Greek practice

so I've been doing a bit of studying for my final greek exam and i thought people might like to get a small taste of what I've been studying. So here are a bunch of greek words in both greek and english.... see if you can guess what they mean!

1. αγγελος -angelos
2. ανθρωπος- anthropos
3. αποστολος-apostolos
4. ζωη-zoe
5. θεος-theos
6. κοσμος-kosmos
7. λογος-logos
8. αδελφος-adelphos
9. μητηρ-mehter
10. πατηρ-pahter
11. δαιμονιον-daimonion
12. χρονος-chronos
13. μεγας-megas
14. πολις-polis
15. νεκρος-nekros

and the bonus.....

αμαρτια= hamartia

1. angels 2. man 3. apostles 4. life 5. God 6. world 7. word 8. brother 9. mother 10. father 11. demon 12. time 13. large, great (from where we get the prefix mega) 14. city (metropolis= mother city) 15. dead, dead body (necrophobia = fear of death) Bonus= sin (hamartiology is the study of sin)


If you got that bonus one, give yourself a big pat on the back. You're pretty good if you knew that one.

On a less serious note:
Did you know that αμαρτια, the word for sin, is a feminine word? Reminds me of that mathematical proof we use to joke about back in the day...





























Looks like we have some biblical proof to that now, don't we?



*For a more detailed explanation, the word for sin actually is feminine, but it doesn't mean that sin is just for women. To be fair, the word for sinner αμαρτωλος is masculine. So gender in greek doesn't always apply to man and women gender (although it can with pronouns).

Thanksgiving

So for thanksgiving, the family went to NYC and for church on sunday, we went to the Brooklyn Tabernacle led by Jim Cymbala and it was really awesome. I really loved his straight forwardness in preaching. I also loved the choir and the worship... especially where we sang "Oh come let us adore him," which is my favorite Christmas song. It was really touching and while we were singing the words, the image that was running through my mind was of Jesus's 2nd return. Jesus was standing there, and while everyone was there, it was as if it was just me and Jesus. And while we were singing the 2nd verse, I could see all the things that we value (houses, cars, ipods, bf/gfs, etc), being left behind as He alone was (and is) worthy of our worship. It was truly a sight of heaven, where we will not only be freed from all our sinful desires, but where we'd see Christ in all his glory!


Oh come let us adore Him
Oh come let us adore Him
Oh come let us adore Him
Christ the Lord

For you alone are worthy
For you alone are worthy
For you alone are worthy
Christ the Lord

We'll give you all the glory
We'll give you all the glory
We'll give you all the glory
Christ the Lord


Here's some other things that I've learned at CIU's chapels:

-It is easier to become a Christian than it is to become a disciple
-tough times don't last, but tough people do.
-ministry is long and ministry is hard
-one of the evidences of a calling is when the church recognizes it
-we equate calling with fruit nowadays, but that's not calling... no matter if there's fruit or not, its a calling and we go for God's glory!

Seminarians are humans too

Whew, its hard to imagine that its been a little more than a month since I've last updated. So many things have happened since then.

Some things I've learned:
-Seminarians are humans too. Prior to coming to seminary, I always had a high view of seminary students. To me, they seemed like super Christians... probably didn't struggle in their christian walk, knew everything there was to know about God...etc. But since coming here and getting to know some people (esp in my spiritual developement class), its encouraging to know that we all struggle in one way or another in our walks... that none of us are perfect, that we're all in the process of sanctification!

-seminary can humble you as well. Here, everyone knows something and everyone has had some sort of ministry experience in one way or another. If you come in proud, you're going to get cut short (not on purpose...just by learning from other people). The good thing is that it forces us to find our worth in Christ!

-ethnic worship service are always encouraging and uplifting to the soul. Today for grad chapel, we had a worship service where we were singing American worship songs in other languages and learning worship songs from other parts of the world. I think learning songs from other nations and singing in other languages helps us take God out of the box that sometimes put him in... it helps us understand that God is the God of the nations. I think it gets us out of our ethnocentrism in thinking that the way we worship is the way that everyone should worship. And lastly, I think in the end, all of this is encouraging and uplifting because it unifies us with our brothers and sisters from other nations and ethnic groups. To be singing in different languages, in different styles, from different nations, all under one God is indeed glorifying to God!


