My Collegiate Life

Now that I have moved on from high school into collegiate education, I receive many messages from people back home asking me how my schooling is going.  Indeed on Facebook, it seems common courtesy to ask your fellow graduated classmates how their college experience has been, how they like their classes, and what they’re majoring in.  While most college students can easily speak in terms of classes, majors, and other college-focused terms, I seldom know how to answer.

As many of my family and friends know, I am not enrolled in a conventional college.  I do attend Bethlehem College and Seminary for class; I do have homework and reading assignments like everyone else, but my current schooling is still so entirely different from conventional “college” that people don’t usually get a grasp on what exactly I do here.

The rest of this post is my attempt to define what my academic life is like.  I’m going to provide information for what you might find in a brochure for a similar type of education, and I’m going to walk you through a typical week’s schedule.

The program that I am doing is called “INSIGHT.”  This is an acronym for “INtensive Study of Integrated Global History and Theology.”  It’s website defines the program as “a one-year, college, worldview program that fulfills standard general education requirements while teaching an integrated, chronological, Biblical worldview.”  So, since the program is only one-year long, I can’t declare a major yet; most students continue their education at other schools afterwards to get their bachelor’s degrees.  Also, this education is chronological which means that it is at its core a study of history, yet as we progress from Creation to the current day, we study what was happening with the characters and events of the Bible and other views, both modern and ancient, about events that we’re covering.

This education primarily plays out in daily lessons which students are expected to complete on their own.  We are given a spiral-bound packet of reading assignments which come from our Module Reader (a collection of articles which address what we’re studying) or from various books which we have bought.  Every day we have a set of assigned reading and questions to answer from that reading.  From these readings, we are to develop a 500-word essay every week based on an essay question provided by our instructors.  A day’s worth of reading usually looks like this:

 

Bible Study

The Bible

Lamentations (Whole book)

Psalm 74

 

Dockery, ed: Holman Bible Handbook

427-431 Lamentations

 

Theme Readings

Winter, ed: Module 2 Reader

Introduction to Lesson 4: Hellenization

 

Dockery, ed: Holman Bible Handbook

505-507 Alexander and the Successors

509    The Empire of Alexander the Great

 

O’Brien: Oxford Atlas of World History

42-43 The Achaemenid and Hellenistic World 600-30 BC

 

Winter, ed: Module 2 Reader

04A Russell: The Effect of Hellenistic Culture on Jewish Life

 

Bainton: Christianity

vii-xiii Introduction

7-31 Backgrounds of Christianity

 

Plato: The Trial and Death of Socrates

43-54 Crito

 

Digging Deeper

Voigtlander and Lewis: The Alphabet Makers

28-29 Greek and Cyrillic

Now, I need to point out that our instructors don’t expect us to read every word of these books.  We have a set of questions that need to be answered, and the information we need is all in the reading that we have.  Yet, we do have to remember that our teachers can ask us questions about anything that is in these readings.  Since they were assigned, we are responsible to know the information therein.

These reading assignments were literally taken from lesson 4 of module 2.  INSIGHT has a total of four modules, think of them as the material that will be covered in a quart of the year.  Module 1 led us from Creation to 400 BC, Module 2 is 400 BC-200 AD, and then Modules 3 and 4 will take us from 200 AD to the present day.

Our class schedule is different from most colleges as well.  Instead of going to one class to hear about one subject from one teacher and then going to another class to hear about a different subject from a different teacher week after week, we go to one class in one location three times a week.  Also, many speakers are brought in from various colleges around Minneapolis, MN to give us lectures about whatever subjects we are covering.

For this particular lesson, Dr. Randy Nelson of Northwestern College came and taught about the hellenization of conquered civilizations especially in context of the Jews.  In his lecture, he covered what being “hellenized” meant, what the Jewish writings of the intertestimental period had to say about this, and how we should approach changes in culture today that we don’t necessarily agree with.

This lecture time typically goes from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m..  After this, we have a short break and reconvene from 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. to discuss, in a group setting, different things with our instructors Joe Rigney and C. Ryan Griffith.  In this time, our instructors have something they would like to talk about, but it comes second to any questions that have arisen in the students’ minds during their readings.

