Twenty Five

HAPPY DECEMBER the 25th (correct!)

I'm thankful for (just about) one year of marriage, and a first Christmas together.  There's not much more I need to say.  May we have many more happy returns!

Twenty One, Two, Three, Four

HAPPY DECEMBER 21, 22, 23, and 24!

I'm thankful for a number of things, these days.  Briefly:

I'm thankful for new beginnings.  To not only be who I want to be, but be who I am.  And be completely accepted, loved, and encouraged.  Unlike when I went off to PBU (and I was confused about who I was, whose I was, and where I was going), I am here with support.  Not only am I "claimed" by Kevin, I am certain of my state before the Lord.  With that, I have confidence, I have opportunity to share that.   

I'm thankful for our youth group.  The other night, we had our first youth group party at our apartment: A Grinch-themed Christmas Party.  It was so much fun!  Although our apartment is small, the food was good, the games were fun, and the fellowship was sweet.  I am so looking forward to getting to know these kids more!  Definitely looking forward to our retreat in January!  

I'm thankful for the Jewish faith.  Romans 9 says, "They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises.  To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Messiah who is God over all, blessed forever.  Amen."  Kevin and I have begun a "new" tradition (new for our family, that is): celebrating Chanukah.  We have our beautiful, pristine menorah... had to look up how to actually observe the holiday... and though we're not giving gifts each day and not being technically "Jewish" about the whole thing (yet!), we observe the miracle of Chanukah by lighting the candles.  And we are able to observe it with the greater, deeper meaning and fulfillment in Christ.  

Isaiah 2:5

O house of Jacob,

come, let us walk

in the light of the LORD 

John 1:9-11, 4-5

The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.  He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.  He came to his own, and his own did not receive him.  In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

In the same vein, I'm thankful for the gift of Jesus.  (Understatement of my entire life!)  Although the "biggest" holiday of the faith is Easter Sunday - for if Christ had not been raised, we are of all people most to be pitied - I like my college professor's take on the topic.  Jesus' life was a Christ event.  One major event could not have happened without the other: if He had not been born, He could not have died; if He had not died, He could not have been resurrected, etc.  I am thankful that He humbled Himself and came in our form.  The author of Hebrews puts it this way: Therefore, he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.  He is our Savior, He is our High Priest, He is our Hope.  And it is His birth we will celebrate tomorrow.  God-made-man.  The radiance of God the Father in an infant, human body.  This day is the start of something new, something permanent and perfect.  For He came to die - and His sacrifice is our hope!  Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful!  

Twenty

HAPPY DECEMBER 20!

All I want for Christmas are... two baby dragons?

I love and am so very thankful for my kids.  Can I count the reasons?

1) They're hilarious.  Case in point.

2) They give me hugs whenever I want (or don't want) 'em!

3) They don't pronounce everything correctly.

4) They treat stickers like serious currency.

5) They color me pictures.

6) They remind me of my imagination.

7) All the girls wear pink, and all the boys wear blue.

8) One of my little ones wears a fireman helmet everyday.

9) They're adorable.  Did you SEE that picture above?

10) They are more honest than anyone else I hang out with.

Nineteen

HAPPY DECEMBER 19!

Today, in reaction to the news of Kim Jong Il's death, I'm thankful for freedom.  

In America,

I have the freedom to celebrate Christmas.  

I have the freedom to praise God publicly.  

I have the freedom to write a blog and express my religious/political/creative ideas and beliefs.  

I have the freedom to vote for my nation's leader.

I have the freedom to be dissatisfied with my nation's leader and speak my mind about it.

I have the freedom to choose my career.

I have the freedom to listen to/watch/read anything I can get my hands on.

I have the freedom to travel - across state and national borders.

I have the freedom to marry whomever I choose and have as many babies as God gives me.

I have that freedom.

While our nation is by no means perfect, I thank God for the freedoms we enjoy!

Watch this to see one of my favorites sing of freedom 
(a la the underrated Christmas classic: Holiday Inn.)

Seventeen/Eighteen

HAPPY DECEMBER 17-18!

17. I'm thankful for books.  I love to read.  I love it.  I love falling into a story like Harry Potter plunges into Dumbledore's pensieve.  I love the feeling of books: smooth covers, turning rough pages, ink that sometimes rubs off on my fingers if I'm clutching the book a bit too tight.  I love experiencing the different stories, and concurrently learning the lessons the characters learn.  I love that after thousands and thousands of years of literature, there are still creative souls expressing beautifully their stories.  I'm thankful that we have the freedom to express and read.  That books are free to exist as living souls, with rights, sanctity.  (Do not support, purchase, use ebook readers!) 

18. I'm thankful for sleeping in.  Not setting an alarm.  Waking up to the smell of the coffee Kevin made before he left for work.  Laying sprawled out on the bed while I check my Facebook, email, play a little solitaire on my iPhone.  Lounging in my bathrobe till noon.  Having nothing to do but straighten up a bit.  Let's do this again tomorrow.  

Sixteen

HAPPY DECEMBER 16!

Tell me these cards aren't the cutest things you've seen this holiday season...

I'm thankful for notes of encouragement.  One of my goals for this year was to stay in touch with friends (near & far!) via post.  I've been able to keep that up with at least two of my dear friends since moving out here to CO.  And today - joy of joys! - I received one such note from this precious soul.  I cannot express how much I a) enjoy getting mail, b) delight in my friend's beautiful mind, and c) need to hear the things she has to say.  I miss her, and treasure the little taste of what we had in honest prayer and conversation on the bottom bunk in our room last year.  I love being loved, and loved well.

Do yourself a favor and send someone a card this Christmas.  Not just a sign-your-name-at-the-bottom-of-a-cliche-Christmas-message type of card.  A personal one.  Encourage someone.  Do it.

