Graduation and Family

I finally finished school. I have to admit that the last four years here at Southern have been challenging in so many different ways. When I finished my last exam I was excited but also mindful of the things to come down the road. I thanked God for all the things He has taught me so far, and asked Him to continue to prepare me for whatever comes next.

Right now I am more than excited to be helping out at my current church. For almost a year now I have been reaching out to the poor at the Salvation Army. A few of us sing some songs there and give a 20 minute sermon. I have learned a lot about ministry to the poor and preaching. We have seen a few people come to Christ, and we have been discipling one man for a few months now. My hope is that others from our church will join in this ministry.

After graduation, my first desire was to reach out to my family. Little did I know that God would answer that desire right away. You see two hours before graduation my dad called me to tell me that my grandma had died. During the ceremony all I could think about was death and the fact that I was about to see my family on my dad’s side. I don’t think any of them are Christians except for my grandma who is with the Lord now.

Right before the funeral service my dad asked me if I wanted to say anything. I looked over to my brother and asked if he thought the pastor would proclaim the gospel. Joe said that I could not count on it. So I told my dad that I had a few things I would like to say.

Right before the pastor asked me to come up and talk, he asked my uncle to say a few things. So I had a little bit of time to think how I would transition from talking about my grandma to sharing the gospel with my family. Little did I know that my uncle, who is not a Christian, would encourage all of us to read our Bibles just like my grandma. I about fell out of my seat! The Lord sure did prepare the situation for my desire to be fulfilled.

When I got up to speak, I began with telling some childhood memories of my grandma. Then I talked about her death. It was at this point that I broke down in tears. However, the Lord gave me strength to keep talking. I could not help but proclaim the gospel to my family. I told my family that they did need to read the Bible, and that it can be difficult to understand. So I told them the main thing they needed to know, the gospel of Jesus Christ. It was a very detailed gospel presentation. My family members said what I told them was truly from the heart.

I am thankful that God gave me the opportunity to proclaim His name. Now I hope to write a letter to all of my family, each side, and tell them a few things I have learned in the last four years. I also hope to send this letter to all of my friends, who don’t know the gospel, from high school and college who I keep in contact through Myspace or Facebook. Ever think about joining these sites for this reason? How will friends and family know if you don’t tell them? Don’t wait on somebody else to do it.

Must read!

You will want to read this! I guess Willow Creak Community Church did some research and found out that their seeker sensitve methodology gets a large crowd but self discipline of knowing Scripture is what really makes mature Christians. Woo hoo!

click here

Grace Church Louisville

I have been a part of a daughter church plant from Clifton Baptist Church since April. 50 people left Clifton to make Grace Church Louisville. It has been a great experience. Our pastor has done a lot of research on church planting and it shows.

We meet in a building that is home to some Korean Seventh-Day Adventists; they meet on Saturday and we meet on Sunday. The church service is similar to Clifton’s except we partake in the Lord’s Supper every Sunday. At the end of every service the congregation goes up to the front of the room and breaks off some bread and dips it into either juice or wine. I enjoy that we do this every Sunday because it cultivates a reverence for God and His people.

The church has really been focused on getting out into the community. Whenever an event is going on in Louisville our Pastor calls for the congregation to volunteer to help out. This is a great way to glorify God by the example we set. I hope to reach out to the community by doing some door to door evangelism soon by simply telling people about our somewhat new church and telling them the basics of our beliefs. Some of our members have been able to share the gospel with co-workers just because they shared how they were excited about the church plant they were going to.

When our pastor and a few of us met to pray for the church plant, I said that I wanted to see some reaching out to the poor. There were a few other guys who have a heart for the poor and we are now visiting a homeless shelter weekly. Talking to the people has been a challenge, but I rejoice in the humbling experience. The four of us are going to be giving sermons at the homless shelter every Monday so it will be good experience for me.

"believe in Jesus"

This excerpt (3 minutes) from one of John Piper’s sermons is a helpful reminder that you don’t always have to share the complete gospel with somebody and "close the deal" in order to take part in changing a person’s life. It helps me because I hope to use Facebook and Myspace to share the gospel with people I know from high school. Making sure I have everything down has caused me to stall in my writing to them. I have so many things I want to say, but I will start out with the very basics of the gospel and add some things later.

Helpful Books

My OT2 professor gave us a list of books he recommended that we read to enrich our reading of Scripture. Some of them are a little too expensive for my taste; however, there are some books on the list I hope to read soon.