We have class like this three times a week (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday) always on the same schedule.  On Tuesday, we meet at 2:00 p.m. in small groups in which we students split into two groups and each instructor leads a group in a time of Bible study, fellowship, prayer, and studying “When I Don’t Desire God” by John Piper.  After this, from 3:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., the whole class meets together once again for a time of skill development.  In this time, we discuss English grammar, proper research-paper citation, and other academic aspects that we need to know but aren’t necessarily addressed in our readings.

Lastly, we have chapel every Thursday from 9:55 a.m. to about 11:00 a.m..  This is open to everyone in the college and in the seminary.  The worship is led by seminary students and often seminary students bring the message.  The instructors are members of the congregation, and John Piper is usually sitting in the front row on the right side of the aisle.  This time is good both for giving students the opportunity to put practice to their homiletics and to let students really see the heart of their classmates.

There we go.  If you’ve read this whole thing, I believe you should have a basic grasp on what my life is like now.  I’m living in an apartment with five other guys who are going through this program.  Our instructor, C. Ryan Griffith, lives on the floor below us, and we see him quite often giving us opportunity to ask him questions about the various things that baffle us.

Next year, this program is being divided up into a two-year Associate of Arts degree.  I have to say for anyone who wants to solidify their Christian worldview, I couldn’t recommend a better program.  Not only are students forced read about and get a handle on Christian truth, but you will be exploring other religions’ views with almost equal depth.  This program is a critical thinker’s paradise.

Ventilation: Letting My Brain Breathe

I’m chilling in the apartment that I share with five other guys in downtown Minneapolis, MN.  The room I’m in is pretty hot; one of my room mates just turned on another fan to get some air moving.  My laptop is feeling hot in my lap which doesn’t help either.

I’m a college student now — sort of.  Whenever someone asks me about what I’m doing for school, I end up pointing them to this website instead of trying to tell them that I’m doing an anthropological study of history that delves into theological, philosophical, and political issues that are relevant to the given time period which I’m studying.  It’s not convention school, but it is exactly where I think I should be right now.

I started my college experience two weeks later than expected.  My lung ended up collapsing, for the fourth time, one week before registration, and I had surgery.  By the time I had recovered enough to venture away from Wichita, KS, I had missed ten days of schooling.  I’m not super bummed about this.  I have eight lessons of work to catch up on: Each of which seems to take anywhere from four to six hours to complete.

Today was special, though.  John Piper was our speaker in class.  This was a rare opportunity indeed.  At the church I grew up in, John Piper was always quoted as one of the theologians who simply “got it.”  Some of the people I know hold him up as if he were their savior, and because of this, I eventually developed a slight disdain for him.  This sentiment was entirely unfounded, but I drifted away from adamantly following his teachings to counterbalance the number of people around me who did.

John Piper’s lesson today had a very clear and simple message: All of everything ever is ultimately for the glory of God.  He then went into a deeper argument to prove his point — a point which I agree with and have heard since I was but a very small child.  He provided us with a plethora of references to demonstrate how the Lord used very unusual and even unfortunate circumstances to bring about His glorification through the happy ending.

At times, he would offer breaks between points in which he would take questions.  The first one that garnered a rather lengthy explanation was about how God can willingly use evil to bring about His glory.  To answer, Piper went on to explain God’s permissive and directive wills without ever using those terms.  I do believe that a few people were left rather confused by the time he was done.  In this circumstance, I appreciated the education I received in Trinity Academy’s Bible classes.

At the end of his lecture, Reverend Piper, once again, opened the floor for questions.  I decided to ask one.  It was something like this: Regarding predestination and free will, is predestination a product of God’s intimately knowing the intricacies of each person and, because of this knowledge, perfectly predicting how each person will make every decision or is every decision I make just an illusion that I experience while God is ultimately directing my every choice?

I have posed such a question before.  In fact, I remember the last time that I did, I was only misunderstood and left without sufficient answer.  Indeed, such a question seems to be more of a cause for dissentious debate rather than collaborative conclusiveness.

After the question had been rephrased a few times, he gave me an explanation that I was not satisfied with, but he said something very profound.  This something I have heard my grandfather say to me regarding many things, but I have never heard such wisdom come from my own church.  John Piper said, “Learn to live with the mystery.”