Fourteen/Fifteen

HAPPY DECEMBER 14-15!

Life's crazy.

I'm thankful for funny encounters.  They just add a little something extra to a run-of-the-mill day.  

Yesterday, I was greeted at a luncheon by a lady I had met only once before.  Just a week before, actually.  She grabbed 'hold of me, hugged me tight, and said how good it was to see me and how long it had been.  Then she realized I was not who she thought I was.  I told her that I appreciated the hug anyway.  :)

Kevin, too, had a fun little run-in at the luncheon.  He had just gone up to the beverage table to get us a couple of coffees, when a lady grabbed his arm and asked (as he said, with crazy eyes): "Did you know they have chocolate tea?"  He replied that, no, he did not.  She just nodded (still with the crazy eyes) and walked away.

Today, at work as I handed a fairly regular customer (venti mocha) his change, he looked at me bashfully (read: awkwardly) and said, "I'm just curious... would you be interested in going out sometime?"  Oy.  I wear my rings at work.  I purposefully hold the window open in such a way that the sun can shine off the diamond.  All things considered, I think I handled it rather well - thanked him, told him I'm married, and then sidled out of view.  Awkward.  But funny.  Poor guy.  Apparently, he had asked out one of the other baristas earlier that summer and she, too, had turned him down.  Ouch.

And now for something completely different!

I'm thankful for opportunities.  I had an awesome theological/Gospel conversation with a coworker today.  Just joking around, he claimed to be goodness incarnate.  I said, "That's blasphemy!"  Which launched us into a rather intense discussion of what "goodness" is, original sin, who Jesus is, His deity v. humanity, the holiness of God, what it means that God cannot look on sin, why it is important for us to believe in Jesus' act of redemption on the cross and what actually took place there.  Seriously.  Who gets opportunities like this?  Who takes advantage of them?  While this guy and I are prone to disagreement and (heated) discussion, I appreciate his mind and the way he thinks about things.  I also sense his curiosity, hand-in-hand with a disillusionment with religion.  I hope to have more opportunities of this nature.  Pray for me! 

In your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect.

1 Peter 3:15

Thirteen

HAPPY DECEMBER 13!

I am thankful for Scripture.  

One of my goals for this year was to read through the whole Bible (originally, hoped to read it in 3 months... but life gets kind of crazy with two jobs and cable TV, I'm sorry to say!)  I was excited for this goal because although I've read through the Bible before, it's the first time I'm reading completely through the Bible Kevin gave me almost two years ago.  And I decided to read through it chronologically, so that the stories fit together more like a narrative (there's a good PBU buzzword for ya!) So I finished the Old Testament in a mere two months... and it's taken me maybe four months to get halfway through the (much shorter) New Testament.  Not good.  Today, then, it is my goal to make a huge dent in Paul's Epistles and Acts. 

Besides declaring the good news of our Messiah and the salvation He offers, let me share another reason why I love Scripture.  

As King David said:

How sweet are Your words to my taste, 

sweeter than honey to my mouth!  

Through Your precepts I get understanding, 

therefore I hate every false way.

Psalm 119:103-104

I truly delight in the Word of the Lord.  And I am able to delight because it is true, and these truths are (as Paul says) spiritually discerned.  Because I have the Spirit of God, the veil is lifted and my soul is encouraged and enriched by the life-giving words - I am transformed!  

I read this today, and it is oh so true:

Since we have such a hope, we are very bold, not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end.  But their minds were hardened.  For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away.  Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts.  But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.  Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.  And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.  For this comes from the Lord who is Spirit.

2 Corinthians 3:12-18

Twelve

HAPPY DECEMBER 12!

I'm thankful for my little brother, Austin.  

He's my best friend.

He's one of the smartest persons I know.

He can remember lines to just about any movie we've ever seen.

He does accents.  Brilliantly.  (Esp. New Zealand, Scotland, England)

He's funny.

He reads like it's his job.  Even more so than I.

He's passionate.

He's loyal.

He's a snappy dresser.  Gotta love the cardies.

He "gets" me, and I "get" him.

I call him Audie.

I love how close we are.

There are too many (TOO many) inside jokes between us.

He's graduating this May from Wheaton College, with a degree in History and a minor in Poli Sci.

I get to proofread his papers (they're so good!)

Even if he once described Paradise Lost as "some poem about the Garden of Eden", I know he knows what's up.

I love and miss him so very very much.

Eleven

HAPPY DECEMBER 11!

I'm thankful for quiet times.  Today, strangely, the Packers game was nowhere to be found on any channel in our apartment or in any sports bar we tried.  So, Kevin and I had a quiet and relaxing day in our cozy little flat above the "bustling" streets of Idaho Springs.  Maybe it wasn't so relaxing for Kev, who was stressing about the outcome of his game... but he had plenty of friends texting him updates.  

While Kevin studied for an exam, I was able to be so productive!  

I did some much-needed cleaning and straightening of the apt, 

proofread my brother's awesome poli sci paper, 

planned a Christmas party for our youth group, 

worked on a work schedule for Sbux, 

drank not a little bit of coffee, 

went grocery shopping, 

planned a menu for our friends' visit in a mere two weeks,

shopped online a bit for Christmas presents,

listened to a Christmas mix of James Taylor, Harry Connick Jr, and Mannheim Steamroller

read my Bible,

and started reading an exciting new book!  

Ten

HAPPY DECEMBER TEN!

Sorry the above picture is sort of creepy, I just thought it interesting enough to use!

