My first Seminary Semester...

I knew that God wanted me to go to seminary after my 3rd year at NGU. I felt like the more knowledge I gained the less I knew (I think some famous quote person said that) Fred and I both talked about seminary and the benefits of studying under so awesome professors that were passionate about Christ and His Church (I miss Fred)

Anyway, I would love to tell you about all that I have learned while being here at Southern for only one semester (well maybe not ALL but like 90% of half that I learned) The first thing I can recall was me being smacked in the face by the craziness of Louisville and its crazy roads. I tried to look at a map and get familiar with it but it never really sinked in until I got lost and had to find my way back (and it was pretty scary for those of you that know that I do not have a cell phone) The students here are pretty cool and the professors from what I can tell are the best in the seminary world (if it has a world, more like a realm)

Enough about that now to what I love to talk about: Truth (aka Biblical Christianity Doctrines) I saw the sovereignty of God shine so bright in Scripture this semester from the OT to the NT. I saw the beauty of God in His election of His people throughout the Bible. I saw the power of God in the storms we had this semester. I saw the patience of God for this lost and dieing world. God helped me see a little more about Him this semester and I loved every minute of it. I took three classes this semester and I feel like I was trained well in all three.

First, I took Old Testament 1 with Dr TJ Betts. I came here not really familiar with the OT and now I cannot help but want to teach about its awesomeness. I learned many things from Dr Betts but I shall name a few. First, I do not realize that the average pastor only preaches from the OT 20% of the time. Second, I saw some much foreshadowing to Christ that I had never seen before. I knew that the OT pointed to Christ but now I know specific examples. For example, Moses as the Savior of the Israelites, David as King pointing to Christ as King of Kings, Ruth's book with a Kinsman-Redeemer example pointing to Christ as Redeemer and many more. Third, I read a book called, "Preaching Christ from the OT" by Sidney Grendaius and it showed a comprehensive way of preaching an expository sermon from the OT. The book gave 10 steps to take the Scripture through to make sure you do not take it out of context. Fourth, I never saw much use for Numbers or Levities but now I could teach a sermon series on leadership from Numbers and I could show the symbolism to Christ from the sacrifices in Levities. Enough about OT...if you want more I can tell you.

Second, I took Church History 1 with Dr Shawn Wright. Wow, this was my favorite class. Man, I had never heard of any of the church fathers and their importance to the way we believe today. I loved this class because we went from the 1st century to the Reformation and talked about all these peeps in between. I will name a few names and if you have not heard of them then google their names or ask me and I would love to tell you. Here is the All-Stars of our faith: Ignatius, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Cyprian, Athanasius, Augustine, Ambrose, Gregory of Nyssa, Gregory of Nazianzus, Basil the Great, John Chrysostom, Jerome, John Huss, Francis of Assisi, Anselm, Peter Lombard, Thomas Aquinas, John Wycliffe, and of course Martin Luther. I also learned about the Councils that condemned many of the false doctrines that were preached (some still being preached today) like the Council of Nicea(325) and the Council of Chalcedon(451)...this councils condemned doctrines that the Jehovah's Witness and other cults like them try to use as being Scriptural. I saw where the Catholic church fell into heresy with Gregory the Great coming to the Papacy in 590...he started so much stuff that Catholics still teach today. I could keep going but not now.

Third, I took Survey of Christian Ethics with Dr. Ken Magnuson. He got his doctorate at Cambridge so yes he is smart enough to teach ethics. He taught me so much about how to make a case for what I believe in the ethical world. We did not bash the other side but we tried to understand why they believe that way and try to make our arguments from Scripture showing the Truth. We first discussed how to start with a biblical worldview and that Truth is absolute. We discussed many issues and then looked at Scripture for guidance, issues like sexual morality, marriage, homosexuality, abortion, reproductive technology, cloning, stem cell research, euthanasia, capital punishment, just war, global warming, and others. I learned so much about how to argue effectively and biblically sound.

God is so good...another thing for this semester was my job situation. I had many job interviews and phone calls for 2 months before I could find a job. I worked at a batting cage about 10 mins away from campus and had a blast. Also I have made some awesome friends that I will miss until school starts back in August.

Sorry for the long blog but it is my first one and I just could not stop typing when I got started.

WORD TO THE FATHER