I was able to move into my new apartment this week, but it will still be a few days before I get the internet. In the meantime, I’ve been reading The God I Don’t Understand: Reflections on Tough Questions of Faith
by Christopher Wright.

The book has been incredible so far. It’s very refreshing to see a biblical scholar talk about the fact that he doesn’t have all the answers, and still have hope and faith. The introduction is telling about this. In it Wright speaks of a conversation he had with some fellow believers over dinner. This conversation on the topic of suffering served as the impetus for the book. Just because we don’t have an answer for the explicit origin of evil- apparently a mystery sovereignly kept by God (Deut 29:29)- does not mean we cannot trust or believe in the God who is putting everything right. Certainly, we have the origin of intrusion into life itself in Genesis 3, and we have the biblical narrative from 3:15 to Revelation of what He is doing about it. Wright tackles some weighty issues, and I’m pretty excited to continue digging in with him.

Chris Wright has written some fantastic books- and I have yet to read one I don’t like. Here are some other books by him:

-The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative
-Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament
-Salvation Belongs to Our God: Celebrating the Bible’s Central Story (Christian Doctrine in Global Perspective)

Here is a wrap-up of this past year and a few random thoughts of my own.
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Just wanted to update you all on some things I mentioned on the Christmas update:

1)Wisdom Tooth – well, miraculously I was able to get in yesterday for a consultation, and someone had canceled for an appointment today if I needed it to get the tooth out. Well, as it turns out I needed to get all four teeth taken out. So I went into surgery today to get them out. I kept slipping in and out of being awake, so I remember all the cool things like saws and blood. God is good. The tooth that was bothering me is gone, and two others that were close to being the same are also gone, and the fourth which would need come out eventually is gone. If you remember I was afraid of not being able to find an apointment, nor being able to pay for one. Well they split it into 3 payments and my mom is helping out with the bill. God is good.

I would write a blog post on the problem of evil, and God allowing pain for a great good, but that’s a bit trite. I’ll spare you

2) Some of you who visit the physical site (not via RSS) have probably already noticed that I keep a running list of what I’ve updated on this site by date on the right (your right) side of the screen. It looks something like this:

No longer applicable

Anytime I update a part of the site that’s unavailable through RSS feeds or emails, I will update it here so people have a better idea of what’s going on.

3) Birthday is still coming up. Tomorrow for my American readers. I know I gave the wishlist in my last update, but I’m going to give it again to see if I can milk surgery sympathy for all its worth.

Merry Christmas everyone!

I wanted to update you all on some things with the site and personally.
First the site specific updates:
I have added one more paper and two more translations. The paper is an exegesis paper on 2 Corinthians 3:1-18, and can be found here (.pdf). The translations are both for 2 Corinthians: 7:2-10 and 8:16-24.

As I’ve mentioned on the 2 Corinthians page- this will be a longer project as I only had to do selected parts of every chapter for class. I am still taking what I did for that class, and making the wooden translations more readable. There are quite a few holes, obviously, but they will be filled in with time. I’m taking my time with this however, and next semester I will be taking a class on 1 Peter, so expect incomplete translations for awhile.

On the personal front, things are going well with wedding plans. Soon we’ll be looking for an apartment, and if we find one we like before the semester starts, I’ll go ahead and move into it. That way I can go ahead and move my stuff in, and take my days off to paint or whatever we need to do. Samantha will not be moving in until after the wedding, of course

Also, if you could be praying for me I would greatly appreciate it. I have a wisdom tooth that badly needs to come out, but there are two problems: 1) I don’t have dental insurance, and 2) I don’t have anywhere to go as of yet, since I’m at home for Christmas. The pain is honestly some of the worst pain I’ve ever felt, and I’m rather accident prone, so I’ve had a lot of pain. Medicines don’t seem to phase it. I’ve been in agony since yesterday and couldn’t sleep last night. But enough of the complaining- I know you guys don’t want to hear it. Just if you think about it, please pray for me.

