Back in Dallas

By | July 4, 2017
0 Comment

Our time in the Dallas area was all about people. We enjoyed three days of meeting up with old friends. Everyone agreed this was a major highlight of our trip.

The centerpiece of our visit was our time at Trinity Bible Church, our home congregation for our six years in Dallas. Kelli and I loved being back with our Sunday School class, and we were so grateful for the potluck they held after church so we had more time to share and catch up.

Koinonia class potluck gathering

The kids enjoyed seeing some of their friends as well. When we moved from Texas, Luke and Mark were just entering high school. When we returned, they had just finished. Jonathan had a little trouble remembering his friends from when he was two.

On the other days, we all met up with various friends and groups of friends that we knew either separately or together. We all loved going back to Spring Creek Barbecue and enjoying good ol ‘ Texas brisket with our pastor and his family. Jeff and I memorized 20 psalms together in the last few years we lived there, and I miss that time of encouragement and friendship.

Texas barbecue with the Millers

The kids all returned to their elementary school, but because school had ended the previous Friday (and we were there on Monday), they didn’t see many of their teachers. But we all agree—this was a fantastic school! The boys popped over to their middle school, but that too was largely deserted.

Back at Hughston Elementary

Kelli, Bethany, and Katie saw different friends at different times, but I don’t have many photos from those. But they would attest that they loved seeing some dear friends.

Bethany with friends

When we had downtime, we could hang out and relax at our hosts ‘ home. It was a tremendous blessing to have a comfortable and convenient place to stay throughout our time there. One evening, Jack taught the kids how to play Rummikub.

Rummikub with Jack

Our final evening we spent with our dear friends, the Brociouses. While we haven’t seen most of our Texas friends since our 2013 departure, the Brociouses visited us on a California trip a few years ago, and Jack joined me for a week of travel in Jordan in 2015. Being back together was so fun, and the time flew.

Jack taught Mark and me to play “Chronology”

The Brociouses, the Bolens,  and me learning how to take a selfie

We did have one final, unplanned, late-night stop as we made our way back to the bunkhouse: 30 minutes to run around Half-Price Books. Of course, that 30 minutes took an hour, but no one complained. Tomorrow we load up and head out for Missouri.

Summer Vacation 2017

By | July 3, 2017
2 Comments

Be careful what you say. Someone once told me they liked my vacation posts on this blog. I remember that. Thus you get what follows.

When we lived in Texas, we did four major three-week summer vacations (we missed the first summer because Kelli broke her ankle). The first was to the west, but the other three were to the north/northeast/northwest, motivated in part by the expectation that we would be moving to California, from where it would be much harder to drive to places like Maine.

But it took us living here four years before mounting a major expedition. I don’t quite recall the reasons for that at the moment, and it probably wouldn’t be interesting even if I did. But late last year we decided that we had to get back to Texas, and we would be best to do it before the older boys disappeared into college and jobs. We very much wanted to return to see our church and friends in the Lone Star State. But if we were going that far, we certainly needed to visit Kelli’s parents in Illinois. And from there the trip became a matter of adding and connecting dots.

This blog is not written in real-time. My father taught me not to advertise when I was away from home, making it pretty impossible to do all the real-time social media stuff that everyone else does (with an exception made if my family is at home). So part of the mystery is already spoiled: we did indeed survive our 7,000-mile adventure. But perhaps there is enough other mystery to warrant reading on.

With this introduction out of the way, I expect that I ‘ll let the photos do most of the talking. Ideally I plan to post about a day or two of our 25-day trip every day or two, with the goal of finishing by the end of July. When we get to Oregon, you ‘ll know we ‘re getting close.

To start this adventure, I ‘ll note that we pulled out in the early hours of June 1, having already arranged for Bethany to miss her final finals. Luke and Mark graduated from high school a week earlier, and I had been home from Dubai and Rome for 10 days already. We wanted to make it to Dallas for the weekend, so we set off in our Chrysler minivan with two days to cover 1,500 miles.

20170601_131817

On the first day we made a brief stop in Phoenix to visit with one of Kelli’s friends from junior high. (Yes, they ‘ve kept in touch for a long time.) She works in a law office which has a nice view of some Phoenix mountains.

Then we were off to Lordsburg, New Mexico, which has the distinction of straddling the Continental Divide. It is popular with hikers for about two weeks a year, but the rest of the time, you can get a hotel room pretty cheap. Since we are now forced to reserve two hotel rooms (that’s one of those reasons we haven’t been on a big trip in four years), we like cheaper rooms. At other places on our trip, we experienced the opposite.

