Sorry it has been so long since my last post. So far we have two of the three mid-terms back and both have been in the 90’s. So far, so good. We start break today until Monday after Easter. I am not going home because fares are too high for a few days and as it turns out I am buried in work to do with only 5 weeks left when we get back from break. During break my goal is to get 3-10 page papers written, 2 sermons, 1 Exegesis for a sermon, study for Greek test upcoming, come up with my picture of grace for Confessions, read about 200 total pages for upcoming week of class, and read a book that is going SO slow. Other than that I plan to sleep in a lot. :) They announced the election results for next year’s officers and I was elected Treasurer for the Student Body. This will allow me access to the monthly government meetings with the President and Dean to further our ministry of feeding the homeless that our Junior Class has started and of which at this point I seem to be in charge of. The Holy Spirit seems to think I have a lot of spare time it seems.
To update you on the homeless feeding ministry we are trying to get started; we have a distribution ministry that will get the food out to the homeless. I need to touch base with the gentleman that passes out the coffee and the food to work out a time to drop the food off. This ministry that will be distributing has 21 ministry stations in South Carolina of different sorts. I need to get involved with them to learn more but the lady I talked to today says they want to talk to me about being on a board of this feeding ministry to help guide it. They are also trying to get some type of food ministry going that needs some expertise in marketing, signage, flyers, things like that. Is it just amazing what the Lord will do if you just open yourself up to His guidance. This will end up being a longer term thing, BUT since the Seminary is not currently involved in a homeless ministry of any type I think we have a great opportunity to get involved in something that is hands doing God’s work. Needs based ministry. That has become my focus. Find out what the needs are and try to figure out a way to bring resources together with the need. That’s what I think we are called to do. I will keep you updated as there will be much more to share on this subject.
We are discussing Sacraments in our Confessions class. Great discussions and the role plays are really helping. I am still trying to formulate a theology and will continue this during the next two years. CPE this summer should really help this as we are put in an environment of ministering to people in real life situations with supervisors of course. By my senior year they want me to have a theology that I can articulate in a paper that I will have to write. The challenge I am having right now is that I have come to feel that Jesus came to save all of us. Not just the baptized, not just the Christians, not just any one group of us, but all of us. Taking that thought process a step further that would mean that I would not be able to say that baptism is required for salvation. Since, not all are baptized, yet all will be saved as I feel at this point, I seem to have a sticking point with one of our confessional articles. That is the great thing about being here; it is forcing me to think this through completely. As no one knows these answers for sure until we are in heaven and it won’t matter, it is difficult to look at this and say “I know for sure that this is what will happen and what needs to be done between now and then.” From my current point of view I am not able to feel that the God I have come to know will not save everyone. I don’t know how He will do it, but one thing I am figuring out is that every time I try to put limits on God or put Him in a box, I am proven wrong. I prefer to take the outside the box position on this one and believe that He will be outside this box as well. It is not a question of can He? God can do anything He wants. The ONLY question can be ‘Will He?’ To that I say; given the love that I have seen and experienced from Him I believe He will. I am obviously a work in progress. Peace and love.
And whosoever will be chief among you, let them be your servant; Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many. Matthew 20:27-28
This is how we know what love is: Christ gave His life for us. And we in our turn must give our lives to our fellow Christians. 1 John 3:16
Friday, March 26, 2010
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Mid-terms Done
Three mid-terms and a Greek quiz behind me. Now I wait for the grades. Back to that thing called life. This semester’s mid-terms were a lot like the finals for last semester. One right after another. The challenge with this format is that we have to start building our study guides a couple of weeks in advance. I am hopeful to gain some discipline and start them early on and just keep adding to them. In one class the study guide was 24 pages long. I am not sure how one person learns 24 pages of names, dates, places, events, titles, relationship to other people on the list, etc. This was the class I had the most trouble with of the mid-terms. Just the study guide is something that you have to mentally get past so you can open your brain to study. One way or another the Holy Spirit is making it happen. My only part seems to be to remember how and where to write my name on the front page of the test. So far, so good!
We have approved $200 to buy some shelf stable breakfast food for the homeless from the Junior Class fund. I thought we had a contact to determine the best ministry to distribute this food, but that is not panning out. So, I am on a search today to find that ministry. Once we get this process nailed down this will become a pretty easy thing to do and yet provide one of the things that we have been told is needed in Columbia. There are about 1700 homeless and $200 won’t go far, but it is more important to get the process down so that everyone can gain confidence in this process. Then we can open our minds to the spirit and come up with ideas to raise more money and food.
