Finished

It’s over. Eight years. Eight years ago I decided I was going to blog through the New Testament. I had no idea how long it would take me. But I finished Monday, which is when I’m writing this too. I began scheduling posts early on so something would come up every day, but I didn’t have to write something that day if I had something else more pressing. I started at I Cor. 5 because that was where I was in my own reading when I decided to do this thing. I made it around. There are two posts scheduled yet to come up. 

I’m not sure why I decided to do this really. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Somewhat I viewed it as “practice.” A person goes to college and learns Biblical languages, studies the Bible in class with other students and professors who have forgotten more than you know, more than they can impart to you also, but then you get into the ministry and you are left coming up with a sermon every Sunday. Yeah, I still do that. I’ve recycled concepts but never a sermon. I remember I spent the first year of ministry reading through the Greek New Testament. I learned more. You are always learning, and sometimes you have to say goodbye to cherished notions and beliefs about what the text says as it corrects you. It was fun. I guess when I decided to blog the New Testament I thought this would help me learn too. It did. Very few things teach me better than writing.

I had time to do it. Or I thought I did. I didn’t know how much time it would take! Who knows how much time anyone has? But I did it.  I thought I would approach it like a series of concept papers for future sermons. Tackle the text, analyze it, find something devotional I could say concerning the text and how it might apply today. Somedays that was work. It got easier when I started reading Bo Giertz’s Commentaries before writing.

I don’t have the same amount of time anymore. I was determined I would finish. And I have put other things off that I want to do. I want to write more for Higher Things and 1517 now, do my art critic schtick. I want to translate more. Honestly, I’ve got more translated. Write not I have Two Volumes of Bo Giertz Sermons translated as well as “With My Own Eyes”. I need to get those published but the works are being held up by a Sasse Volume I have been editing and is at the publisher’s now. Then I have these commentaries to translate.

I’m just translating them now. I had been waiting for a friend who said he wanted to translate them 14 years ago. I’ve been translating them in prep for Sunday, and for Bible Studies. I’ve put a dent in them. They are better than anything I wrote. The world of English speaking Lutheranism needs them. English is just a more accessible language for the world of Lutheranism than Swedish. This is especially true where it is exploding in Africa and elsewhere.

As far as this blog goes, I don’t know what its future is. I won’t be posting every morning anymore. My sermons will still go up on Monday morning. Other than that I may put other things up from time to time. 

The Break

My goal with this blog has been to get through the entire New Testament. I started years ago, and can't remember when. I suppose I could look that up. I started in 1 Cor. the fifth chapter. I will complete that task by the way. 

I have taken the last couple weeks off of the task because I have been trying to finish translating "With My Own Eyes" by Bo Giertz before the Advent season started. I finished yesterday. But honestly, This is now going to have to wait until after the Christmas break. I just have too many things to do.

Back to Work

Summer is over. The break was a little more of a break than I meant it to be but I had a good time with my son this summer, as disappointing as the contamination of his favorite water ride was. I'm talking about the EPA disaster on the Animas. That is a fun river to float. It's also kind of amazing how many people grow up here in Farmington and never do it. John and I managed a couple times but he had to go home the day the river reopened.  Well I'm glad to be back. I've been working on Bo Giertz's commentary on Romans as well as working through Grothe's exceptional volume on Romans for Bible Study at church and that happens to be the book we will be ploughing through here.

Two Week Break

So I have a lot going on right now. And I'm trying to stay afloat. I'm going to take a break from the blog for  a couple weeks. Keep me in your prayers if you would.

Updates and News.

I'm sorry guys, the hiatus has been longer than I said it would. I have had so much on my mind lately. So here is the news to share with you. I'm moving. Zion Lutheran Church in Farmington New Mexico has called me to be their pastor and I have accepted this call. So I will be moving to New Mexico.
I think this means I need to change the name of this blog. I'm looking for ideas, so far I'm thinking "Expository Lutheran." It might fit in more with what I do with this blog anyway with the running commentary. We have two books left before I have gone through the entire New Testament, Acts and Romans. Both great and I have really been looking forward to getting to both of these books so this will happen soon. In the meantime if you are reading this and have any great ideas for a blog name let me know. I think I can change the name without necessarily changing the URL. Someone has to have better ideas of what can be done.
Currently I'm planning on making May 18th the last Sunday here in Utah, taking the next Sunday off and being installed at Zion Farmington the next week. I'm really looking forward to getting to know this new congregation and the new adventures Farmington New Mexico will provide. Keep me, my family, First Lutheran and Zion in your prayers. There is so much that needs to be worked through. I forgot how stressful moving can be.

