innerstrife

hiatus

Recently, Lisa posted on her blog some thoughts as she studies Hosea. Take a look at what she wrote by clicking here.

Her blog entry has had me thinking. I am constantly amazed at God’s grace in saving me, despite the immensity of my sin. But God’s grace is even bigger than that. Not only has He saved me and assured me of a place in paradise when this life is over, He shows me undeserved favor each and every day!

Why is it that He makes food delicious? Why is it that He provides for our monthly needs in amazing ways? I live a life where I frequently fail. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t sin – effectively scorning the gift I’ve been given. Despite this, He manifests His grace to me with each passing breath.

As many of you know I recently lost the use of my laptop. That laptop is something I rely on heavily here at seminary. Sadly, it was out of warranty, and the replacement parts cost just under what the cost of a brand new MacBook Pro would have cost anyway.

Today I went to the Apple Store with the laptop to get an official diagnosis. Again, I am several months out of warranty. God manifested his grace to me today through the good people working the Genius Bar at the Apple Store! They checked out my laptop, confirmed that there were a couple of different problems…And repaired it, free of charge! The work they did today would have cost at least $1,300 if I had sent it in to Apple for repair. But they had the parts there, and because I’m such a “loyal customer” (I think that means I have too many Apple products in my home) they took care of it, despite it being out of warranty!

God is good. He is faithful. He continues to work miracles of epic proportion in our lives. Y’all notice the sun today? Yeah. He did that. I am so unworthy of His love…and I stand in awe of His grace! Thank you for your prayers, your support and your offers of assistance – I jokingly asked people to pray for “miraculous technological healing.” And here we are!

Side note. Apple is amazing. Incredible products, incredible customer service and an all around great company. It may cost a little more on the outset, but the level of support and service you receive during the life of your investment is second to none. I strongly recommend you seriously consider an Apple for your next tech purchase. And the men and women who man the Genius Bar at the NorthPark Apple Store in Dallas are top-notch.

…God is faithful!

As you may have read in Lisa’s Blog, God met all of our needs for the month of May! Check out the end of her blog entry to see the details. One thing that I’ve been praying about has been textbooks for this summer. I didn’t really mention it to anyone, because my mind has been busy with finals and exegetical papers.

I am currently taking Exegesis of Romans with Dr. Lowery this summer, and have an Apologetics class with Dr. Blount in June. The textbook requirement is…substantial. I wasn’t sure how I was going to pull it off. Well, today I received an anonymous money order from someone in Illinois that covers my need for my Romans class! Just in time – the class started on Monday, and I’ll be starting my first exegetical paper this weekend.

I wanted to share with you yet another story of how God continues to provide for our training and preparation here at DTS! I have more to say to update you, but I want to keep the blog entry length ADD friendly. I’ll post again tomorrow with more news.

Lisa and I appreciate your continued prayers – We can’t even begin to tell you how much it means to us to know that you are praying for us and thinking of us.

May 4th Squirrels

Star Wars day? Of course! Today is May 4, 2009.  May the fourth be with you!

Sorry… I couldn’t help it. If you are looking for a blog post with substance, my wife’s blog would be a better source.

Just an update on my last blog entry.

I asked for prayer for several things – One of those items was to pray about the tuition needed for my summer classes that was due last Friday. Another was to pray about a couple of income possibilities.

Well, I had that breakfast meeting on Friday morning and will be doing some writing and creative work for that company – and better yet, an advance was offered that covered our tuition need for the summer!  Once again, God provides at the last possible moment! Nothing like a little faith stretching to keep you on the edge.

I would appreciate your continued prayers for our urgent need for our final tuition payment as well as rent due on May 1st – there is still no indication from where that will come, but I am excited to see how God works this time.

Thank you for your continued prayers and encouragement. I know I have been fairly invisible these past couple of weeks due to the pressure of semester end – I would love to get together with any of you in May when my schedule opens back up. Let me know if you’re up for some coffee and conversation!

Before I mention our need for prayer, I want to take a moment to clarify my motivation for making posts like this. Lisa and I believe in the power of prayer. We believe that the best way that our friends and family can partner with us is through prayer.

We didn’t share our needs and prayer requests for the first several months we were here, yet God provided abundantly! We decided to share our prayer requests in this public way so that we can give God the glory by showing how He is faithful, and consistently meets our needs in the most unexpected of ways! We value your prayers, your encouragement and your partnership in our ministry and our preparation for ministry!

