Still Learning... » BJU

I’m Back!

andy — Thu, 01 May 2008 03:37:45 +0000

Wow…. seeing as the title of my last post was “life as a GA” i think that the gap between that and this post (almost 9 mo) tells you more about GA life than the post. But now that classes are over and exams are finished I’ve managed to find a space of time to update you (all 5 or 6 you that read this) on what’s going on.

As i said, exams are done, and it appears I’ve managed to keep my 4.0 this semester, thanks to Dr. Bell’s crazy “Bell Curve” as we refer to it (cutoff for an A is 84, for a B, 72?, etc.) I’m told a non-ten-point grading scale is common in grad school, but i’m still not used to it. Oh yeah, since i didn’t post my customary “here’s what I’m taking this semester” post at the beginning of last semester my classes were Preacher Boys – History and Philosophy of Preaching with Dr. Minnick, Systematic Theology II with Dr. Olinger, and Old Testament Introduction with Dr. Bell (and no, Introduction does not indicate that it is an introductory level course. It’s actually a technical term that refers to the background and history of the Old Testament, rather than its content. Themes, dates, critical views, authorship, integrity, that sort of thing.) And as i said, God enabled me to get an A in all of them. Yay!

Work has been busy too. Although i enjoy my job at the Media Center, at times it does get a bit hectic. Yesterday, for example, I checked out equipment for faculty and students, did some web design, burned several CD’s, tunneled through a pile of email, answered various questions from faculty and students, continued development work on a new checkout system for materials, and tidied up some in preparation for the end of the semester. I’m looking forward to the break this summer.

Speaking of this summer, I will again be counseling at the WILDS (i really don’t know we always capitalize it, it’s not an acronym, i guess we’re always excited and shout it) for my third summer. This year as the camp has a patriotic theme, I will be on the Bull Moose party (white) as the head of the Varmint cabin. All the cabin names are take-offs of states (e.g. Steakus, Nascar-olina, Monsoona, Misery, etc.). That begins with staff training week at the beginning of June. Prior to that I will be working for Shank Door / Doors Express for three weeks, after visiting my girlfriend and her family in Canada after commencement. Got all that? Commencement is Saturday (May 3), then Canada for a week, home in PA for 3 weeks, then the WILDS for 11 weeks, and then back here in BJ-land in the middle of August. Hopefully I’ll post some more in there between now and then.

Well, this post is more than long enough now, so I’ll put anything else i wanted to say in another post.

Life as a GA

andy — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 03:34:52 +0000

Well, it’s that time of year again. Classes officially started today. Of course, I’ve already been down here at BJU since Aug 11, since work started the 13th. This semester brings a new perspective/challenge, as I’m now a part time student, and a part time faculty member. Basically as some of my friends and I have boiled it down… when it’s advantageous for the University for you to be a student, you’re a student; and when it’s advantageous for the University for you to be faculty, you’re faculty. I’m enjoying it so far, and I look forward to what God will teach me through it.

My “faculty” position is a bit unique. Although I’m classified as a “teaching graduate assistant (ga),” I don’t teach any classes. However I do work for the school of education in the Media Center. The Media Center is a multimedia and resource lab on the second floor of the Alumni building. The MC is also in charge of distributing the multimedia equipment (laptops, projectors, monitors, etc) that the teachers use in the classroom. So my job is some kind of a cross between an IT technician, computer lab assistant, and tutor. The way I like to refer to it is “I get to help students and work with computers!” both of which i love.

Anyway, without further ado, here are this semester’s classes.

Hom 634 – Expository Sermon Preparation – Dr. Reimers
OT 633 – Biblical Hermeneutics – Dr. Hankins
CMn 651 – Christian Discipleship (Grad preacher boys) – Dr. Berg (we’ll be going through Changed into His Image)
Th 601 – Systematic Theology – Dr. Bell (lots and lots of reading)

That makes a total of 9 credits to which I add 27.5 hours of work in the Media Center. At least it’s 9 month GAship, so I have Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the summer off

I will also hopefully have some opportunity to work with the teens at Faith Baptist Church, and I’ll probably continue ministering at Shepherd’s Care assisted living center, some too. All in all, it looks like a busy semester… well, that’s normal.

