Well, there have been six classes since I last posted about what I’ve learned in class.  So, here are some of the highlights from those six classes:

• Jim Amandus taught the book of Psalms.  He did a great job teaching the “intellectual” aspect of the psalms as well as emphasizing the poetry and the artistic aspects.  At the beginning of each class (except for the first two), a group of students got up to lead us in meditating on a psalm.  There were a lot of creative ideas.  Most of them involved power point presentations, reading the psalm or singing a song.  One presentation, though, really did an amazing job.  They acted out the skit “Everything” (you can see one version here) and they did a superb job of acting it out.  I think it was at least as good if not better than the original one.  Anyway, here are some things I learned from that class:
  • To encounter a psalm, you must take time in reading it to feel what the author is feeling – to understand the emotion – and to appreciate its beauty and message.
  • In reading through the Psalms (and other of the wisdom literature in the Bible), it’s important to understand that the ancient wise man reasoned from life to show people why it makes sense to follow God – they operate in the realm of natural revelation.  In addition, it’s also important to note that ancient wise men have no problem with generalizations or with emotions.  In other words, while Psalm 22:1 asks why God has forsaken the psalmist, the psalmist knows that in reality God has not forsaken him and is indeed with him during his trial.  However, he is writing about how he was feeling at the time, and thus does accurately reflect his emotions.
  • The importance of confessing your sin: be honest about it, confess to those you have offended, and confess the root causes of your sin to God.
• During the same week, Dave Childers taught a class on World Religions.  It was helpful to learn more about Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Chinese Religions.  I appreciated the perspective of the class.  The “theme” of the class was “A vision of the heart of God breaking for the lost.”  The purpose for our study was to gain an understanding to provoke informed prayer, and to prepare us to share Christ.  In addition, he pointed out that “we desire to study without being overly critical and yet recognize that there is truth.”
• “Marriage and Dating” was taught by Dave Duff, the director of Ecola.  There was a lot of information in this class.  A lot about marriage, how God designed marriage, roles in marriage, the differences between men and women, dating, and even children!  I particularly enjoyed hearing about the differences between men and women…some of it fit in with what I already knew, and some of it was new to me.  I found it fascinating how the differences that we have complement each other and how a husband and wife can really work well together because of those differences.
• Chris Adsit (who, by the way, worked at Cannon Beach Conference Center with my mom in the summer of ‘76) taught a class on Personal Disciplemaking:
  • “Christianity is perceived by most Americans as…irrelevant.  It’s losing influence because we don’t merge faith and life outside of church” ~George Barna
  • “Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ.” ~Dietrich Bonhoeffer
  • We can’ t just convert people and leave it at that.  We must help them mature – disciple them.
  • Definition of a disciple: “A person-in-process eager to learn and apply the truths that Jesus Christ teaches him/her, resulting in ever-deepening commitments to Christ and to a Christ-like lifestyle.”
  • “A disciple is a ‘person-in-process’ moving toward ever-deepening commitments to Christ.  The state of being a disciple is an attitude that involves a growth process.  If you are not learning and growing, you are not a disciple.”
  • Disciplemaking is “any time one person intentionally helps another person learn a little more about or become a little more like Jesus Christ.”
  • Discipleship can happen in a large group context, a small group context or in one-to-one context.  Or in all three.  Each have different strengths and weaknesses, and it would probably be best if a disciple was involved in all three.
  • “Never attempt to make anyone become like yourself.  God knows and you know that one of you is enough.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
  • Prayer is vitally important in the process of making disciples.  As Chris Adsit said, “Partner with the One who can control the hearts of men.”
  • “We are no more able to cause growth than we are able to cause conversion.  Pray early, often, long and late.  Prayer isn’t part of the ministry, it is the ministry; everything else is mop-up.  Most of the actual, effectual work of the ministry will be accomplished on your knees.”
  • The relationship between disciple and discipler is also important: “Most things of importance are better caught than taught.”
  • But, “many other important things must be taught before they can be caught.”  Content is also very important.
• This past week, we studied the book of Proverbs with Dr. Mike Roth.
  • He talked about the two main themes in the book: Lady Wisdom and Lady Folly.  Both of them are calling to us – which one will we follow?  Following Lady Folly results in death, but following Lady Wisdom results in life and understanding.
  • We discussed how we need to be teachable.  Am I wise when someone corrects me, or am I a scoffer?  Do I dishoner the one who corrects me?  Do I make excuses or insult the one correcting me?  Instead I should love the one correcting me, become wiser and learn more.
  • Proverbs 10:19 – one way to avoid sin is to talk a lot less.
  • Proverbs 18:13 – we must listen – really listen – to what others have to say; and we should not make a judgement before hearing both sides (Proverbs 18:17)
• And finally, we had Mark Burch teaching Ephesians:
  • “If you can change what someone believes, you can change everything.  If you don’t change their beliefs, you won’t change anything else, either.”
  • “A productive Christian behavior system is the product of a solid Christian belief system, not the other way around!”
  • “What’s the big deal about grace?  It challenges most religious assumptions and changes the focus from me to God – not ‘what can I do to earn God’s favor?’ but ‘ what has God done?’”
  • “In the gospel, we discover that we are far worse off than we thought, and far more loved than we ever dreamed.” ~Steven Curtis Chapman
  • “The greatest deception of the enemy is to tell us that God cannot use us until we have our own act together.”  God uses weak people; we are more useful to God when we’re weak, because then we have to rely on God.
  • “The unified, trained body of Christ is the most powerful expression of God on teh face of the earth.” ~Bill Hull
  • If you are a believer and you are not using your gifts, you are hurting other believers.
  • Money – materialism – is probably our biggest idol; it is the only area of life we are told to test God in, and most people are not willing to do it.
  • “Biblical submission: a willingness to yield my life, my desire, my plans, to God’s design – to His will and His Word.”
  • We are living in a war zone – why are we living for fun and entertainment?
  • We equip ourselves for the battle on our knees.  Prayer is the work of the church.
  • Every single great revival began with prayer.
  • The enemy has us deceived that prayer won’t work.
  • What are you living for?  What is your purpose in life?  When you get to the end of your life, will you wish you had done more?