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-As I've gotten older, I feel like God has revealed more of his will for my life. In October, while lifting weights, I felt God hit me on the head and reveal more of himself to me... that I was to be a missionary. Here's an except of what I wrote in my journal concerning that...

"I need to go abroad. I am called to missions. It's a necessity. It's unevitable. Its a calling. The main thought that led to that revelation was this: as a pastor, I know my emphasis will be missions, but how can I preach missions when I have not gone already?"

It was also pretty interesting to see the little things that God had put in my life in the past that led me to and have supported this revelation.

1) As a leader, my mantra has been to not ask someone to do something that I myself am not willing to do, or have not done before.

2)Preaching from the heart. I love to preach passionately and for me, that comes from having experience. On the one hand, I don't need to steal in order to preach that stealing is wrong. But, on the other hand, while I could preach about marriage, I feel like I'd be more passionate about it and would be more justified in preaching about it if I am already married! Also, one of the ways I know God has been preparing me and my heart for missions was that the 2 times I had the opportunity to speak at AACF (my college fellowship group), I spoke on missions.

3) Church. Growing up at Calvary church, I feel like we were surrounded by an atmosphere of missions.... so much so that it has seeped into our hearts and minds. I remember learning as a little kid at the church mission's conference that "we are blessed to be a blessing." Our church youth group motto was "Drink & Flow: to drink deep of Christ and flow to others, from campuses to continents."

4)Influential Men. A couple of men in my life have really influenced me in the past and have been an example to me. My recently retired senior pastor, Pastor Johnny Miller, was a missionary to Sweden and was involved with church planting before he was president of CIU, and then senior pastor of Calvary. Dr. George Murray, current Chancellor and former president of CIU, was a church planter for 10 years in Italy and then 10 years as the general director of a missions agency. Their godliness and their examples have always caused me to admire them and look up to them. Pastor Miller was especially influential in that he showed that God sometimes calls us to more than career. He was a missionary, a seminary president and a pastor. For me, I think I'll be a pastor and a missionary. The questions is, in what order? Will I be a pastor first after I graduate and then a missionary? Or a missionary first? Perhaps pastor, missionary and then pastor? I really don't know...

George Murray spoke at our chapel about a month ago and he told us his story of how he was a student at CIU. He talked about how that changed his life and his view on missions. He originally came to be an english teacher so that he could be a good witness to his students. Instead, God changed him and his life course and he went on to work in Italy as a church planter. He said that originally, he was "planning to stay, willing to go," but afterward, he was "planning on going, willing to stay."

I feel like that describes me perfectly.

Rectification

So I realized that I have not written in this blog for over a whole month. I have decided to hunker down and rectify that!

So, a lot of things have happened since my last post. The graduate school and seminary went to a retreat, I've gotten to know more of the students here and I've been starting to get into a routine with the classes.

The retreat was a good experience in that it was a great time of relaxation. It was also at the retreat that I got to know many of the people who are in the graduate school and the seminary, including Lonn, my roommate and other guys that I've been starting grow closer to. We learned about suffering and how its related to the Christian life. One quote from the speaker that I love was that "we are not masochists in seeking out suffering, but we are realist in recognizing that it'll happen."

As mentioned before, I've been getting to know some of the guys much deeper as the month has gone on. We've bonded over lunch, basketball, classes, and even through playing Settlers of Catan! Its great because they come from all walks of life. Some are married, others are single. Some are much older than me, some are closer to my age. Some are Chinese, others are not. Some have been to the missions field, while others have done ministry in the US. So if I have a question about dating, I can ask them. If I have a question about the missions field, I can ask them. If I have a question about masculinity, I can ask them. I'm really grateful to have developed friendships with such a great group of guys through whom I can learn from and talk with. PTL

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My classes have started to pick up in intensity from my last post. Thus far, I've had 2 exams, and a couple of papers in the last two weeks or so. Its not too bad compared to other people, but the weeks to come should be tougher. I've done pretty well overall with the assignments and the exams. However, one thing that I'm trying to guard against here is to be complacent in my classes and to take them for granted. I remember at Penn State that I would sometimes just go to the classes because I had to be there and it was part of my weekly routine. Yes, I was hearing things from the professor, but I wasn't listening. I was passively learning, instead of actively learning. I've noticed that a little bit with some of my easier classes that I don't actively listen. So I'm trying to get myself out of that rut.