Today, I'm thankful for marriage.  Kev and I just got home from the beautiful and touching wedding of two of our newest dear friends.  We had the honor of being usher and guestbook attendant (guess which did which!) and observing the beginning of a fun, adventurous, arduous, thrilling journey.  Although it's still nineteen days till our one year anniversary, Kevin and I couldn't wait to watch the video of our wedding.  What an exciting and perfect day that was. 

The thing I'm thankful for, though, is that marriage is not a one-day event.  It's a lifetime.  It's a journey, a process.  Kevin and I get to walk side-by-side through life, experiencing and working through everything together.  We complete - perfect - one another in that process.  And what a beautiful picture of our relationship to Christ:

Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.

For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, His body, and is Himself its Savior.  Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.  Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that He might present the church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.

Ephesians 5:22-27

Nine

HAPPY DECEMBER NINE!

I'm thankful for friends - old and new.  Last night, I attended a (new) friend's bachelorette party, and met some more new friends.  Good times had by all:  great food, great conversation, small world and big world stories, awkward situations, sketchy locales, a freezing walk, and a lot of laughter.  I feel so very blessed to find myself surrounded by such fun and interesting people!  

I also feel blessed by (random) messages and cards from old friends.  I feel like reminiscing.  A lot.  I feel nostalgic for four years back - if that's possible - and I cherish the relationships that can span hundreds of miles.  

I am loved, and I feel that.  

Eight

HAPPY DECEMBER 8!

I'm thankful for my mother.  While Mimsy and I do not always see eye-to-eye, through our differences (and surprising similarities), I think we've learned a lot from one another.  Here are a few reasons I thank God for my mom.  

Mom inspired and encouraged my love of good literature.  

(Remind me to tell you the story of "Wait till Helen Comes" someday.)

Mom instigated my love of all things Jewish.

Mom is the smartest woman I've ever met -- I use her as a resource as often as possible.

Mom loves Scripture (and studies) more than anyone else, I'm convinced.  Inspiring.

Mom strives to live a life pleasing to the Lord, and learns more about grace everyday.

Mom pushes me to do my best - in everything.  She volunteered me to sing at church, made me stick with piano during the tougher years, and gave me journals to keep me writing.

Mom learns things, and shares them.  She can't keep it to herself.  What a wonderful and in-depth teacher.

Mom is unintentionally funny.  Sometimes, she gets mad at us for making her little phrases inside jokes, but I hope she knows we do it because we love her.

(Hey mom, can you jag me the remote?)

When mom thinks/believes/knows something, she is convinced of it.

Mom loves my daddy and us, and is such an example for me.

My son, observe the commandment of your father and do not forsake the teaching of your mother; bind them continually on your heart; tie them around your neck.  When you walk about, they will guide you; when you sleep, they will watch over you; And when you awake, they will talk to you.

Proverbs 6:20-22.

<3 

--For my companion-post on why I am thankful for daddy, click here!--

Seven

HAPPY DECEMBER SEVEN!

I am thankful for history.  Today is the 70th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.  What images show up in your head when you hear the words Pearl Harbor?  For me, it's not a scene from the epic-length (read: horrendously boring) movie touted as a romance from 2001.  It's a paragraph from my 11th grade US History textbook and a clip from Tora! Tora! Tora!  Years back I mentioned to my little sister (God bless her) that it was Pearl Harbor Day.  She thought a moment then said, "OH YEAH!  ...Who's that again?"

Seventy years is not that far removed.  Yet, do we commemorate the way we ought to?  Pearl Harbor is but one example of the way we 'honor' a day in history, without taking a moment to recognize its significance and consequent impact on our history.  

To say history is important is an monumental understatement.  Yet our generation does not (and is not taught to) observe the things of the past.  The difficult things.  The low points and tragedies.  The victories.  The turning points.  How then can we learn?

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.  --George Santayana.

[12/6] stuff my kids said today

Said by my fave:

Mason kicked my hand and he made it redder so I can have a hot lava hand!

I think I can drink a whole water fountain full of water!

Did Jingles the elf visit YOUR house last night, Miss Anna?  (I said no...) Hmmmm.  Maybe he's too busy trying to learn how to fly. 

One of the kids had a football, just carrying it around, so a fellow teacher decided to encourage them to "Throw it like Tebow!"  He looked at her, looked at the ball, and said:

No, a t-ball is different. 

Then a little girl gave her input: 

That's what my daddy says: GO TIM TEBOW!!!

A girl came up to me and asked if I wanted to hear a "really funny song that her big brother sings":

ABCDEFG... (uhmm) ABC... ABCEDFG... Barney knows my name.  Stick a rocket up his nose, watch him fly away.

Six

HAPPY DECEMBER SIX!

(Just think of this as one of those days you forgot to eat the chocolate on its exact day in your advent calendar.  It happens!)

I am thankful that attitude is a choice.  Today (well, yesterday) was full of... inconvenience.  I was irritated.  Things just didn't seem to go right.  I wasn't having what, classically, you would call a "good day".  But you know what?  Attitude is a choice: not dependent on your circumstances.  I do not need to be 'manipulated' by seemingly inconvenient situations; I can have control of my emotions. 

I like little sayings like the ones below.  They can help to make a bad day better.

To get up each morning with the resolve to be happy... is to set our own conditions to the events of each day.  To do this is to condition circumstances instead of being conditioned by them.  --Ralph Waldo Emerson.

An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered.  An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered.   --GK Chesterton.  

Love to faults is always blind, always is to joy inclined.  Lawless, winged, and unconfined, and breaks all chains from every mind.  --Shakespeare. 

We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.  --Romans 8:28.

To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.  Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.  But He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."  Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.  --2 Corinthians 12:7-9.

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.  --1 Thessalonians 5:16-18. 

Five

HAPPY DECEMBER FIVE!

