Consistency

You don't have to be perfect. You do have to be consistent. You can beat 80 percent of the people at ANYTHING by hard work alone because most people just won't put in the effort. The other 20 percent is a dogfight won by being consistent. Whether it's exercise or Bible reading, consistency is key. 

No Excuses

No excuses. Just do it.

If you're a lifter, this was my workout today (3 sets each, 8-20 reps):

• Dumbbell bench press
• Standing dumbbell curl
• Seated dumbbell curl
• Machine lat pull
• Dumbbell overhead press
• Pullups
• Standing hammer curl
• Standing EZ bar curl

Afterwards I drove to Wake Forest to get a new pair of Altra Torens. 

Sick, eh? My body feels really good after running in them. Comfy, cushiony, peppy, very soft/silent landing. 

For the rest of the afternoon I'll be chillaxing in my office here. If I feel inspired, I'll also write. Students, if you're wondering where your final exams are, they're waiting for you on the camel seat in my office. 

Out of This World

My involvement in running started, oddly enough, at the finish line. 

My first ever race -- a 5K. The date was July 25, 2015.

Where most people decide they want to run a race is when they watch someone else finish. That happened to me. 

At it again -- Oct. 31, 2015.

You stand there for an hour watching people cross that finish line and you'll be hooked. 

Completing the St. George Marathon in Utah, Oct. 7, 2017. 

It's some kind of crazy feeling watching people hug their relatives or start crying or smile when they look at their watch. If you are at all considering becoming a runner, DO IT. The energy, the sights, the people -- it's out of this world. 

Intellect PLUS Emotions

I once did a deep dive into Paul's radical list of love-virtues in Rom. 12:9-21. If you'd care to look at it, I think you'll discover that the argument Paul presents is an amazing one from a purely literary point of view. Paul had been endowed by God with an amazing intellect. The body of Christ has been indebted to it for two millennia. 

But Paul wasn't only an intellectual. He was also a man with profound feelings. He never thought without feeling, and he never felt without thinking. His mind and his emotions worked hand in glove in the appeal that he brings to us in Rom. 12:9-21. We are to be thoughtful people but also people of emotion and feeling. Prayer and the word and godly living ought to show up in the smiles on our faces and not only in our books and blog posts. 

One cannot hear the truth and remain unchanged emotionally. 

The Problem with Resolutions

The problem with making resolutions is the lack of resolution -- the firm decision to do or not to do something. I'm not a huge resolutions person, but I do have one or two that I do follow through on, and that includes training. It seems I have no lack of motivation in that area. I'm still on the fence in other areas of my life. The older I get, the more I only pick goals that I'm extremely excited about. Today I'm just glad my 70-year old body can still move and hopefully run another marathon next month and maybe one or two more after that. In the end, I don't want to reach the end of my life and regret the risks I didn't take or the relationships I was too afraid to have or the decisions to change something in my life that I waited too long to make. A new year is a reminder to make the most of each and every day. The bottom line is that it's never too late for us to change if we really want to and become the person we want to be. Please please remember that. 

Three Virtues to Pursue in the New Year

First off, thanks to Bible Gateway for all the translations they offer people like me. I couldn't do what I do without their help. Appreciate you!

So today was my day for working through the fruit of the Spirit -- not all of them, just the three Greek words you see below. 

I think I'm going with "forbearance" (instead of "patience"), "kindness," and "goodness." Agree? 

But what do these have to do with agapē? We might say that they are the concrete attitudes and actions of self-giving love ("self-giving love" is my rendering of agapē). Forbearance is a negative quality. It's the idea of "bearing up under aggravating and demanding people or circumstances." I'm thinking of the guy at the gym who never reracks his weights, or the lady at Bojangles whose incessant gossiping drives me crazy. 

