January 29, 2007Language means nothing
Premium? Premium?
Do people grab four or five of these when it is their hap to enter a restroom that gives away the premium seat covers, so that they won't be caught having to use the inferior varieties distributed by lesser establishments?
In a culture with such a loose use of language, it is no wonder that people have lost their ability to appreciate the transcendent.
January 25, 2007Chapel sermon
In some ways, I feel a bit presumptuous posting the audio of a sermon that I preached, but I am doing it for the following reasons:1. As was the case with the pictures of the car, there are some who would be interested in listening to this solely because of their interest in me (primarily my family).
2. I am planning to revise the manuscript of this sermon for use as a church-wide Sunday School lesson, so I would appreciate any feedback that might be offered.
The sermon was sparked by reading George Herbert's poem, "Denial."
Denial
When my devotions could not pierce
Thy silent ears;
Then was my heart broken, as was my verse;
My breast was full of fears
And disorder:
My bent thoughts, like a brittle bow,
Did fly asunder:
Each took his way; some would to pleasures go,
Some to the wars and thunder
Of alarms.
"As good go any where," they say,
"As to benumb
Both knees and heart, in crying night and day,
Come, come, my God, O come,
But no hearing."
O that thou shouldst give dust a tongue
To cry to thee,
And then not hear it crying! all day long
My heart was in my knee,
But no hearing.
Therefore my soul lay out of sight,
Untun'd, unstrung:
My feeble spirit, unable to look right,
Like a nipped blossom, hung
Discontented.
O cheer and tune my heartless breast,
Defer no time;
That so thy favors granting my request,
They and my mind may chime,
And mend my rhyme.
What I found striking about this poem is the strength of Herbert's passion for God. Herbert is not content merely to do Christian stuff; rather, he is unsettled unless he perceives the warmth of true fellowship with the Father. And he is not hesitant to challenge God to restore him to that place of favor.
His poem drove me into the Psalms to find a parallel song, and I found it in Psalm 13. My primary focus in the sermon is that the prayers of both Herbert and David (the writer of Psalm 13) are quite foreign to us, because we know very little of the strength of affection that these men evidenced.
Psalm 13: Why can't we lament?
January 22, 2007Another update on Riley's life
After a long, productive life, my 1995 Plymouth Acclaim finally gave up the ghost. Its tombstone will read:172,000 miles
It did the job
I was actually surprised it lasted as long as it did; after it hauled all of my worldly goods, including my library, for the 2,000-mile-cross-country-through-desert-over-mountain trip from Michigan to Arizona, I thought the car was on its last legs (so to speak). Occasional trips to the mechanic extended its life for an extra year and a half.
In the end, it was leaking everything. I took it to a local repair shop, hoping (baselessly) that replacing some hoses might give the car a couple more years of useful life. The mechanic thought otherwise. He wouldn't even do an oil change on the thing; in his opinion, it would have been more efficient to pour the oil on the ground, bypassing the short time that my engine would have held the oil. In addition, the power steering system was a sieve; not only would I need to replace the power steering pump, but because the fluid had gotten on all of the other components in the system (which causes them to break down over time), I would have needed to replace the rack and pinion as well.
The rule of thumb: when car repairs start rivaling car payments, it's probably time to replace the vehicle.
And so, for those who care (primarily my parents, who wanted to see what my car looks like), I present pictures of my new vehicle. As per custom on this site, clicking on the pictures will enlarge them.
Details: it's a 2006 Dodge Stratus SXT, 6 cylinder, with just under 23,000 miles.
January 15, 2007A gift for dissidens
Over Christmas break, whilst I was back in Michigan with my family and my girlfriend, I encountered a product that I thought would be the perfect present for the shadowy commenter on all things cultural, dissidens of Remonstrans.So, without further ado, I offer the esteemed dissidens a belated Christmas present.
For those who don't get the joke, read these articles:
The Importance of Being Ironical
CCC Gone Wilde
Monkey Business
For what it's worth, I'm largely in agreement with dissidens on this issue, so my gift here should not be taken as some sort of spiteful jab.
January 05, 2007Education Update
This blog has elements both personal and public. Some of what I write here, such as the discussions on separatism and regeneration/faith, are intended for the benefit of all who might be interested. Others, like this post, are primarily aimed at those who know me personally and wish to have some idea of what I'm up to.Progress on my Ph.D has been quite frustrating over the past year. On the plus side, I have passed both of my language requirements; after assisting me over those hurdles, my German and French books have now happily retired to my shelf. I have also finished all five of the preliminary exams that Westminster requires for the doctoral program (OT, NT, church history, systematic theology, and apologetics). All of my classwork has been finished since last spring, when I took two classes at Arizona State.
That leaves two major obstacles: comprehensive exams, and my dissertation. My original intention was to take my written comps last fall; thus, I began last spring asking WTS to send me the relevant reading lists to prepare for the exams. The exams themselves are quite imposing: 14 hours of written testing, divided over two days, including 3 hours in each of church history and systematic theology, and 8 hours in apologetics. If those are sustained, I then have 2 hours of oral examinations.
As I said, I originally contacted WTS last June, asking for all of the materials that I would need to prepare for the tests. After being passed from one person to another, I finally received the apologetics reading list a little over two months before I planned to take the test. The list itself was overwhelming: I would conservatively estimate that it listed about 12,000 pages of reading. Nevertheless, I took to preparing to take the tests at the end of October.
What follows is my mistake. WTS requires that, one month prior to taking the comprehensives, the student must submit an official request to take the tests. I was also told by my chief contact at WTS that if I wished to take the written portion of the exam here is Phoenix (which I did), I would need to request that specifically in my statement.
I didn't mention it.
And I really don't know why, which is immensely frustrating to me. I suppose that I just forgot, which is no excuse. And so, a week before I was supposed to take the tests, when I said something in an email that assumed I was taking the tests here, I was told that I was actually expected to be in Philly. Obviously, that wasn't going to happen, so my tests got postponed.
And this turned out to be a good thing, because I then found out that there are actually two more reading lists (one each for systematic theology and church history) that I had not been sent! Of course, I requested that those be sent immediately (especially since my original request was for all of the materials that I would need to prepare).
I am now scheduled to take my written comps in about a month. I still don't have the reading lists for CH and ST! Again, I am not guiltless in this: I did not send WTS my most recent address, and so they have had to resend the reading lists. That part is entirely my fault.
As it stands now, I do hope to pass my written exams next month, at which point I will need to fly to Philly to do my oral comps. If all goes well there, I will then be able to submit a dissertation proposal, and begin to officially work on my dissertation (which I am working on already, with the hope that this work will not be in vain).
If the Lord wills, I hope to write my dissertation during this calendar year, submit it next January, and thus finish my degree in the spring of '08.
I'll keep everyone posted on the state of the dissertation; my next post will probably introduce my topic and the direction I'm heading. Right now, though, I think I have a test to study for.