Big News

Most of you probably already know by now, but for those of you who haven't heard, Olivia and I are engaged. What many of you probably don't know is that we have decided to move back to Utah early. We had already planned to come back to visit for Christmas, but now we are planning to stay afterwards. This will give Olivia more time to learn English, give me an opportunity to earn and save some money before I start my masters program, and it will give us more time to plan the wedding. This was kind of a sudden decision but the more we think about it the more we see that it will be a good thing. So now we're in the process of appealing for Olivia's fiancee visa. I have several questions concerning the visa application, so if anyone has any experience with this sort of thing, or knows someone I could call for free legal advice I would appreciate it.

I'm finishing up my third week here at the seminary and so far it has been great. I'm sad that I won't be able to finish out the year here, but I have other things to look forward to. It's a very small school, with only 25-30 students attending classes on-site, so there is a very intimate atmosphere between both students and faculty. For lunch and dinner most students cook a big meal together, which is usually accompanied by a lot of singing and laughter. The classes have all been great as well. The first two weeks were consecrated to learning Hebrew, and this last week was the first real week of classes. It turns out that I will be learning Greek at the same time as Hebrew, which actually isn't as intimidating as I thought it would be. On top of that I'm taking New Testament, Old Testament, church history, ethics, and apologetics.

On a final note, I find the French bureaucratic system thoroughly disagreable (to put it euphamistically!). Let me explain. When I went to San Francisco in May to get my student visa I was told by the French consulat that I was going to have to leave France and then re-enter in order to get my visa stamped, in order to get my residency card. This was because I came to France in July and the starting date for my visa was September 10. At first I thought that it was going to be simple: all I have to do is take a train to Italy and get my visa stamped at the train station, right? Wrong. I called everywhere I could think of, the American embassay, the French customs agency, the French border police, the train station, the airport, the French prefecture, to find out where I could go to get my visa stamped. Nobody knew and everyone sent me somewhere else, often to somebody I had already talked to. Eventually I was told that there was a customs agency in a train station in Vintimille, a small coastal city not far from the French/Italian border. So last Friday Olivia and I took a train to Vintimille to get my visa stamped and to spend an afternoon in the market and on the beach. Upon arrival we were informed that they no longer stamp visas at the train station and that I would have to take a plane somewhere, which was exactly what I was trying to avoid. Since I am only permitted 90 days here on my passport I had until October 6 (today) to get my visa stamped and validated. I spent most of Saturday scrambling to figure out what I was going to do next. It ended up that on Monday morning I took a train from Marseille to Geneva, then a plane from Geneva to Paris, and finally a train from Paris back to Marseille. Unfortunately when I got to Paris they told me that they couldn't stamp my visa, even though when I called and asked them the day before they said that they could. On Wednesday I went to the prefecture, which I should have done in the first place, and explained the whole situation. They told me that they didn't know why the consulat in San Francisco said I had to leave the country, that they didn't care about getting my visa stamped, and that all I had to do was fill out the paperwork for the residency card, which I don't even need now that we're coming back to Utah early. Argh! As Mike Howard would say, "What an opportunity to praise Jesus!"

Why Memorize Scripture?

This comes from John Piper's Taste And See, which can be found on his website at www.desiringgod.org. I found it useful and encouraging, so I thought I'd pass it along to whoever is still reading this blog.

Why Memorize Scripture?
By John Piper September 5, 2006

First, a few testimonies: I have it third hand, that Dr. Howard Hendricks of Dallas Seminary once made the statement (and I paraphrase) that if it were his decision, every student graduating from Dallas Theological Seminary would be required to learn one thousand verses word perfect before they graduated.

Dallas Willard, professor of Philosophy at the University of Southern California, wrote, “Bible memorization is absolutely fundamental to spiritual formation. If I had to choose between all the disciplines of the spiritual life, I would choose Bible memorization, because it is a fundamental way of filling our minds with what it needs. This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth. That’s where you need it! How does it get in your mouth? Memorization” (“Spiritual Formation in Christ for the Whole Life and Whole Person” in Vocatio, Vol. 12, no. 2, Spring, 2001, p. 7).