I'm thankful for practical (and practicable) theology.  Today, a few fellow Idaho Spgs Starbucks partners and I drove down into the city to volunteer with other Starbucks partners at a food bank.  As I placed cans of corn and peaches into the boxes that passed me on our assembly line, I prayed for the families that would be receiving the boxes of food we were putting together. 

All I could think was:

If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food,

and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warm and filled," 

without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?

James 2:15-16

'Come you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared 

for you from the foundation of the world.  

For I was hungry and you gave Me food,

I was thirsty and you gave Me drink, 

I was a stranger and you welcomed Me,

I was naked and you clothed Me, 

I was sick and you visited Me,

I was in prison and you came to Me.  

...Truly, I say to you,

as you did it to one of the least of these My brothers, 

you did it to Me.'

Matthew 25:34-36, 40

So I had the opportunity to honor and serve Christ by serving those in need.  How much more basic can you get?  And I am blessed by blessing others.

tave care

Quotes from Apologetics:  class members, interruptions, and the ever erudite Dr Brian Toews

Feel free to comment & add.  I forget the context of some of these.  Sorry.

"The Bible is a really bizarre book.  Theology smoothes it out."

Toews.

"He's a Christian.  Oops."

(On the pastor who threatened to have a Quran bonfire)

Toews.

"[Salvation is] not a sort of magic ticket."

Toews.

"Post-modernism is dead.  Did you all know that?"

Toews.

"Remember 1 Samuel 4?  The Ark of the Covenant was like Israel's lucky charm.  Right?  They're magically delicious."

Toews.

"[The ontological argument says,] 'It's such a good idea, it has to be true.'"

Toews.

"Pick up a map.  There's Jerusalem.  Done."

(On the classical method of apologetics)

Toews.

"Kierkegaard.  He's one of those tricky fellows.  Like a nineteenth century Socrates."

(Pronounced "soccer-tees")

Toews.

Toews: "Amanuensis.  Anyone know what that means?"

Brieanne: "God with us... writing?"

Girl in class: "I'd say she's worth a chance."

(On George Eliot's hypothetical salvation)

Me (under my breath): "I sure as heck hope so!"

"The Hebrew text wins."

(On the topic of canonicity of Scripture and concept of vorlage)

Toews.

"Once they make a movie of it, it's over.  Like... Power Rangers."

(On Dan Brown's DaVinci Code, etc)

Toews.

"...Probably no one wants to follow up on that."

Toews.

"The scrolls have little... cubbies.  Is that what they're called?  ...That's probably not the technical term for it."

Toews.

"The idea of human flawedness... Flawedness.  I really like that word, flawedness."

(On authorship of the Bible)

Toews.

"Jesus, You're asking all the right questions."

Brieanne.

"Would He have been reading His scroll like, 'Hey! I'm that guy.  That's me.'"

(On whether or not Jesus always knew He was Messiah)

Toews, tapping the Bible, looking slightly confused.

"Excuse me, iTunes needs your attention."

Someone's laptop/phone.

"This is going to go kind of fast so just stop me and say, 'Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa, I'm lost.'"

Toews.

"This is sort of your plain-Jane Bible with marginal notes."

Toews.

"Even Peter doesn't understand Paul!"

Toews.

Toews: "Did I say 5?"

Brieanne (whispered): "You said 4."

"That's after 300 years!  Our country hasn't even been old that long!"

(On the Nicene Creed, ~4th century AD)

Toews.

"Variants among manuscripts are like... static."

Toews.

"I like that metaphor.  It helps me out."

(On the above quote "static")

Toews.

"I'm going to dig this one out from way back, so it's like... cobwebs."

Toews.

"It's Jude... I've said that three times in a row."

Toews.

"It'd be like quoting Paul and then quoting... Rick Warren.  Or citing Luther and using his view to interpret the text."

Toews.

"Dr Toews and Dr Krewson agree with Kevin!"

(Written)

Kevin Trivits.

"I think something huge is going to be found is Israel that's going to make the Dead Sea Scrolls look like child's play."

Toews.

"When was that, in '48?  We're about due for another monumental discovery!  Some guy's gonna walk down the street, fall into a hole... you know?"

Toews.

"There's a whole chronicle written by Isaiah about the reign of Uzziah out there somewhere, but in the book of Isaiah there's... a half verse."

Toews.

"Christianity is just...absolute...genius."

Toews.

"It was so bold and brilliant of God to just unleash the Word on the world for translation and interpretation."

Toews.

"This is a bunch of stuff... we'll talk about...."

(Flipping through the powerpoint really fast)

Toews.

"This is a word that says, 'but'."

(Funnier out of context... he was pointing to a word in a Greek manuscript)

Toews.

"You all know the map, I'm just really butchering it."

Toews.

Toews: "Also, there were several translations into the Gothic, which I had a chance to work with when I was in Germany."

Kevin: "*Siigghhhhh* You're so cool."

"'Wait wait wait... Spirit? Don't you mean the Holy Spirit?' (answering himself) "Hey man, stop pestering me - give me a break."

Toews.

"A scribe is like making a study Bible - inserting notes like we do in our Bibles, copied by the next scribe."

Toews.

"Jesus exegetes God."

Toews.

"Anybody know what I'm talking about?  Anyone read it?  ...It's in my office.  I should probably read it."

(On a book about the scientific evidence for the afterlife)

Toews.

"There's really nothing like the Bible.  A genre unto itself."

Toews.

"If anything, Christianity is not escapist.  Jesus learned obedience through the things He suffered.  He walks with us through the valley of the shadow of death.  He asked His disciples to take up their crosses after Him."

Toews.

"The miracles of Jesus are little pictures of this world restored."

(On Jesus healing the blind, lame... raising the dead to life)

Toews.