If "forbearance" says it negatively, "kindness" and "goodness" say it positively. Kindness is wishing good; goodness is doing good. We're not just to bear up with people negatively. We think good thoughts about them and do good deeds for them. Elsewhere Paul can write, "Love is patient, love is kind." He can also say, "Through love serve one another." Listen, it's no use saying you love people unless you exercise forbearance, kindness, and goodness toward them. Take that guy in the gym who breaks all the rules of etiquette. How can I be longsuffering, kind, and good toward him in concrete ways? This is the level of love for which Christ has set us free (Gal. 5:1) and to which we were "called" at the moment of our conversion (Gal. 5:13). To love others in this way is a very great ministry. It is something every believer can and must do. But do we? 

I'll leave you with that conundrum. Fact is, it's much easier to write what I just wrote than practice what I just preached. I think the place to start is with inviting the Holy Spirit to fill us afresh every morning before we get out of bed. For me, it just starts my day off right. There is real life to deal with and real people who could use a bit of forbearance, kindness, and goodness. I don't want to be so focused on studying the Bible that I don't practice what I'm learning. 

You? How's it going in 2023 practicing these three virtues? 

Surfing Pipeline

Want to see what it's like surfing Pipeline? This video will give you a pretty good idea of what you go through. Keep in mind that when I surfed the Pipe back in the 1960s, the place was a lot less crowded than it is today. Anyhoo, I invite you to paddle out with me and see what it's like firsthand to surf this famous break. Like in the video, I had a red board and it even broke in two when I caught a wave. 

One More Thing

In my last post I forgot to mention that my list includes the word phonoi -- "murders." This comes right after "envyings" (Greek phthonoi). Most translations lack "murders." I find this flabbergasting. I mean, how can that possibly be? The external evidence in support of "murders" is overwhelmingly strong. But the clincher is the internal evidence. Here we clearly have a case of an oversight of the eye (called "parablepsis" by scholars), where a scribe's exemplar had phthonoi phonoi but the copyist skipped over the second word. Here's a powerpoint with the evidence laid out for you. 

Again, I am flabbergasted. Will be interesting to see if this is changed in the next edition of the UBS Greek New Testament. I hope so! 

Broke da Mouth!

Whew! That was tough! I've been working on my translation of the "works of the flesh" all morning long. Here's the latest:

Did you notice that the first 5 Greek words all share the same ending? That's probably no accident. That's why I had to change my rendering of the 5th word from "witchcraft" to "sorcery" -- now all the words end in "y" in English. Woohoo! 

Moving on, notice too those little boxes at the end of words. All these terms are plural in the Greek. Hence the plurals in my English. 

Finally, just for fun, I've given you the renderings found in "my" Bible -- Hawaiian Pidgin. Ain't they something? Man, we know how fo talk in da islands! "Dey get huhu." Oh my!!! Broke da mouth ono!!

I close with this encouragement. In the Great Commission in Matthew, we are commanded to go to all the nations and TEACH. The ministry of the church is to be a teaching ministry. And that has to happen:

• from the front
• in your small group
• one to one
• and at home

In 2023, are you hearing the word taught regularly, are you in a small group, are you learning while chatting with a friend, and -- most importantly -- are you reading the Bible for yourself? That would make a great new year's resolution, wouldn't it -- to recommit ourselves to hearing the Bible at those four levels.  

Are You Training Hard Enough?

I'm Heading to Cowtown!

You read that right. Instead of my first marathon of 2023 being in Cincy, looks like I'll be doing the Cowtown Marathon on Feb. 26 in Fort Worth instead. I just officially registered for the race and purchased my plane tickets. 

The event sounds too good to pass up, plus I get to spend a few days in Dallas visiting mom. In fact, this year I will have to completely miss the Flying Pig Marathon in Cincinnati on May 7 because ALL the hotel rooms near the event are already sold out. Ouch. Obviously you do not have to be a good planner to run marathons. Oh well, there's always next year for the Pig. Meanwhile, it's time to get my training moo-mentum going and my body moo-ving. The steaks are high! 

Am I Too One-Sided?

When I was in seminary, I don't believe I ever heard an argument for the Pauline authorship of Hebrews, or for Matthean priority, or for the Ephesian destination of the book by that name. I believe it's helpful that we teachers give our students more than a one-sided picture of the evidence. Even a coin needs both sides to be whole and complete. 