I know these are all kind of random…they are just some various thoughts that stick out to me as I go back through my notes.  But, I’m doing this more for my own sake – to think through the classes again and have another copy of the things I’ve learned – than for anything else.  Looking forward to next week’s classes: 1st Thessalonians and Christology!  Should be good!  Oh, and the Day of Prayer for Ecola is on Tuesday!  Definitely looking forward to that!

This past week we had two classes: Personal Evangelism and the book of Daniel (also known as the study of Ancient Hebrew Apocolyptic Literature).  The classes were wonderful – I learned so much.  Now it’s time to process the classes a bit by dumping it all out on you, my readers.

Personal Evangelism (taught by Dr. Dan Clausen):

• Evangelism is:
  • (according to a former student of the teacher), “the awkward duty that none of us wants to do.”
  • proclaiming the good news of life in Christ and telling what Christ has done for us.
  • the “winning” part of making disciples
  • clearly communicating the good news of Jesus Christ and leaving the results up to Him.
  • being a witness of what Christ has done in your own life.
  • sharing your love for God with someone who does not yet know Him.
  • bringing life to dead people.
• We don’t go into marriage asking what the minimum is to do to stay married.  Why do we do that when we get into a relationship with God?
• Why should we tell people about Christ?  Because we love God.  If we love God, we will care about the things He cares about.
• Evangelism is moving people toward Christ, and discipleship is moving people closer to Christ.
• “You impress people from a distance; you influence them from up close.”
• “God wants us to understand and accept God’s grace so we can give it to others.”
• “Only 6% of young people [my generation] go to church.”
• “Our role in witnessing is to clearly and concisely present Christ; God’s role is to convict the spiritually lost of sin and convince them of their need for Him.”
• “Our role in witnessing is to call people to respond to the message; God’s role is to draw the spiritually dead to Himself and give them life.”

Daniel (taught by Josh Duff):

• As a random fact, Josh told us that defenestration is “the act of throwing a thing or especially a person out the window.”
• In Daniel 1:2, it says that God gave Judah, along with some of the things from the temple, into Nebuchadnezzar’s hand; how ironic, that Nebuchadnezzar probably took those things from the temple to show that he had conquered God.
• Why do we call Daniel’s three friends by the pagan names that the Babylonians gave them?  We should practice calling them by their Hebrew names, which have significant meaning (e.g. Hananiah means “Lord, show us grace”) instead of by their pagan names that refer to pagan gods (e.g. Shadrach means “under command of Aku”).
• Did you know that Daniel was probably 18-20 when he interpreted Nebuchadnezzar’s first dream?  You know, the time when Nebuchadnezzar was going to have all the wise men of the kingdom killed (including Daniel and his friends) and Daniel saved all their lives?  Wow.  Talk about impressive.  Especially when you look at what 18-20 year olds are typically doing today.
• I love what Josh pointed out in chapter three about the fiery furnace.  Nebuchadnezzar prepared this event to glorify himself; instead, God used it to magnify Himself greatly – and in front of hundreds of people, too!
• Daniel 4:17 – “The Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind” (NASB) – the theme of the book of Daniel.
• In Daniel chapter 6, Josh pointed out that prayer is a regular part of Daniel’s life.  The first thing he thought to do when he heard about the law was to pray about it – the very thing that was illegal to do!
• Throughout the book, there are a couple of things that really stood out to me.  First of all, God’s sovereignty – He knows what is going to happen in the future (see all the prophecy in the book – so much of which has already taken place), and is in complete control of all situations.  Secondly, the courage of Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azaraiah.  They didn’t compromise in anything, but followed their God whole-heartedly.  May I follow their example.