"Tell her we didn't turn hers in."

Kevin Trivits... to Bethany & Brieanne (skippers).

"Can you all see that?  It's shades of blue."

Toews.

"I remember one time I sat down and thought I'd go through all the alternate readings of the New Testament.  By the time I was done, I was so bored I couldn't believe it."

Toews.

"For Ehrman, I think it's more like a half glass empty.  And us, a half glass full."

Toews.

"As people of the Book, if you mess this up, it changes everything."

Toews.

"It is with care the Jews and Christians took in preserving their Scripture.  This is the center of everything we are."

Toews.

"The only Jesus, salvation, and gospel you know is that that comes from Scripture."

Toews.

"A Wordless Christian is a Christless Christian."

Toews.

"The word of God is not bound to the original document.  It's the words!  It is not bound and shackled by the material on which it is written.  And the words themselves are not bound by language... the words themselves can be unleashed by translation."

Toews.

"I speak Greek, you speak Latin... oh well.  No!  With the spread of the Gospel, the Word was translated into Syriac, Aramaic, Latin... and away we go!"

Toews.

"That's not a translation.  The Message.  That's... something else."

Toews.

"The Incarnation is our best example of a translation.  God is not man, but God translated Himself into a man.  Jesus is the translation of God into the human realm."

Toews.

"Some scribe coughed and lost it... fell asleep, a little drool came out... water and manuscripts just don't mix!"

Toews.

"God did this for this purpose to validate this message to you."

(On the use of miracles in the Old and New Testaments by prophets)

Toews. 

"Some Money Acts Circle Kevin."

(Written)

Kevin Trivits. 

"You can be a Christian and be upset at religion, right?  That was Martin Luther's whole deal."

Toews.

"It's sort of like preaching to the choir, isn't it?  Come, let's have a class where we read all the books that agree with our beliefs... that's not what we're about.  Here, we are face-to-face with unbelief, in a safe place where we can have our questions asked and answered."

Toews.

"This is an opportunity to own it now."

(On senior year)

Brieanne.

"The trial of our faith ends up strengthening our faith.  It makes it stronger... and it's my thought that after this class, we won't be surprised by anything."

Toews.

"That's the tenth thing I've dropped today."

Toews.

"We care about it and the atheists care about it.  Everyone in between just picks and chooses."

Toews.

"There's nothing like an angry fundamentalist.  Just turns off everybody.  You're not like that."

Toews.

"I have my personal opinions about powerpoints... powerpoints are boring."

Toews.

"I like paper. (Whispered) Write that down."

Brieanne.

"As soon as we get to one topic, it's like BLIP! off to the next one.  It's like Russian roulette, we'll finally get something into your head."

Toews.

"Smack the midget's __________."

Anna/Brieanne.

"Make an S.  Make another S.  That spells SS."

Anna/Brieanne.

"Yes, I've got the answers to miracles!  They're right here, on this sheet of paper."

Toews.

"I'm not even trying to please you.  That's not my job.  My job is education.  And Jesus was educated through suffering, right?  But, no - that's not my educational philosophy!  Just hopefully something will tickle your pleasure center."

Toews.

"Oh!  Very good!  Watch Instantly!  Love that!"

(On Netflix)

Toews.

Anna: "Did she say Twilight?"

Brieanne: "...Of Atheism."

"You now have evangelicals in all the right places, to borrow from a song I don't even know."

(On anti-intellectualism... kind of)

Toews.

"Thank God for Hitchens, then, if the Church can look itself in the face and say we've got a lot of ugly warts.  Let's become more like Christ."

Toews.

"The Church's theology has grown because it's under attack.  It has been forced to go back to Scripture and work through this."

Toews.

"The charismatic movement has grown... it came out of LA.  Of all places."

Toews.

"That's a long time... Oooooh lacy!"

Bethany.

"Oh!  Notes of Quotes!  That's a good one!"

Anna.

"I really just want to order a pizza and have it delivered here."

Mike.

"Like there's a lot of cooler talk... except there is no cooler anymore.  Right?  It's sort of "I love Lucy"-ish."

Toews.

"What I put up here is.... ahhhhhhhh... nothing."

Toews.

"If you hear that phrase in an article or from the pulpit, perk up your ears, because the next thing they say is going to be really important."

(On Jesus of History versus Christ of the Faith)

Toews.

"Thank you.  Yeah, we're done with powerpoint.  Who needs powerpoint.  Let's all sit on the floor and act all emotional."

(When he was pointing at something on the screen when the screen turned off... still pointing at the screen)

Toews.

"Well, I'm going to do what you said not to do.  This is a footnote.  So if you're reading my lecture here, this would appear down at the bottom."

Toews.

"This is spiritually unproductive.  It is a hypothetical, conjectural reconstruction of the historical source of the Gospels."

(On the Jesus Seminar)

Toews.

"There's probably more evidence that Jesus rose from the dead than that George Washington ever lived."

"...Yeah, that was probably hyperbole."

"...I wish I had this at my fingertips.  What I meant by that George Washington quip was that there are so many historical events that people take at face value."

Toews.

"It's not just skepticism, it's cynicism.  It's not doubt, it's suspicion.  It's just seen as a power play."

Toews.

"The burden of proof is upon us."

Toews.

"We have our content, but we don't see Jesus, He's in heaven.  But the container of our faith is seen throughout Scripture, Church history, and the impact of the Resurrection."

Toews.

"If you're trying to make a power play, if you're trying to create a Jesus that resonates with the Jews, you wouldn't use women!"

(On women being the first witnesses to the Resurrection)

Toews.

"It's too late to do 2000 years later to do what the Jesus Seminar is doing."

Toews.