Here are the classes that I'm taking and a summary of what we're learning:

Foundations of Spiritual Development
This is essentially a sanctification class where we go over the basics of maturing as Christians. I liken it to being in a very big small group. Although we like to joke sometimes that all we do is talk about our feelings, it is a good class to take because it forces us to examine our spiritual lives. For example, we've talked about how we like to wear masks, to keep others from seeing the real us. How the main motivations as Christians is either to please God or to trust in God and how going the route of pleasing God can lead to an endless cycle of performances, while trusting God, while counter-intuitive, ultimately leads to us growing in Christ, in a healthy way.

Mission of God
This class talks about how missions isn't just something we honor one sunday out of the whole year, or something we do in the summer when we don't have school. Rather, missions is and has been God's main theme throughout the bible. People think that missions started when Jesus gave the Great Commission in Matthew 27, when in reality, it started in Genesis 12:1-3, where God promises to bless Abraham and that the peoples of the world will be blessed through him! Bringing people back to Him, redeeming lost people... MISSIONS, is THE theme of the bible and can be seen through out the bible and through out all the bible stories!

Old Testament Bible Survey
Basically, we go through the books of the Old Testament and learn about them. We usually learn the general themes of the book, and then go more in depth for each chapter. We've also learned how we got the books of the bible (textual transmission), the different schools of thought on who wrote the Pentateuch, the first 5 books, etc. We've gone over some controversial topics, like how a Mesopotamian creation story sounds similar to the biblical creation story, how a Babylonian flood story sounds similar to the story of Noah and the ark, about the population of Israel during the exodus (was it really 2 million people?) and other topics. Its pretty interesting all in all.

Greek
This is my favorite class so far, even though it is the one that I do the most work for. The teacher reminds me of Bo Miller's father, so that's pretty interesting in itself. We have a good time in class, especially because we joke that in order to learn Greek, we have to learn English. We've been tossing around words like nominative, predicate nominative, accusative, mood of the verb, substantival adjective, lexical form, declensions, genitive and dative case endings for nouns, etc. And those are the words that we've learned and now understand. I feel like every class the professor uses a grammar term that makes us snap our heads up and give each other confusing looks!

But, one of the reasons that I really love learning greek is because it gets down to the original language! Our professor made it clear and we're starting to see that as we learn Greek, our knowledge of Greek helps to clarify many confusing passages, but it also confuses many previously clear passages.

I'll leave you with this example: Romans 3:22 says," This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference." The greek phrase for faith in Jesus is "pistis Iesous Cristou." Christ is in the genitive, which can be used when showing possession. Pistis is the verb form of pisteuo (I believe, have faith).

So the question that the teacher brought up today was, is this a subjective genitive or an objective genitive? A subjective genitive has the action done by the noun and would be translated as "comes through the faithfulness demonstrated by Christ" while the objective genitive has the action received by the noun and would be translated as "comes through having faith in Christ." Each one is extraordinarily different. The subject would mean that our righteous came when Jesus showed his faithfulness in going to the cross, while the objective would mean that our righteousness comes from our faith in Christ. Totally different! And the kicker is, there's no grammatical distinction or marks to indicate if its subjective or objective! This (and a lot of other things in greek) has to be determined from the context! Like my student ministries pastor from high school, Greg Despres, use to say... "Context is King!"

And that's why I love greek class.

This is the Day!

So yesterday, to start my OT bible survey class, we sang "This is the Day" ... and then we sang it in hebrew, and THEN in arabic! haha, that was pretty awesome.


Then in class we were talking about the ancient scribes and how they didn't put vowels in the Hebrew text. The example our professor gave was this: (t's nt s hrd t rd f y knw th lngg. Y cn rd ths wtht mch trbl, rght? N prbml!).