20170601_161323

I tell people not to take pictures out of the car window because they won’t come out, but they don’t listen.

The second day was a longer drive with no stops other than the required. Perhaps the two highlights of the day were (1) seeing into the impoverished villages of Mexico when we drove through El Paso and (2) seeing that first 80 mph speed limit sign in Texas. By request of one of our older sons, we bought dinner at Whataburger.

 

20170602_153325

We use a GPS, but we also have a AAA membership, and I made sure to stop by and pick up the necessary maps and mark our route on them beforehand.

By the time we arrived in the Dallas area, there was a Texas-sized storm going on. It was dark by now and this hour was probably my least favorite hour of driving on the trip. But a wonderful home was waiting for us in Richardson, offered by church friends who were away most of the weekend and let us “take over.” Tomorrow when we woke up, we would see if our old Texas haunts were as we remembered them.

All Over the Place

By | February 13, 2017
1 Comment

In thinking about for my work this week, it strikes me that I have a lot of variety.

Genesis – I’m lecturing on chapters 9–13 in my Genesis course.

Numbers – this week in Sunday School I ‘ll be teaching chapter 17.

Job and Ecclesiastes – I ‘ll be teaching these two books in OT Survey (about 1.5 hours each). I’m also writing a syllabus for a directed studies course on Ecclesiastes.

Ephesians and Philippians – each of these books gets 1.5 hours from me in NT Survey.

Revelation – today I’m preparing the second half of a chapel sermon on Revelation 1–3.

In the “empty spaces,” I’m processing my photos from Turkey and Greece, which has me thinking about Acts, Paul’s travels, and Revelation.

My most pressing burden is to complete a photo project on the Gospels. I probably will do little on this week besides advise and direct some co-workers.

And lest the historical books (Samuel-Kings-Chronicles) feel neglected, I’m signing a contract this week to co-author a textbook on the history of ancient Israel.

Everything has to be prepared, to one degree or another. At the bottom end, Job and Ecclesiastes gets about one hour of prep, and at the top, Numbers will get about 5.

So for those who wonder why I know so little about so much, I now have a better answer.

Two Treacherous Generations and God’s Response

By | January 30, 2017
1 Comment

Yesterday I taught Numbers 14 in which the Israelites rebel against the Lord and lose the kingdom. I want to go beyond Moses’s day now and identify an important parallel that may provide some clarity in thinking about Jesus’s ministry.

To refresh on Numbers 14, the Israelites listened to their leadership (ten spies) in refusing to believe God’s promises and enter Canaan to receive their inheritance. Consequently the Lord sentenced the treacherous generation to death, delaying the kingdom entrance until a faithful generation arose.

When Jesus came, the Israelites listened to their leadership in rejecting Jesus as their king (Matt 27:20). Accordingly the Lord sentenced the treacherous generation to death, delaying the establishment of the kingdom until a future generation arose that would welcome the Messiah (Matt 23:36-39; cf. 21:43; 24:30; 25:34).

With neither the wilderness generation nor with Jesus’s generation did the Lord revoke his promises, annihilate the nation, or transfer the land to the Moabites. But in both cases there was a delay until the old generation had died off and a new generation responded in faith.

In Joshua’s day, the people marched forward across the Jordan, trusting the Lord to do what he promised. In the future, the people will look on him whom they have pierced and repent of their sin (Zech 12:10-13:1; Rom 11:25-32). The Messiah once spurned will be the Messiah embraced.

I would submit, then, that an overlooked verse that supports the so-called “dispensational” view of Israel’s future hope is Numbers 14:18:

The LORD is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.

The notion of a kingdom delay that seems so hard for many to accept today is actually a tried and true way that the Lord both keeps his promises but avoids fulfilling them to those who despise him.

Thus the writer of Hebrews explained to his Jewish audience that the promised land/kingdom awaited. From chapter 4:

Since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it.

It still remains that some will enter that rest.

Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall [in the wilderness!] by following their example of obedience.

While we await Jesus’s return, we (and moreso the Jewish people!) are in the wilderness. Those who turn away from Jesus will die in the wilderness without receiving the inheritance. But the hope of entering the rest of the Messiah’s kingdom on earth still stands for those who persevere in faith.