I have been thinking a lot about this in 2023. 

The Fatal Flaw with Cultural Conservatism

This week I'm doing a deep dive into the two lists Paul gives us in Gal. 5 -- namely, the "works of the flesh," and the "fruit of the Spirit." I must have spent 2 hours working on this passage before leaving for church this morning. 

This week I intend to spend time examining each one of these Greek words in greater detail. It's hard to find a greater contrast between right living and godless living than here, isn't it? We might summarize this contrast as follows:

It is a contrast between the pursuit of pseudo-pleasure on the one hand, and authentic joy and peace on the other.

It is a contrast between malice and envy on the one hand, and kindness and tenderness on the other.

It is a contrast between self-indulgence on the one hand, and self-mastery on the other.

Now, it occurs to me there are a good many similarities between what Paul is saying here and the teaching of a some today who are making remarkable claims about morality, reality, and the meaning of life. These conservative authors and commentators have literally millions of followers on social media. Their "rules for living," if you will, boil down to: take care of yourself, set your own house in order, tell the truth, pursue ultimate meaning, get a job, get married, have children, seek after delayed gratification, and become a responsible member of society. Personally, I resonate with much of what they are saying. But there is a flaw -- a fatal flaw, I would argue -- in their reasoning. And I think this morning I was finally able to put my finger on it. For Paul is very clear in our passage that it is only through the Holy Spirit of God that we can gain ascendency over our fallen human nature. In other words, for Paul the secret of holiness and goodness and self-mastery and so forth is found only in the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. No holiness is possible apart from the indwelling presence of the Spirit, who is given to us at the moment of conversion. Thus without repentance, without that internal turning away from sin and turning toward Christ, holiness is an utterly impossibility. Self-mastery is possible only through an unconditional surrender to Christ at conversion and then an unconditional surrender to the Holy Spirit afterwards. 

This act of surrender is, in essence, what Paul has been teaching in Gal. 5. He does this with several metaphors. We are to "walk by the Spirit," "live by the Spirit," "be led by the Spirit," and "keep in step with the Spirit." But they all mean the same thing. We must surrender ourselves to the sovereignty of the indwelling Spirit of God. Elsewhere Paul can write, "Be filled with the Spirit" (Eph. 5:18). This could also be rendered "Go on being filled with the Spirit." Paul's point is that we must continually surrender to the Spirit so that the Spirit might continually fill us. In psychological terms, we are to open our personality to the Holy Spirit of God, regularly and continuously, so that he will continue to fill us with himself. Let us remember that the mark of a Christian is the presence of the Spirit of Christ in our lives (Rom. 8:9). Without him, we cannot please God. Without his presence, we cannot take up our cross daily and repudiate evil without compromise. No amount of pleading with people to take responsibility for their lives can replace this fundamental teaching of Christianity. It didn't work when Robert Schuller preached the power of positive thinking, and it won't work today through the teaching of good men who have never experienced the only true source of transformation. This transformation, however, is within reach of every follower of Jesus Christ. It is altogether out of the question that we should even dream of such a transformation apart from conversion to Christ. 

Allow me to conclude with one example from Gal. 5. Paul completes his list of the fruit of the Spirit with "self-control" or "self-mastery." I've noticed in listening to cultural conservatives that the topic of self-mastery very often comes up. And of course, that is a good and right thing. Our society is one that is largely characterized by a lack of self-control and, by contrast, an almost frenzied lust after short-term pleasure through self-indulgence. But make no mistake about it. Here in Galatians, Paul is not speaking about a change in our lives that can be wrought through personal self-effort. This is clear from the agricultural metaphor he employs. Paul is referring to a "harvest" which the Holy Spirit produces within the soil of our human character through purely supernatural means. By nature and disposition, we are self-indulgent creatures. But lay hold of this: what is impossible with man is possible with God. It is a fatal thing to try and do this on our own. 

Christlikeness is the eternal purpose of God for you and for me (Rom. 8:29). It is my personal goal for 2023, as it's been my goal for more than 6 decades, to become more like Christ. I pray that I may be so filled with the Holy Spirit that his fruit appears and ripens in my character: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. 

