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Life has officially began again! Hopefully this blog won't be as slow in the coming months as it was the last week, but I am not going to make any promises!
The fall semester has kicked off at RTS and right off the bat I feel a little behind. I am taking six courses this semester (Preaching, Hebrew I, Leadership, Applied Sanctification, ARP Polity/History, and Church History I) with one of them constituting my inauguration into the wonderful world of Hebrew. Having been successful in Greek, I was hoping this language wouldn't be so bad. Well, I am already confused by the most elementary part of any language: the alphabet. Lord, help me....please!
I have also started a new job as an intern at Uptown Church in the area of pastoral administration. I am very excited about this because it gives me an opportunity to use my leadership/administrative gifts for the edification of the church and the glory of God. It also provides me a place to further develop those gifts as well as build strong mentoring relationships with the pastors and other staff. I have a lot to learn and I am blessed to "get my feet wet" at such a great church!
Add to that my 8-10 hours a week working in the RTS library and the weeks will go by very fast. Please don't take this as me complaining, because that is not my intent. I am very excited about what God will accomplish in and through me as I serve him as a husband, student, intern, and employee this semester. I am however asking that you pray for me to do more than all I can ever accomplish on my own. The Lord is my strength and I know that I need him to do anything.
Having just finished Mark Dever's, "Nine Marks of a Healthy Church," I thought I would spend a little of time perusing his ministry's website. What I found on his blog took me by surprise. Evidently, John Piper and Wayne Grudem have been having an exchange about whether paedobaptists can partake in membership in their churches given that they have never been "truly" baptized as an act of faith. (To brush up on this dialog, go here.) Seeing that I am a paedobaptist with many baptist friends, I proceeded to eagerly read Dr. Dever's comments. The following two comments caught me by surprise:
"Jesus clearly commanded baptism and to disobey this command is sin [whether intentional or not]. To continue in such an unbaptized state is unrepentant sin [whether intentional or not]. Thus, no careful paedo-baptist will follow John P's apparent "generosity" about membership. That is, they will never knowingly admit someone to the Lord's Table that they understand to be unbaptized."
"Much more we could say here, but, reader, please keep in mind that this is written by one who loves John Piper, appreciates his ministry (see earlier blog post) and who is planning to have an Anglican Dean and a Presbyterian former Moderator of the General Assembly in his Baptist pulpit in the next four months."
Much more could be said about my disagreement with Dr. Dever's stance, but I have one burning question for him: Why would you let an "unrepentant" sinner preach in "your" pulpit???
Am I the only one confused by this? Why wouldn't someone guard their pulpit with the same convictions that they guard the Lord's table?
I started reading "Spiritual Leadership," by J. Oswald Sanders for a class I am taking this fall at RTS and right out of the gate I was convicted by something he said. While explaining the characteristics of the Servant of God referred to in Isaiah 42:1-4 he notes in regard to verse 4 that, "Pessimism and leadership are at opposite ends of life's attitudes. Hope and optimism are essential qualities for the servant of God who battles with the powers of darkness over the souls of men and women. God's ideal servant is optimistic until every part of God's work is done" (p. 25).
I have to confess that I just might be one of the most pessimistic people in the world. I do a pretty good job of hiding it from others, but inside I am always expecting the worse. I find it all too easy in most situations to jump to ultimately wrong conclusions and thereby lose heart and become discouraged. People who love me very much have pointed it out in my life but usually I dismiss it by saying that I am not pessimistic but rather a "realist". I don't think I have been fooling anyone.
Surely it takes an outpouring of grace for me to overcome my pessimism and at times I am strangely awed that I haven't reverted to it more often. Praise God for his Spirit that indwells us and leads us into righteousness. After shining the light on this character flaw of mine, I now pray for the transformation of heart and strength needed to overcome it. I'll begin by being optimistic that it will indeed come about.
~Dan
Life has been pretty mum in the Layman household recently. As with most of you reading this...we are trying our hardest just to stay cool. Temps have been exceeding 100 degrees here in Charlotte and when you add humidity and leather car seats to that...things can be downright miserable. We know that even this crummy weather is part of God's good purposes but we wouldn't be disappointed with a change in the thermostat.
Megan has been keeping herself busy with her new scrapbooking endeavor and with work. She has been putting in some extra hours to help finance our upcoming beach weekend in September and anniversary trip in October. The beach trip should be a good time, especially since it is a weekend of fellowship with our good friends from our home church in Apex. Not only will the anniversary trip be a good time to get a way and enjoy the scenery on the Blue Ridge Parkway, but it will be the first time in a year and a half that we get to get away just by ourselves without visiting any family or friends.
I've been working to finish up my "Doctrine of the Holy Spirit" class. It is taught by Dr. Sinclair Ferguson and listening to the lectures has been a real treat. Not only is the Scottish accent fun to listen to , but the content has been very encouraging. I hope to take the exam next week and get my paper done before the fall semester starts on the 22nd. Right now I am leaning on writing about the Spirit's role in the Covenant of Redemption. I've been working in the library a bit more this summer and have enjoyed being able to contribute more to the family income. Recently I have been working on boxing up Dr. Brown's books that his family donated to the RTS library upon his passing. As I have been perusing the various titles (and various languages) that make up his library, I am thankful for how God gifted him and how he gave so much of his time to invest in the life of many seminary students.
We're traveling to Apex this weekend to see some friends and worship with our church family there. We always love going back and continue to pray about the possibility of returning there to live in the future. It is amazing to us how much we miss the area and the people giving we only lived there for a year and a half.
Well, that is enough rambling for now...have a great weekend!
With the RTS FFL draft just two weeks away, the Banana Hammocks are ready to play! And thanks to Adrian, they now have their own logo!
This is by far one of the coolest things I have ever seen! If I could afford one I think I would buy one and retrofit it with lots of bright lights and fly around at night and trick people into thinking its a UFO. Hmmm...maybe somebody has already done that?
On a lighter note, Engadget (via The Onion, of course) is also reporting that the much anticipated "Sousaphone Hero" game is not receiving the amount of interest many had thought it would. I have a couple of friends who probably would own this if it was actually real.
I don't know how many of you watched the NBC TV show "Ed" from 2000-2004, but I did and I loved it. Despite the bad ending to the show, it did provide me with many weeks of laughs and discussions around the ole work watercooler. My favorite part of the show was definitely the bets between Mike and Ed; like the time that Ed bets Mike that he can't walk up to a stranger in the bowling alley and sing Peabo Bryson and Roberta Flack's mushy ballad, "Tonight I Celebrate My Love". If you want a good laugh or something to challenge your friends with you can see all of their bets here.
One disappointing thing about this great piece of television is that it has never made it onto DVD. Evidently there is an online petition of sorts that you can sign at Amazon that will inform you when the show is released. Hopefully the executives that are battling over the various rights will see this and get a move on!
Cheers to Stuckeyville!
~Dan
My 2007 RTS Fantasy Football team name is officially the Banana Hammocks! Megan wanted me to post a picture of myself in a thong but I didn't get the joke. If someone could clue me in I would appreciate it. Is there something wrong with this picture?
~Dan (who was just talking about fruit in a hammock...come on!)
Life has officially began again! Hopefully this blog won't be as slow in the coming months as it was the last week, but I am not going to make any promises!
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