The weather this time of year is just incredible. Forties at night sixties in the day, I love this type of weather.
Air tickets to go back on our next break got way out of hand for an unemployed seminarian due to spring break into Florida. I will be staying here and working on the three 10 page papers I have due by the end of the semester. Truth be admitted, I probably need to do that anyway to get these papers knocked out. When taking 17 hours there is not much time for working ahead. Debbie and I are trying to figure out meeting in Jacksonville for a weekend.
Things are going great at my field church. Although I have messed up the Kyrie the last two weeks. For some reason it takes me a while to get the new melody in my head when we change the setting. I believe I have it down now and will give it another shot this Sunday. I also did the Children’s Sermon at both services for the first time here. In my home church I have done these quite a few times, I am now in the rotation here. There are some things that you just let come to you if you know what I mean.
LTSS had Seminary Days over this last weekend until Tuesday morning. One of the very positive things about this for the rest of us is that on Monday evening they put on a big dinner for the visiting prospective students. Smoked pulled pork and chicken, coleslaw, corn on the cob, drinks and the seminarians provide the desserts. Sure beats a microwaved chicken patty and chips in the dorm!
That is all the news that is fit to print. I leave you with this difference in the way we as Lutherans look at grace and the way the Reformed (Calvinists) looked at it in the 15th Century from our History of Christianity class as we were taught. The Reformed feel that we have no ability to accept God’s grace as we are only able to think of ourselves and are sinful. God has predetermined who will be saved (the Elected) and who will be condemned to Hell (also called double pre-destination). Jesus Christ died only to atone the sins of the elected, not necessarily for everyone. The Elected are not able to resist His grace no matter how hard they try. They will also be with Him in heaven for all of eternity. This is also called TULIP Calvinism. Total Depravity, Universal Sovereignty, Limited Atonement, Irresistible Grace, and Perseverance of the Saints. Those who eventually became known, much against Martin Luther’s wishes, as the Lutheran’s believe that we are only able to resist Gods grace, although there was a controversy over our ability to at least not resist. God has not predetermined who shall be saved and who shall be damned. I believe the statement is that we are saved by grace through faith alone. Now the other part of this is that true faith brings good works, you want to do these good works because you understand what Jesus Christ did for us. You don’t have to do these good works to be saved as that would be relying on our own abilities to be saved. We don’t have those abilities; therefore we could never live up to the requirements to be saved through our good works alone. God wills all of His children to be saved and sent His Son to atone for all of our sins. Those saved will be with God for all of eternity. I don’t know about you, but I would not like to know that I was already predestined to damnation for all of eternity. While I am nothing but sinful by myself, I believe that Jesus came to atone for all of our sins. I am prayerful that means we are all going to be saved and spend eternity with our Creator. That is a bit of a statement to swallow at first because that means all of us no matter how evil we have been on earth would be saved. Can you live with that? I can, but it has taken me years to get there and it is only through some pretty deep reflection about my own sinfulness and how God could save me and trying to understand where is the line that you have to cross to not be saved that I have been able to come to this place. I am hopeful there is no line, because if there is I can’t defend myself to be on the saving side. Grace and peace be unto all of you. Steve
We have approved $200 to buy some shelf stable breakfast food for the homeless from the Junior Class fund. I thought we had a contact to determine the best ministry to distribute this food, but that is not panning out. So, I am on a search today to find that ministry. Once we get this process nailed down this will become a pretty easy thing to do and yet provide one of the things that we have been told is needed in Columbia. There are about 1700 homeless and $200 won’t go far, but it is more important to get the process down so that everyone can gain confidence in this process. Then we can open our minds to the spirit and come up with ideas to raise more money and food.
The weather this time of year is just incredible. Forties at night sixties in the day, I love this type of weather.
Air tickets to go back on our next break got way out of hand for an unemployed seminarian due to spring break into Florida. I will be staying here and working on the three 10 page papers I have due by the end of the semester. Truth be admitted, I probably need to do that anyway to get these papers knocked out. When taking 17 hours there is not much time for working ahead. Debbie and I are trying to figure out meeting in Jacksonville for a weekend.