Well, It Looks Like We're Off to a Good Start

Hey y'all! My Achilles tendon is healing up nicely, thanks for asking. Very minimal pain. No problem stretching it. I am working out almost daily in order not to lose the measure of fitness I gained in 2022. I think I'm making progress. I knew the real test would come when I ran my first race of the new year. Well, that happened today. The race was held in Cary, NC, at the official Wake County cross country course. As you can imagine, the course was a bit daunting, as in hilly mountainous. You had the option of running either a 5K or an 8K. A total of 346 runners chose to do the 5K. Since I enjoy longer distances, I opted to do the 8K along with 60 other runners. I loved this race. It was great running weather. The race was well organized. The lines for the porta-potties were short. But what I loved most about this morning was the sheer act of running in my community, surrounded by people who love the sport as much as I do. I love how running brings us all together regardless of our age or ability. I was the only male over 65 running today. This meant getting passed regularly. Still, I was proud of myself for not going out too fast and for maintaining a manageable pace throughout the 5-mile course. I like to stay calm, reflect on my journey to get to the starting line, be grateful to God for the ability to run, focus on having fun and enjoying the experience, and be comfortable with the fact there will always be runners who are faster than me and other runners who will be slower than me. 

Today's shakeout run was perfect for dusting off the cobwebs and evaluating the status of my quads, glutes, knees, calves, tendons, and feet. I am grateful to report that they all passed muster with flying colors. I think that bodes well for the rest of 2023. After the race I drove to my favorite Ethiopian restaurant in Cary for some delicious kai wat. Here the staff treats its guests like they are royalty. 

Eating Becky's favorite dish brought back so many happy memories of times gone by. Here we are in 2004 on our very first trip together to the land of her youth. Isn't she beautiful? 

Little did we suspect that this would turn out to be the first of 14 trips that she made and 17 that I made. Over lunch, it was neat thinking about all the kingdom work the Lord gave us to do as a team for all those years. 

I think I probably took her and those days of ministering together for granted too much. You hear it all the time, so much so that it's become a cliche. But it's true: "Live each day as if it were your last." Stop making excuses for your life not being what you want it to be. Life is about choices. Make each one count. I'm going to try to do just that in the new year. 

In the meantime, I've been planning out the next 6 months or so. When I say "planning," what I mean is choosing all the fun things I want to do either with myself or with my family. Of course, you also have to plan out boring things like tax preparation and changing the air filters in the house, but those things never change from year to year. My racing calendar is starting to fill up but I'm not quite ready to share it with you yet. 

Stay tuned! 

My One Word Prayer for 2023

Maranatha! 

This Is What I Think About Liberalism

Twentieth century liberalism invited the church to abandon its historic faith in the infinite, transcendent and yet personal God in favor of a nebulous and impersonal concept called the ground of being. This attack on historic Christianity led in turn to a call to abandon its faith in the deity of Jesus in favor of deification. That is to say, Jesus was only a man who came to be deified through the devotion of his followers even though he never claimed to be God. It is here that the attack is being directed today. This is such a radical denial of historic Christianity that those who make this denial can no longer be called Christians in any meaningful sense of that term. There is a pressing need today for the Christian church to reaffirm its conviction of the full deity of Jesus Christ. The Christian faith is a historic, Christ-centered faith, a faith in the living God revealed in his incarnate Son, Jesus Christ. Thus the deity of Christ is an absolutely fundamental truth of Christianity.

I take it that most readers of this blog are Christians. We claim to be, we want to be, genuine followers of Jesus. We gladly acknowledge him as fully God and fully man. But how can we grow in our knowledge of him? How can we come to know him better, to serve him more faithfully? How can Jesus Christ become to us more real, more central, until he is actually indispensable? Let us use marriage as an analogy. Just as a married couple grows in their knowledge and respect and love for each other until each feels that the other is indispensable to him or her, so we are to grow in our knowledge and reverence and love for Jesus Christ until he becomes indispensable to us, and life is literally inconceivable without him. That's just like God, isn't it? When you give him your first love, he gives back far more than you could ever hope to give him. 

