Category: CBS Journal

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A “B”

I love my school! It has been a huge change for me over the past year to get into all these new habits of studying for school in addition to all my normal studies for my job and teaching and all, but it’s been good. I feel like I’m learning how to think again. I’ve really been challenged both in my thinking/theology and in my scheduling/priorities.

This week for example has been really crazy. I just left La Porte FUMC this morning at 6am so I could come to class today. I normally attend the evening class, but this week is UM ARMY week and so I’ve got other commitments (I’m leading worship and doing programs) tonight and decided to come to the morning class. Anyway, this is also the last week of class this time around (Acts and Paul’s Epistles), which means that all our homework and stuff is due next week. Up until this summer, I had straight “A’s” for all my classes, but I took my first “B” last time ’cause I just didn’t have time (because of my summer schedule) to finish all the work.

It appears that this class is gonna be the same. I could probably really push forward and get the “A”, but I also have a life outside of school (Remember, Miranda is pregnant) and so I’m just gonna have to settle for the “B” again this time. I love all this stuff, and it’s really good for me, but my bride and having some time with her has simply got to be my first priority – besides, a “B” is still a good grade. I’m really hoping that once the summer is over, I can get into a more regular routine again and get back to the “A’s” I used to get.

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Questions for Paul

Question_2
I thought this was a cool pic – even the earth has questions!

The Corinthians were given the chance to ask Paul some questions – you can read Paul’s answers to them in 1 Corinthians 7:1-16:4. Dr Loken took some time out of class the other night to have each of us write down the one question we’d ask Paul if we were given the chance.

Mine was:
In what ways do you see that our “Christian” culture today has been deceived, and how should we repent?

Here are some of the other questions people would like to ask Paul:
Do babies who die go to heaven, and if so, how is Jesus the only way? (Dr. Loken)
Why did God use you?
What was your thorn in the flesh?
What limits should be allowed when it comes to alcohol?
Why is it so hard to lead a sinless life?
Should women be in ministry and if so, to what extent?
Abortion?
Should a pastor serve at more than one church?
How do you deal with doctrinal differences in church?
What is “triple honor” and “double honor?” (1 Timothy 5:17)
What is the “cup of the Lord?” (Hab 2:16)
Spiritual gifts?
Why is it so hard to do what is right sometimes and not other times?
Were you always celebate? Did you ever have a girlfriend or wife?
Female leaders in church?
How can I know for sure what to do?
Under what conditions is divorce okay?
Can the church discipline without excommunication?
Speaking in tongues?
Would you be Calvinist or Arminian?
How does the Trinity work?

Anyway, I thought there were some good questions. What would you ask him if you had the chance?

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A New Church

I had to write a paper for class the other night about a new church. The assignment was to read 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus and using only those books come up with a plan for building a new church in your neighborhood. Since I have always wanted to be a part of something like this – it was a fun assignment for me. I stayed up way too late studying those books so I could finish my paper for class. I could have done that paper in about 30 minutes, but since I was into it. . . . .I just did more than was required. I wonder if this was really an assignment from Dr Loken, or if it was a reminder from God of some of the things He is doing inside my heart? Now, don’t start freakin’ out or think that I’m gonna leave my job as a youth minister or anything. I believe God has called me to this place right now in my life and besides, I’ve got a lot more studying to do before I’d feel ready for something like this. It was just a lot of fun the other night just imagining what God could do if I were to step out in that kind of faith.
It’s not important to put all the details down here, but if you’re interested in how I answered that question, I’ve attached the word file that I turned in for the assignment.
Plan_for_building_a_church.doc

This is rather long for the assignment, but not nearly long enough or detailed enough for actually stepping out and doing it. I also would study much more than just those 3 books if I were in a place that I was considering acting on it.

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UM ARMY

Our UM ARMY camp this year is using 1 Timothy 4:12 as their theme. It says, ” Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believes in speech, life, love, faith and purity.” This is a classic “youth ministry” verse which has been used for camps for years and years. It lays out really well to focus on each of the five examples for a week long theme too. (Anyway, I thought it was funny ’cause we’re studying Paul’s epistles right now at school too.) The director of the programs for the week sent me an e-mail asking me to put together a banner for each day’s theme. I used a program called the “rasterbator” (weird name huh?) to take the work I did on the computer and blow up the images to about 4 feet tall by 5 feet wide. The youth helped me put all the printed pages together today to make the large pictures. They turned out pretty well. Here are the images that we used. (I’ll attach them here tomorrow when I have the files.) UmarmyspeechUmarmyactions

Umarmylove_2 Umarmyfaith Umarmypurity

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“Go Fourth and Teach”

Yes – I spelled “fourth” wrong on purpose – you’ll understand later. (It’s a really bad pun – but I’m just that stupid.)

