I was working at Cornerstone and was asked to begin teaching
Theology I and Theology II three years ago.
I love working with students and watching them begin to understand
and apply sound theology to their lives.
I love teaching Theology I because it builds a good foundation
for students.
Electrical Engineering.
The Bible
The Pursuit of Holiness by Jerry Bridges
Practicing His Presence by Brother Lawrence
An intimate knowledge of Jesus Christ--not good theology, but
a great love for Jesus.
I wish I knew Jesus better then.
A guy named John Garrison who was bold enough to rebuke me and
invest into my life. His one desire was to see Christ formed
in me.
I long to grow in greater intimacy with Jesus Christ and strive
to shepherd others, believers and unbelievers alike, into a passionate
love relationship with Jesus.
My
highlight is the same every semester. Sometime midway through
the semester we all start to understand the book we are studying
in such a way that we start to live it.
I love teaching church history, mostly because people
have never even considered most of the material we are covering
or seen themselves in God's redemptive history.
It was an event I never even got to see. I will sum it
this way: Spencer and Josh, San Diego, bad food, and a gas station.
Farmer/Rancher
I don't have an all-time
favorite quote, but today it is a quote by Jonathan Edwards:
"Hypocrites may much more easily be brought to talk like
saints, than to act like saints."
Knowing
God - J.I. Packer
Holiness - J.C. Ryle
Knowledge of the Holy - A.W. Tozer
An authentic, radical,
sacrificial walk with Christ.
I
first met EBC while I was studying at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
My interview (not known to me at the time), was a two and a half
week tour of the land, packed in a bus, sweating every second...and
having a great time during the whole thing.
Definitely
being a part of a developing school that is building its curriculum
from the ground up. Frankly it's hard to focus on one highlight,
as I truly love the students and the faculty, and the various
interactions that occur on a more routine basis.
NT history was such a fun class, although OT backgrounds
is running a close second. I love the history and backgrounds
of the Bible (almost too much), and for me it's natural and easy.
I guess it'd have to be during my first year of teaching.
I'd always abbreviate and shorten certain names on the board.
Finally after a few months of students snickering, I came to
realize (to my embarrassment) that it would just be better if
I would write out the whole words, especially a few: Assyria,
Hellenism, and Titus.
I've had so many jobs, and dreamed of so many others... Most
of the time I guess I envisioned myself in a remote land guiding
hunting trips, or exploratory operations in uncharted territories.
I've always loved the idea of going to a people "behind
the next ridge," and always read missionary stories about
pioneers. The unknown grips me and the sight of strange things
fuels my reverance for a God who created such a mind-blowing
world. Frankly, growing up my heroes usually had a big knife
tucked into their belt, and their wild eyes told of stories far
too distressing for proper, cultured, and well-behaved-educated
men and women of the city. I guess the strangest thing in my
thoughts back then would have been an 8-5 office job.
I won't give you my
all-time favorite, as it relates too much to the question above,
but I can never forget this one: "The
whole world steps aside to a man who knows where he's going." As
I look around at the various leaders of this world, I see
that men and women have much respect for vision, passion, and
determination.
Too many
of course, but these have been some of my favorite books:
Les Miserables, Victor Hugo - (in the full french version of
course :-) - absolutely riveting - a masterpiece... I just bawl
thinking of little cosette.
Precious remedies against Satan's devices - Thomas Brooks.
This is such a precious little book that I love to refer to
over and over whenever I have some time in an airplane, or
some "extra" traveling
time.
Lando - Louis L'amour. "We Sacketts were a mountain folk
who ran long with gun-shooting, but not many of us were traveled
men. And that is why I envied the tinker..."
The Gift of Pain - Philip Yancey, and Dr. Paul Brandt. Probably
one of my favorite all time books.
So hard to say one thing
of course... but this: I would want to see in EBC students such
a deep-rooted personal commitment to the Lord Jesus that it
shines on their face, and demonstrates without many words; a
man or woman radically different from the sinful world on which
they tread.
Learn to enjoy
the "process" of life. I would always
get caught up in finishing the task, or the semester, or the
year, so that I could get on to the next level of life... but
now I have grown to love the processes, and not just the end-goal.
Many have influenced me in many
ways... but if it has to be one person... it has to be Jason.