Bible Conference ‘06: Dr. Bauder – “Let us adore Him”

andy — Mon, 20 Mar 2006 23:23:33 +0000

This is number 2 in a summary of the BJU Bible Conference messages.

The Sunday evening message was brought by Dr. Kevin Bauder, president of Central Baptist Theological Seminary. He preached from John 1:1.

John 1:1 shows us three things about Jesus, the Word.

His Eternity – He is the eternal One (“in the beginning was the Word”)
The word was does not mean “came to be,” it means “always existed.” Likewise, the word begetting does not and cannot mean “beginning.” (Acts 13:33). Also, the word beginning is indefinite; whatever point you consider “the beginning,” at that point the Word already was.
This has a theololgical implicatation – The Word is self-existent. He doesn’t depend on anyone or anything; He is the source of all things. This then has a practical ramification: If He is the source of all things, including life, if we want that life we must get it from Him.
His Trinity – He is the other One (“and the Word was with God”)
The Word is with God, there is something that is God that is not the Word. Our finite minds cannot grasp a three-person single being, but that’s what God is.
What exactly does the word with mean? In Greek, the language of the New Testament, there are several words for with. The one used here is the most intimate one, pros (????), it can literally mean, “face to face with.” What are the Father and the Word doing together? They are fellowshipping and enjoying one another’s presence. He is also resting from His creative work (Gen. 2:2-3).
There is also a practical ramification of the Word being with the Father. He is our intercessor and advocate “with” God. He is Someone Who is God Who stands between us and God.
His Deity – He is God (“and the Word was God”)
Dr. Bauder related a story of an oppotunity he had to witness to a Jehovah’s Witness (JW). JW’s believe, due to their theology that Jesus is not Jehovah, that the last phrase of John 1:1 should be translated “and the Word was a god” because the word God (theos) lacks the definite article (english: the) in the Greek. Dr. Bauder showed this JW three other instances in John 1 (John 1:6, 12, 18) where God (theos) lacks the article, and the JW agreed that these 3 places referred to Jehovah.
The fact that there is no article, does not mean that God is indefinite (a god), but it instead means that the Word has all the qualities or essence of God, and obviously One Who has all the qualities or essence of God is God. It could not be a definite article because then it would mean that the Word and God are completely equivalent, and this is not the case because there is a part of God that is not the Word (the Father and the Holy Spirit).

Disclaimer: This is my unofficial summary of the message; it may or may not be entirely accurate as to what the speaker actually said. Any errors are almost certainly the fault of my summary, not what the speaker said.

Bible Conference ‘06: Dr. Bob – “Guess Who’s not showing up for church?”

andy — Mon, 20 Mar 2006 19:01:46 +0000

This is the first of what I hope will be a summary of all the Bible Conference messages here at BJU. For those who don’t already know, Bible conference is special time of the semester that the school sets aside for spiritual refreshment. They bring in excellent preachers to give us, the students, and visiting graduates the opportunity to hear and learn from these men of God. A recording of each of these messages (mp3, audio CD, tape cassette) is available from the BJU campus store.

The first message Sunday morning was by Dr. Bob, chancellor of the university. His topic was lukewarmness, using the illustration of the Laodicean church (Rev. 3:13-20). As he was reading this passage, the thought struck him that later became the title for his message – Jesus wouldn’t have attended the Laodicean church!

The letter to the Laodicean church was addressed to the messenger (trans. “angel” in the KJV) or pastor of the church. The letter came from One who refers to Himself as the Amen, the Faithful One, the True One, and the source of all things. And His certain, faithful,and true judgment had revealed the Laodicean church to be lukewarm, neither cold and hard to spiritual things or hot and on fire spiritually. How do we know when we are lukewarm, what are the warning signs? It can be hard to know when we are lukewarm, because part of being lukewarm is not being aware that there has been a change in our spirituality.

We boast in ourselves, not Christ. (v. 17) We says things like, “We have a great church / school / etc,” instead of, “We have a great God and Savior!” The only thing/one worth boasting in or about is Jesus Christ.
We have an absence of a sense of need for cleansing (v. 18)

He gave this quote:

To our grandfathers, Christianity was an experience; to our fathers, a heritage; to us, a convenience; and to our children, a nuisance.

