The semester officially ended on Friday. Classes are finished, the dorm is mostly empty, and the students are headed home for the holidays. We’ll take a trip to Oklahoma where we’ll celebrate Christmas, Judah’s second birthday, and our fifth anniversary. Then we’ll return for what we hope will be a restful and productive several weeks of … More Christmas Break
Several weeks ago Southern California was all over the national news as wildfires swept through the area, driven by the relentless Santa Ana winds. More than 1,000,000 people were forced to evacuate and thousands of buildings and homes were damaged or destroyed. One TMC employee lost his home and everything in it. Here’s something he … More Knick-Knacks, Wildfires, Need, and Eternity
The past several weeks have been quite full, which is an echo of the past few months. I asked Cindi if she thought it was worth the time to give a personal update since I wasn’t planning on writing on a particular topic. She said it was, so here I am. On Friday I finished a … More Life in November
Some may be wondering about the wildfires in Southern California and if Santa Clarita and TMC have been affected. The strong Santa Ana winds are driving numerous fires out of control as they often do in SoCal. As I write this on Sunday at 10:30pm PST, the closest fires to TMC and our extension-campus dorm are in Canyon … More Wildfires in Southern California
This past week has been a full and good one. Last Friday morning I boarded a flight from LAX to DFW, arriving after lunch and spending the afternoon with old TMC friends before leaving for a weekend camp with the junior high and high school students of Grace Bible Church in Grapevine. Although we were only there for 36 … More A Week in Texas
Here are some approximate quotes from John Hannah’s lecture on Jonathan Edwards’ 1757 work The Great Doctrine of Original Sin Defended. The technical term for the doctrine of sin is “hamartiology,” from the Greek word hamartia). If there’s one doctrine that we instinctively revile or at least ignore, it’s this one. It devastates our perceived … More Wit and Wisdom from John Hannah (15)
Here are more loose, assorted quotes from John Hannah and his Winterim class that I took in January on the Life and Writings of Jonathan Edwards. These are from his lectures on three separate topics: (1) Edwards’ History of the Work of Redemption; (2) the “Communion Controversy” (which ended in Edwards’ dismissal from his pastorate); and … More Wit and Wisdom from John Hannah (14)
I know — no one probably thought that I had more John Hannah quotes from my class on Jonathan Edwards seven months ago. But I do. And I’m not recycling them. When taking classes from masterful professors, I lose all self-control in note-taking and basically end up with a partial transcript. Actually, it’s a choice I made awhile back in my … More Wit and Wisdom from John Hannah (13)
In my Theology of Missions class this past week, a missionary came in and spoke to us about his life and missionary work. He’s from America and he serves in a closed country. I recorded a few things he said and thought they were worth passing along. These aren’t direct quotes, and I’m obviously not … More Missionary Insights
Over the weekend I read an article on Paul’s missionary endeavors. The article was good but the writing was occasionally constipated. I’m not wanting to embarrass or criticize anyone, but I think that some of the following examples illustrate the lack of verbal clarity that plagues a lot of scholarly writing. Long words and complex … More Isn’t There a Better Way to Say That? Scholarly Writing and the Need for Clarity
A lot has happened since my last post on May 10: The college semester ended with the seniors graduating and all the students moving out of the dorm for the summer; the seminary semester also ended and I graduated along with about sixty-five other men from the M.Div. program at TMS; our families flew out from Oklahoma to … More Thoughts from a Seminary Graduation
These are loose quotes from two of John Hannah’s lectures on (1) Edwards’ preaching and (2) Edwards’ work entitled A Treatise on Grace. The latter was tremendously helpful to me in understanding the nature and indwelling of the Holy Spirit. But as you may suspect, not all of these quotes are just about preaching or just about the Holy … More Wit and Wisdom from John Hannah (12)
Resident Assistants (RA’s) are student leaders here at The Master’s College. Each RA gives peer oversight to a wing of 20-30 students. It’s a position that I don’t take lightly. I’ve experienced and seen the impact that an RA can have on someone’s spiritual life, and these are the students that I work most closely with. I … More RA Interview Questions
The following are loose quotes from John Hannah as he lectured on Edwards’ writings on the Trinity. Edwards never actually wrote a treatise on the Trinity that was meant for publication, so we don’t know what such a treatment would’ve been like or what it would’ve included or what shape it would’ve taken. But Edwards did write enough … More Wit and Wisdom from John Hannah (11)
There are some people who do certain things so well and with such passion and excellence that they serve (at least to me) as a picture of how I want to live in all areas of life. You may not personally know some of the examples I’m about to give, but I’ll at least try to paint enough … More I Think That Everyone Should Live… (1)
Perhaps some of you are a bit bored with John Hannah quotes. That’s understandable. I’ve posted quite a few. You can skim and skip if you want (like you need my permission). I would only give the reminder that just because there’s a lot of something doesn’t mean it’s any less good. There are some very helpful … More Wit and Wisdom from John Hannah (10)
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