Then, one of the older students in the class asked, "So that was like texting then?" haha


The classes here are great. Thursday, I had class from 8-10:30, then chapel from 10:40-12ish, class from 1:25-4:05 and then class from 4:15-5:30. Normally, if that was my class schedule at Penn State, I think I would fall asleep or find it hard to concentrate, but here, I had no problems staying awake, focusing or paying attention. Everything was so interesting, its hard to not pay attention.

I think I'm going to have a love-hate relationship with this seminary. I'm going to love the classes and the books that I'll get to read and the talks that I'll have with the professors.... but then I'm going to hate the amount of reading that I'll have to do, and the number and lengths of papers that I'll have to write.

All in all, I think I'll love it here.... good times

Realizing a long time dream

Back at PSU, I'd always thought, "wouldn't it be nice if we could start class with prayer?" I mean, I know it was a secular institution, but as part of the body of Christ, bringing everything before God in prayer at the beginning of anything and everything felt natural and needed. Except you can't do that at a secular school... but then I got to CIU.

At CIU, not only did we start our very first class with prayer (YES!), but we also worshipped in the beginning by singing the old school song, "Knowing You!"

I think that was the highlight of my day. Then we started classes and everything went down hill, haha.

Some quick notes:
-I love the professors here. I remember thinking at orientation when the professors where introducing themselves and talking about themselves," Man, I think I had that guy as my advisor!" And then the next professor would stand up and start talking and I'd think,"No wait, I want this guy as my advisor now!" And then I got a chance to meet my advisor personally afterwards to talk about my classes and before coming to CIU, I wasn't too sure about him. All I had to base my impression was his picture online and he looked elderly. But after meeting with him, I'm really glad that he's my advisor. He's really nice and knows a lot and is godly and etc. Honestly, if i could split myself up and each individual "me" could take one of the professors as my advisor, that would be awesome!

-It was pretty cool to hear that many of the professors still know or remember my pastors from Calvary, like Johnny Miller, Brad Mullen, Beau Eckert Greg Despres, etc.

-My greek teacher reminds me of Bo Miller's father in the way that he speaks, acts and etc. That should be fun class!

And so begins the first class of the first semester of my seminary years....

As I write, I am currently sitting in the lounge of the CIU's fitness building using the wireless internet on campus. So much has happened since I've last written, but I'll try to write it in some coherient manner.

Last time, I asked for prayer for two issues, and God has answered them both!!

1) Lonn, my roommate, had received my security deposit with no problems. I met him when I arrived at the place yesterday and he's a nice guy. I also met the neighbors. The guy who lives beside us is an Ohio State fan (unfortunately), but he does like basketball, which strangely enough, was really encouraging. Also, praise God that the place that I'm living at is pretty nice. Its spacious and the kitchen has a ridiculous amount of space AND it is literally a 5 minute walk away from campus!

2) The 2nd prayer request was concerning the cost for the fall semester. As of the beginning of the month, I needed $1,700, which I didn't have, but was rather trusting God, through prayer and faith, to provide. Thankfully, He has! Thank you to all who joined me in faithfully praying for the Lord's provision in this!

While I was shopping with my family down here at CIU, my mom sorta pulled me to the side a bit and handed me a check saying that they would like to support me. This was a big surprise because my parents had talked to me earlier in the summer about how now that I'm a seminary (grad) student, that I'm on my own financially. Of course, if I were ever in need, they'd help out, like food money, housing, etc, but for the tuiton and whatnot, I was on my own. They had suppored me 1/2 of the cost for my undergraduate studies, which is already a lot, so I already appreciate what they have done for me in that respect and thus was not expecting them to support me financially. So for them to support me was not only an answer to prayer, but also meant a lot to me. They also took me to Walmart (twice), Dollar store and a Chinese store to buy groceries and anything else that I needed! I am really thankful for them and appreciate all the support they have shown through the years.