The answer: Be content without an answer.  Does my experience of life change if the decisions that I think I make are, indeed, not my own?  Not at all!  When it comes to the subject of predestination, after many debates and discussions with anyone who has raised the topic with me in conversation, the answer doesn’t matter.  What does matter is that every good thing, especially our faith and salvation through Jesus Christ, is a gift from God, not a conclusion of our own minds, and that God is orchestrating every event, from natural disasters to a person’s misplacing their wallet, to bring about a reality in which His glory is the only thing that all men desire.

Testifying To Power

Earlier today, I felt my lung collapse yet again.  Now, I haven’t exactly been taking it easy since my surgery, so I wasn’t too surprised that something like this happened.  What this event led to, though, I didn’t see coming.

The pain from my latest pneumothorax was really bad; I took some ibuprofen and called a doctor, and he told me to wait 24 hours before going to the hospital or clinic because it could be just a regular effect after surgery.

Trying to chill out and ignore the pain, I decided to sit down and have my quiet time (which was awesome today, by the way).  As I was doing so, the pain continued to distract me.  I really had a tough time with the first part of 1 Kings 4.  Eventually, I decided to pray.

As I was doing so, I realized that I was going off to college on Thursday: the first major step in my pursuit of a life of ministry.  If I ended up in the hospital, I wouldn’t make it for at least the first week of class.  It was then that I thought this might be Satan again trying to sideline me from following God’s call on my life.

The Holy Spirit then prompted me to pray in the nature of Matthew 16:19 (I didn’t know the reference at the time), which reads, “9I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”  I also remembered a video I had seen of a Catholic priest using this scripture, speaking it to take authority over a demon possessed man.

I began to pray that God would bind the evil forces that were trying to keep me from going up to college later this week.  Then, God simply told me in my heart, “Satan can’t hear you.”  Just as that Catholic priest had audibly spoken that he bound the forces of evil in the name of Jesus, I needed to also.

I began to speak my prayer in dulcet tones, muttering my prayer quiet enough to keep my voice from carrying beyond my bedroom door.  After I had reminded God of this verse and said that I take authority given to me in Jesus’ name to bind this evil here on earth, my pain subsided.

I felt free.  The pain that had kept me from being able to read the Word of God was gone.  I still had a little twinge of something, but it was much better than it was before.  Even at the time of this posting, my breathing is still not 100% normal.  Yet,  I learned this day that praying in this way is all Jesus needs us to do for us to see his power physically work in our lives.

Some people reading this won’t believe me.  Some of you claim that I’m lying or that the pain-medicine I took just kicked in and that this is all simply coincidental.  I don’t believe so.  Be encouraged, and next time you believe that the Satan is making an effort to keep you from following the Lord, audibly claim the power that Jesus invested in his disciples.  What good is an investment if there is no return?

P.S.  I just found out my Mom had been praying for me, too.  I bet that had something to do with it.

A Confession

Today has been quite an experience.  I labeled myself as a political enemy of the Obama administration, I recorded myself singing and guitar failing “Fields of Gold” by Sting, and I went to my dad’s company’s picnic for a yummy dinner.

I’m getting rather upset with our government’s attitude.  For too long, the federal government has been full of people who each seek to push their own or their party’s agenda.  This is not the way that we should be going about governing the greatest nation in the world.  In fact, our leaders ought to seek to promote legislature that our entire nation agrees on, and leave issues that the states are very conflicted on up to each states’ government to decide.

George Washington spoke against party politics in his fair-well address when he ended his second term as president.  The nation should come together in unity on each issue and on who should be in charge.  Of course, we cannot have perfect unity.  George Washington has been our only unanimously chosen leader, but we should be, in my opinion, making decisions that the vast majority of the nation agrees on.

Yet, if I keep going, I will simply enter into the arena of philosophy, and I will become disgusted of myself for blindly diving into this legal meddling once again and ultimately sticking my foot in my mouth.  Instead, I ought to take a step toward my high-school Bible teacher’s perspective.