Are you growing the way you should?

An interesting thought came out in class last night. We were talking about 1 Corinthians. Dr. Loken explained that Paul had planted the church in Corinth 4 years prior to writing the book we know as 1 Corinthians. (It’s actually at least the second letter he sent to them. – Check 1 Cor 5:9) Anyway, in Chapter 3 Paul makes it clear that he is disappointed in the Christians there for not growing to maturity. He assumes that after 4 years, they should have a basic understanding of their faith and even be able to teach others by that time. If you read Hebrews 5:10-6:2 along side 1 Corinthians 3, you can see the kinds of things the writer of Hebrews thinks they should understand: (1) repentance/life change, (2) Faith/trusting God’s sovereignty, (3) Baptism/Holy Spirit’s indwelling, (4) Laying on of hands/healing (James 5), & (5) Resurrection/Judgement – heaven & hell. (Each of these can be found in Hebrews 6:1-2)

Anyway, this whole 4 year thing is interesting to me – think about it – Jesus was with the disciples about 4 years – Paul expects maturity in about 4 years – we send students to college for about 4 years hoping that they would have a basic understanding of their subjects. Dr. Loken suggested (I think appropriately) that if you were discipling someone for 20 years and they hadn’t grown enough to disciple others themselves, then something is wrong. He never suggested that we don’t need long-term accountability or deeper teachings – but in regards to these basic tenants of our faith – we should be able to teach them to someone else after about 4 years of discipleship. This is not a scriptural law or some hard-and-fast rule, but simply a guide which the Scriptures seems to point to as a basic benchmark.

As a youth minister who will have students in my ministry for about 6 years, this was especially interesting to me. I think I’m gonna begin working on a plan to make sure that these ideas are clear in each and every one of our students by the time they graduate. I’ll try to work with our childrens coordinator to begin this process during the time when our students are transitioning from childrens ministry into youth ministry. For us, that happens in a “confirmation” process.

Anyway, it was a fun class – which brought up quite a few ideas which were new to me.

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Jesus – for the Jews or Gentiles?

Jesus Clearly the answer is that He came for both, but I still have some questions about Jesus which were raised by something I learned last night.

Matthew 10:5 – Jesus sends out the disciples to tell people that the Kingdom is near, but He tells them to only go to the Jews.

Matthew 28 – Jesus sends them out again, but this time to everyone. All nations, tribes, and tongues.

What changed?

Check Matthew 15:21-28:

21 Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. 22 A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession.” 23 Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.” 24 He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” 25 The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said. 26 He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs.” 27 “Yes, Lord,” she said, “but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” 28 Then Jesus answered, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed from that very hour.

Remember that the Jews hated the Canaanites, and this was not only a Canaanite, but also a woman. She called Him “Lord, Son of David” before the Jews had recognized Him as the Messiah. You’d think Jesus would commend her for her faith and all, but instead He basically says, “I’m here for the Jews, not for you.” Then she worships Him and recognizes Him as God and Jesus calls her a dog. Did you catch that? Jesus called her a dog. That’s not the way I always pictured Jesus, but that’s exactly what He did. Her answer is something like: “But what if the Jews don’t want what you have? Can’t I just get a little of what’s left over?” At this point Jesus commends her faith and heals her daughter. By the way, remember that when Jesus speaks to the disciples (Jews) he says, “You of little faith. . .” but when He talks to her he says, “You have great faith!”

Now, clearly there has been some sort of change that we see played out in these verses. God’s plan for the Jews has now been extended to the Gentiles. Or maybe it’s a whole different plan. But here’s the deal: I don’t understand some things: Did Jesus change His mind because of this woman? For that matter, if God is sovreign, can He change His mind? If not, why did Jesus think that He was just for the Jews at first and then later realize (like He didn’t know) it was much larger than that? Did He really believe He was just for the Jews or did He know it was gonna get bigger? Was He just saying that at first even though He knew that His crucifixion was gonna be for the Gentiles too?