To live my life in full surrender to the will
and direction of Jesus in front of a watching world. I hope to
accomplish this by spiritually growing on an ongoing basis, training
my family along the way, and refusing to allow anything to creep
into my heart that has a greater attractive force than the knowledge
of eternal glory with Christ.
Okay,
so after my last post I felt the need to clarify some things.
First of all, this incident really did take place, and I really
did write that ridiculous post, but it was kind of written as
a joke...don't worry, I don't really talk like that.
But, there is some value that can be gleaned from my absurd
post: the professors love to interact with the students, and
genuinely show an interest in each life.
But, instead of going on about my thoughts of the professors,
I'm going to post a series of posts about them. One of my friends
suggested the idea, and I liked it, so we came up with some questions
we thought you, the reader, might like to know.
The first professor I'm going to highlight is Jon Marshall:
When
one of my students, Will, was doing some evangelism, got knocked
out by a punch he never saw coming, and then went back and retold
the Gospel...in Simi Valley.
Life of Christ, because we actually have the opportunity
to worship and enjoy Jesus rather than simply learning facts
about his life.
Seeing Joshua Walker dance in Israel. He's quite suave.
Surgeon, because I hate pulsating blood.
Love the Lord your God
with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and love your neighbor
as yourself...do this and you will live.
(assuming
you've read the Bible completely through at least twice...) Knowing
God by J.I. Packer, Don't Waste Your
Life by John Piper, and Can
Man Live Without God by Ravi Zacharias.
A deeper
love and commitment to Jesus.
There are lots
of ways to waste time and lots of ways to not, be discerning.
John Piper, because he lives
it and isn't ashamed to tell us how to, also.
Don't waste my life; sacrifice for Jesus to live.
I write this post
to disclose the oddities of being a student at EBC.
**The names have been changed to protect all innocent and guilty
parties.**
Today, my roommate Klarise and I were in the office to talk
with our Dean of Students, Chilly, about this here blog. The
conversation was lovely even though Chilly murmured something
peculiar about our school President under his breath. We giggled
softly shrugging off the strange comment, and continued with
our conversation, when all of a sudden what appears in my memory
as a strange orange blob appeared as having fallen from the sky,
and a barrage of tightly and precisely molded spheroids flew
haphazardly around the room, some of which made contact with
this orange blob. It then occurred to me that this strange orange
blob was none other than our school President, Woshua Jalker.
Then, just as my roommate and I were being stirred with compassion
for this innocent man, a horrible twinge was felt in the back
of my head. It was as though I had a concussion--the pain was
so severe, and befuddlement had seized me. Within seconds I had
the gumption to respond to what was clearly an attack of innocent
bystanders. My roommate and I retrieved the spheroids and sent
then flying in Chilly's direction. We, apparently, were obliged
to safeguard our dear President, Woshua Jalker, on account of
Chilly's murmured menace just minutes earlier.
In the end, this piece has been written to stand by the contention
that my roommate and I were clearly innocent and unrightfully
walloped, and to warn any and all EBC students to wear helmets
or the like when in the presence of our President.
"How's
the weather there in sunny California?" - is a question
I am often asked by my friends and family members in Indiana.
I have often found myself complaining to them that it is still
90 degrees in October. I am amazed at how readily I can complain
about how "hot" the weather is here, and how sweet
I think it is when there is a rainy day like today in Southern
California...and yet, back home I would likely be doing the
opposite. I have been convicted about my attitude towards the
weather as of late, and really liked what I read from John Piper
today (via desiringgod.org):
"Thursday in Minneapolis it was so gorgeous walking home
I thought: I should write a post on how astonishing it is that
no earthquake swallowed up this city today.
Instead God sent warmth and crystal skies and cool breezes and
golden leaves and hanging sea gulls over Elliot Park.
Amazing. Absolutely amazing!
We deserved the 52-story IDS tower to fall, and bridges to collapse,
and poisonous gas to kill thousands. But instead God gave us
over-the-top foretastes of heaven.
This is why everyone is crying out, Where was God on Thursday!
Where were you God! How could you do this? Why did you let this
happen?
Everybody is saying that, aren't they?"
Although I do love fall, I should never complain about the beautiful,
sunny (and oft-warm) weather here in Simi. Because, honestly,
I deserve the sun to move just a tiny bit closer to earth and
make the temperature so hot that I perish. But, God has given
an insane amount of grace, and has made each day, as He sees
fit, to bring glory to Himself.