Chuck Swindoll wrote, “I know of no other single practice in the Christian life more rewarding, practically speaking, than memorizing Scripture. . . . No other single exercise pays greater spiritual dividends! Your prayer life will be strengthened. Your witnessing will be sharper and much more effective. Your attitudes and outlook will begin to change. Your mind will become alert and observant. Your confidence and assurance will be enhanced. Your faith will be solidified” (Growing Strong in the Seasons of Life [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994], p. 61).

One of the reasons Martin Luther came to his great discovery in the Bible of justification by faith alone was that in his early years in the Augustinian monastery he was influenced to love Scripture by Johann Staupitz. Luther devoured the Bible in a day when people earned doctorates in theology without even reading the Bible. Luther said that his fellow professor, Andreas Karlstadt, did not even own a Bible when he earned his doctor of theology degree, nor did he until many years later (Bucher, Richard. "Martin Luther's Love for the Bible"). Luther knew so much of the Bible from memory that when the Lord opened his eyes to see the truth of justification in Romans 1:17, he said, “Thereupon I ran through the Scriptures from memory,” in order to confirm what he had found.

So here are a few reasons why so many have viewed Scripture memorization as so essential to the Christian life.

1. Conformity to Christ
Paul wrote that “we all, . . . beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” (2 Corinthians 3:18)) If we would be changed into Christ likeness we must steadily see him. This happens in the word. “The Lord revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the Lord” (1 Samuel 3:21). Bible memorization has the effect of making our gaze on Jesus steadier and clearer.

2. Daily Triumph over Sin
“How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. . . . I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you” (Psalm 119:9, 11). Paul said that we must “by the Spirit . . . put to death the [sinful] deeds of the body” (Romans 8:13). The one piece of armor used to kill is the “sword of the Spirit” which is the word of God (Ephesians 6:17). As sin lures the body into sinful action, we call to mind a Christ-revealing word of Scripture and slay the temptation with the superior worth and beauty of Christ over what sin offers.

3. Daily Triumph over Satan
When Jesus was tempted by Satan in the wilderness he recited Scripture from memory and put Satan to flight (Matthew 4:1-11).

4. Comfort and Counsel for People You Love
The times when people need you to give them comfort and counsel do not always coincide with the times you have your Bible handy. Not only that, the very word of God spoken spontaneously from your heart has unusual power. Proverbs 25:11 says, “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver.” That is a beautiful way of saying, When the heart full of God’s love can draw on the mind full of God’s word, timely blessings flow from the mouth.

5. Communicating the Gospel to Unbelievers
Opportunities to share the gospel come when we do not have the Bible in hand. Actual verses of the Bible have their own penetrating power. And when they come from our heart, as well as from the Book, the witness is given that they are precious enough to learn. We should all be able to sum up the gospel under four main headings (1) God’s holiness/law/glory; 2) man’s sin/rebellion/disobedience; 3) Christ’s death for sinners; 4) the free gift of life by faith. Learn a verse or two relating to each of these, and be ready in season and out of season to share them.

6. Communion with God in the Enjoyment of His Person and Ways
The way we commune with (that is, fellowship with) God is by meditating on his attributes and expressing to him our thanks and admiration and love, and seeking his help to live a life that reflects the value of these attributes. Therefore, storing texts in our minds about God helps us relate to him as he really is. For example, imagine being able to call this to mind through the day:

The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust. (Psalm 103:8-14)

I used the word “enjoyment” intentionally when I said, “communion with God in the enjoyment of his person and ways.” Most of us are emotionally crippled—all of us, really. We do not experience God in the fullness of our emotional potential. How will that change? One way is to memorize the emotional expressions of the Bible and speak them to the Lord and to each other until they become part of who we are. For example, in Psalm 103:1, we say, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name!” That is not a natural expression for many people. But if we memorize this and other emotional expressions from the Bible, and say them often, asking the Lord to make the emotion real in our hearts, we can actually grow into that emotion and expression. It will become part of who we are. We will be less emotionally crippled and more able to render proper praise and thanks to God.

There are other reasons for memorizing Scripture. I hope you find them in the actual practice.

Who do you say that I am?

[Jesus] said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" -Matthew 16:15

Imagine that one day one of your friends started saying some rather odd things to you. During lunch you ask him to pass you the chicken and he says, "he who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink" (John 6:54-55). When you ask him how his family is doing he replies, "Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter in law against her mother in law; and a man's enemies will be the members of his household. He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me" (Matthew 10:34-37). When you ask him when his birthday is he tells you, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am" (John 8:58). You ask him for directions to a restaurant and he says, "I am the way the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father but through me" (John 14:6). At this point you're considering whether it is in your best interests to remain friends with him, and just then he asks you, "Who do you say that I am?" How would you respond?