A Break

Yesterday we finished up with John's Gospel. And today it is Maundy Thursday. I will probably be posting a few of my sermons, But I have a lot going on right now and would like to take a break for a bit before I start in on Acts. I'll be back not this coming Monday, but the next. Hopefully with some exciting news to share with all of you who read this.

Christmas Hiatus

Brothers and sisters,
It dawned on me this morning that I did not post yesterday. John is here and I'm distracted with joy. So perhaps we can resume out regular schedule on the first of January. I'll try to get my sermons up if nothing else over the next couple days though.

A Break

I failed to get a post up this morning. Things are kind of crazy around here. In any case, I'm heading to Breckenridge tomorrow for a bit. I think I will just have to sign off for now and get back to it next Monday.

home.

Got back from DOXOLOGY yesterday. What a great program. It was good to see a bunch of pastors and their wives and to be strengthened by the word. I ran into Dr. Nestingen and yeah,life is good. It was like running into a crazy uncle you didn't know you had. My soul found it refreshing. In anycase, we were supposed to be home yesterday morning but we didn't get home until sometime in the afternoon because of plane delays and so forth. So I missed posting yesterday. Sorry. I'll get back on track now.

I'm back running.

I am doing my best to resume regular schedule. Sorry for the break. It was a good summer break with John, we did some rock hounding, some exploring, and visited Phoenix. I'm lokking forward to continuing with the Gospel of John here on out.

Out of Town

Sorry guys, no posts until tomorrow.

Thanksgiving Break

Sorry folks, things have gotten away, and kind of gone crazy here. That and I have been getting a little bogged down as I said I wouldn't. I will be back next week. Look for me on Monday. Not this Monday. The Monday after Thanksgiving.
I know lots of you actually do read and enjoy this blog. I also know that commenting on Blogger can be a pain in the posterior. I wish they would make that easier. I do enjoy your comments when I get them.

Will not get bogged down

I promise, I won't get bogged down in Luke. If I had to do it over again, I would mix the three synoptics in somewhere else in this project, maybe not take them as they come. I feel like I keep treading the same water, didn't I already talk about that, and why yes I did. And as bad as it sounds, right now, I'm just trying to plow through, and that makes me feel guilty, so I get stuck. But I will get through. Just not this morning. I'm looking forward to John, and I'm really looking forward to Acts after that. have a Winkel meeting this morning (area pastors coming together) So I'm pressed for time. Going to read a Bo Giertz ordination sermon and call it good.

Pushing Through

Don't know why, but I find myself becoming apathetic. Perhaps tired. i haven't been on this the way I used to be. So my posts are sometimes late. morning thoughts are afternoon thoughts. I'm working on it. Hang in there with me.

