Receiving Good Gifts from God

Two out of four health-related appointments for this week have been accomplished. The updates for the software on my wheelchair have been postponed a couple of weeks. I’m glad — I’m feeling overwhelmed with what I need to do. I just got my port-a-cath flushed.

Tomorrow, I may not spend much time at the computer. Getting fitted for a brace wears me out, I may not even bothered checking e-mail. I need to grit my teeth and do this, though. This brace is somewhere between 10 and 20 years old, and is falling apart. So… tomorrow morning, under this body brace, I will be wearing two layers of stretchy… fabric. (Keep my helper, Kathy, in prayer… wrestling with that will not be fun.) I will then get dressed “normally.” When we get to the brace shop, I will be swallowed in plaster casting material until I finish baking. They will cut the mold and one layer of fabric off, while I pretend that my modesty is not offended. Then I will come home.

Thursday, tracheostomy change. That will seem easy… mostly because it is.

Friday through Sunday, my sister from Austin will be in and out. She has some stuff here and needs to get it ready to go to South Korea. She will be leaving on 1 August to a new position as music teacher for the children of soldiers at Osan Air Force Base. Her stuff will follow.

Today, I made modifications on the Zion Tomball website. I also fixed the errors I made on the previous modifications.

Three papers need my attention, but… other than that, I have nothing to do. I guess it’s time to make another to do list…

Yes, I need to update this blog! I have so much to tell you about classes… I just have a lot going on this week. I’m kind of glad that the wheelchair dude rescheduled the appointment to update the software for the crazy driving. Three other appointments are looming though…

Will a picture of me in my Student Deaconess Garb hold you for a day or two?

You can see the cross better in this picture

I need to fix it. That will not be happening until Saturday, at the earliest.

I could not see my website earlier today. I’m checking to see if it is working now…

Really GOOD stuff. I am still amazed at how even the simple teachings of The Lord’s Prayer stand the entire universe on its head.

I’m also amazed at how technology always fails at the critical moment . We lost connection this afternoon and got it back just in time for classes to end. Later on today is a short class in the library about online resources. I’m looking forward to that.

Would you like to see what I see during the lectures?

The first day of classes is behind me. We covered the first two chapters of Matthew, if I remember right. I also just turned in the first study guide paper thingy… seven really crappy pages of writing. (Especially towards the end.)

I’ve been at this from 12 noon and it is now 10:34 PM.

I don’t know if I’ll ever write anything again. (Yes, I am lying.)

Too often modern Christians think of God?s salvation and of his final goal for redeemed humanity in terms of “vertical ascent” and even “escape from creation.” But if God is the Creator of all, then he is also the Re-creator of all, and this creation is the place where his salvation has been and will be accomplished.13 So, then, although there was a marked diversity of messianic expectation in the time of Jesus, the biblical emphasis upon a creational salvation was a clear and lively part of that hope.
Jeffrey A. Gibbs, Matthew 1:1-11:1, 74 (St. Louis, Mo.: Concordia Publishing House, 2006).

A worldview is presupposed in this presentation of Jesus by Matthew that should be highlighted, for it is not necessarily the worldview of moderns, be they North Americans or others. Matthew here proclaims Jesus in terms that are both corporate and creational. It matters to Matthew that Jesus is the goal of the history of a people. Although God deals with humans as individuals, human beings also belong to a larger community; we are individuals, but we are not isolated individuals. So God’s dealings were with a people, Israel, and with its kings. This means the salvation that God offers in Jesus is salvation into a corporate identity, into a people that will be constituted as the true and new Israel in Jesus. Jeffrey A. Gibbs, Matthew 1:1-11:1, 82 (St. Louis, Mo.: Concordia Publishing House, 2006).

Addressing a broad Christian audience of Jewish and Gentile worshiping communities in Syria and Palestine during the middle of the first century AD, Matthew the apostle extended the Scriptures of Israel by authoritatively narrating how the end-time reign of God had broken into the world through the historical deeds and the words of Jesus of Nazareth, God?s Son and God?s Christ. The former tax gatherer?s narrative reflected the common apostolic proclamation about Jesus? ministry, culminating in his vicarious death and resurrection. At the same time, Matthew of Capernaum independently portrayed with special emphasis that (1) Jesus, Son of David and true King of Israel, fulfilled God?s dealings with his people in the OT, and that (2) this Jesus is the mighty Judge whose return on the Last Day will usher in both final salvation for all God?s people and final judgment for all God?s enemies, and that (3) until the age?s consummation, the disciples of the Son of God are to occupy themselves with extending Jesus? own mission to save both Jew and Gentile. This mission takes place by telling the Good News of Jesus? reign-of-God ministry among human beings (Mt 26:13), by baptizing in the triune name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (28:19), and by instructing Jesus? disciples in the whole revelation of God, especially that revealed in Jesus? own teaching (28:20).
Jeffrey A. Gibbs, Matthew 1:1-11:1, 1 (St. Louis, Mo.: Concordia Publishing House, 2006).

(Yes… I’m home instead of at church.) The van died and I’m not going anywhere…

Because God’s love is never provable or free from doubt, believers live under testing and temptation. Faced with God’s hiddenness, they flee for refuge to God’s revealed promise, “the light of the gospel, shining only through the Word and faith.” — Oswald Bayer, “Living by Faith: Justification & Sanctification”

Here is a list of what I will be reading (and writing about) until the 24th:

• Mueller, Steven P. “Law and Gospel” in Called to Believe, Teach and Confess: An Introduction to Doctrinal Theology. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2005. Pp 55 – 76
• Bayer, Oswald Living by Faith: Justification and Sanctification Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2003
• Iwand, Hans Joachim The Righteousness of Faith According to Luther. Wipf & Stock: 2008 (c1941)
• Veith, Gene Edward Jr. “The Theology of the Cross” in The Spirituality of the Cross: The Way of the First Evangelicals. St Louis, MO: CPH, 1999 pp 56-69
• Bolton, Robert People Skills: How to Assert Yourself, Listen to Others and Resolve Conflicts
• Gibbs, Jeffrey A. Matthew 1:1-11:1. Concordia Commentary. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2006.
• Scaer, David P. Discourses in Matthew: Jesus Teaches the Church. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2004.

I’m pretty intimidated by the amount of work I am facing, but the little bit of intimidation has never stopped me.

At the same time, I am absolutely and positively jazzed about the incredible things I am reading and learning. The syllabi for these classes is kind of like handing me a treasure and telling me to take anything I want. I am enjoying this…

… But don’t count on me posting much until the 24th!

Have you seen the number of wheelchairs people want to place in other homes? It’s amazing! Take craigslist in any city in the US (I chose Houston) and do a search on wheelchairs. I am sure you will see something like this.

It’s kind of sad to me. Some of these are still good wheelchairs (like my old one). Their owners either no longer need them or cannot use them anymore… so they enter the netherworld of places like craigslist.

I would like to find a home for my old “faithful steed.” It is electric, with a fairly sensitive joystick. It just is not sensitive enough for my waning strength.

If you know of somebody who could use this wheelchair, have them e-mail me…