What's Happening?

I have been really bad about updating lately. I finished with school for the semester about three weeks ago, and I have really been enjoying the break. I have now completed 84 of the required 94 hours (88 hours + Elementary Greek and Elementary Hebrew) towards my Master of Divinity degree from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Yes, "The" is part of the school's name. When I checked online today, my grades were finally posted: Bible Teaching, A; Petrine Epistles, A-; Beginning Guitar, A. Woohoo! 10 hours to go! I'm hoping to finish with school in December of 2009!

Despite being out of school for the winter break, it has been extremely busy and sometimes I wonder if I was more busy during school or during the weeks before Christmas. It seems like we had something going on every night. Shopping, cleaning, cooking (that would be Heather), and hosting guests for a meal. We love having people over to the house for dinner, but it seems like we try to cram so much into the short break from school! I'm not complaining, because I love to hang out with friends and church family.

Speaking of family, we took a whirlwind trip down to Maryville, TN, last weekend to celebrate Christmas with my family, and we got home late on Saturday night. The drive home was terrible because I have been having some problems with one of my eyes. I decided to go to the doctor yesterday after work, and apparently I have a chalazion. It's very small, but it has been interfering with my vision. I'm supposed to have an appointment with an opthomologist today.

At church, we've been studying the book of Galatians for the past several months, and we finished just in time to study Mary's, Zechariah's, and Simeon's responses to the revelation of the Messiah (Luke 1-2). In January and February, we are planning to have a combined adult Sunday school class in order to study Mark Dever's What is a Healthy Church as we continue to revise our church government. I'm looking forward to discussing this topic with our members! I'm also interested in reading Thabiti Anyabwile's What is a Healthy Church Member to see how it relates to Dever's book.

Personally, I'm trying to get organized to prepare for next semester. I am going to try to include in my schedule a 30-minute daily Bible study time each morning, as well as a time for guitar practice each night. I have to make time for lots of reading for Church History II, and I am trying to dedicate more time for my family. It seems like quite a challenge to fit everything in! If you are interested, here are the required books for Shawn Wright's Church History II class:

• Justo Gonzalez, The Story of Christianity, Volume 2
• John Hannah, Our Legacy: The History of Christian Doctrine
• Mark Noll, The Old Religion in a New World: The History of North American Christianity (also at WTS Books)
  
• George Marsden, A Short Life of Jonathan Edwards (also at WTS Books)

A while back, I started reading in the gospel of John, and I'm going to try to get back into that book during my study time. I hope to post some thoughts as I work through the book.

Well, I guess that's plenty for now. Hopefully I will be more diligent in posting as we begin 2009! May God's blessings be upon you as we anticipate the coming celebration of a new year!

~ Todd