Welcome To Jackson Mississippi!

My wife and I were on our way home from opening our account at a local Credit Union when we were inexplicably diverted from our road. So we turned around and went down to 80 and made our way to a street that would put us straight into the seminary grounds. As we were driving we noticed several police going in a couple of different directions after a police car passed us on our right while heading east on 80. The police car that passed us on 80 did not have its lights on, which did not strike us as unusual until this evening. After that car had passed us we saw at least 25 police cars with lights flashing, sirens going, and driving as fast as they could. When we made it back to the seminary we found out that a Jackson police officer had been shot less than a mile from the seminary by two men who had robbed a title office. As we sat here this evening discussing the day's events it occurred to me that the police car that passed us did not have its lights on and was driven by and African-American man without a hat, don't ask me why I noticed this I don't know, so I concluded it was one of the alleged perps, always wanted to say that, who had taken the downed officers car and made his way down to where we were and just a bit further south before he was apprehended. My wife was shocked at the realization. All my Greek prof could say was "Welcome to Jackson!" He also mentioned he had lived in California, Boston, Louisville, England, and Mississippi and by far Mississippi was the most foreign. More foreign than England!!! Yes indeed, welcome to Jackson Mississippi.

I Meant No Offense

So today we received a nice letter from First Pres. the church we attended last Sunday. It was very nice and Ligon Duncan even put a personal note in at the end, if I remember correctly he said something about reading the blog post. I have never written about someone and had them read it, so now I had to scramble to the computer to remember what I said. Okay, I know I would not say more but I almost feel obligated now, the sermon was very good. It was on Psalm 92, and there was plenty of application, it just, in my opinion, was not overtly a historical-redemptive sermon, the kind I have become used to from my pastors from Iowa and St. Louis. Boy do I feel like I am trying to take my foot out of my mouth. I guess this does give me and opportunity to lay out the diagnostic I use one more time.

It is three parts:

1) Is Jesus mentioned? Don't laugh you could listen to Joel Osteen for months and never hear the Lord mentioned once.

2) If He is mentioned, is He the subject of the verbs? Is He doing the acting or is He being acted upon? Does He drive the verbs?

3) If He is mentioned and is the subject of the verbs, what are those verbs? Is Jesus making you happy? Making you healthy? Making you wealthy? Or is He living a righteous life we can never live, suffering on the cross to pay for our sins and rising from the dead on the third day assuring us of eternal life?*

That's it, if the sermon you are listening to passes this little diagnostic you most definitely are listening to a Christ-centered, cross-focused sermon.

*Of course this time the attention garnered by this post makes it appear this is my diagnostic. I have posted this many times previously and this is the first time I did not give proper credit. This is a diagnostic developed by Todd Wilken and can again be heard on the Issues etc. radio show.

I Now Live In Jackson MS.

It is Monday morning June 30th, the day summer Greek begins. I am not terribly worried about it as I have gone through the Greek Tutor and this should be mostly refresher for me. I am kind of excited to start meeting some folks, there are 33 enrolled in the Greek class, and I have not been feeling well since the move, my hip has really been hurting. My wife has been meeting lots of people and says they are all nice. We went to Ligon Duncan's First Presbyterian Church yesterday. I will not comment on it other than to say the sermon failed my diagnostic test. The people were great, many came to us and introduced themselves and we even met a couple who live in the same apartments we do here on campus.

I Used To Live In Cedar Rapids

The devastation in Cedar Rapids is beyond belief. As I drove around town crossing the bridges that just days ago were under water I can't imagine what this town will be like when/if they recover. I have heard of at least three major employers that are reportedly not going to reopen leaving tens of thousands without work. I said last week I can't imagine the long-term economic impact of this flood but it is not going to be pretty. All I can say with just hours left here is praise the Lord we did not suffer as some have. It would have been emotionally incapacitating to loose everything a week before moving.

Now we are leaving tomorrow with whatever we can fit in our 17' truck. If you live here and are not busy at 8:00 am stop by and give us a hand. I will be gone most of the time, my wife has come up with some errand for me to run so I will not feel useless as I can't help load the truck. One of them will be to take the one cat we have not found a home for to the shelter. We do not want to do this but after contacting hundreds of people and not finding any takers we are left with no other choice. If you read this today and would like to keep this incredibly loving feline out of harms way please let me know as soon as possible.

I hope to be back to writing more regularly as we settle into our new home on the campus of Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, MS. I am sure my classes will give me plenty to write about so stay tuned.