I love this question that Jesus poses to his disciples because it is so simple and straitforward, yet all of how we view and live life hangs in the balance of our response. Several things that I've read/listened to recently have caused me to reflect on the person of Jesus and on the radical implications of following him. The first comes from Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. He writes:

I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: 'I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God.' That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic--on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg--or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.

Tim Keller, in a lecture entititled Who Is This Jesus?, takes up where Lewis left off and explores our options as to what we can honestly and consistently believe about Jesus. He starts off by saying that throughout history the actions and statements of Jesus have ignited debate about his identity, and every thoughtful person must a be a part of that debate. The the combination of the impact of Jesus on history and the sweeping magnitude of his claims for all of our lives are such that you had better not just doubt that Jesus is not God, you'd better know that he is not God. Is Jesus a myth or was he a real man? If he was a real historical figure, then is what is written about him reliable and accurate? If what is written about him is reliable and accurate then was he crazy, deceptive, or divine? Regardless of how you answer these questions I would encourage you to listen to this lecture (click on the link above). It's easy to follow, interesting, and humorous.

In a short devotional entitled Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ, John Piper displays the biblical portrait of many different facets of what makes Jesus glorious. He writes:

Can we know him as he really was--and is? How do we come to know a person who lived on the earth two thousand years ago--one who claimed to rise from the dead with indestructible life and therefore lives today? Some people say you can't. The real Jesus is buried in history, they say, and there is no access to him. Others are not so skeptical. They believe that the biblical records of Jesus' life are reliable, and that its earliest interpreters--like the apostle Paul--are more dependable guides than today's critics. But how can you be sure that the biblical portrait of Jesus is true? People take two paths in search of solid ground under the feet of faith. One is the path of painstaking historical research to test the authenticity of the historical records....I still value the path of scholarly historical research. In fact, I lean on it often....There is another path. It's the path I have followed in this book. It starts with the conviction that divine truth can be self-authenticating....The practical effect of this path is that I do not ask you to pray for a special whisper from God to decide if Jesus is real. Rather I ask you to look at the Jesus of the Bible. Look at him. Don't close your eyes and hope for a word of confirmation. Keep your eyes open and fill them with the full portrait of Jesus provided in the Bible. If you come to trust Jesus Christ as Lord and God, it will be because you see in him a divine glory and excellence that simply is what it is--true."

As I've been thinking about the identity of Jesus I've been led to a practical application of believing in his divinity that I hadn't expected, although in hindsight it is perfectly logical and consistant with biblical teaching. That is, the necessity and 'exceeding sweetness' (to use the language of Jonathan Edwards) of prayer. As Christians we are not dealing simply with abstract theories or moral principles. We are dealing with our Creator, our Father, and our Judge. When the fact that Jesus is God really sinks in we can have no other option than to worship him, confess to him, and trust in him to provide; that is, to pray to him. Only when we place Jesus at the center of our affections as God can we truly obey the law: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and foremost commandment" (Matthew 37-38). With all of this in mind, I also came to the realisation of how consistently I strive to not consider the divinity of Jesus, as evidenced by my lack of prayer, obedience, and joy.

One of the things that I love about Christianity is its openness to investigation and critique. Jesus makes bold assertions about being absolute truth, but he also invites us to come with open minds and open hearts to see if what he is saying is true. Truth has nothing to fear and nothing to hide. And so Jesus asks, "Who do you say that I am?"

Weekly happenins'

Last Tuesday Olivia's friend Dania came to visit for three days. Dania lived in Marseille last year but recently moved away. Tuesday night I taught the gals how to make zuchini bread and banana bread, both of which they really liked. As a random sidenote, "zuchini" is the first word that I taught Olivia in English. On Wednesday we drove out to a small town on the coast called La Ciotat, where we picnicked by the beach and watched the sunset by the rocky seaside cliffs. I might be able to post some pictures of that in a day or two. Thursday we went to see Pirates of the Caribean, which I liked, but they girls hated. I did think it was a bit drawn out, and I missed some of the plot since it was in French with no subtitles, but overall it was just what I expected and I enjoyed it. I'll probably try to see it in English if I can while it's still in theaters. Olivia and I spent the weekend being lazy in her appartment. On Sunday we got out her painting gear and I tried my hand at my first landscape (my first painting of anything for that matter.) I started with an orange and red sunset, added some mountains, and then put in a green valley with a river. Pretty standard as far as landscapes go. Olivia touched it up and made it look decent. Just when we were about finished I thought I would be brave and try something courageous. Taking my cue from Bob Ross, I added a friendly tree in the foreground, which ended up taking up about one third of the left side of the canvas. My tree may be friendly, but it's also ugly. Overall, I'm satisfied with my work, considering that it was my first time and all. Who knows what great masterpieces might spring forth from my brush in the years to come?

