Good Reading + Raising the Bar for Biblical Studies=the everlasting covenant

I met a lot of cool people in seminary, but one of the coolest was definitely Chris Morgan. We had a lot of fun getting to know him, his wife Michelle, and their kids while we lived in St. Louis. I was thrilled when I found out he started a blog because that meant I could regularly hear from a friend I miss.

As it turns out, Chris's blog--called the everlasting covenant--serves a two-fold purpose. First, it will allow Chris to share his learning with the rest of us, and believe me, Chris is a sharp and careful thinker. There's plenty to share.

Second, it will help Chris and Michelle prepare for their future. All that learning and careful thinking Chris did in seminary lead him to three different opportunities for PhD work in Biblical Studies. That's exciting, but Chris and Michelle are facing some financial hurdles. The blog, along with the rest of Chris's website, will serve as their on-line 'home base' for fundraising.

I know Chris will do excellent work as a Biblical scholar and I want him to be able to take advantage of the opportunities God has given him. We need evangelical voices in Biblical studies, so go to his website, find out more about him, and pray. Pray to see if God wants you to support Chris and Michelle, but most of all just pray that God will buoy the Morgans up during an uncertain time in their lives.

Visit Maple Mountain

A while back my old friend S.D. Smith asked if I could write a post he could put up on his blog, The Maple Mountain Story Club, when he and his wife had their baby. This was probably in January sometime, but I can't directly recall. I like S.D. and I like writing for other blogs, so I thought I would take him up on his offer.

I immediately realized I was faced with a problem. Most of what I post here amounts to hand-wringing about the future or attempts at humor that die miserably. I was guessing that S.D.'s crowd of readers didn't want to hear my progress toward MFA applications (there hasn't been much, by the way), nor did they want a one line humor post that likely involved the word 'butt.' So I had to come up with something good.

As it turns out, I had a decent idea percolating in my head. I had been thinking about The Band's song "The Weight" a lot, and I wanted to do a post on the concept of sainthood Robbie Robertson has in the song as opposed to a true Christian one. So I did. It worked out well because I knew I was never going to write a substantive post to put up here. It would be too much work. But for a friend, I would do it.

Go to S.D.'s blog and check it out. I read part of the post, but I find it hard to revisit my own writing once it's out there for public consumption. I see too many changes that need to be made. I've gotten a couple of nice comments though.

By the way, be sure to read S.D.'s introduction. It's probably the better piece of writing on the page and it captures me pretty darn well. Except I was a c-section baby, so I never went through the birth canal.

See, now you're curious. You'll have to check it out.