Went to Willow Creek's Leadership Summit at a satellite site today and it was great. It was held at LCBC, another big church in lancaster. We actually had time to tour the building during one of the breaks and it was freaking awesome to see that they had a freakin slide going from the main level down to the kids wing. Freaking awesome!
All in all, it was pretty good and I would highly recommend it to anyone, even if you aren't a Christian. They have some great leaders who bring ideas to the table that aren't coming from a Christian background. For example:
Jim Collins (business thinker)
Daniel Pink (business thinker and ex-White House speech writer)
Terri Kelly (president and CEO of W.L. Gore & Associates)
Tony Dungy (football coach)
Jack Welch (famous CEO)
For highlights from Tony Dungy and Adam Hamilton, go to highlight vid #3 at the link
http://www.willowcreek.com/events/leadership/2010/highlights2010.asp
Anyways, here are some takeaways from today:
Bill Hybel-pastor at Willow Creek church
1. Leaders move people from here to there
2. You need fantastic people
3. Celebrate mile markers!
4. Listen for whispers from God
Jim Collins-writer and nationally acclaimed business thinker
Good is the enemy of Great
5 stages of decline
1. Hubris born of success
2. Undisciplined pursuit of More
3. Denial of risk and peril
4. Grasping for Salvation
5. Capitulation
We need to setup BHAGs (Big hairy audacious goals)
Never, ever give up on your core ideas/values
Andy Stanley-pastor of North Point church
Myth- If you're a great leader, you'll solve all your tensions and all your problems
Truth- great organizations have tensions that are never resolved and problems never solved. The leaders learn how to leverage them in a way to create progress
Whatever it is, its not a problem to solve or a tension to resolve, its something to manage
-in church, there's a tension between letting the Holy Spirit lead the pastor to speak till the Holy Spirit is "done" and finishing the message on time so the children workers can go home!
-there's a tension between attracting seekers to the church and developing believers
Adam Hamilton-pastor of Church of the Resurrection
The final word of the church must not be a word of judgment but a word of grace.
We serve a Lord who is a friend of drunkards, prostitutes, and sinners
No one is beyond redemption, for God is the God of the second chance
Friday, August 6, 2010
Thursday, July 1, 2010
I was looking for a spot in the Walmart parking lot today when I saw a police car coming toward me. As I get closer, the police car starts to swerve before straighting out and as I got closer, I see that policewoman had her cell phone to her ear, talking to someone. My initial thought was, "that's ironic that even the police, who are suppose to be models of the law and of being safe, can engage in unsafe things." Granted, talking on a cell phone isn't illegal in PA and I myself have done it, but I just find it ironic that a police officer would be doing that.
It made me think of how that is similar to us as Christians. Do we do things that cause people who aren't Christians pause and think," huh, that's ironic!"? It probably doesn't have to be an illegal activity, just something that goes against the stereotype or the expectations placed upon Christians. Could it be drinking? Maybe going partying? Maybe its gaming or having nice cars (cuz Christians are suppose to give all their money to the poor and live like the poor?), etc...
I don't know if there's a definite application or moral to apply, but it was just something that I was considering today.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Summer 2010
This past semester has been really challenging as the classes i have gotten harder. I took both Systematic Theology 1 and 2, Old Testament theology, Hermeneutics and Greek 2. Praise God that despite taking more classes and despite them being harder, that I actually did better grade-wise!
Now that the busy semester is done, I can focus on my busy summer! This summer I'll be working part-time at Ambassadors for Christ, where I will be organizing the youth program for a family conference among other things, and I will be interning at Calvary Church. While at Calvary, I will have the opportunity to teach, lead bible studies and go on missions trips to learn how to lead them! And then, on top of all of that, I am trying to review my Greek and start reading for the fall!
This summer will definitely be a test of my organization and ability to focus on many areas!
Hopefully, I'll do a better job of keeping you up to date on this blog than I've done in the past!
**EDIT**
I forgot to mention a huge PRAISE! This past year, I had a relative pledge to support me $500 each semester that I was in seminary. They came to visit recently and passed a folded check to me. After they left, I looked at it and it was a check for $1000...for my fall semester!!! How crazy is that? And How amazing is God? Praise God for his goodness...tho, a good follow-up question would be, "If I get close to the deadline for my tuiton and I am still short financially, will I still praise God?" That might be the question we all need to ask ourselves..."will I praise God in the bad times, just like I do in the good times?"
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
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!
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).
- αγγελος -angelos
- ανθρωπος- anthropos
- αποστολος-apostolos
- ζωη-zoe
- θεος-theos
- κοσμος-kosmos
- λογος-logos
- αδελφος-adelphos
- μητηρ-mehter
- πατηρ-pahter
- δαιμονιον-daimonion
- χρονος-chronos
- μεγας-megas
- πολις-polis
- νεκρος-nekros
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).
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
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!
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!
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
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!
*******************************
-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.
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!
*******************************
-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.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
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
*****************
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.
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
*****************
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.
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