Thank you, Dear Father, for making it plain in your word how married people should love each other. And now you tell us to honor Christ by submitting to him. He is not only in charge of his body the church, but he gave his very life to take care of it and be its Savior and to make her holy and clean so that he could give her to himself as a glorious church without spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Thank you, Father, thank you! May you be given glory forever and ever through endless ages because of your master plan of salvation for the church through Jesus Christ. 

I Am Way Past My Prime

But I'm not giving up. 

Karl Barth on Calvin's Institutes

There were many things that attracted me to Basel for my doctoral studies, not least of which was the fact that it was in this city that Calvin, at the ripe old age of 27, published his Institutes of the Christian Religion in 1536, a work that provided the seeds for the branch of Christianity that bears his name. If you want your faith to be stretched, read this book. If you want to improve your German, then listen to this outstanding lecture by Karl Barth. 

I have never regretted my years in Basel. They formed the foundation of what turned out to be a most pleasant career as a teacher of the New Testament. I cannot thank God enough for that. 

The Eclipsed Father

As you know, I'm all about balance. I LOVE to push myself to my limits but I also love to be well-rounded in the exercises I do. More than anything, I want to get old(er) being limber and strong. The Greeks had a saying -- mēden agan, "nothing in excess." It's essentially the same thing as saying we should live balanced lives. 

I think this applies to theology as much as it applies to other areas of our lives. It's so easy to get out of kilter in this regard. One example occurred to me this morning while I was reading and studying Gal. 4, where Paul reminds us of the Spirit's cry in our hearts -- "Abba, Father!" or "Father, Dear Father!" (Phillips). Now, it seems obvious to me that the Fatherhood of God has been largely eclipsed nowadays by a focus on the Son and the Spirit. He's perhaps the least popular of the three persons of the Godhead. You see this when you open any textbook on theology. There you will almost certainly find a chapter on the Son (Christology) and a chapter on the Holy Spirit (Pneumatology), but where is the chapter on the Father? It's simply not there. Instead, the subject is treated under the heading "Theology Proper." There seems to be a preoccupation with the Second and Third Persons of the Trinity at the expense of the First. In the 1960s, I myself belonged to a segment of Christianity called the "Jesus Movement." We wore Jesus shirts, we sang Jesus songs, we shouted Jesus shouts, and we wore long hair and sandals like Jesus did. Some people called us "Jesus Freaks." I fear we had forgotten that when the Lord Jesus called people to himself, he did so in order to introduce them to the Father. Others are equally obsessed with the Holy Spirit, forgetting that the Spirit is a very shy Spirit and that when he occupies the heart of a believer he bears witness not to himself but to the Fatherhood of God (Gal. 4:6) and to the Lordship of Christ (1 Cor. 12:3). This truth is wonderful summed up for us by Paul in Eph. 2:18, where he says that it is through Christ and by one Spirit that we have access to the Father. 

I would love to see every major theology textbook make amends and add a chapter on the Fatherhood of God. It could be called "Patrology," if you like, but I do not see how our theology can be balanced without recovering a focus on the Father. There is such a crying out in my soul for everyone to know God as Father. I will never be able to thank him enough or praise him enough for sending his Son and his Spirit so that he might accomplish his work of salvation and sanctification in my life!

Thank you, Dear Father. I give you the glory and honor and praise. I thank you for the patience and love you've had for me all these years. Thank you that I'm a part of the Royal Family of God. And thank you that you will keep right on helping me until your task within me is finally finished on that day when Jesus Christ returns. HalleluYah! Amen, amen, and amen! 

Kudos to the NKJV!!

Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and all that is within me bless his holy name! Once again I saw something in Greek I had never seen before. Today I was in Gal. 4. 

