the syro-ephraimitic war

In my studies of the prophet Isaiah, one of the crucial time periods is that of the Syro-Ephraimitic War. I find this to be a fascinating war, involving Judah (southern Israel) and Assyria verses Israel (northern Israel) and Syria. It is relatively ignored and unknown, so I've decided to write a little post about one of the most interesting wars in the Old Testament.

One of the less well-known wars in the Old Testament, it took place during the 8^th Century B.C., and the prophet Isaiah played a critical rule in (hoping) to guide Ahaz in right conduct in dealing with the war (Ahaz refused to follow God’s commands, given through Isaiah, so he had to suffer the fulfillment of the prophecy “Assyria shall come to the gates of Jerusalem” which took place during Hezekiah’s reign). and consequent tributes. ravaged, only left to the destiny of being totally overtaken by

Assyria was the world superpower, and Syria (a.k.a. Aram), Israel (a.k.a. Ephraim, after the primary Israelite tribe), and Judah were tributary nations to Assyria. King Rezin of Syria and King Pekah of Israel decide to get the heck out of Assyria’s clutches, but King Ahaz of Judah was loyal to Tiglath-Pileser III of Assyria. Rezin and Pekah demanded of Ahaz, “Join our coalition!” But King Ahaz refused. In retaliation, Syria and Israel sent troops into Judah in the attempt to reach Jerusalem, dispose Ahaz of the throne, and put in his place an anti-Assyrian ruler. Ahaz met the enemy armies, but Judah lost in the battle: 120,000 of her soldiers were killed, including Ahaz’s son and many important officials; many people were taken captive.

Two surrounding nations—Philistia and Edom—decided to take advantage of Judah’s lame state and began raiding the towns and villages. Desperate for help, Ahaz cried out to Assyria: “I’ve been loyal to you this whole time, and my nation is being raped!” Assyria agreed to help, but only for a price (Tiglath-Pileser III, the greedy man he was, placed high demands on the desperate King Ahaz): Ahaz had to pay him out of the Temple treasury, plus treasures from the Temple and consequent tributes.

Assyria kept on its word and attacked Syria and Israel, completely ravaging the lands. Tiglath-Pileser III showed no mercy on Syria and Judah; he employed such horrid tactics as laying prisoners down and skinning them alive, then placing them into the hot desert sands until they bled to death; “crucifying” men by running a pole beneath their bellies and enter their hearts; rubbing feces in women’s faces to degrade them as human beings; taking infants and dashing them against the stones; ripping open the wombs of pregnant women, killing their babies and letting the to-be mothers bleed to death. In Syria, of 514 towns none were left standing: the people were slaughtered or led into slavery, and the towns were burned to the ground (even the stones exploded in the fire!). The prisoners were stripped naked and led into slavery: they were chained up with a hook in their mouths and a hook in the soft parts of the buttock, and they cut off their ears and the soft parts of their noses to identify them as slaves in the Assyrian Empire.

The war ended with Israel ravaged, only left to the destiny of being totally overtaken by Assyria a few years later (in 722 B.C.). Assyria would try to take over Judah as well, but would fail, for Hezekiah would find favor in God's eyes and the Assyrian troops would be decimated overnight by a plague. King Sennacherib, ruler of Assyria, would flee to the capital city, Ninevah, and while worshipping the Assyrian god of agriculture (Nisroch), his two sons would sneak behind him and slay him.

"Preaching the Message in a Post-Modern World"

The church is losing its influence in the Western world. Church leaders are recognizing a depressing trend taking place within the church. People are becoming disenchanted with church. They are abandoning the church. The youth of our day are not stepping into our churches. Those within the church look just as much like those outside the church. Something has happened. Something is not right. Who is to blame? The pastor? The individual? The church communities? Who is the ultimate culprit? The gospel is drowning under the waves of culture, and no one knows whom to blame. The answer lies in the changing culture in which the Western world exists. The gospel message has been aimed at a Western culture that is dying, and the culture rising in its place is unaffected by the usual representations of the gospel message.

Culture is constantly changing. What is meant by the word “culture” how it is used in this essay? “Culture” refers to the general mindset of the overall scope of civilization. As civilization evolves, so does culture. As the world changes, culture changes alongside. Throughout the scope of written history (from the dawn of the Sumerian civilization to the scope of the Western world today), there have been three major “cultures.” As a general rule, many people share values and characteristics from all of these cultural mindsets, though the time period in which a person exists has a major impact on the overall emphasis of the person’s cultural mindset. The three major cycles of culture are pre-modernism, modernism, and the emerging post-modern culture.