I'm back,with Bo Giertz Even

Hey guys, I'm back. It was a good break with John. At least I enjoyed it. I really do hate to cease writing on my blog. But at times it just becomes necessary. I am a father and I do owe it to john to give him my attention. I do try to write up things ahead of time to post, but it just wasn't possible this time around. But John went home yesterday. I miss him already. We had fun raping and pillaging the land of all its treasures. Found some truly phenomenal Blue wood (Petrified), Pink Wood, and Topaz, Red Beryl and Agate, John found some nice calcite crystals, and we found some small Amethyst Crystals. We lost my keys, had Laura come and rescue us four hours away, and then found the keys on another rockhounding trip, They were in the back of the jeep... we also did some landscaping and let his ducks go. My rock saw is almost back in usable shape.
In the meantime, My nncle Per-Olof was kind enough to procure Bo Giertz's commentary on the New Testament for me and ship them out of country. It is amazing how hard it is to get your hands on these books! So now I have a complete New Testament Commentary I actually feel like consulting. some may argue that I should consult commentaries more often. I find most of them tediously boring and frustrating at the same time. I once sold a Lenski set for a case of beer in protest. The man spent three pages talking of how Jesus coming up out of the water does not imply immersion, and absolutely no time talking about what it meant that Jesus was baptized. My general rule of thumb is that commentaries say what is painfully obvious from the text, or they spend their time saying something that isn't in the text at all. Reformed commentaries have been known to include nonexistent trap doors in rooms for instance, to explain how Christ appeared in a locked room. A new Lutheran commentary has Jesus going to Nazareth and then fleeing to Egypt because the soldiers are killing babies in Bethlehem.... I have no time for that. I'd rather commentaries be more like sermons.
There are exceptions to this rule. Kleinig's commentary on Leviticus is a prime example. I actually told him my rule of thumb concerning commentaries and he responded that I had forgot another problem with commentaries is that they inevitably plagiarize. His words. I don't know how true it is concerning his. Definitely better than Keil Delitzch though.
In any case, I am looking forward to these commentaries by Bo Giertz. Reading in Swedish is never boring for me. And Bo Giertz has a way with giving insight into a text that is truly phenomenal. I won't be translating them out right. Supposedly someone is working on this project somewhere. I hear that a lot concerning Bo Giertz works, but I see little being produced. I will start encroaching upon the works of others soon if this does not change. I will maybe quote from time to time, but Bo Giertz will not be informing my posts much more explicitly, which I suspect will make them better.

Summer Break

I really didn't plan too, but this is what I am going to do now. I'm taking a break, I will come back at the end of July, when John goes home. In the meantime, I'm rock hounding, fishing, and otherwise goofing off and being a dad. Or is that the same thing? See you in August!

Will Return, have a Merry Christmas

I'm sitting here trying to get posts up for the upcoming weeks. Well I decided I'm going to quit while I'm ahead. I will resume posting after the Christmas holidays, after John heads back home. Otherwise I'll just throw up schlock worse than the normal drivel I serve up... have a Merry Christmas

The last week on Utah Lutheran

Sorry folks, as some of you may know I usually blog ahead. I have these blog posts come up automatically and write them a week or so a head of time. I don't know how the Second Sunday of Easter came in this morning or what happened to the post I intended to have come up this morning.
Nor do I know what is going on with the podcasts, and why they are not available here. I'm in the office for a minute to check on a few things, and don't have time to fix it all right now. There will be a bonafide post coming up tomorrow morning.
I have been out of town all week at a pastor's conference in Grand Junction. The podcasts I tried to put up Sunday night when I was doing bulletins, and realized the spelling typos half way to Moab when I checked the site on my phone. I couldn't fix it from there though.
other than that it was a great conference with Dr. Kloha speaking on how we got the Bible. Great lectures on the distinction between homologomena and antilegoumena, just brilliant.

A little Time Out

It is now Thursday afternoon and in a bit I'm heading to the airport to fly out and pick up my son. I can't wait. However I meant to write blog posts for this next week and haven't done it. Rather than throw together some half thoughts, I'm just going to take some time off. I will be back with regular postings Monday November 29th.

out of town, sendepause

Hey guys, I will be out of town all week, and somehow forgot to get posts ready for the rest of the week. Sorry. I will be back Friday and will start to post a bit more. I will have a bit more time then and the posts will hopefully be of better quality. I appreciate all your participation. I have some papers and stuff lurking in my head. I might start using Scribd a bit more. In any case I have to bring John to the Airport now so he can go back to school at his mom's in California. Then I board a plane for a circuit counselors conference in Denver, something about church planting. Not sure I care for the book they had us read a head of time. Seems to me you ought to know what church is before you go about planting churches. But that is what you get from the Episcopalians these days. What a mess! Sorry fact is that it seems us Lutherans aren't any better when we're recommending this to our guys to read. Well I'll try to keep an open mind. Then I will come back, preach the gospel and administer the sacraments, and visit people like I always do. Seems to be the traditional model for "church growth." rule number 1 be a church, then you can grow. That was Fritz's recomendation, and he planted a couple churches in his day.