My Bible-class teacher was almost entirely hands-off when he came across issues of politics in class discussions.  At first, I didn’t really care, but then I began to criticize him for not taking a firm stance on a vast amount of subjects.  While he was seeking to establish a peaceful environment that we students may continue our learning, I thought it a flaw that he would ne’er tell us what the right, or at least Biblical, position was on a topic that he at least allowed to be debated in his classroom.

Now, I find myself desiring to lean towards his attitude.  I have been on Twitter and Facebook debating various issues, signing petitions, and commenting on politically focused blogs.  After all of this, I want to live a quiet life.  I want to keep to myself.   I want to get back to thoroughly reading my Bible and spending more time in prayer than I spend time doing other things.  I want to simply write letters to my leaders and use my voice to proclaim truth and peace from the texts of old in the Bible.

I want to, in essence, be a Christian again.  For most of this summer, I have let myself be consumed by entertainment and a lifestyle of leisure.  I have wasted the few dollars that I have earned on things that I didn’t really need.  I haven’t loved as I know I ought have, and I haven’t said things that I know I should have.  I’ve let my habits fall into worldly patterns.  Being early to bed and early to rise doesn’t seem that important in a worldly man’s eyes.

Like shifting into a healthier diet, making these changes is going to be difficult.  I’m not entirely sure what it’s going to require of me.  Right now, some of you are wondering why I’m posting something like this on the internet.  The main reason: accountability.  I need people to help me out.  The best thing you could do for me is, when you see me, ask me how I’m doing in this regard.  Satan has dragged me to the entrance of a life of emptiness.  I am at a door that I never want to step through; now, I am dragging myself back to the path that Jesus has called me to.  That thin and narrow path.

My New Project

I am undertaking a new adventure.  This will take much knowledge that I already possess, but I also see that I have a few things to learn, most likely by trial and error, before this project is presentable.

For quite a while now, my mother has insisted that I take my grandfather George Wood’s sermons and make a website where people can easily download them.  Many people have sat under his preaching and been impacted.  His preaching changed the course of many people’s lives, according to the stories that he and my mother have told me.

Back in the 1970’s, my grandfather moved his family from Australia, to Wichita, KS in the middle of America to pastor a church in downtown Wichita.  That church was, and is, Central Christian Church.  What was a withering urban house of worshi would be transformed into an overrun downtown church.  I have heard tales of how Sunday morning was incredibly busy.  In between the three services, people would trample over each other to grab a good seat.

The messages of the man whose leadership shaped the Christian character of so many are what I need a website to host.

My first order of business will be finding a web-hosting service and choosing what kind of website I would like to have.  When someone visits the site, I need them to arrive at a nice welcome screen with a nice link to go into the sermon directory.  The next page will contain a list of sermon series that my grandfather has preached along with a short description of when they were preached and on what subjects.  After choosing which series they would like, they will be directed to a page that lists every sermon accompanied by a brief, one-sentence description of it.  Finally, they click the link on the sermon they would like, and the visitor will be directed to a page that has a full description of the sermon, about one-paragraph long, and a link to download an mp3 file of the message which they chose.

This is the navigation I would like.  I am considering using WordPress or PHP-Nuke.  I am looking for something easy, affordable, and easily customizable.  If you have some input on this subject, please leave a comment below.

I’ve got my recording equipment going.  I have a few tapes from my grandfather’s Sunday School class that he teaches from 2005.  The quality isn’t the best, but this is because of the recording onto the cassette.  I recorded a Neil Diamond cassette onto my computer, and it sounded great.  If you have any tips on audio editing for this type of thing, again, please leave a comment below.

This is what I will be spending my free time doing before I go off to college.

Born With Perforated Lungs

I am back in the hospital.  In Augst 2008, I was admitted to the hospital to have surgery on my collapsed lung: a pneumothorax.  The doctors basically went in through small incisions on my left side to staple up weak spots on my left lung (which are called blebs) and to scratch up the inside of me enough that scar tissue would adhere the outside of my left lung to the inside of the opposite thoracic wall.  Now, my left lung will never collapse again.  My left side is like a tubeless tire; there is nowhere for the air to escape to.

My right lung, however, was in no such repair.  When I had my last surgery, I was told that the condition that befell my left lung was probably going to be present in my right lung.  I only had to wait.

