SoulThirst

I'm glad for being able to see people lately. My youth pastor Joseph has been in town this week, & so I've gotten opportunities here & there to chat with him this week. Got some good "cheap free advice" (as he calls it) from him & yea... just getting to talk about parts of life.

Bible study yesterday was cool too... it's so much more fulfilling with more people as a part of our group now.

Been having good phone conversations with different people from across the nation too; and thanks to everyone who's been sending me IMforwards/e-mails for no other reason than just to see how I'm doing. I really appreciate it.

Glad I ran into you at Saga today ^_^. If you want to do a meal sometime, that'd be nice (if your schedule can fit it)... I know your life gets filled with ups & downs and I know you're hangin' in there... but yea, it'd still be nice to catch up.
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I posted Psalm 42 yesterday because it was the best expression of how I've been doing spiritually- both the highs & the lows. The lows- having prayers met with mostly silence, and also battles with living a sanctified life. But the highs- not giving up, God providing encouragement even in the midst of lows. I say this because something in me feels compelled to talk about how I'm doing spiritually (more than just the daily activities & unimportant stuff. But yea... I'll say more when I've got more to say. My thoughts have been scattered, fragmented, disordered... difficult to pull together

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[The below is for Mike Huang, Jk0h, and whoever else is into theology and/or theological books]
Theology conference was today... so I did my annual splurge at the book tables. The selections were more eclectic this year, fewer books that would be of interest to the non-academic readership. Eerdmans did have the entire NICNT and NICOT commentary series there for 50% off. But I figure, I don't have the money or need for the commentaries at present. I did pick up Dr. Beale's commentary on Revelation (New International Greek Testament Commentary)...the definitive commentary on Revelation. The evening session tonight was really good... D.A. Carson was the speaker, and he basically gave an exegetical exposition on Romans 3:21-26. He went FAST, and it was definitely a vey high-roller academic presentation (given the audience he was speaking to). I could barely keep up/take notes, but it was very insightfully presented. The conference on the doctrine of justification is fairly interesting... the notion of whether or not the imputation of Christ's righteousness is important to the Christian faith.

Actually, for the non-theologian, I think justification IS a very important issue. I think Jerry Bridges does a great job of discussing it in his book Disciplines of Grace; CJ Mahaney's The Cross-Centered Life is also a very accessible, readable, and compelling call to Christians to make the cross- and justification- a very practical and integral part of any Christian's daily life. Maybe I'll talk about that some other day, but yea, the theology conference was pretty good. I enjoyed Carson, although some of the other Wheaton students were nodding off; granted, his talk was not exactly the most easy to follow. Although I did enjoy sitting in the academic setting again.

posted by Andy Chang @ 12:06 AM