Additionally, my parents told me that my grandmother will be sending me a check soon. This was a big surprise to me as well as earlier this summer she had given me, in addition to a "congrats on graduating" card, a small check for my seminary studies. So for her to send me a larger check, without me even talkign to her, and her not seeing this blog (because I dont' think she's techy enough, ha), is really an answer to prayer.

With those two checks, I am over the $1700 mark with a little bit left, possibly for books! Granted, these aren't quite the random annoymous provisions that seem to pepper the stories of George Muller and Jim Cymbala, but I am still amazed at how God provided. The whole time, while driving down here (and with the $1700 hanging over my head), I was thinking to myself, "How will God provide? In what glorious manner is He going to amaze in the way He'll provide?"

I was trying to keep thoughts of "Is God really going to provide? What do I do if He doesn't provide?" out of my head. Instead, I've been trying to meditate on "How will he provide?" and for him to provide, through two unexpected sources, was pretty amazing!

On another note, my time here, short as it may, has already been encouraging. While here, we (parents, sister and I), we had dinner with Chuck Kwok (AFC board member) and his family, and the pastor and his wife of the local chinese church; we met with Robert McQuilkin, the 3rd president of CIU and friend of my father; had a meeting with Dr. Alex Luc, who might be one of my professors; and then met with Bill Jones, current president of CIU.

One thing that I came away with from the McQuilkin meeting was the motto of CIU: To know Him and to make Him known. I really like that as I can see how that succinctly summarizes the theme of the Bible. In some ways, I can really see how that has already been taugh to to me and permeated my thinking from my days at Calvary. Some themes that I can draw from my time at Calvary are "Blessed to be a blessing" and "Cat and Dog Theology," which is about how the Bible/Christianity is all about God and his glory, and not about us.

But going back to the CIU motto, I think that should be the core of Christian living. Our focus individually should be to know Him, the Creator God, God Almighty, and our Lord and Savior. The Bible mentions so many times of how we should grow in the knowledge and love of Him. And although I can't quite remember the phrase "personal relationship" anywhere in the Bible, God having and developing personal relationships with the different characters of the Bible is more than evident!

And then our second focus should be to make Him known to others since God no doubt expresses this desire consistently throughout the Bible. Growing up in Calvary church, missions seemed like a second nature to me. I always felt that a church without missions is like a McDonalds that doesn't serve burgers, it just doesn't make sense! So whenever I see a church where Missions (and Evangelism) isn't preached, isn't taught, isn't considered... it breaks my heart.



So I'm really glad that CIU's motto is "to Know Him and to make Him known!" I'm really looking forward to studying here and seeing what God has instored for me this semester. Once again, thanks for all prayer request in the past and present (and future! haha)!

Upcoming events:
-orientation Monday
-classes start Tuesday

Ask the Lord of the harvest....

Hello everyone,

There are some prayer requests that I’d like to bring up as the start date for seminary is coming up quite rapidly.

1) I sent in my security deposit for the 2^nd off-campus place, the one that I had emailed many of you about. I’ll write about that story another time, but, for now, the guy has yet to receive the security deposit. I sent it last Monday, and I checked with the guy last Saturday. I sent it to his mailbox address on campus, and for now, he’s living with some relatives till he can move in, so he doesn’t get to check it very often. Please be in prayer concerning this.

2) As many of you might not know, I have and am in continual prayer and trust in God to provide fully for seminary. This has included housing, the acceptance of the seminary applications, personal finances, finding a church home, and also paying for seminary.

So far, God has proven faithful in providing for my needs financially. Although I did not receive some scholarships/grants (because they turned out to be for undergraduates only), I have received a $2,000 scholarship quite un-expectant, which was quite a blessing. Additionally, I received $900 from my church for the first semester! Also, praise the Lord, I went from on campus living ($3020 * 2 semesters= $6040) to off campus ($237.5 *12months= $2850/year), so I’m saving about $3,000 and I can store my stuff for the year! The housing ordeal is quite a story in God providing for me, and as I mentioned before, I’ll definitely write about it another time.

God has also provided me with a job for the summer, with which I can use to pay for my housing at school, and for that, I am really grateful.