As expected, my right lung eventually did collapse.  Let me tell the story:

On Sunday, July 12, I was to leave on a mission trip with Metropolitan Baptist Church to go to Louisiana to paint, side, and roof some houses that churches had built for people down there.  I spent most of the preceding Saturday messing around and playing video games, but at around 7:00 p.m., I got my act together and started packing.  I neatly organized everything on my living-room floor before neatly placing each item into my duffle bag.  At 1:00 a.m., I was all packed and ready to leave.  I wished Cooper, my younger brother, good night and headed for my bed to get some rest.

As I turned the corner to enter the bedroom, I had a sharp pain that enveloped the entire right side of my chest.  My first thought suggested that my lung had collapses, as prophesied by my doctors.  I waited a moment to see if the pain would somehow go away, and it stabilized but never subsided.  I lied down, despite my pain, to see if I could get some rest.  I thought that I could, perhaps, sleep it off.  My hypothesis was very incorrect.  Instead of feeling better, I noticed that with every inhalation I could feel air rippling over the top of my lungs.

I got up, and now considering a late-night hospital visit, began walking around the house.  I had one test to find that my lungs had indeed collapsed.  Surrounding the human lungs is liquid.  Like a full water bottle, people never notice if this liquid moves around or not.  When there is suddenly air in the mixture, that liquid has room to move (and splash) around.  My test: jog up and down a flight of stairs and feel for splashing liquid.

I jogged up the stairs, and I did actually have a pnuemothorax — again.

I awoke my dad from his sleep and went to Wesley Medical Center’s Emergency Room.  On a quiet Sunday night, I was quickly tended to and given a chest x-ray.  Doctors with their stethoscopes told me that they could clearly hear air moving on the left side, but the right was quiet.  The x-rays only confirmed it: there was air outside of my right lung.

The night was spent in observation in the ER.  I had a nice room to myself, and the doctors were cool.  I later had a CT Scan.  The dye they put in my blood gave me the strangest sensation I’ve ever experienced.  Those who’ve had this scan know what I’m talking about.

Today is my fourth day in the hospital.  I’ve enjoyed my private room, and I’ve got my new laptop to entertain me.

Surgery is to take place today at around 12:00 p.m..  For the next few days, I will be at the hospital drugged up and feeling terrible.  I will have a tube in my side draining air and fluids as well.  In six weeks, I should be up to speed again, though.

Photo taken on Photo Booth on my Macbook Pro

Murder In Wichita

George Tiller, an abortion doctor here in Wichita, KS, was murdered this morning.  Read the full story from Kansas.com here.

Now, the killer is still on the run, and his motives are not entirely known.  Many theorize that he was a pro-lifer who was fed up with abortion, who was tired of the state not taking action, and who decided to take matters into his own hands to try and end this evil of abortion.  If that was the case, I believe that the killer should have stayed around to be willingly arrested — give his life since he took another.  This would’ve been a very political way to have done this evil.

Yet, the fact that he fled makes me wonder if this was more personal.  In a press conference at the scene of the murder, police said that they don’t know the motives.  I then developed a theory of my own.

What if this murder was not political, but personal?  Should the murderer be a man whose wife had an abortion of his baby without his consent, would people be responding to the news of Tiller’s death differently?  I believe that if this is so, the entire abortion debate would be turned on its head because a person who is not responding to his stance in the pro-life or pro-choice camp, but who is acting for personal reasons, committed this heinous crime.

I do not condone the murder of George Tiller.  I believe it to be a great evil.  Yet, I am excited to see how the Lord is going to use this in the world to bring forth His will.  I will be watching and waiting.

No More High School

So I have graduated from high school.  I will no longer grace the hallways of Trinity Academy as a student, and that’s awesome.  Yet, what now?  I’ve got 2.5 months before I head off to Minneapolis for college, but I haven’t really decided what I want to do with my summer.

My first focus: God.  Tonight, I need to sit down and come up with a game plan of how I want my spiritual life to look.  Summer has, in years past, been a time to waste the days away, to stay up late, and to play video games.  I don’t want to look back on these months and find no accomplishments.  I don’t want to be another Christian who has found value in pursuing everything but the Lord.