A Biblical Archaeology Bibliography

Study Bible
Archaeological Study Bible
Walter C. Kaiser, Jr., and Duane Garrett

Reference Texts
The Anchor Bible Dictionary David Noel Freedman
Holman Bible Atlas Thomas C. Brisco
The New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land Joseph Aviram
Dictionary of the Ancient Near East Piotr Bienkowski and Alan R. Millard (Editors)
The Oxford Classical Dictionary Simon Hornblower

Histories
Peoples of the Old Testament World Alfred J. Hoerth

Mesopotamian History
History of the Ancient Near East: C. 3000-323 B.C. Marc Van De Mieroop
Ancient Iraq Georges Roux

Egyptian History
A History of Ancient Egypt Nicolas Grimal
The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt Ian Shaw

Persian History
Ancient Persia Josef Wiesehofer
Persia and the Bible Edwin M. Yamauchi

Greek History
Ancient Greece: A Concise History Peter Green
Alexander to Actium Peter Green

Roman History
History of Rome Michael Grant
The Oxford History of the Roman World John Boardman, Jasper Griffin, Oswyn Murray
Cicero: The Life and Times of Rome’s Greatest Politician Anthony Everitt

Israelite History
A Biblical History of Israel Iain W. Provan, V. Philips Long, Tremper Longman
Ancient Israel Edited by Hershel Shanks
On the Reliability of the Old Testament K. A. Kitchen

Ancient Texts
Ancient Texts for the Study of the Hebrew Bible Kenton L. Sparks
The Meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls James VanderKam and Peter Flint
The Ancient Library of Qumran Frank Moore Cross
Jewish Literature Between The Bible And The Mishnah George W. E. Nickelsburg

Anthologies of Primary Texts
Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament James Bennett Pritchard
The Context of Scripture William W. Hallo and K. Lawson Younger
Myths from Mesopotamia Stephanie Dalley
Ancient Egyptian Literature Miriam Lichtheim
The Literature of Ancient Egypt William Kelley Simpson
The Dead Sea Scrolls: A New Translation Michael Wise, Martin Abegg, Jr., and Edward Cook
The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha James Charlesworth
Loeb Classical Library Various Authors and Translators

The Ancient Social and Cultural World
Life in Biblical Israel Philip King and Lawrence Stager
Ancient Mesopotamia Susan Pollock
Gods, Goddesses, and Images of God in Ancient Israel Othmar Keel
The World of Athens Joint Association of Classical Teachers
Surveys of the Archaeology Related to the Bible
Archaeology of the Land of the Bible, Volume 1 Amihai Mazar
Archaeology of the Land of the Bible, Volume 2 Ephraim Stern
The Archaeology of Ancient Israel Amnon Ben-Tor
The Archaeology of Ancient Judea and Palestine Ariel Lewin
Archaeology and the New Testament John McRay

Perspectives on Biblical Archaeology
Shifting Sands: The Rise and Fall of Biblical Archaeology Thomas W. Davis
The Future of Biblical Archaeology James Hoffmeier and Alan Millard
What Did the Biblical Writers Know & When Did They Know It? William Dever

new web address

I decided to change this blog's web address to faithseekingunderstanding81.blogspot.com due to layout reasons.

Update #1: Health

(I seem to blog more often if i keep it short)

I write about my health because it might inspire you. Besides, your body isn’t your own.

Since December I have lost 30 pounds! I think the last time I weighed as much as I do now was probably my freshman year of high school. I have a lot more energy these days which helps for any kind of contribution to the Kingdom (does that inspire you?)

What helped me the most with my weight loss was keeping a journal of my calorie in-take. In order to lose weight you must be burning more energy than you take in calories (or something like that.) So I got a journal and recorded all the calories of foods that I normally eat throughout the week. Lenny wasn’t a big fan of my practice, because I would record all the calories of his precious sweets. I even went online and recorded most fast food nutirion charts. Then, throughout the day, I would add up my calories after every meal. I’m guessing at my age I should take in about 2,000 calories a day. So I brought it down to about 1,700 calories a day (which is still a good amount of food.) I would lose weight every week. Now that I reached my goal, I eat about 2,000 calories and work out.

The fitness instructor who gave me my orientation for the gym, here at Southern, told me that we control about 70% of our weight just by how much we eat. “Now I’m a believer.”

Here are some other things to consider:

1. Cardio AND lifting weights is the next best thing for losing weight. I would recommend doing cardio at least 30 minutes everyday. If you don’t like running (like me) try walking on a treadmill (3.5mph) with the incline up to 10% (it is equivalent to running.) Lifting weights tones your muscle which will help you burn calories faster.

2. Not getting enough sleep could (will) easily cause you to overeat. I recommend 8 hours of sleep. The average American got 10 hours of sleep before the light bulb was invented.

3. Supposedly eating protein in the morning will make you not as hungry throughout the day.

4.Be Patient. If you follow the above examples, then you will lose about 3 pounds a week. Just keep focused on your goal. Get on the scale once every two weeks. I use a scale that measures weight and body fat seperatly which is helpful.

My example helped some other people lose weight so I figured if I wrote it down, then it might encourage you.