So all in all, I am trusting the Lord to provide for the final $1520 needed for this semester. I’ve been reading about George Muller and a book called Fresh Wind Fresh Fire, and have really learned a lot about the power of prayer, the work of the Holy Spirit and what it means to rely on God. I am asking that you all join me in prayer over this. I’m not going to ask people directly for money; rather, I’m asking people to pray that God will work in certain people’s hearts to support me in this need. There might not seem to be a great difference, but there is! By me asking, I can attribute it to my persuasive skills or how articulate I am. But by praying, people will be partnering with me… because of God (!!!!) and not because of me. Besides, just because there is a need, does not mean that we ought to jump to try to alleviate the need (there’s a little about that with the verse below. Feel free to contact me too for a further explanation/discussion). Rather, we should first pray that God will tug at certain people’s hearts to have a passion for that need and if we are given the passion or the heart tug for this need, then we are to act.

Doing this is definitely not easy. Earlier in the spring, I decided not to take the money that comes with the Chaplaincy program, which would have been about $6k because of the obligations that come with it. I also passed up $8,000 in government loans, at my mother’s urging, because bringing on more debt is not something wise for a future-possible minister (or for anyone for that matter). Both would have shackled my freedom to follow God right after seminary. That was really hard to do, because that is a lot of money, and at the moment, those looked pretty good. But, I trust that the Lord can and will provide. I trust that if He is truly calling me to seminary this semester, that He will work in the hearts of his people to provide.

In Matthew 9: 35-38, when Jesus saw the crowds, he instructs his disciples to “ask the Lord of the harvest to send workers out into his harvest.” He doesn’t tell them to start giving money, or to plan an outreach event or to even send missionaries….

rather… He told them to pray. Will you pray with me?

I just want to praise God!

So last night, I was catching up with a friend who had just came back from a missions trip abroad, and it was getting to be around midnight (when I usually go to bed). I had a deep question that I had wanted to ask her for awhile, so I decided to go ask it. I was expecting a 10 min answer/convo from that, but i think we went till 12:45 or so, haha. So the whole time I'm torn and thinking, " I really need to sleep, cuz the last few nights I've gone to bed at 12 and I'm dead in the morning... buuuut, I really want to hear this and what we're talking about is really encouraging!" So I asked God, "I know I've been really tired in the morning before, but I think this is really worth it to listen to. Please help me tomorrow morning!"

So today, I sat up at 6 am (for no reason) and said, I feel awake already! haha, Praise the Lord! Of course, I was able to stay in bed till 7, but I was able to eat breakfast, catch up on emails, spend some time in God's word, send out a book to a friend at the post office all by 8:30 (worktime)... and all while feeling pretty alive.

Praise the Lord!

Inaugural Post

Hello everyone,

I'm starting up this blog in order to be true to myself. (upcoming little known fact) At the beginning of every academic level in my life, I have always started a journal of sorts. In high school, I put a bunch of lined paper together into a 3 ringed binder and called that my journal. In college, I had xanga and now that I'm going to seminary, I have a blog, haha.

I'm really excited to not only get started at seminary, but to also be able to share this with all of you. There's a bunch of goals in keeping up this blog and they follow as such.

1. I want to give people a glimpse into a life at seminary.
2. I want to give people abreast of the food options in Columbia and of my own evolution in testing/cooking different kinds of foods
3. I want to share God's glory and greatness in all this!

Typical, hackneyed answer for #3, right? Wrong! Lately, the Lord has been impressing upon me the stories of George Muller and of a book called Fresh Wind Fresh Fire. They've been about the importance of prayer, of trusting in the Holy Spirit and putting those two together in trusting in God for our daily provision. So I want to be able to completely trust God in everything down here and I'm looking forward to sharing with you all of the stories to encourage you in trusting in the Lord daily!

I'll elaborate more on God's amazing provision in another post as I don't have the time to do it now, but ultimately, I want this blog to be for God's glory!



Hmm, I can't think of anything else, so I'll just end on this. The name contest goes to Tim Su. I took his idea and modified it slightly, haha. So Tim will be getting a huge lollipop.

Congrats Tim.... and nobody hate on him. I know you all wanted the red star shaped lollipop.