• Dr. Chittick taught Creation, and did an excellent job.  He is so gracious and kind…even in talking about the people who argue against him.  There was a lot of evidence that he presented in class regarding Creation, the Flood, dinosaurs, the Ice Age, the age of the earth, etc.  Here are some of the main points from his class:
  • When you argue with someone, don’t argue about the evidence; we all have the same evidence; instead, discuss worldviews.
  • “The correctness of an explanation can be discerned by checking it against reality.”
  • “Time magazine says that humans and chimps have 98-99 percent identical DNA.  By using a percentage, it ignores the fact that there is still 125 million DNA base pairs that are different.  According to DNA percentages, mice are more closely related to man than are chimps.”
  • He also talked a lot about how advanced ancient civilizations were.  For example, there is evidence of solar powered hot air balloons in Peru.  Nicotine was found in Egyptian mummies, but it was only grown in South America – evidence that there was trade over the ocean.  ”Newer archaeological evidence from South America indicates early advanced skull surgery.”  Also, there are 20,000 ton stones that they moved…compared to the 2000 ton stones that our best machines can move today.
• Dr. Joey Dodson taught the book of Philippians.  He was a great teacher…entertaining (he has a great ping pong ball disappearing act), but also able to be serious and teach God’s Word well.
  • “The heart loves what the mind thinks about; the will does what the heart loves.”
  • “Before Paul talks to men about God, he talks to God about men.”
  • “If I had only three years to serve Christ, I would spend the first two in study.” (Billy Graham quoting Charles Spurgeon)
  • Don’t look for validation from people; don’t take your eyes off God; don’t compromise to fit in with others; don’t worry about what people say.
  • Realize that people are made in God’s image, so we must treat them accordingly.
  • There’s a difference between serving and being a servant.  Being a servant:
    • Embrace the ministry of the mundane
    • Ministry of interruption – allowing people to interrupt your plans/schedule
    • Holding your tongue – listen
    • Bear others’ burdens.
  • If we’re argumentative or if we talk a lot, we’re probably not humble.
  • What Paul does as a leader, and what we should do:
    • Communicate
    • Appreciate privately
    • Recognize publicly
    • Encourage (not just by letting people know what they’re doing well, but also telling them what they need to know)
  • Forget the past and press on towards the future…what’s distracting you from pursuing God?
  • Paul still even cries for the lost – even though they are the ones who have been persecuting him; he has great passion and heart for the lost.  Do you love Christ?  Do you cry for the lost?

So, I started putting up some things I wrote down during Brad Buser’s class on Acts, and decided it really needed its own post.  So, here are the challenging quotes from that class.  Obviously it was a wonderful class – very challenging and I definitely learned a lot from it.

• “You are not the supreme issue.  It’s not about the people you are going to, either [in ministry].  It’s about what God has said to do.”
• “At the end of your life, will you look back on how you followed God passionately, or on how your followed your own dreams and plans?”
• “Is following God’s will what you really want?  Or are you just curious to know it?”
• “‘That’s just the way I am’ isn’t a good excuse.  We are new creatures in Christ.  Set that aside for the sake of the kingdom.”
• “What kind of example are you setting for the people around you?  Do you encourage them to pursue God passionately?  Or do you distract/discourage them?”
• “What is your credibility?  You have to earn the right to share the gospel by the way you live your life so others see they way you live and will then listen to you.”
• “How much stuff do you really need?  How generous are you? … It’s not what you’re giving, it’s what you’re holding back that matters to God.”
• “To whom much is given, much is required; what are you doing with what you have and what you know?”
• “Will you have the courage to speak up for Christ even when told not to?”
• “The centrality of the message is the resurrection of Jesus Christ.”
• “What are you going to give your life for?”
• “Is everything in our your life subject to Christ?  Even your schedules and plans?”
• “Learn how to respond rather than react.  Learn to speak without generalizations.  Learn to speak accurately.  Learn to compromise in non-essentials.”
• “How you look matters – how you carry yourself, your body language, what you wear, etc.  Everything about you is negotiable for the kingdom’s sake.”
• “How do you respond to people opposing you?  Are you addicted to affirmation?”
• “You can leave your family and friends for the sake of the kingdom – you have all eternity to spend with them.”
• “You don’t have the right to have roots aside from those in heaven.”
• “You’re going to give your life for something – what will you live and die for?  Don’t live for yourself.”