Clarification and further thoughts on studying the Word...

"You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is these that bear witness of Me; and you are unwilling to come to me Me, that you may have life." -John 5:39-40

And beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, [Jesus] explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures. -Luke 24:27

And according to Paul's custom, he went to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and giving evidence that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, "This Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you is the Christ"....And the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea; and when they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they recieved the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily, to see whether these things were so. -Acts 17:1-3;10-11

"You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them; and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness; that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work." -2Timothy 3:14-17


In my last post I talked about the Bible study I had with my French friends and I expressed my frustration about what I called "share time". Two clarifications need to be made: 1) I don't think every Bible study must be the equivelant of an intensive seminary course for it to have value. A study can be short and simple and still have great depth; and 2) I'm aware that what I said could be interpreted as being a little arrogant, culturally insensitive, and/or judgemental, as in "they don't know what they're doing and they need me to show them how to really study the Bible." I hope that's not what I communicated. My friends can get along very well without me, and even I don't live up to my own standards. But all this raises the very legitimate question of "Is it arrogant, culturally insensitive, and/or judgemental to say that one way of studying the Bible is better than another?"

The purpose of studying Scriptures to lead us to Christ, where true life is found. We must be careful (especially myself) not to make an idol of the Scriptures. They are not an end in and of themselves, but they lead us to something, or rather, Someone. The reason that I quoted all those versus above is to show that Scripture speaks of itself as having this role of leading us to Jesus. So, if Jesus is where we get true life, and the Scriptures are where we get Jesus, then we need to be careful about how we approach the Scriptures.

The frustration that I expressed with share time is really a frustration with the idea that religion is a completely subjective thing, and therefore there are no right answers and all opinions are equal. But if God really does exist, and if He has revealed Himself to us (as Christianity claims), then religion is something objective that we can study, and there are right and wrong answers. There is a subjective side as well, and it is very important, but what we feel subjectively about God and ourselves always needs to be rooted in what God says about Himself and about us.

In one sense, the Bible is a book just like any other book. It is written in certain languages with words and sentences and paragraphs. It is written in certain styles, such as history and poetry and teaching. We need to take all of these things into account when we read the Bible. We cannot spiritualize or subjectivize the text just because it is a 'religious' book. If we take a passage out of its context and then try to apply it directly to our lives or develop certain principles from it, then we are not really reading what it says and therefore we are not really learning what it says about Christ. We might be able to say true things when we do this, but we are not interpreting the text for what it actually says.

Take this illustration: An English teacher is teaching her sophomore class "Romeo and Juliette". After having read the text together as a class the teacher asks the students to analyze the text and talk about the themes and issues raised in the text. One girl, Sue, raises her hand and says, "I really loved this story because it reminded me of my boyfriend, Tommy, and the love that we have for one another. I think it's so romantic how they died for one another. I think I'd die for Tommy if I had to. And the scene where Romeo climbs the balcony symbolizes for me the struggles that Tommy and I face in our relationship, and how we overcome them." The next boy, Fred, raises his hand and says, "For me, Romeo's love for Juliette represents Bush's love for oil. He's totally obsessed with it and doesn't care what anyone else thinks. And the fact that they both died in the end represents how his greed is killing our economy."

I would think that any good English teacher would be less than satisfied with this 'analysis' of Romeo and Juliette. In both cases the students are using the text as a vehicle to communicate their own personal baggage. What Sue and Fred said might be true. Sue might or might not be willing to die for Tommy, and Bush might or might not be greedy for oil. But what does any of that have to do with the text? I am certain that Shakespeare had niether Sue nor Tommy nor Bush in mind when he wrote his play.