But despite our lukewarmness, Jesus is still compassionate to us, and wants us to open to His knocking (v. 20).

Here we go again…

andy — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 20:31:09 +0000

The time as come once again to head back to school. To continue the tradition i started last semester, here are the classes I'm taking.

ALG 202: Intermediate Greek II, we will be studying verb tense uses as well as translating portions of Mark and Thessalonians
RPA 303: Pulpit Speech II, we will preach three times in class, using both deductive and inductive structures
PR 302: Ministerial Class (ie. Preacher Boys), the topics this semester will be Stewardship and Prayer
NT 450: Old and New Testament Prophecy
CpS 225: Advanced programing with several simple languages (HTML, Javascript, and VBA)
GT 215: Project Management, not entirely sure what all will be involved with this class, but my unofficial adviser recommended it
CmN 430: Christian Masterworks, we will be studying 2 works by Bunyan, 3 by C.S. Lewis and portions of several by Tozer

Well, that's it for now.

The Proper Role of Judges on the Bench

andy — Fri, 30 Sep 2005 04:05:00 +0000

We at BJU
had the priviledge of hearing Judge Billy Wilkins Chief Judge of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals at a special convocation tonight. He has been on the short list for Supreme Court justices multiple times. He spoke on the Proper Role of Judges on the Bench.
He stated that he had spent much time in preparing what he was going to say, but he had difficulty in how he wanted to present his remarks. He finally decided on a question and answer session, in which he gave both the answers and the questions. These were his questions.

Q 1: What exactly do judges do?
A: He first addressed what judges do not do. The judiciary branch was not designed to run society, it was designed to prevent society from getting out of control. Ultimately, “the judge’s role is that of an interpreter.” He presented a story about Oliver Wendell Holmes’s reply to the remark of a friend, “Do justice, sir.” Holmes’s reply was that his job was not to “do justice,” but to enforce the rules of law, whether he liked them or not.

Q 2: Why give judges life tenure?
A: Life tenure insulates them from the pressure of public opinion. However, they still should benefit from informed criticism.

Q 3: Do I have any role as a citizen in shaping the federal judiciary?
A: Yes! Public opinion leads to the election of presidents who then appoint judges as they retire from their terms. Although the system is not perfect, it has worked for well over 200 years.

Q 4: With all this lawyer bashing, what kind of profession is the legal profession anyway?
A: He answered this question by listing many famous statesmen, all of whom were lawyers, and their contributions to our great nation. Men like John Adams, Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, John Marshall, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin Roosevelt. Every major political advance in our country be it abolition of slavery, suffrage for women, etc. has been spearheaded by a lawyer.

He closed his remarks with a poem about an old country preacher’s prayer for the leaders of our country. The poem stated that more prayers for judges were not what was necessary. Then the poem and Judge Wilkins’s remarks ended with this line
More praying judges is what we need.

No related posts.

School is in session

andy — Sat, 03 Sep 2005 22:22:09 +0000

Well, back in the daily grind of academia here at BJ of U. Classes started on Wednesday, and everything is in full swing as evidenced by a full load of homework this weekend. To copy a friend of mine, here is a list of the classes I'm taking this semester in no particular order.

NT 460 ~ Gospels and Acts
ALG 201 ~ Intermediate New Testament Greek
Pr 301 ~ Junior Preacher Boys class: Ministry and Law / Church Education
En 202 ~ Early British Literature
RPA 302 ~ Pulpit Speech
CpS 109 ~ Introduction to Programming: VB.NET
OT 320 ~ Historical Books: Joshua – Esther

All in all… 18 credits. Add to that 15 hours of work on stage crew per week, it makes for a pretty busy schedule.

For those that don't know, I'm a Junior Bible major, (and as of this semester) with a minor in Information Technology (IT). (The major/minor combo explains the Bible and CpS classes, the fact that Bob Jones University is a liberal arts school explains the literature.)

Well, got to get back to that homework… Mmmm, Beowulf…