Psalter Celebration

I was checking through my post history just a few moments ago, and I realized that last semester I posted about once every three or four days. This semester, however, I am posting roughly once a week. Tonight is the exception. Four days ago was the last time I posted, and now I am posting again! Wooo Hooo!

Exegetical Working Paper. This weekend I did some serious exegeting (ref Exegetical Tools)! That's right, friends, a little extra-Jesus in my life... this time in the form of the Gospel of Luke chapter 13! I have an assignment due tomorrow for New Testament that is basically a condensed outline of the steps one is to take when interpreting a passage. It's a very exciting process, and a learning one at that! The precursor to being a preacher, Hallelujah!


Seminary Basketball. Here at seminary, basketball can get pretty serious. We don't compliment the other team after every play. We are only nice to the refs the vast majority of the time. And we care more about having fun that winning. What kind of basketball players are we? ;) Seriously though, it is really a lot of fun! We even had an awesome cheering section last game (that came up with some quite interesting cheers)! Here is part of the "trash-talking":

Enter the workout-gym with a ball, leave with a note with a game date upon it. =)

Psalter Celebration. Sing praise to the LORD you people his saints!!! I cannot wait. I can't. It's impossible for me to wait. Waiting for singing is hard. And in the mean time, I have been journaling through the psalms, which is hard and does not help with the waiting. I will journal about a psalm, look up the arrangement in the Psalter we are using, and then get super excited about singing them! Ahhhh! There is a book signing reception on Friday (for PFAS) followed by a Psalm sing! Yippee! And before all of this, I have my Psalms class where I will be singing. My voice might not be working by Saturday, but that's okay because I love singing!


Lent. Oh lent. It's been almost a whole year since I engaged in Lenten behavior. So the question is... what to do for lent? I have a couple ideas floating around in my brain, but if you have any suggestions (or challenges for that matter), throw them at me! I will post about what I decide to do sometime soon.

Well friends, I continue to pray for all of you each night! It has been a while since I have seen many of you, and you should know that I miss you all! I hope to make a series of visits over Spring Break, March 3-11.

God Bless!

Throwbacks

Happy LORD's day! It's been a long and busy week for me here in Princeton, and again I will say, sorry for the lack of updating. I know that I haven't updated in a while when I receive more personal emails than Facebook notifications. There is truly nothing to worry about, I have just been busy in a way that is away from a computer. 

Swimming through books. "Busy in a way that is away from a computer." What does that even mean? Well, quite simply, that I am swimming through vast amounts of books this semester. Despite my lack of a theology classes, I still have a whole lot of reading to get through. I must say, however, that I have gained an incredible amount of knowledge in just the last two weeks. On top of all of the academic reading I have been engaged in these past two weeks, I also can't seem to put down my books for pleasure. So even when I don't have to read, I find myself reading anyway.

Drawings. Some of you may remember my wonderful artistic skills from my Daniel 7 drawing. And when I say "wonderful," I really mean "terribly stick-figurish, not-at-all artistic, but still rather humorous." Well, you may be surprised at how much you can tell about how somebody interprets a passage of Scripture by how they imagine it; and since we have no tangible way to enter into the imagination of others, we are forced to look at "wonderful" pictures. Or better yet, if you find yourself wrestling with what a passage means, try to draw it. Sometimes the passage is really abstract, but give it a try anyway. For instance, here is my own rendition of Mark Chapter 1 (Baptism) and Chapter 16 (Death).

Basketball. Ahhh yeah! Basketball has officially begun! I'll be busy with basketball Thursday nights for the rest of the semester! Woooo Hoooo! I love basketball, and I am happy to report that the Throwbacks (that's the team I am on) won our first game decisively 35-16. We have team Red this upcoming week, and I can't wait!

Hebrew. If we choose not to mention my bad pronunciation, I am getting pretty good at this Hebrew stuff. I feel confident enough to just pick up the Hebrew Bible and read (slower than in English, of course). I still need a lexicon every now and again to look up a word or two, but I can definitely read and understand the gist of the story. It's really awesome, especially when you consider that I really didn't know any Hebrew in August. Go PTSem on your Hebrew teaching methods! Quite impressive. I am also happy to report that I am truly enjoying my Hebrew Exegesis class. It is a lot of reading and translating, but our professor is incredible and we are learning so much! I am very well pleased!

What is really being examined here? As I mentioned in a previous post, I am in a Psalms class where we are singing and journaling through all of the Psalms. This should be ridiculously fun, right? Well, yes... and no. It's fun because I love singing (that does not mean that I am good at it, it just means that I enjoy it). It's also fun because the Psalter we are using is pure dead brilliant (for you NW)! There is a great diversity in the tunes, but there is also an element of recognition, which I appreciate. Some of the Psalms have taken tunes that I know well and given them words of a Psalm. It's really quite awesome. The less fun part about all of this is that while singing and journaling, you are exploring these prayers in a deeply spiritual way. With very few exceptions, the Psalms is the only place in the Bible where we explore the inner-workings and consciousness of a person.While examining these ancient prayers, I have found that they have also been examining me.

Well beloved friends, I will make a conscious attempt this week to not let my blogging get away from me. I hope all is well with each of you, and I am praying for you all--every night. Until next time (well really, and forever), the LORD be with you. =)

"I hate it when my snakes fall off!"

So I am just going to admit right off the bat that I need a break in studying! It seems like my answer to every Whatcha up to? or What are your plans for later? is always... well, I'm studying. I might just go a little crazy before finals are over. But I'm definitely not stressing, it's advent and there is a wonderful Christmas concert here this afternoon/ evening. Anyway, recap on the past few days:

Sermon on Hell. How many of these have you heard in your lifetime? I'm not just talking about sermons that reference hell, but sermons fully devoted to the topic of hell. How many? Well, I can answer this question without thinking too much: none. In my life, I have never heard a sermon completely dedicated to hell. Yesterday, that changed. It was an interesting sermon. One of the professors here was the preacher for the chapel service and decided to tackle this not-so-popular topic with no script. Good on ya, I say. Anyway, he spoke mostly about repentance, and did a very good job relating it all to gospel themes and even to advent. It was very interesting, very well thought out, and overall very good. We sang the Battle Hymn of the Republic as the final hymn--very fitting.

Seminary Basketball. Why on earth would basketball be on my mind or in my schedule so close to finals week?! That's outrageous, right?! Wrong. First and foremost I would like to point out that physical activity boosts mental activity for up to eight hours. Cha ching! AND, in my opinion, basketball provides a needed break to the academia around here. I must say, seminary basketball is the right kind of basketball. What do I mean by this? Well, in high school and undergrad, basketball was centered around competition, rivalry, and pride. At seminary, however, it's different. The goal isn't necessarily to win, it's to have fun. There aren't really any rivalries because no one can force themselves to dislike another person over a simple, trivial game. And pride? --we don't even have school colors and are playing under the same institution. Pft, the heck with intramural pride. Everyone is very honest about fouls, very complimentary to both teams, very conversational, and overall--it is the fairest game of basketball you will ever see. We're just doing pickup games for now, but the season begins in February, and I can't wait!

Olivia's Advent Calendar. You should check this out. It is a series of videos recorded by a girl from my friend's church. She makes a creative video everyday when she opens that day's door of her advent calendar. These are pretty hilarious! They are posted on youtube daily and will certainly give you a few good laughs as well as a number of witty phrases to throw around. Ex: "I hate when my snakes fall off!" and "Dad, is that enough twitching?!" A group of us watch them everyday! =)

Anyway, I might want to get back to work. These finals aren't going to study for themselves! I hope all is well with each of you! All the best, until next time! =)