Books: For Christmas, I scored the UBS Greek Reader, which is so much better than the Zondervan one, though the Zondervan Reader is still good. I also got Rich Bauckham’s “Jesus and the Eyewtinessess: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony” and G. K. Beales’ “We Become What We Worship: A Biblical Theology of Idolatry.” I’m super-excited to read both of these, and since my birthday is right around the corner (January 1st) I’m thinking there’s a few more books to come my way.

I didn’t link to my wishlist for Christmas, because I knew I had a birthday coming soon after. I will link to it for my birthday though- I didn’t want people who might want to get me something feel like they should get me something for both Christmas and my birthday. So here is a modest list:

Note: All the books marked “highest” priority have already been bought. If you feel like getting me something, you can choose from any other priority.

Well, I think that’s about it. God bless you all, and I hope the rest of your Christmas is a great time of worship and being with family!

Finally got around to checking my mail today (I had been out of town for a week) and saw that I had received a copy of James in the Life Application Bible Studies series put out by Tyndale House Publishers (with thanks to Laura Bartlett for the copy!). It contains the entire text of James in the New Living Translation, plus study and application notes, and 13 lessons. I will be writing a review on this as soon as finals are over.

And speaking of finals, I have a Hebrew final tomorrow at 7am and an Old Testament I final at 11:30. As much studying as I’ve done, I still feel under-prepared, so I will be taking the rest of tonight to study. Prayers are appreciated!

After 6 trustworthy years, my monitor on my desktop has given up the ghost. Thankfully (and even maybe providentially?) I was able to buy a new laptop about a month or two ago- so there is no worries on finishing any papers. I’m relatively sure that it is only my monitor that went bad for various diagnostic reasons, but I am in no hurry to buy a new one since all I need is on my laptop. That being said, I cleared off my desk and put everything away in the closet for the time being, and I am now using the desk for my laptop. It looked quite empty with just a laptop on it, so I moved all my books for my paper on 2 Corinthians 5 on there- not because I’m really productive, but because it makes me feel better to look productive. Here is a shot of the new scenery:
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I apologize for the lack of posting recently, there has certainly been a lot going on! First, Samantha has moved into town to start going to school here at Southern. It has been really good being able to spend time with her after 15 months of a long distance relationship. Second, school has started up and I’m taking 12 hours, including two language classes. This semester I’ll be taking elementary Hebrew as well as Greek Exegesis of II Corinthians. Third, things have really stepped up in the last few weeks with Sojourn, having two of our busiest sundays connect team wise all in the same month. 

All this to say that I haven’t forgotten about my blog. I’m just waiting for things to settle down a bit before I try and collect enough thoughts to post.

Also, I’m thinking of getting Accordance Bible software- if anyone uses it, please feel free to leave a comment about your experience with it.

Finally, TC, I received the book today. Thank you!

I’m currently updating the look to my blog. I loved the old design, but there were a few hang-ups after the upgrade.

I just received my copy of the NLT Study Bible in the mail today, thanks to the good folks at Tyndale Publishing. I’m going to be spending the next few days soaking in it, and a review will be forthcoming. On pure aesthetics alone, the Bible looks gorgeous. I think its going to be a treat, so let’s get into this thing and see what comes up.

Also, in light of Nick’s post [Dude, how are you not on my blog list yet? Mea culpa] on the same topic, I just want to say: I agree. There will never be a better Joker. (I just saw it last night).

Be sure to check out the NLT Blog, and the NLTSB Blog. The guys and gals there are pretty rad. Check it out, even if you’re Tim Challies. (Sorry Tim. I had too. Even though you’ll never read my blog.)

I just put up my translation of Philemon. Please feel free to check it out and leave comments and suggestions. As with Colossians, I will add a Philemon wordle soon.

Also, in the next few days I will be adding the two posts I did on the death of Judas from my old blog. The post deal with the apparent contradiction between Matthew’s Gospel and the book of Acts. In it will be an explanation of what makes an actual contradiction, and why the two accounts, though different, do not fit the criteria of a contradiction.