Hello Everyone,
Rip Van Winkle slept for forty years. Robinson Crusoe was stranded on a desert island twenty-eight years. Punxsutawney Phil makes an annual appearance (with or without a shadow). These guys make my three month absence look amateurish. I don’t even have a good yarn to spin as to why.
I wasn’t traveling in one of the Holy Lands this January. I missed seeing the sites and learning the Word, and interacting with the students. Had we gone, we would have returned a couple of weeks ago. With Pastor Rigsby’s retirement from Biola/Talbot, that opportunity appears to be a completed chapter. What an amazing privilege—I could never have dreamed so grand. What an awesome gift—I could never express my gratefulness in a million years.
Being home has been as different as traveling. Did you know they still do that Rose thingy in Pasadena on January 1? I hadn’t seen that parade in nearly 20 years. For two weeks, it was the coldest I ever remember in Southern California. There was always something good about disconnecting from the regular routine—especially the news (and all the political shenanigans). Did you know that they still do that Super thingy Sunday? You know, the one that is more about commercials and a half-time fiasco than it is about football? I continued my boycott.
In the last ten days, I have officiated four funerals. None were people I know. Each was an opportunity for the living to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Here is Sunday's bulletin and letters, all in one file! February 10, 2013.
Here is the schedule we are using this year for our Bible Reading.
Almost two years ago I started a series of lessons of Seven Skills that (hopefully) will assist us in our Bible reading and study. I could not have imagined that we would begin the sixth skill this year. I don’t know what this study has been for the others. I think I am receiving the greatest benefits. The old saying that goes “you can cover any amount of material you want, as long as you are willing to cut out enough” seems to prove true every week. Still, I have questions, like this one: "Why couldn't Jesus die?".