"The most plausible explanation for why you and I are here today is that there was an empty tomb.  Affecting not only the Apostles, but the subsequent generations."

Toews.

"Christianity is inexplicable without a Resurrection."

Toews.

"There were Jews teaching Jesus as God in the Gospels.  What would have caused them to have such a radical development in their concept of God?"

Toews.

"Jesus is the New Man fit for the new World at the End of the Age.  This is so dissimilar to Jewish understanding.  Where would they have gotten this idea?  Same idea of having Jesus as divine.  If you're going to do this, you might as well make it something the Jews will accept!  You're making it harder on yourself!"

Toews.

"If nothing happened, this is a whole bunch of hookyhah."

Toews.

"They're either liars, crazy people, or it actually happened."

(On the disciples, a la Josh McDowell)

Toews.

"A dead Messiah is no good to anybody."

Toews.

"It's almost a greater miracle that these guys fabricated this whole thing unnecessarily.  To what end?"

Toews.

"Have a great weekend!  I hope all of your dreams come true."

Toews. 

"Don't follow the 'ism'.  Good rule of thumb."

Brie & Anna.

"Ohhhh... because Athens is the capital of logic."

Brieanne.

"Descartes is 'I think therefore I am'; Kant is 'let's just figure out what we're doing here.'"

Anna.

"STICK TO THE ACRONYM!  Acronyms are the key!"

Anna.

For the causes & features of the Enlightenment:

At-Risk Rangers Still Play Risk

(Aquinas/Aristotle, Renaissance, Reformation, Science, Philosophy, Religious Wars)

Apples Rest Under Peach Stores, Ever Popular

(Autonomy, Reason, Universal, Progress, Secular, Economics, Popular Government)

"Caesar might say that he is Lord and Savior, but I have to say something different, it is the guy who died on the cross who is."

Toews.  (Thanks, Mike!)

"If you ever get lost in theology, just go to Jesus. He will solve all your problems."

Toews.  (Thanks, Bethany!)

"No one should say the word 'Christmas' before Thanksgiving."

Toews.

"I think the beauty of the Christian life is that it's Incarnational."

Toews.

"This might be kind of a bold statement, but I think it's mostly true: we have to earn the right to speak.  It's a life of integrity over the long haul that gives you a platform to speak as a Christian about things that matter."

Toews.

"I just don't think he'd want to be ugly when sharing the beauty of the Gospel.  Or hateful when sharing the love of Christ."

Toews.

"If there is one thing I recommend that you preserve in your public, private, spiritual lives is your integrity.  It only takes one mistake to ruin that.  The value of a good name, the Bible talks a whole lot about that.  It doesn't take a whole lot to destroy that reputation.  We are the living embodiment of the Gospel in our lives."

Toews.

"I know when I'm under pressure... because... I starts to stutter."

Toews.

"I don't know how much there is to argue with... these are all biblical words: integrity, love... haha."

Toews.

Toews: "I don't know this word: apiarist."

Anna: "It's like a beekeeper."

Toews: "Oh!  Well done!  Go to the head of the class!"

(I don't move)

Toews: "No?"

Anna: "No, I'm good."

Toews: "Very good."

"That's not an 'i'... that's nothing."

(Misspelled "religious" on the board)

Toews.

"That sort of relates to the question you're asking.  Well, I should hope it relates or I wouldn't have brought it up."

Toews.

Toews: "Any Bonhoeffer fans?"

Sarah S: "Yes!"

Toews: "Ah!  She speaks!"

"In a sort of backhanded way, I can thank God for a book like Hitchens'."

Toews.

"You really know you've made a deal when you have Nazi flags in your church."

(On Protestant churches in Nazi Germany)

Toews.

"The church has got itself into problems when it has allied itself with state power.  I don't think most pastors think twice about it, but maybe they should think twice about it.  If there's one sort of Achilles' heel with the Church, it is seduced by the thought of political power."

Toews.

"There's going to be a time when your knowledge of the Bible is really going to matter.  For Bonhoeffer, it really mattered."

Toews. 

"I finished my eportfolio, I filled out my acceptance letter to the School of Ed...."

Bethany Peace.

"So it's like... surprise!"

(On Psalm 77:16-20)

Toews.

"There's some pretty interesting stuff in the Bible."

Toews.

"It's pretty packed!  We've got the sun, we've got birds, the moon... the sky is pretty packed!"

Toews.

"And these are the stars in the udder of the cow."

Toews.

"It's not crazy, it's really sort of ordinary."

(On the narrative of Creation)

Toews.

"You're probably going to be really confused after tonight.  It's not my intention to confuse you.  It's my intention to show you how many decisions you have to make about the Genesis Creation account.  It's a wild ride."

Toews.

"I assume you're all conservative evangelicals, and you have no problem living in a heliocentric system."

Toews.

"Don't talk to me about hours and minutes!  It's poetry, man!  Work on the other side of your brain a little bit!"

Toews.

"Ok!  Stop!  Genre mistake!"

Toews.

"Based upon the text of the Bible, what in the world is going on?"

Toews.

"You all read books, right?  ..."

Toews.

"I think the real interesting stuff is all the questions I have."

Toews.

"At one point, there was nothing.  Whatever that word means."

Toews.

"It's the standpoint of just your average Joe person looking out at the world."

"Joe Human standing on the world looking around."

Toews.

Student singing in the hallway: "Ohh heaven is a place on earth! You make heaven a place on earth!"

Toews: "No, we don't have classes at night at PBU.  Never happens.  NEVER HAPPENS!  ...Anyway, so..."

"McCory (?), Weinberg, sounds the same."

Toews.

"If you give ground in regards to Adam, you're going to give ground to the Second Adam, and His death, burial and resurrection."