Pre-modernism developed over time, finding its roots in the emergence of the Neolithic Revolution. The Neolithic Revolution is the time period in which Jesus of Nazareth walked and died and in which the bloody Crusades were fought. It began some 12,500 years ago during the 2^nd Ice Age, when nomadic humans began to create settlements and begin producing their own food. Key tenants of pre-modernism include respect for authority (i.e., parents and religious institutions), a belief that genuine knowledge is based on tradition, and a fatalistic attitude (“Whatever happens is the will of the gods, and our role is accept it and refuse resistance.”). In the ages of the pre-modern culture, the Jewish faith began and the Christian faith erupted. The Catholic Church was birthed, and people held the Bible as authoritative. Any guidance and answers could be found in the Bible and in the Church; the Bible and the Church had the first say in everything.

With the evolution of modernism, the impact of the Bible and the Church found itself minimized. Modernism began its reign in the 1600s and has come to its near-demise at the turn of the 21^st Century. Humanism (a commitment to the search for truth and morality through human means in support of human interests) and the Enlightenment (with its great emphasis placed on science, seen with the great scientists such as Galileo and Newton) helped solidify modernity in the advancing civilizations of the world. Modernism, at its heart, is a cultural mindset and philosophy that places respect upon knowledge and achievement. How is knowledge gained? Through science! Such an outlook became popular through the philosophers of Hume and Kant. Hume believed that all real knowledge comes from the human senses, pleasure is in the highest good, and morality is a matter of personal taste. Kant, using Hume’s ideas as a foundation, said, “If we can’t touch it, smell it, see it, hear it, or taste it, then it doesn’t exist.” Or it might exist, but it cannot be understood; so why bother? Modernism has a very positive outlook, however. The cry of modernism goes out, “Humanity must change the world!” Modernism’s influence on Christianity, however, is unavoidable. Through modernist eyes, the Bible is seen as not completely true; rather, it is good literature chocked full of symbolism. Because faith oftentimes goes against reason, Christianity had lost its power in the clutches of modernism.

Over time, however, those who had clung so tightly to the modernist philosophy and culture began to realize that the promises of modernism were not coming through. Humanity has not reached a pinnacle of omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence; humanity has not become the “god” modernism promised it would become. Science and knowledge had promised happiness, fulfillment, and answers… yet it had failed. Becoming disenchanted, people have begun to move into a cultural mindset that is, at its heart, a response to the disenchantment felt with modernism. People are abandoning the ideals of science and searching for truth (even questioning the validity of “truth”) in a plurality of different ways. Modernism, with its naturalistic foundations of Hume and Kant, had all but killed spirituality; now spirituality has found itself back on the market as people try to find the happiness, fulfillment, and answers that science and rationalism failed to deliver.

Modernism and postmodernism differ in many, many ways. Modernism sees facts and figures as the foundation of life, whereas postmodernism sees life as a story. Modernism embraces segregation, but postmodernism embraces multiculturalism. Modernism rejects myths, spiritual ideas, and mysteries, but postmodernism is very embracing and accepting to the spiritual realm. Modernism says that knowledge is gained through lectures, groups, and books, but postmodernism says that knowledge is gained through conversations and experience. Modernism says heterosexuality is the only right sexual orientation, though postmodernism says sexual preference is the choice of the individual. Modernism embraces science and knowledge, but postmodernism distrusts science and knowledge. Modernism ignores spirituality and is very exclusive, but postmodernism is extremely open to spirituality and very inclusive (resulting in a happily pluralistic society). Modernism says humanity can change the world, but postmodernism sees the frailty and limits of the human race and says that we are unable to save the planet. Modernism supports ideals such as absolute knowledge and the meaning of life, whereas postmodernism completely abandons these ideals.

Many are appalled at postmodernism, especially those who have lived in a modern mindset their entire lives. “How can anyone ever be attracted to postmodernism?” they wonder in amazement. They fail to see that postmodernism is so attractive because it attempts to explain life with mystery, emotions, feelings, and story rather than through facts and figures doled out by scientists with their laboratory toys. Postmodernism is attractive to the individual because it embraces many different cultures, ethnicities, and faiths, and it holds everyone’s opinion as valid. Everyone has a place in the postmodern world! No one is excluded! In the realm of postmodernism, the spiritual world is explained through discovery, mystical practices, and journeys.

“What is the great challenge of postmodernism to the gospel message?” Every culture has challenged the gospel in its various ways, and every culture has been filled with unique opportunities for advancing the message of God’s saving grace. Just because we are moving into a new culture-shift does not mean that the gospel is being extinguished. As Mark Driscoll says, “Every age is filled with sin, sinners, God’s love, and work to be done. Each generation has its resistance to the gospel, and each culture is equally far from God because of sin and equally close to God because of his love.” (51) When we speak of postmodernism and communicating the gospel message into it, there are two dangers to be avoided. First, we must not stick our heads in the sand and act like nothing is happening; this will only hinder the advance of the message. Second, we must not blatantly embrace the culture and everything it entails, for there are several aspects of postmodernism that fly in the face of the gospel message. We must examine how postmodernism challenges the gospel and at the same time encourages it.