Psalm 145:8-9: " The Lord is gracious and merciful,slow
to anger and abounding in steadfast love.The Lord is good to
all,and his mercy is over all that he has made."
One
of the many benefits of coming to EBC is having the ability to
go to Cornerstone Church. Each of my roommates and I have been
attending Cornerstone since we arrived, and we are all consistently
being stirred by the Word of God through various pastors. A few
weeks ago my heart was being goaded about the nature of my relationships.
In class, I am learning what it looks like to be "gospel-centered" and
how each of my relationships and interactions, everything I do,
should be propelled by the gospel. It's difficult to be gospel
focused in your neighborhood when you don't even know your neighbors,
and my heart was being stirred because of the fact that we (as
an apartment) had not made any great effort to get to know our
neighbors. What was taught that Sunday at church perfectly correlated
with that fact, and I felt compelled to action. I was able to
get in contact with one of the pastors from Cornerstone and find
out who our believing neighbors were. It was cool to see that
there were quite a few people who attend Cornerstone living in
close proximity to us, but what about our actual neighbors? The
ones whom we often pass coming into or leaving our apartment?
The ones whose music we can hear through the walls? The ones
who we hope have at least recognized us to be Christians?
Jesus' command is clear: "You shall love your neighbor
as yourself." But how are we supposed to love our neighbors
when we don't even know them? How are we to fulfill what Jesus
says is the second commandment without putting any effort into
it? The answer is: we cannot.
After fumbling through the questions and the obvious answers,
my apartment now has a plan to reach out to our neighbors today,
on halloween. I will soon return with an update on how things
went...
The first day of class, I pretty much freaked out (syllabus
shock as it is commonly known), but I was also taught an extraordinary
amount. God had already started to work on my heart and He did
so by humbling me. I guess I kind of thought I had a pretty accurate
picture of God. I have been learning about Him for years, and
just assumed that I had grasped (for the most part) who God is.
However, in the few short days I've been here He's shown me that
I not only have so far to go in my knowledge of Him but I also
have a lot of ground to advance in my love for Him.
Now, a not-so-smooth transition into the story of my apartment
...
I share an apartment with 3 other girls, and it's pretty awesome.
It's crazy how God brought us all together. It seems as though
we've been living together for a long time now. We try to do
homework ... we really do try ... generally we will start our
homework and within a few minutes a few people from EBC will
show up. It just always happens. So then, we try to study with
them, but we end up making silly videos or cooking or something
other than studying. Eventually we will break down and do homework,
but it's always good to have some fun first, right?
It was my senior year of high school and within the first few
months all of my friends and classmates were filling out college
applications. All but me. It seemed as though I was the only one
who really wanted to know where to go, but didn't even have one
college that I was seriously considering. The only place on my
list at the time was a ministry training course in Ohio. With all
of the pressure on my shoulders, I felt
surprisingly calm about the whole situation, and knew that the
Lord would lead me where He wanted me in His time. One afternoon
I was listening to Francis' podcast and heard him mention EBC and thought about how totally
awesome it would be to attend if it were anything like Cornerstone
church. I kind of shrugged it off. I mean, come on, 2200+ miles
away from home? There's no way I could do that.
Well, that same
week the door to the training course in Ohio was clearly closed
and one of my friends, who knew what I was looking for after
college, suggested I look into EBC. By then I thought maybe I
will if nothing else comes into the picture within the next few
months, but when another friend mentioned EBC just a few days
later, I felt as though God was trying to get my attention. I
started looking at EBC's website and was immediately drawn in
and continued to be as time went on. I could see that EBC was
a place that pursued the same kind of Godly integrity as Cornerstone.
It was a place that sought to teach strictly on the basis of
what the Bible says. It was a place that stressed an education
that goes beyond mere knowledge. It also seemed to be a place
of strong, ardent community, and after talking to a current EBC
student, I discovered that this was indeed a reality. Plus, on
top of all those things, tuition was more affordable than any
other Christian/Bible college I had seen. Through prayer and
consideration of these things the Lord made it clear that this
was where He wanted me.
Though I now face the great move of a
couple thousand miles, God's promises are greater still! I don't
necessarily expect it to be easy, but I know that I can do it
with God and the strength that He provides. |