See those circled words? It's obvious they are identical. They are the same tense, the same voice, the same mood, the same person and number, and they share the same source. This really stands out in Greek but not so much in English. The first thing I want to say is that the basic idea of the verb is not simply "to send" but "to send forth." In other words, when you attach a preposition to a verb, that preposition often adds to that verb's meaning. However, not all English versions render the verb as "sent forth." Many simply use "sent," which is the "simplex" form of the verb rather than the "compound" form. Secondly, even versions that do translate the first occurence of the verb as "sent forth" in verse 4 fail to render its second occurrence in verse 6 the same way. Here's a chart for you to consider:

• NIV: sent/sent
• ESV: sent forth/sent
• CSB: sent/sent
• RSV: sent/sent
• RV: envió/envió
• DHH: envió/mandó
• Luther: sandte/hat ... gesandt
• LG: a envoyé/a envoyé
• Vulgate: misit/misit

Then I saw this:

• NKJV: sent forth/sent forth

Plain enough, right? Isn't God beautiful the way he so plainly puts down in his word the source of both the Son and the Holy Spirit? The most beautiful part about this, however, is neither the Greek nor the English verb but the truth that the one whom God sent forth for our salvation was perfectly qualified to do so as his Son, and that he also sent forth his Spirit that we might have an experience of that great salvation. 

Kudos to the NKJV translators for making this so plain! 

Running in Place with Dumbbells

Today was cardio day but instead of heading out to the trails I decided to run in place with weights for an hour and a half at the gym. Yes, it was challenging, but that's the point. 

The key here is: warm up properly, use light weights for higher repetitions, and take frequent breaks (at least every 15 minutes). If you're the type of person who works out regularly with weights, particularly with dumbbells as I do, then you shouldn't have any problems. (I lift three days a week and do cardio three times a week.) Remember that any exercise is dangerous IF the weight or resistance that you're adding is too much for your body to handle. This goes for weights, resistance bands, dumbbells, even jogging in place. So dumbbell running is okay if you're physically capable of handling the weight/resistance with the velocity you're applying. The dumbbells will build your arms, shoulders, forearms, and abs. Choose dumbbells that are challenging but not too heavy.

I love this workout routine! 

Success

Success is not a home run, but a series of bunts. 

The Key to Language Learning

The key to language learning is, frankly, teachability. Yesterday I ate at our local Mexican restaurant. My server was Maria from Mexico. 

We spoke Spanish with each other the entire time. At the end my meal I wished her "Feliz Nuevo Año." With a smile, Maria gently corrected me: "Feliz Año Nuevo." I thanked her, and we said our goodbyes. 

I feel like I often put very high expectations on myself, but I realize that you have to humble yourself and start small to get something big. For any language student reading this blog post, just keep working hard, set smart goals, and most of all enjoy the process, because one day you will be happy to see all that you've achieved. 

The Bible: God's Love Letter to Us

Hey there! What a precious time this morning in Philippians chapter 1. 

It's been 62 years since I came into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Who cares how many problems you have when you have him? Suppose I told you that tomorrow you could have a half hour personal appointment with Jesus concerning your needs. You could talk to him about whatever subject you wanted, seek his counsel about the decisions you face, and speak with him about your problems. How many of us would rush to get our name on that list so we could be right there for the first appointment! May I suggest something to you? Start thinking about personal Bible study as being a personal counseling session with Jesus Christ! For every need or problem you have in life, there's an answer wrapped up in its pages. From the day I turned 16, God instilled within my heart the most insatiable desire to read his word and that hasn't changed since. I can't tell you how many times he's taken the familiar and make it fresh and new. This morning it was as though I realized for the first time that Paul had written Phil. 1:21 not just for the Philippians but for me too. "For me, Dave Black, to live is Christ!" Paul was 100 percent committed to the supremacy of Christ! That was the secret of his life and ministry. "To me," he wrote, "what life means is Christ. I now see everything according to whether it exalts Christ or not, whether it brings him honor or dishonor. For me to live is Christ even if it means my freedom is curtailed or my reputation is attacked or even if I must die!" Paul had his priorities right. He was willing to suffer imprisonment and slander if only thereby Christ would be honored and proclaimed. Friends, already in 2023 I've spent much time in reflection and prayer. I say it tremblingly, but the Holy Spirit has already brought to my mind two particular things that need to be surrendered to Christ. In these areas I've asked him to replace my self-centered ambitions with Christ-centered ones. Thank you Jesus! 