One thought I have to help answer this question is that in Chapter 10 when He first sends them out, Jesus is talking about the prophesied Jewish Kingdom. Maybe that’s why He didn’t want them to go to the Gentiles – I mean – you know – the Gentiles wouldn’t care about a Jewish Kingdom anyway. But what about this woman? This still doesn’t explain this change we see take place in Him in this incident. Clearly it’s still a “Jewish Kingdom” message that He is speaking to her about, but it is inferred by His words and actions (healing the daughter) that she has somehow entered into this kingdom like a dog under the table.

Another thought is that God’s agenda for the Gentiles and what would soon become the church began here in these verses. This means that God has a Kingdom agenda that He is working for the Jews and simultaneously, He has this church thing going for the Gentiles. But is this the beginning of that?

Throughout the Scriptures, we see that salvation comes by faith. Clearly, this woman has faith when the Jews hadn’t even come to that yet. Is this why Jesus says later, “Go and make disciples of all nations”? I dunno – it’s all a bit confusing for me. Maybe some of you can help me figure this one out.

Hans? You’re a big seminary student – what insight can you bring?

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Matthew & The Unpardonable Sin

Hell Hmm. . . . I’m not even sure what to write today. I’m sitting in class right now getting ready for my 3rd NT class. So far we haven’t covered that much. We’re actually still in Matthew. I think today we’re gonna cover the second half of it. I’m not sure how we’re gonna get through Mark, Luke, and John in just two weeks, but that seems to be the plan. There are quite a few other things I gotta write about that I have already learned, but I just haven’t found the time to really get down to it yet.

Over the past few weeks here’s what I’ve picked up regarding Matthew:

Matthew wrote to the Jews for two purposes: (1) to show them that Jesus is the Messiah and (2) to explain why they didn’t receive the Kingdom they were expecting would come with the Messiah.

To prove part 1 (Jesus is the Messiah), Matthew used four things:  (1) In Chapter 1, he shows Jesus as Messiah with the geneaology. (2) Chapter 2-4, he shows how Jesus fulfills the Old Testament Prophecies regarding the Messiah. (3) In Chapter 5-7 (Sermon on the Mount) Matthew shows that Jesus has the ability to grant access into the Kingdom. and (4) In Chapters 8-12, Matthew shows Jesus doing miracles, which again proves Him as Messiah.

For Matthew’s second purpose in writing His book, (explaining why they hadn’t received the Kingdom if the Messiah had come) Chapter 12-28 cover that. In Chapter 12:31-32, we see the unpardonable sin. It makes sense, that this is the unpardonable sin, because Jesus is speaking to the Jews. They had rejected the prophets who spoke God’s own words – thereby rejecting God, the Father. They had rejected Jesus, and now they were rejecting the Holy Spirit. This is the unpardonable sin because God has no more revelation in which He reveals Himself so that people can be saved. If each of them – the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have been rejected – there’s no where else to go for pardon.

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It’s a Small World

Whoa! Last night, I had class – it was the second of our 5 Gospel Literature classes at College for Biblical Studies. Anyway, there’s a guy in my class (Justin) who was going to sing a song for the group ’cause it went along with our discussion on Matthew 1. ( Andrew Peterson’s song “Matthew’s Begats” on Behold the Lamb of God – By the way, you should all check out Andrew Peterson – He’s an amazing writer. www.andrew-peterson.com )

Anyway, he had a guitar player who joined him, named Tim Dillon. I would never have recognized him, but Tim was one of the students who came to a youth program I was a part of in Tomball called “The Wave.” It was a skate ministry and by God’s grace there were lots of youth who came that were not from our church. For that matter, I’ll just be blunt and say they were really “rough” kids with drug problems and all sorts of issues. Some of the people in our church, wouldn’t let their own children come ’cause they didn’t want their kids around “those” kids. Anyway, come to find out, Tim was one of “those” kids. He said that he came every week just to skate, but most of the time he was stoned when he got there. I certainly knew that we had quite a few who were coming like that, but we still had the opportunity to let them know they were loved and to tell them about Jesus so I figured it was a good thing. Anyway, I’ll never really know a whole lot about what God accomplished during those days with those students, but I feel confident that there were seeds planted which with God’s help will grow and produce amazing fruit.

Tim has come to know Jesus now. Interestingly enough, he is a pastor’s son and it was after watching some friends die, that he became serious about knowing God. He plays guitar for an artist named Jimmy Needham now too. (Check him out @ www.jimmyneedham.com) It’s great to see that God is still at work among us all even when we don’t have a clue.