Toews.

"Bruce Waltke is like the Godfather of Old Testament theology."

Toews.

"The book of nature and the book of Scripture are not necessarily in conflict."

Toews.

"I would never want to have coffee or sit down to talk with these folks... they kind of scare me!"

(On the Answers in Genesis people)

Toews.

"It has the feel of Sunday schoolish."

(On Answers in Genesis)

Toews.

Toews: "If there's one thing that's important in the Pentateuch, it's the land the land the land the land."

Brieanne: "I love Toews."

"They took one of those age machines..."

Victor.

"You might be right, and that'd be great!"

Toews.

"'By Jesus Christ, God created the Promised Land.'  In one fell swoop, I'm true to Paul and I'm true to Moses, and the issue of origins is out the window."

Toews.

"Slow down, Kevin!"

Toews.

"So God is really like a host, welcoming a person into His home.  ...Here's an easy chair, this is for you!  These utensils are for cutting the fish or whatever."

Toews.

"Man's not meant to live on anything but the land.  You've seen Waterworld?  Don't watch it, it's the worst movie ever."Toews.

"What a great host!  What a joy to be living in God's world!  He's awesome!"

Toews.

"So much of what God does is piece by piece."

(On the meaningfulness of the number of days throughout Scripture... 40, 10, 3, 7, etc as the pattern of God's work)

Toews.

Toews: "Why couldn't Jesus just die and then stand up?"

Brieanne: "Surprise!"

Toews: "I mean... did it take Him that long?"

"My personal reading of the Pentateuch says that there is no other way to read 7 days than 7 days."

Toews. 

"This is the book, my little show and tell."

(The Lost World of Genesis One, John Walton)

Toews.

"Always read the fine print... aha, just kidding.  But on the other hand, always read the fine print."

(Explaining the syllabus)

Toews.

"I'll probably be a zombie.  It'll all turn out backwards."

Toews.

"My assistant will put those up online and will put them in your boxes tomorrow, so... you'll have them for the weekend!"

Toews.

"A love song is a love song is a love song."

Toews.

"It's a game changer."

Toews.

"Adam is huge.  You can avoid a lot of issues here, but you can't avoid those passages.  He's there right along with David and Solomon and Jesus... Individual persons that are part of the history of our world."

Toews.

"I think that's the dilemma.  I think that's the right word to use here."

Toews.

Toews: "I might feel a little uneasy... waiting till Hebrews to find out about that, but then again, we had to wait till Revelation to find out the serpent is the Devil. "

Brieanne: "That's so tricky."

"This reads like Greek mythology... and the god's blood is ripped open and there's his blood and the other gods took the blood and formed humans out of it.  And we're just like... what?"

Toews.

"It would not surprise me if this were of a different kind completely.  Put Genesis 1 into a genre.  But if he makes a genre mistake, he's going to force Genesis 1 into this functional account, which would be a mistake."

Toews.

"If a scholar comes in and changes the interpretation of Leviticus, we're all just like... hmmmmm ok.  It's Leviticus."

Toews.

"Think how uneasy Christians would have been in the Reformation.  One day you have a Catholic priest and the next week he's reading Luther's work and he's a Protestant.  What?  Flip me out man!  And you have the religious wars."

Toews.

"I don't think that's the right approach to try to solve the pressure that we're under because of these issues.  Right?  Now I can go to work and be like, 'Hey, how about those evolutionists?  What great guys!' 'Hey yeah!  Evolution, right on!'"

Toews.

"Even if this solves the evolution issue, we still have a God issue we have to solve.  We still have the same Gospel."

Toews.

"Loren Haarsma must be the Loren Haarsma of the book."

Toews.

"I have to stay within the parameters of my education so... I don't sound like an idiot, right?"

Toews.

"If you go this route, you're going to have other human...ids who died before Genesis 3."

Toews.

"Is it going to take all of these crazy hermeneutic gymnastics to make this fit?  I don't want to make the Bible fit."

Toews.

"Tigris is a real place, Tigris doesn't mean anything, Tigris means Tigris."

Toews.

"All the man and woman had to do was say no to the serpent.  She could take the fruit, slice it, dice it, prepare it anyway she wants... She can make apple pie, just can't eat it."

Toews.

"The Garden is like the Super Bowl.  One event for all time."

Toews.

"I probably should know this, but I don't know what this means."

(Concordist v non-concordist)

Toews.

"Oh! They changed it on me!  That's not right!"

(Looking for a video on the Biologos website)

Toews.

"Look at Dr Hirt's brother."

(Tim Keller on the back of his book)

Brieanne.

"Sometimes old people look like dolls."

Bethany.

"He looks sort of drunk here... to start."

(NT Wright, his face frozen in the video before it was fully loaded)

Toews.

"They're not big, buzzy issues."

NT Wright.

"Maybe fuzzy is the right word for this matter."

Toews.

"I'm going to butcher this, I always think of these things way too late."

Toews.

"Have a nice weekend and I hope all your Thanksgiving dreams come true!"

Toews.

"I feel bad for the Holy Spirit."

Bethany.

"If you've already finished your research paper, it's going to be all blah blah blah for the first 15 minutes."

(45 minutes later.......)

Toews.

"You're not writing a wikipedia article."

Toews.

"Don't worry about me - I'll be ok!  Pick a topic for you!"

Toews.

"If I get kicked out, that'll be annoying.  ...Oh!  Huzzah!"

(Going back to a website that he thought had closed)

Toews.

"The OWL site... O-W-L, at Purdue University."

(Largest air quotes I've ever seen)

Toews.

"Brieanne either looks like a female entrepreneur or a female preacher.  I can't tell which."

Kevin.