This morning, the Bible became a love letter where I could just wallow in God's love and care as I realized he was talking to me. He's given us such a simple plan to follow because all we have to do is read his word and that's the answer to it all. My part is to put aside my own desires and let God have his way, and doesn't he spell it out so easy for us understand?

Praise God! HalleluYah! 

Easy Days, Hard Days

No run ever feels the same. Some days are easier and some days are harder, but never give up. You've got this! It's time to hone in and get busy with my marathon training for 2023. I'm excited to be turning over the legs again. 

Carrot Time on the Farm

Feeling Orphaned

Exactly 3 weeks from today I return to the classroom, Lord willing. I can't wait. I feel like Paul must have felt when he wrote that he felt he had been torn away from the Thessalonians (1 Thess. 2:17). The Greek verb is aporphanizomai, which occurs only here in the New Testament. The term could be used either of children deprived of their parents or parents deprived of their children. Hence these renderings:

NIV: "we were orphaned by being separated from you"

ESV: "we were torn away from you"

CSB: "we were forced to leave you"

Elsewhere in the letter Paul says he "longed to see" them and that he prays that God would "clear the way" for him to return to them. 

That exactly how I feel.

Just as Paul longed to see his beloved Thessalonians, I long to see my beloved students again. For Paul, a letter was no substitute for the stimulus of face-to-face fellowship. For a teacher like myself, a blog post or an email are completely unsatisfactory substitutes for the classroom. Paul felt and acted toward the Thessalonians as if they were his own children. He lay bare his love for them. And all the while he has been pouring out his heart for them in prayer. His whole life and ministry were inextricably bound with them. 

What teacher could not truthfully say with Paul, "I feel like I have been torn away from you"? Scott Hayden once wrote, "Teachers have three loves: love of learning, love of learners, and the love of bringing the first two loves together." For this teacher, that reunion cannot take place soon enough. 

This Is Not a Time for Less Bible Study

I've always believed that there are a lot of things the Bible teaches that many people don't even know about because these truths are deemphasized or even ignored altogether. Today is not a day for less Bible study but for more. 

Easy Dumbbell Workout (Only 7 Exercises!)

Today's workout focused on my favorite exercises for arms using only dumbbells. These include biceps, triceps, and shoulder exercises. All you'll need for the entire workout is a pair of dumbbells. 

1. Alternating cross body dumbbell curl. 

2. Wide dumbbell curl.

3. Dumbbell overhead press.

4. Dumbbell concentration curl. 

5. Incline bench dumbbell press.

6. Bent arm lateral dumbbell raise. 

7. Dumbbell spider curl. 

I finished my workout with 10 machine-assisted pull ups. 

Always remember: No matter the exercise, if you do not exert yourself and give your muscles a reason to grow, they won't! 

My New Year's Resolution

Care to join me for a few seconds on my 6 mile New Year's run today? Sure. Why not? 

What a way to ring in the new year. It was great to see so many people out and about on the High Bridge Trail this afternoon in 68 degree temps. 

I bet for some of them, getting outdoors more often in 2023 was one of their new year's resolutions. Ya think? Want to know one of mine? I realized this morning that one thing I sacrifice while training is a clean house. Don't think I've given the cobwebs any attention for some time. 

Or the floors.

It's weird, because deep cleaning the house takes all of one day, or two at the most. So why don't I do it? I guess I'm lazy. Scratch that. I KNOW I'm lazy. Sure, I'll run a marathon at the drop of a hat, but don't ask me to vacuum the carpets. I need to get a grip on this or I might be disowned by my family. 

So today I started a new routine. Namely, on the first day of every month I will clean the house from stem to stern. I'm trying not to think about the fact that I'm not especially gifted at noticing dust or cobwebs. But I guess I can improve, right? 

They say it takes two months to establish a new habit. I'm halfway there. Give me a chance and I think I've got this. 

Spiders, beware.