on the eve of the leadership summitt

Since i've just realized that I actually have readers of my blog i feel somewhat obliged to write a comment, in the hopes that they will notice and will continue to comment. verily i say unto thee - if thou wouldst please continue to pester me to post while in Regent it will help me more faithfully disclose my inner thoughts and learnings to thee via the web.

my only thought tonight: pride is a deeply difficult sin to uproot. it spreads it tangling vines into all the other sin habits of our lives and prevents us from finding freedom, bliding us to the truth about ourselves and about reality. it is always best to be humbled and to give up the need to defend oneself - even if we think we are right. we ought to have inner joy that we are being humbled and matured and perfected through our circumstances, valuing more our own character of humility that our justification and defense before our friends, family, and community. God wants to make me (us) into people of true character - the character of Jesus - and he was meek and humble. not because he lacked self esteem. but because he had a perfect relationship with his Father that allowed him to be 'humbled' before men, knowing the truth about who he truly was and what he had come to do....and he pressed on to do it.

I'm onto the last chapter of Renovation of the Heart. I can't recommend it enough. Other books I am reading: A Biblical History of Israel, by Ian Provan (my OT prof this coming Fall) - probably the best OT overview I've ever read, because of its solid committment to the Christian tradition and faith and its academic integrity, thoroughness, and honesty. Finally, I am reading Violence, Hospitality, and the Cross - Reappropriating the Atonement Tradition - also by future professor of mine Hans Boersma. It is a re-examination and reappropriation of the doctrine of atonement in the context of postmodern philosophical discussion of 'hospitality' and 'violence/exclusion' - two concepts very central in postmodern philosophic discussion. This is a particularly relevant discussion in leu of the modern politic of tolerance (where 'hospitality' to 'the other' is made supreme, and 'exclusion' of another is considered violence and is totally shunned), the present controversies in the church regarding certain (im)moral lifestyle choices, and our culture's question of how both and all-powerful, all-loving God could have created a world in which evil abides, and hell exists and punishment.

...all of that is probably sounding a bit convoluted. that's probably since its 1:00am and i need to sleep, and because i've only ready the intro and ch.1 of the book...

by the way, that's a pic of a friend of mine from Grand Rapids with his wife. their names are Bob and Cindy and they are a tremendous couple and true friends.