This is why I think it's not arrogant or culturally insensitive to assert that one way of studying the Bible better than another. If one only has this kind of 'share time' analysis, then at best one misses out on the beauty and wisdom of what the text actually says, and at worst one makes the text say something that it was never intended to say.

Holy whirling wind, Batman!

The 100+ degree temperatures that have been blasting southern France for the past few weeks have finally subsided and have in turn been replaced by some pretty impressive and consistant windstorms. I've been told that this is pretty normal for Marseille throughout the fall and the winter.

I've had lots of downtime since Olivia started back at her job. Lots of reading and napping. While I was in Paris I somehow managed to get bitten by a tick, and, not realizing that it was there, I accidentally scratched it off, leaving the head entrenched in my thigh. About a week later a red spot showed up where the tick had bitten me (don't worry, I'm not going to post any pictures of it) and it continued to get bigger, so I went to go see a doctor. He put me on some antibiotics, which seem to be working since the spot has disappeared, but the medicine makes me really drowsy, thus the inordinate amount of napping that I've been doing lately. Contrary to popular belief, I'm really not lazy in the "I like to do nothing" sense of the word. True, my class schedule this past year seems to indicate otherwise, but I really do like working when the work is fulfilling and engaging.

This laziness has really been affecting me these past few days and I've been itching for just that sort of engaging and fulfilling work. Thus it is that this morning I started learning the Hebrew alphabet (or "aleph-bet"). I thought that I was going to be taking New Testament Greek this year, but it turns out that you don't start that until the second year at the seminary. I really want to learn Greek, so I was bummed when I found out that I'd be taking Hebrew, but now that I've started studying it I've found that it's actually really interesting. It's a challenge since it's so completely different from English, but that's part of the fun. I'm especially intrigued by the fact that there are no actual vowel characters, but rather vowel markings, which consist of little dots and symbols below the consonants. It's also just really fun to write. I need to buy a calligraphy pen.

On wednesday we hosted a young adult Bible study at Olivia's place. Olivia cooked and I prepared the study. One of the guys at the study, Victor, described the difference between the french and the americain mindset as applied to Bible study well. He said, "The thing I like about Bible studies in France is that the most important question is not 'what are we studying?', but rather, 'what should I bring for the meal?'. We set the start time for 7:30, everyone showed up at 8:30, we started eating at 9:30, and we started the study at 10:30. Now, in a way I think this is a good thing. The gospel is very much about community and the dinner table is a central hub for community in the Bible. The French have the community thing down. The area that I'm excited to see some growth in is in their study methods. My study was an introduction to worldview apologetics. We discussed some of the most common criticisms leveled against Christianity and then we discussed what a worldview is and how everyone has basic philosophical presuppositions that determine what they believe about life and religion.

The study went well and generated some good discussion, but afterwards Olivia told me that that's not normally how they do study at all and she thought that the subject was much too advanced for some people there. It seems to me that her idea of study is more what I'd call 'share time', where whoever is leading the study chooses a verse that speaks to their life at that moment and then draws from it some general religious principals or analogies. Now, trying not to be too much of a stuffy-kill everyone's fun-reformed-presbyterian, that kind of study just doesn't satisfy me. Where's the beef? I'm looking for some hearty 'put it in context' exegesis and a side order of meaningful dialogue on important issues, can I get an AMEN! Yes, all that should lead to practical life application, but Christianity has so much more to offer, both philosophically and practically, than what we can get from share time. So I'm stuck with the dilemma of trying to figure out how to communicate my thoughts on the subject without stepping on any toes or coming off as a pushy 'my way or the highway' american.

Like I said, I've been doing a lot of reading lately. I finished the Le Compte de Monte Cristo a few days ago, and it is without a doubt the most entertaining novel I've ever read. I also just finished Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis, and although there are some things in there that are questionable, there are even more great insights that have given me things to think about. Right now I'm in the middle of Schaeffer's How Should We Then Live? and I just started on a novel by Neil Stephenson entitled Quicksilver (thanks for the recommendation, Sam, if you're reading this). I'm going to try to start posting more often about what I'm reading 1) to give me something to post about, 2) to help me analyze and remember what I'm reading, and 3) to hopefully generate some discussion in the comment section (other than the standard fare of "why don't you post more often, you cheese sniffing, baguette toting, couldn't-write-a-limerick-to-save-your-life frenchie?").

A bientot