"This is the not very glamorous part of reading and research.  You sit in a chair, you do your time.  My advice to you: stay in the chair.  ...But seriously, the work of a researcher is pretty lonely.  I have found it pretty exhilarating.  What can I say?"

Toews.

Toews: "I did a very sort of 'researchette'..."

Brieanne (whispered): "Ah!  So cute!"

"I basically had a paper written in about 10 minutes, just playing around."

Toews.

"Do you google?"

Toews.

"'But Dr Toews, our library doesn't have this book!' Don't worry - it's on Google!  And I always figure I can get enough of the book to do a paper!"

Toews.

"This is Ed Tech.  Toews-style."

Brieanne.

"Peer reviewed scholarship is the way that knowledge goes forward."

Toews.

"That's Stanford, right? It's a pretty good place."

Toews.

(Looking for a book/article online, as the page loads) "Beautiful!  Awesome!  Great!  ERRRRRRRRRrrrrrrr! Ah!  Google books!  Boo bam!  If this were an interesting book, that'd go right on my reference list!"

Toews.

"Just don't plagiarize - that's the worst.  I've been reading your papers all year, I know what you sound like."

Toews.

"Work hard, do your best, sit in a chair."

Toews.

"A 'works consulted' page is like Hansel and Gretel.  The little bread crumbs.  I can see the kinds of articles and books you've consulted.  If you want to give me a 'works consulted' page, that's something for me."

Toews.

"Ah I sound like Carmen Sandiego.  Where do I go?  What next?  Where do I go, right?"

Toews.

(To a student saying she was excited to not be having a 'final class') "None taken!  Oh my goodness!  I hope my skin's a little thicker than that!"

Toews.

"It's kind of like the video store, Be Kind Rewind!  Be kind, turn in your papers before midnight."

Toews.

"Now class can start, and we'll take a break.  I'm already spent."

Toews.

"We always do bad together."

Brieanne.

"Has anyone had a near death experience in class?"

Toews.

"The biblical view of life after death is we are resurrected, we go to the seaside and eat fish with Jesus.  Heaven comes to earth."

Toews.

"Our future life will be one of work.  A sort of Garden-like existence: God put men in the garden to serve Him and work and explore."

Toews.

"My expectation of life after death is that it is earthly and productive."

Toews.

"It's not attractive when an afterlife looks... lame.  For lack of a better term."

Toews.

"We are who we are because we can look inside and go, 'There I am! That's me!' Remember when I was 10? I'm somehow, you know, in there."

Toews.

"It's very satisfying to me that my life here is actually going to continue on in the afterlife - that I'll still have this face, this body, these memories."

Toews.

"He's actually further along than most Christians are."

(On Dennett, author of a chapter in the Portable Atheist)

Toews.

"Yeah, we'll be on the beach, eating fish just like He did.  I don't know about walking through walls... but there will be FOOD in the resurrection."

Toews.

"We are made from the ground, we are bound to the ground, we are stuck to the ground by nature of our creation."

Toews.

"I'm not going to Heaven, Jesus comes here.  And if I die before that, I'm coming back with Him."

Toews.

"That's John 14ish."

Toews.

"If I'm going to use John to interpret John to answer your question, that's what I would say."

Toews.

"There's Paul, he dies.  Six feet under.  There's Jesus."

(Explaining his picture on the board)

Toews.

"Yes, these are stick figures.  It's the total retardation of my skills.  I stopped developing artistically at kindergarten."

Toews.

"His view of prayer is like a vending machine: try and get your Twix, your KitKat, your Snickers.  Snickers is the best, by the way.  Anyway."

Toews.

"Moses goes to the Lord, 'Can I get that? Can I get that? Can I get that? Can I get that?'  God gets mad, 'Knock it off!'  God gets annoyed because Moses keeps asking... and He says no."

Toews.

"Dennett doesn't give an inch."

Toews.

"These are some distressing new death - NEAR death experiences."

Toews.

"Repetition is the mother of teaching, right?"

Toews.

"Oh that's perfect!  Everyone's here tonight!"

Toews.

"This is from a book called Jesus and the Victory of God... it's a big fat book."

Toews.

"No one in their right mind would talk about a resurrected person and call him Messiah."

Toews.

"Replace the word 'Christ' with 'Messiah' and all of the sudden, the New Testament becomes a very Old Testament book.  It comes right out of the Prophets and the promise of redemption for the people!"

Toews.

"Why did anyone attach this word to Jesus in the first place?  Are you crazy?  There's only one guy to designate king of the Jews - and that's Caesar.  ...What do you call that?  Bullets... sort of... target.  You have a target on your back."

Toews.

"First of all, you don't talk about your dead Messiah, but they did.  No one's going to buy into a Messiah that didn't defeat the Romans, isn't seated on David's throne in Jerusalem."

Toews.

"How to kill a ministry: get yourself arrested or talk about something so farcical that no one pays you any mind."

Toews.

"The Disciples are doing everything wrong.  The only way it works is if it's true."

Toews.

"The Cross is a stumbling block to the Jews, and foolishness to the Gentiles.  Go and build your religion off that."

Toews.

"Paul takes his Bible and says, 'I know what you expected, but look here, and look here, and look here and look here.'"

Toews.

"No one got that until the Resurrection.  End of the Gospel of Luke.  Jesus opens their eyes: 'It's here! It's here, it's here, it's here, it's here!' through the Prophets, the Psalms and Moses."

Toews.

"They wouldn't have made all those connections without Jesus standing right there revealing it to them."

Toews.

"The best evidence for life after death is Jesus' Resurrection.  It happened in space and time."

Toews.

"That says 'Creator' - without the i.  And that says 'creation'... pretty much with the i."

(His handwriting on the board... basically illegible.)

Toews.