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Gospels

We started the New Testament tonight and Dr. Loken did an overview of the intertestamental period to kind of get things started. It was pretty cool stuff. He also talked about the Dead Sea Scrolls and how they were discovered and about the Essenes who copied and collected the Dead Sea Scrolls. It was pretty interesting stuff. I’m gonna look at my notes tomorrow and write a bit more about all this.

I also had another interesting experience tonight. One of the guys in my class was acting really strangely and kind of seemed drugged or something. Anyway, a couple of us went to see if there was a nurse or something who could help him. There wasn’t a nurse, but one man came and tried to see what he could do. In the mean time one of the ladies in our class noticed what was going on and began to help. I found out that she was a nurse and what had happened is that Glen had a low blood-sugar level. She made him drink a soda and had him eating some things and in about 15 minutes, he was back to normal. The whole thing was kind of scary, but God was aweful good to provide someone in our class who recognized the symptoms and was able to take immediate action to correct the situation. Anyway,thank you God!!!!

Dr. Loken taught us about a false belief called gnosticism and explained the the book of 1 John was written specifically to defend against it. Gnosticism is the belief that physical things are evil and only the spiritual is good. Therefore, the guys who had held these beliefs who became Christians, had a hard time with the hyperstatic union. I mean – How could Jesus be God when He had a physical/evil body? Anyway, it was an interesting lecture. I’ll write more tomorrow. I’m tired right now.

OK – so Dr. Loken also covered some material and painted a picture for us of what the world was like during the time that Jesus walked the earth – the time the gospels were about. Here’s some of what he explained:

2% wealthy elite – aristocratic landowners

10% middle class – merchants

90% poor – farmers, herdsman, artisans, fishermen – Joseph/builder

33% of total population were slaves – 50% of Rome were slaves

The Jewish World
Synagogue – was a localized place of worship – they were first built during the exile because the temple had been destroyed and there was no access to Jerusalem. It took 10 men to start a synagogue. They used it for a place of prayer, worship, and instruction.

Sects of Jews:
Sadducees – (wealthy liberals) rose from the ranks of the priests – as the priests got rich, they started paying others to copy the Scriptures for them and soon they stopped knowing the Scriptures too. These guys denied resurrection and angels. They believed in freewill and were unpopular with the people. They recognized only the “Law of Moses.”

Pharisees – (conservatives) rose from the ranks of the scribes – they recognized the OT plus the “Tradition of the Elders” – they were popular with the people and believed in predestination, resurrection, & angels

Essenes – extreme separatists (similar to Pharisees) – daily prayer and bible study were required. Forbade marriage. Mostly in the Dead Sea area – John the Baptist was probably an Essene.

Scribes – copiers of the Law – official interpreters – Hillel and Shammai schools – Hillel used 7 hermeneutical principles and tradition – Shammai used strict interpretation – when Jesus was asked about divorce it was really a question of are you with Hillel or Shammai???

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America Lament

Eagle We had to write a lament for class the other night about America. Anyway, when we got to class, Dr. Loken asked for us to read them to the class. I’m pretty comfortable getting in front of people and preaching or doing music or whatever, but for some reason, I wasn’t very comfortable with this. Anyway, I just told myself, to get over it and do what needed to be done. Some of the other people had really good ones, which made me even more nervous, but I just jumped up and did it anyway.

Here’s what I read:

Eagle’s Wings

Once soaring across the sky,

It’s wings now clipped, the bald eagle cries.

Once flying in freedom and majesty,

Now grounded by sin. What a tragedy.

The American dream, it doesn’t make sense.

Two and a half kids and a white picket fence.

Is that all we want? All we imagine and desire?

What about God? Aren’t His dreams much higher?

We sing “Land of the free and home of the brave,”

We fought for freedom to worship, but use it to misbehave.

I don’t see bravery at all anymore,

Except when it’s sin that we’re standing for.

We have an American idol who’ll be famous and rich,

But he’s not what our forefathers dreamed of as they sailed from the Brits.

We celebrate independence on the fourth of July.

But what of dependence on God that we deny?

On all of our money it says “In God we trust”

But it’s for money itself that our citizens lust.

We’re proud of our government – the world’s largest democracy,

But it’s turned out to be nothing but hypocrisy.

America the beautiful, that’s what they say,

But that beauty will fade, when God we betray.

Our wings have been clipped by our sin with a sting.

But if we wait on the Lord, we’ll rise up on Eagle’s wings.

In the end, I’d say it went pretty well. Don’t know if it’s really something I’d say I was real proud of, but it was certainly a beginning for me.