So – Here are the areas where we desperately need your prayer in the coming days:

Financial:

• Summer Tuition is due this Friday! This summer I hope to take two classes – one of which is needed to keep me on track for a graduation in 2011. Unfortunately, there are no scholarships that help with the summer semester.
• My final $600 tuition payment for the current semester is due on May 1st, right on the heels of our Summer tuition payment.
• Rent is due on May 1st as well, along with the standard complement of utility bills. We have been so blessed in that we are current in all our obligations – It has been amazing to see how God provides. Lisa and I are excited to see how He will provide again this month!
• Health Insurance – We need to nail down our health insurance ASAP. The girls are covered, but Lisa and I are needing to get adequate coverage again.

Employment:

• I have a job interview tomorrow for a position that would start in September. The income would be somewhat irregular, but irregular is better than non-existant!
• I applied for a job on campus that would be perfect – Close by, enough income to cover basic living expenses, and surrounded by one of my favorite things… Books!
• I am meeting with a gentleman on Friday who may use me on a contract basis to do some writing for him.

Please pray that God’s will would be done as far as employment. I don’t want to fall into the trap of allowing work to get in the way of my relationship with my wife and kids, or to derail my training here at DTS – that said, I have been praying and looking for work for some time now!

Thank you for your continued prayers. If you have any questions or comments, please drop me an email or give me a call – I would love to hear from you! (214) 642-8347 is the best phone number – or you can email me through the contact form on my site. God is faithful!

Hey, everyone. Suggestion for you!

Last year I found a loose leaf edition of the NASB that I converted into a Jonathan Edwards style “blank bible”. What Edwards had done was to take his King James Text and interleave it with blank pages. He then proceeded to go through the Bible making over 5,000 notes, observations and outlines.

Inspired by this idea, I took a loose leaf bible and inserted one to two blank pages between every page depending on the book so that I would have the opportunity to do the same. I just recently discovered that the ESV will be coming out in a loose-leaf format this May. If you have been wanting to challenge yourself to dig deeply into the text, but just haven’t had the time or motivation to do it, here is your chance!

Jonathan Edward's Blank Bible - Proverbs

I divided the bible up into sections. After I inserted the blank pages, I made a cover page for each section, and then went to my neighborhood Office Max to have them spiral bind each of them for me. The end result was 7 volumes bound separately - not something you would want to carry around with you, but great for this purpose! If you would like any more details or photos, let me know. I’d be glad to help you get started!

Get in the Word. Ransack the Scriptures. Be Transformed.

*** UPDATE ***

God is amazing ! As of yesterday evening, I received word that all our needs have been met once again. Please continue to pray for our provision. God is faithful. We know that He will provide for our needs, whether it be through unexpected events as we’ve experienced these past 10 months, or through the blessing of regular income from a job, He is faithful!

Well, here we are again!

Over the past 10 + months Lisa and I have learned that God provides consistently in new and creative ways each and every month! It has been amazing to see and faith building for all of us.

That said we ask for your prayers once again. We have rent & tuition due on Wednesday (!!), not to mention the utility bills and other things that seem to come up month after month. Specifically, here is how you can pray – Our tuition payment is just over $600 and our rent is $730. That covers the essentials. When it comes to groceries, utility bills and the other “luxuries”, we need provision for all that as well.

We have never been in a place like this before. Before seminary when we would say we had no money, we did have resources. Whether it be savings in the bank, a retirement account or things we could sell, we had resources. God has no brought us to a place where our 401(k) has been cashed out, our assets have been liquidated and we are truly living on what God provides. On the surface this sounds like a desperate situation, but what better place to be? I am so thankful that I serve a God who provides – it is God who provides for my family – not me. I have been looking for work in order to be responsible, but thus far God has been closing those doors. I am fine with that. I would rather be living in obedience and learning the lessons God has for us than to be forcing my own will and reasoning on our situation.

Amazingly, the day I thought about posting this message to ask for your prayer, I received an envelope in my campus mailbox. It was an anonymous gift with $300 cash! God is good – I’ve set that money aside to go towards our rent payment. I am confident that God will continue to provide, and I look forward to sharing with you how He does it in the coming days.

Thank you for your prayers, letters and encouragement. I am so appreciative of all of you – it means so much to know that there are people scattered all over the country that are praying for us and our ministry both now and in the future. If you have any questions, or would like more specific details on how you can pray for our family, please don’t hesitate to email or call.

I usually don’t blog about this type of thing…

But MacHeist has an amazing deal! They have over $900 worth of Mac software that they have put together by partnering with the developers for only $39! And to top it off, 25% of the purchase goes to charity.

At least take a look, and if it looks good, buy it! Here is the link: MacHeist Bundle

Best part – if you do decide to buy, and do so through the above link, you are helping me out as well.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled Internet browsing…