Some years ago I wrote a bit about how the notion of “delay” fits in with the book of Acts and the church (pdf).

Yosemite

By | October 23, 2016
1 Comment

I haven’t done this in a few years, but it’s a little less intimidating to write up a weekend trip than a weeks-long summer vacation. Friends in our Sunday School class invited us to stay at their place near Yosemite last weekend, and we were able to make it an extended three-day trip because Monday was a “reading day” at the college.

We spent Saturday and Sunday visiting Glacier Point and Yosemite Valley, though because it rained all day on Sunday, I left my camera in the car that day. This was our family’s first trip to Yosemite Valley, aside from a visit I made as a child.

161015531tb

The view from Glacier Point is popular, for good reason. We changed our plans at the last minute to visit on Saturday morning, and that turned out to be a great decision as clouds soon came in and we wouldn’t have had a good view any other time. The big rock in the distance is the famous Half Dome.

161015550tb

The major impression that I will always have from this trip is the beautiful fall colors. We enjoyed this even when it was raining on Sunday and couldn’t take photos.

161015557tb

Here we have a beautiful family in a beautiful place. Thank God.

161017625tb

Before we headed back on Monday, our friend took us out for a drive in his 1915 Model T. He taught all of the kids to drive it.

161017597tb

Yes, all of the kids. I am still shaking my head over this one. Our six-year-old had to keep his foot on the floor to keep the car in (low) gear and he controlled the gas with his right hand (with a lever similar to today’s turn signal). Because we had 8 people in the Model T, a few had to ride on the running boards, and that proved helpful on a few occasions when Mark was able to guide the steering wheel.

161017633tb

I was able to drive the car as well, and it wasn’t as easy as I expected it would be after watching my kids drive it. We are very thankful to our friends for making our weekend so special.

On our drives, we listened to an audiobook recommended by another friend in our Sunday School class. We would all recommend Bud, Not Buddy to your family as well. (Amazon lists it as ages 8-12, but I would say it’s 8-88.)

What Am I Doing?

By | October 7, 2016
4 Comments

One thing that I’m not doing is blogging here. I wish I were. I have some interesting ideas from time to time that I would love to get down in writing. But I have a few minutes on a Friday evening and I thought I might provide a snapshot of what’s going on that might interest some of any remaining readers.

Teaching. My primary work is in the classroom. This takes about 43 hours of my week, as I spend significant time preparing and grading for four classes. This semester I am teaching two sections of Old Testament Survey I, with a total of 135 students. While I’ve taught this for the past three years, I feel that there is much to improve and I take a little time each week to tweak the notes and powerpoints. Since most of these students are freshmen, I apply a little extra effort to help them make the transition to college, especially through rejecting weekly papers that are wrinkled, unstapled, or improperly formatted.

I am teaching New Testament Survey I (Gospels and Acts) for the first time in three years and I am loving it. But I did such a poor job the first time around that I am doing a major overhaul of the lectures. My fourth class is an upper-division Bible elective on the Psalms. This is my smallest course with 36 students, but it receives more attention than my other three classes combined. I have especially loved preparing for (and teaching) Psalms 16, 22, and 45. I am looking forward to teaching 69, 72, 80, and 110.

Photo Companion to the Bible. In theory, this receives more time than all other items on this list after teaching. For the last two years, I’ve been working with a terrific team in developing a verse-by-verse photo guide to the Bible. I am very excited about how useful and accessible this will be for Bible teachers and students. I am hoping to release the Gospels in a few months. But I’ve been saying that for a year now. The problem is that we keep creating and discovering new great content. Last week we were refining a possible reconstruction of the sign on the cross, with the help of an expert creator of ancient fonts. This week we ‘re working on some new coin photos. I think if I had four weeks to do nothing else, I could get version 1.0 out the door.

Turkey/Greece Trip. For many years I picked up groups at the airport in Israel and toured them around, largely unmindful of the work required to organize and prepare these groups in the States. Now I am getting a taste of that as I prepare to lead a TMU group to biblical sites for 17 days in late December and early January. A number of elements have me very excited about the trip. As I am able, I hope to spend some significant time reading and studying about the sites we ‘ll be visiting. Some of that will count towards my goal of reading 50 books this year.

Sunday School. For two and a half years now, I have co-taught an adult Sunday School class. We began with Genesis 1 and this weekend we are in Numbers 3. We usually study a chapter a week, and I do the preparation whether I teach or not. Though I could gain some precious hours if I didn’t have this commitment, the weekly study is one of the favorite things I do. And now I can truly say that I love Leviticus.