Next, I want to grow in music.  I’ve been playing saxophone for a number of years now, and I’ve also begun to explore guitar and piano.  I want to start taking formal saxophone lessons again, but I also want to increase my skills on the other two instruments.  My cousin Daniel has offered to give me piano lessons, and I know some people who are ridiculously good at guitar who could possibly give me lessons.

I’m not looking for teachers who have the Midas Touch; I just need someone to give me a prescription for success.  I remember when I first borrowed my cousin Daniel’s Takamine Jasmine guitar.  He told me to do two things: to practice my strumming for hours on end and to buy a book with tabs for every guitar chord known to man.  I simply followed his direction, and now I’m a solid-enough guitar player that I can bring a band together and lead worship.  Some time, I’ll have to share why I ever began this pursuit.

Next, I need to get to working.  Today has seen no productivity.  Tomorrow is a new day with the Lord’s new mercies.  I can’t wait.

Live Life Update

I haven’t posted on my blog in far too long, so I decided I would write something — anything. This blog has been idle for quite some time.

School has been overwhelming.  I have, perhaps, overcommitted myself.  I currently have to get myself ready for a vocal solo for regional contest this Saturday.  I’ve sung solos before, but never before have I been rated on them.  I plan to continue music into my collegiate career.  If I do well this weekend, I will pursue my vocal-music aspirations with confidence, and if I don’t do well, I will probably pursue these aspirations just the same.

I’m doing poorly in every aspect of all academics right now.  My story for newspaper class is late, a forty-point assignment in English class is late, and I’ve got a “C” in my precalculus class.  Newspaper class and English class can be easily overlooked (and, in fact, ignored) with little consequence, but if I do not achieve at least a “B” in my precalculus class, I will have wasted over $500 of my parents’s money.  Taking classes for college credit has its advantages and its high expectations.   At this rate, I’m not in good standing with either.

I do not wish to seem depressing; my life, really, is pretty awesome.  I participated in a worship band last night at The Foundry’s evening worship service.  I played my saxophone while my cousin Daniel led with his vocals and a keyboard.  I haven’t played in a band like that since I went to Taiwan over the summer.  I half-expected my asian uncle Matt to be jumping and dancing in the front row, as is his custom.

To top all of this off, I don’t know where my cell phone is.  I had it last Friday or Saturday, but I have gone the entire work week thus far without it.  I didn’t really miss it until tonight when I thought of some funny things I would have liked to text to my friends.  At that moment, I was taken by the fact that I had not the ability to send said text.

Life sure has an interesting way of shifting.  Unfortunately, I’m not much enjoying the shift I’m in, but I know that experiencing and conquering these times will have been good for me when I am on the other side of this hill.

 

P.S.  This is not an April Fool’s joke.

The Government Is Watching Me

I came home from school today, as I usually do, and I found little that was out of the ordinary. I did, however, notice that as I drove to where I turn into my culdesac, there was a car waiting to leave from it. I put my blinker on, and as I turned in, he turned right down a road that has no outlet.

I parked in my driveway and waited a few moments. I had just had a dress rehearsal for the school musical in which I am a lead character, and I wanted a short respite. As I sat there, this curious car entered my culdesac again. This time, he parked near its entrance.

After about two minutes of chilling, I got out of my car, grabbed my backpack, and headed inside. The car slowly circled my culdesac as I walked into my house. As he did so, I noticed that he had government plates. The ones with that American Eagle seal followed by a bunch of blue numbers.

My suspicion would have ended there, but the car turned down that same street with no outlet and returned for a third inspection. Shortly after he entered, my mom came in behind him, returning home from my little brother’s piano lesson. He pulled into a driveway, turned around, and left out the other street.

I believe this episode is a result of my recent actions. I recently wrote a letter and sent a copy to the Washington DC office of each of my congressmen. The letters went out of the mail on Monday, and this “surveillance” occurred on Tuesday.  I think that this is a result of my letters because I have never before seen a government vehicle in my neighborhood.  While no harm was done, I wonder if this is a precursor to a kind of despotism.

 According to many congressional websites, mail to DC will be delayed due to “security inspections” for anthrax and such substances. I am only forced to wonder if my congressmen will ever read the letters I sent them.

Letter 2 Congress