Things are going great at my field church. Although I have messed up the Kyrie the last two weeks. For some reason it takes me a while to get the new melody in my head when we change the setting. I believe I have it down now and will give it another shot this Sunday. I also did the Children’s Sermon at both services for the first time here. In my home church I have done these quite a few times, I am now in the rotation here. There are some things that you just let come to you if you know what I mean.
LTSS had Seminary Days over this last weekend until Tuesday morning. One of the very positive things about this for the rest of us is that on Monday evening they put on a big dinner for the visiting prospective students. Smoked pulled pork and chicken, coleslaw, corn on the cob, drinks and the seminarians provide the desserts. Sure beats a microwaved chicken patty and chips in the dorm!
That is all the news that is fit to print. I leave you with this difference in the way we as Lutherans look at grace and the way the Reformed (Calvinists) looked at it in the 15th Century from our History of Christianity class as we were taught. The Reformed feel that we have no ability to accept God’s grace as we are only able to think of ourselves and are sinful. God has predetermined who will be saved (the Elected) and who will be condemned to Hell (also called double pre-destination). Jesus Christ died only to atone the sins of the elected, not necessarily for everyone. The Elected are not able to resist His grace no matter how hard they try. They will also be with Him in heaven for all of eternity. This is also called TULIP Calvinism. Total Depravity, Universal Sovereignty, Limited Atonement, Irresistible Grace, and Perseverance of the Saints. Those who eventually became known, much against Martin Luther’s wishes, as the Lutheran’s believe that we are only able to resist Gods grace, although there was a controversy over our ability to at least not resist. God has not predetermined who shall be saved and who shall be damned. I believe the statement is that we are saved by grace through faith alone. Now the other part of this is that true faith brings good works, you want to do these good works because you understand what Jesus Christ did for us. You don’t have to do these good works to be saved as that would be relying on our own abilities to be saved. We don’t have those abilities; therefore we could never live up to the requirements to be saved through our good works alone. God wills all of His children to be saved and sent His Son to atone for all of our sins. Those saved will be with God for all of eternity. I don’t know about you, but I would not like to know that I was already predestined to damnation for all of eternity. While I am nothing but sinful by myself, I believe that Jesus came to atone for all of our sins. I am prayerful that means we are all going to be saved and spend eternity with our Creator. That is a bit of a statement to swallow at first because that means all of us no matter how evil we have been on earth would be saved. Can you live with that? I can, but it has taken me years to get there and it is only through some pretty deep reflection about my own sinfulness and how God could save me and trying to understand where is the line that you have to cross to not be saved that I have been able to come to this place. I am hopeful there is no line, because if there is I can’t defend myself to be on the saving side. Grace and peace be unto all of you. Steve
Monday, March 8, 2010
One More Thing
I forgot to tell you about a paper that we have to do for Confessions class this semester. Jason and I are going to write on the subject of "The Requirement of Baptism for Salvation." One of us is going to take the side that it is not required for salvation and is therefore a human act or work. The other will take the opposite view and hopefully refute this approach and prove that it is done out of a requirement of salvation. We are both pretty excited about this approach to our papers. I will let you know how it works out.
Back At It
Back to the rock quarry!
Three mid-terms starting Thursday, then Friday and Monday. Reminds me of finals week. Not my favorite time of the semester. Came back early last week from break to study so I should be ok.
We present and vote on our three suggestions for helping the homeless tomorrow at lunch. I hope we approve all three.
I was also nominated as one of two people from the Junior Class for Student Government next year. We have elections later in the month. I am on the ballot for Treasurer along with another Junior. We will see what God has in mind.
Weather here is beautiful today. 70, sunny, light breeze. Can’t beat it.
May God bless you and keep you safe. May His light so shine upon your face so that you may be a light for others. Amen. May you see God in your life and may you see God in those you meet. Amen.
Three mid-terms starting Thursday, then Friday and Monday. Reminds me of finals week. Not my favorite time of the semester. Came back early last week from break to study so I should be ok.
We present and vote on our three suggestions for helping the homeless tomorrow at lunch. I hope we approve all three.
I was also nominated as one of two people from the Junior Class for Student Government next year. We have elections later in the month. I am on the ballot for Treasurer along with another Junior. We will see what God has in mind.
Weather here is beautiful today. 70, sunny, light breeze. Can’t beat it.
May God bless you and keep you safe. May His light so shine upon your face so that you may be a light for others. Amen. May you see God in your life and may you see God in those you meet. Amen.
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