Family. Our family does not hang out every evening for 3-4 hours playing games and watching TV, but we do enjoy both serious and fun times together each week. We ‘ve been reading through a book series lately, memorizing Psalm 25, and are now preparing for a weekend trip to Yosemite. A few weeks ago I took the boys to the last Dodgers home game with Vin Scully’s farewell. Tomorrow we ‘ll do some clean-up in the yard.

So that’s what I’ve been up to lately. I have not been writing a book, playing the piano, watching Cowboys games, or training for a marathon. Perhaps there will be time for those things later. For now I am thankful for some good opportunities to serve others and be blessed through it all.

A Missing Portion of Scripture

By | January 23, 2016
0 Comment

Lately I’ve been reading through the articles at the back of the new NIV Zondervan Study Bible. I like “big picture” articles, and I expect a lot from contributors with names like D. A. Carson, Douglas Moo, T. D. Alexander, and Moisés Silva. Since some of these writers were also the editors of the Bible, I expect to get a quick sense of the approach of the notes throughout the Bible.

I’ve read articles entitled “The Story of the Bible,” “The Bible and Theology,” “A Biblical-Theological Overview of the Bible,” “Covenant,” “Temple,” “The Kingdom of God,” “The City of God,” and this morning, “The People of God.” They are good, and I would commend them to you. These aren’t articles that “touch on” these subjects, but they are intended to be a concise but definitive word written by scholars who have studied these matters for decades.

The simple point that I want to make here today is the observation of what is missing in these global, whole-Bible surveys about these most important subjects. There is a curious omission throughout these articles of a particular portion of Scripture. You may not see this by doing a reference count, but in terms of the message of these books, it is absent. I wonder if you might guess, particularly if I told you that none of the article writers hold to a dispensational approach. Some of them, in fact, are rather strenuously anti-dispensational. Of all of the contributors to the Bible (100?), only two slipped through who adhere to dispensationalism, one of whom wrote on the very safe book of 2 Kings.

The portion of Scripture that is neglected in these big picture articles is the Prophets. The “Kingdom of God” article, for instance, has one reference to Daniel (2:44) and one chain of references to Isaiah (chapters 2, 9, and 11 in a single parenthetical). There are no references to any other prophetic books. By contrast, there are nine references to Matthew and two to Ephesians. I wouldn’t note this if Job was missing in a discussion on the kingdom, but the most extended discussions in the entire Bible about the kingdom are in Daniel, Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Zechariah. And yet they are almost entirely overlooked. This isn’t an issue of references, and I appreciate the strict word limits. The problem is that what these prophets taught at length is ignored because they do not fit the theology of the authors (or editors).

They cannot fairly represent the prophetic books and write that “the coming of the kingdom does not immeidately end all evil” and “God’s kingdom exists wherever people acknowledge him as king.” The article on “People of God” has perhaps a hundred references, but nothing that speaks of the hope of Israel as described in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and Zechariah. The article essentially jumps from the judgment upon Israel to “by choosing 12 apostles, Jesus reconstitutes the people of God . . . no longer identified with a political entity or an ethnic group.” Nothing in the NT says that the nation of Israel has been permanently cast off, but this assumption seems to be justified because “a true Jew is the one who is a Jew ‘inwardly. ‘”

I say, let the prophets speak. They knew that only Jews of faith were saved. They knew that the Jewish people would reject their Messiah. But they still pressed the point: God would restore his nation to their land under their Messiah forever.

The great loss of the non-dispensational interpretation in its selective use of Scripture is the failure to see the glory that God has promised to bring to himself when he melts the hearts of a stiff-necked nation to worship the King they crucified. This is not an insignificant part of what the Bible is all about and to overlook it is a dishonor to the prophets who spoke and the One they spoke for.

New Taxes and the Bible

By | January 16, 2016
0 Comment

In the debate on Thursday, Marco Rubio expressed concern with Ted Cruz’s proposal for a VAT (value-added tax). The creation of a new tax could ultimately lead to increased taxation, as the old taxes could remain or the new tax rate could be increased. Rubio’s concern is valid, as history shows that governments tend to raise taxes over time.

