Entries from May 2008 ↓

“You can impress people from a distance, but you can only impact them up close.” (Howard Hendricks)

“ευχαριστω τω θεω” translated means “I give thanks to God.” I say that because upon coming to the end of my college career, I can only be extremely grateful for all that the Lord has done for me. The blessings have flowed so abundantly over the years and even here at the end, His grace has been overwhelming. I share these blessings with you because it is amazing to see how in spite of my sin and failure He continues to give beyond what I deserve.

- **Sermon**: The sermon I preached in chapel went so well that it showed it was not me, but God working through me.
- **Scholarship**: The Lord provided for half of my seminary tuition next year to be paid for through the John R. Dunkin Scholarship.
- **Greek**: I had a huge exegetical paper due on Monday which I cranked out over the weekend. I really humbled me because I did not know what I was doing. But I found out today that I received an ‘A’ on the project.
- **Graduation**: I’m going to walk on Friday, wrapping up four years of blood, sweat, and tears.
- **Testimony**: I have the privilege of giving my testimony of how my life has been shaped at TMC at the board meeting lunch, sitting with my pastor and president.

All these things are not any more amazing than the fact that God sustains me everyday. His grace is greater than all my sin, always. I don’t live one millisecond of time without God’s forgving, loving, holy mercy. For all that He has done already, and whatever He has planned for tomorrow, ευχαριστω τω θεω.

This video shows how people can still believe that they are good, even though they just destroyed their marriage on national television. Although it shocks us, it really shouldn’t because we understand the wickedness of the human heart. WARNING: The questions asked the woman get personal, but they are only ‘yes’ and ‘no’ questions and do not describe anything in detail.

“The realism of the Bible is that God does not excuse sin, but neither is He finished with us when He finds sin in us. And for this we should be thankful.” (Francis Schaeffer)

For those of you went to Shepherd’s Conference this year, we heard MacArthur give a great sermon on Luke 21:1-4, which says:
>”Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the offering box, and he saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. And he said, “Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.”

The typical interpretation of this sermon is that we need to give sacrificially, until it hurts, just like the widow. It isn’t about how much you give, but how much faith you have. MacArthur pointed out that although Jesus points out that the widow gave more than the rich people, Jesus never commends her. He never says that her giving of more was what pleased God or that the disciples should follow her example. Along with this observation, he looks at the passage in light of the recent context, in which Jesus is prophesying the destruction of the current Jewish religious system that had been corrupted by the religious leaders.

The passage then on the widow is not a random lesson on giving, but an example of how the corrupted religion of Judaism stole the last that this woman had to live on. She would go home and die because she had *nothing*. This is why the temple and the rest of the false religion would be torn down (21:5ff).

I say all that because in my web travels, I came across this site: [The Widows Mite](http://www.thewidowsmite.net/). The site offers necklaces with a widow’s mite in them for $200. I find it ironic that these guys are trying to make money off of people based on a story where the widow was getting ripped off. I know this site is not trying to say that you gain favor with God, but it is still a little ridiculous.