gospel.  This goes for children too, by the way.

    (1)   Shorter is not better – I have heard over the years people advocate the "K.I.S.S." principle ("keep it simple, stupid!" or "keep it simple and short").  People try to condense the message of the infinite God into a shrink-wrapped package of 3 simple steps or 4 spiritual laws or 5 verses from the Romans road.  And yet we neglect verses in the OT about the gospel that have impacted the writers of the NT in substantial ways.  Verses like Isaiah 52:7 where the term "gospel" is first used and probably influenced the gospel account writers to use the same term.  And what was the gospel message there?  God is King!!!!  Paul quotes Genesis 12:3 in Galatians 3:8 and calls it the gospel.  That's where God promises to bless the nations through Abraham and his descendants.  When are these concepts ever listed in our presentation of the gospel?  Jesus preached the gospel of God's reign (often translated "kingdom"; cf. Mark 1:14-15).  It was laden with the concept of believe and repent.  Such a concern cannot be reduced to short, little statements.  The gospel is complex.  One should strive to present a comprehensive gospel. 

(2)   Simple is not better – the other side of this is the over simplified presentation.  People have the "just the facts, ma'am" mentality.  All they really need to know is 1 Cor. 15:1-4, that Jesus died, was buried, and rose again.  While those things are necessities to the gospel, there is so much more.  Where is the concept of following Jesus, repentance, grace, God's kingship, the blessing of the nations in that simplified presentation?  The reality is, to include all aspects of the gospel in one's presentation means that it is not going to be simple.  Where simple becomes downright heretical is when the presentation is simplified so much and we are eager to get another "convert" so badly that we will have a person repeat a meaningless prayer and then tell them, "You are saved!  Welcome to the kingdom!"  I would venture that 99% of the time, these people couldn't even articulate the gospel themselves (simple or complex).  Who are we kidding?  The stories where I am confident conversion has actually happened is when many conversations occured and the sinner calls out to God in true repentance (hatred toward sin) w/ no prompt from from the witness.  The gospel is a God-thing!  Why make it into a man-thing by simplification?

(3)   Stunning is not better – the reality is, the reason we present a simple and shorter gospel is that we are trying to convince people, so we give them a message that is not so difficult to accept.  We dress it up w/ as little cost as possible and make it attractive.  This runs so very counter to how Paul conceived of the gospel as a scandal (1 Cor. 1:23).  Even evangelicals who oppose the "prosperity gospel" still present a less scandalous gospel when they speak on all the things that "Jesus will give you if you simply trust in him" (I've heard this!!!).  Things like heaven, peace, joy, comfort, and no hell are all included in this.  And yet, the 1 thing that the gospel does promise to give as its focus is often not included b/c it is not attractive to the fleshly person – Jesus!!!  The gospel promises us God.  To focus on anything else is idolatry, for people who love idols.  A sure fire test that someone has truly been accepted by Jesus (notice I didn't say "accepted Jesus") is that the person turns from sin and follows a message that is so absurd and nonsensical that it was clearly God who changed the person's heart.  That is the beauty of the gospel.  It is a scandal that a person charged as a criminal to die a criminal's death in a most gruesome way can be the basis for our forgiveness from offending God.  How can we be blessed by someone who is crucified when the Bible says a man is cursed for hanging on a tree?  Why would anyone follow this man, especially when that man says that following him costs everything: family, friends, and your own life?  Jesus stepped on toes.  Why don't we? 

(4)   Smarter is not better – Paul also mentioned the foolishness of the cross.  That means it is also absurd to think that a criminal dying a criminal's death could achieve and secure deliverance from sin.  Yet, with our cleverly invented scenarios and catch-phrases, we have concocted a presentation that will make what is absolutely bizarre seem so rational.  We try to convince people that following Jesus is a good idea and the way to success, when the reality is, following Jesus means persecution, pain, grief, and hardship.  Oh sure, there is eternal bliss in the end and eternal life now, but that is only because we have Jesus as our prize.  He is our promised blessing and inheritance.  People who try to take the foolishness out of the gospel do a disservice to the gospel b/c it is such a foolish concept.  A presentation that displays all of the above is going to look absolutely foolish in the eyes of the world.  And that is the point.  Someone who is changed after hearing the gospel can only have God to thank for it.  If I make it seem so costly and strange (which it is), and that person repents and follows Jesus in spite of that, then God be glorified for his grace on that individual.  As Paul said, "Let the one who boasts, boast in God."

Lord, let our gospel to the world be something we live.  May we not be ashamed of it.  May we not simplify or shorten the most amazing message of the infinite God.  May we not take away its scandal or foolishness.  May we present you as King, your son as Lord, and leave all else to the Holy Spirit to regenerate hearts.  God, may we be after disciples not converts as Jesus commissioned his own disciples.

John Piper's Sermons on Romans

For my morning reading, I decided that a good "quiet time" would be to read a sermon a day through Piper's exposition through Romans. (Cf. the tab above "What Tim is Reading" if you are interested in what else I am stimulating my cerbral cortex with)

 If you know me, you know I can't stand "devotionals" that are shallow, short, and shamefully lacking theological value (pretty much all of them!). What I love about this is that it is sermons from one of the 20th centuries greatest preachers (of course he is still preaching). So it is loaded with the practical value that many desire for a quiet time devotional. But it also has the great value of John Piper's insights into Romans (perhaps the most important book in the NT). Oh how I wish he would do a commentary on the book (cf. my review on his short commentary book on Rom. 9).

 The major downside is that sermons don't always communicate most effectively through manuscript. But if you have heard Piper preach at all, you can picture and hear his words in your mind. All in all, this series is excellent and highly recommended for Christians wanting to dive into God's Word and be challenged by it at the same time.  Double thumbs up for a "quiet time devotional" (we need to change these lame cliche titles for this)!!!

A Greek Experiment

Another teacher and I had this terrible desire to offer Ancient Greek (at least Koine) as an elective class for our 11th-12th grade students this year.  We have 10 students who signed up!  Pretty impressive if I do say so myself.

The experiment arises with the pedagogy we are using.  You see, when I was taught Greek, it was grammar intensive in order to help me translate the NT into English (admittedly not very helpful).  What I lacked was vocabulary and reading abilities.  The other teacher had studied a model that is becoming more and more popular in the Greek teaching world - the living language method (click here, here, or here for examples). 

The experiment is to teach this ancient and dead language as if it were still spoken today.  This will help with their reading comprehension and vocabulary retention.  In other words, they will be more familiar with the actual language than I was after 4 semesters of Greek! 

However, we are not throwing grammar out the window.  As different issues come up (the first was the article and case endings) we treat them with a very basic explanation.  When we gave statements like ο ανηρ εσθιει τον αρτον ("the man is eating the bread"), they asked why the word "bread" changed from αρτος to αρτον.  Without giving them the big words, "Well, the first is the nominative form and the second is the accusative..." we simplified and said the first form is what does the action of the verb, and the second form receives the action.  It helps that these kids are already bilingual and can think in terms of grammar without the proper terms like nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, and vocative. 

The class consists mainly of looking at pictures, hearing it spoken in Greek, and then repeating it in Greek.  While that is going on, I am trying to write these phrases on the board in Greek so it is being visually taught as well.  Let me say, it is challenging me to be better in my own Greek (which is a great thing!). 

So far, the experiment is fun.  Whether it is a success is yet to be determined.  Stay tuned!!!

PS - let's hear it for high school students studying the Greek of the Bible, eh!!!!!!!