This history actually goes back a long time. Just after the Israelites came out of Egypt, the Lord required a half-shekel ransom payment for every individual over the age of 20. This was a one-time tax with the revenues to be used in the construction of the tabernacle (Exod 30:11-16). But later on, Jewish religious authorities decided to make this half-shekel payment an annual tax. Its declared purpose was to serve the temple, and Jews from all over the world paid it. When the Romans destroyed the temple in AD 70, the tax didn’t go away, but the funds were re-directed to the treasury of the pagan god Jupiter Capitolinus in Rome. The Jews had to pay this tax for several more centuries.

There is good reason for people to be concerned about the creation of a new tax, however small or infrequent it may be when initiated.

Woe is me

By | October 18, 2015
1 Comment

When Isaiah saw the Holy God of Israel, he cried out, “Woe is me! I am ruined.” The word translated “ruined” is translated elsewhere in Isaiah as “destroyed” (Isa 15:1). It has this same meaning four times in Hosea. Zephaniah speaks of all the merchants who will be “wiped out” (Zeph 1:11). The psalmist speaks of the beasts that “perish” (Ps 49:12, 20). In other words, Isaiah knew that a sinful person like him would be utterly destroyed in the presence of a holy God.

This corresponds with the response of the Israelites when they heard the voice of God at Mount Sinai. They trembled with fear and begged Moses to ask God to speak to him only, for otherwise “we will die” (Exod 20:19; cf. Deut 5:25).

This sense of Isaiah’s response that he would die is not always communicated well in the translations. The venerable King James has “I am undone,” which works but is not a familiar phrase to a modern audience. The NRSV and ESV have “I am lost,” which seems a poor choice. “I am ruined” is a common translation these days (NASB, HCSB, NIV). I like the CEV’s “I am doomed.” But the NET may be the best here: “I am destroyed.” Sadly, however, they blow it on the previous phrase. Whereas the traditional reading is “Woe is me!,” the NET has “Too bad for me!” Yes, it is too bad, but that hardly captures Isaiah’s utter despair.

Summary of Genesis, Part 3

By | May 27, 2015
0 Comment

Here is the third and final part of my attempt to summarize the book. The whole is available in a pdf file here.

Kings: God made man to rule over the earth. God’s intention was to fill the earth with his image-bearers so that his glory would be on display to all of creation. His plans to establish his kingdom on earth were initially thwarted when the human king rebelled against him. God intended to raise up from this rebel a family and a nation that would produce kings (17:6, 16; 35:11). Abraham demonstrated kingly character and success during his life, as did his son Isaac and grandson Jacob. Abraham defeated the coalition of Mesopotamian kings (14:15), Isaac was feared by the Philistine king (26:29), and Jacob blessed Pharaoh (47:7). By the close of Genesis, it is revealed that the kingly line would come through the tribe of Judah, a seed of the one willing to give his life for his brothers. That God’s purpose would be fulfilled by a single king is clear from Jacob’s blessing that the scepter would come to one to whom it belongs (49:10). One day Adam’s seed will reverse the curse and rule over the world for the glory of God.

Beginnings: The book of Genesis is appropriately named, for it tells the beginnings of all things under God. This book accounts for the glory of man (made in the image of God), the depravity of man (born to a fallen couple), the hope of man (the defeat of the serpent), and the destiny of man (judgment or life with God on a blessed earth). This book prepares for the nation of Israel with the promises of countless descendants, a land of inheritance, and victory over enemies. The book emphasizes the triumph of God’s grace to repentant sinners and the judgment to those who cross divinely established boundaries, attack his people, and reject his blessing. Those in God’s chosen family are in no less need of his grace, and each elect person demonstrates profound failure that proves that God’s choice is not based on merit. But each one who carries on the promise is ultimately characterized by faith in God and his word. This faith is demonstrated in worship and obedience. The patriarchs thus provide hope for their sinful Israelite descendants who too may enjoy reconciliation with God through faith that keeps the covenant. The book of Genesis prepares the Israelites and the world for the necessity of a substitutionary sacrifice through the death of animals to provide a covering for Adam and Eve, the salvation of Noah’s family who offer animal sacrifices, and the provision of a ram in place of Abraham’s only beloved son. Judah provides the model of a man willing to lay down his life to save his brothers. The Israelites hearing the book of Genesis in Moses’s day know who God is, who they are, and what God’s purposes are for the world. These answers to the ultimate questions of life are still satisfying to the humble, repentant individual today.

In Brief: When God’s creation is marred by man’s rebellion, he chooses a family whose seed will rule over the land and bring great blessing to the world.