Postmodernism poses two giant challenges to the gospel that Christians preach. First, postmodernism denies the existence of absolute truth. Jesus says in John 14.6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” (emphasis mine) There is truth to be discovered, and that truth is not found in facts and figures or doctrinal formulas, but in the Person of Jesus Christ. The great question, “What is truth?” becomes, “Who is truth?” Second, postmodernism embraces pluralism, the idea that all religions are valid and all religions lead to God. Again, Jesus’ words in John 14.6 combat this: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Salvation is found only in Christ. Many Christians fear this pluralism without realizing that pluralism is definitely not a threat to God. The Israelites bathed in a land rich with Egyptian, Canaanite, Ammonite, Philistine, Assyrian and Babylonian gods. The early Church was birthed in a time period filled with sorcerers, witches, gods, goddesses, cults and religions. Pluralistic societies are nothing new; the Spirit is able to handle it.

Yet postmodernism also offers benefits to the advancement of the gospel message. First, postmodernism embraces spirituality, mystery, and spiritual ideas. We live in an atmosphere where religions and faiths are appreciated, despite the pluralistic challenge that exists alongside it. People are open to experiencing God and exploring different faiths. Second, people are open to conversing in a non-combatant away about differing beliefs. While this essay is not about evangelism in the postmodern matrix, it goes to say that evangelism styles will change from handing out tracts and revivals to conversations in coffee houses and bookstores.

In discussing the postmodern culture that is swiftly taking over the Western world, one must examine how Christ interacts with culture. At the incarnation, God became fully human. He lived and breathed in a pre-modern culture, working and interacting in a Palestinian and Jewish culture, talking with people living under the Greco-Roman culture. Culture is nothing new! Jesus’ embodied his message to the people of his culture, and he spoke against the evils of that culture. Not every culture is inherently evil, yet no culture is inherently good. In a sense, Jesus is against culture when he condemns the sinful aspects of it. As Christians communicating the gospel message in the postmodern culture, we must not embrace the evils of the culture (i.e., pluralism), but we must not condemn the entire culture as a whole. At the same time he condemned certain aspects of culture, however, Jesus existed within culture and spoke to people in his culture in ways relevant to that culture. As Christians, we are not called to abandon culture but to live in and interact with people in our cultures. Finally, through his blood Jesus instituted a new community of people (the Church) who transform culture. Jesus did not convert culture; he converted people within the culture, and the transformation of culture began to take shape. As Frederica Matthewes-Green says, “A culture cannot be converted… Only individuals can be converted… This is the level where things change, one individual at a time, as one coal gives light to another. When enough people change, the culture follows.” (179)

In recognizing the cultural shift, many Christians have understood that the way we present the gospel message must change, or Christianity will slowly fizzle out. One of the biggest strategies that has been employed to deal with both the challenges and benefits of postmodernism to the gospel, and to communicate the gospel message effectively to postmodern people, has been the emergence of a new style of preaching. This preaching focuses on narrative theology. “Narrative theology” differs from modern preaching in the sense that preaching moves away from three-point outlines, doctrinal treatises, and theological sermons to using stories to communicate the story of God and man as presented in the Bible.

Many Christians find themselves terrified at the idea of changing the way the gospel is communicated. “We don’t want to color-up the gospel or step into heresy!” they exclaim. The “Golden Rule” of Vintage Christianity, however, is that our methods of communicating the gospel must change whereas the content of the message must remain biblical. “What we need is not some new truth or understanding, but a return to the old truths that have been there since the beginning. A return to that which we once believed. Re-digging the source of refreshment that has been filled in over the ages either by the enemies of the faith or by those in the faith who have opted for a cultural Christianity over a biblical one.” (The Relevant Church, 92) One of the biggest fears about changing the method is that Christianity will merge with the culture and become its identical twin. This syncretism is evil and to be avoided. Mark Driscoll writes, “Syncretism simply baptizes unscriptural beliefs in the name of limp-wrested relevance, social progress, being nice, and making a good nonjudgmental impression. Syncretism inevitably dissolves into a universalism in which God loves everyone, and will forgive everyone’s sins and take everyone to heaven because he simply lacks the courage to judge anyone. Eventually, syncretists become less distinctively Christian in flavor of an inoffensive spiritual mush.” (144) The gospel message must not be changed, and the methods of communicating the gospel must not evolve into syncretism.

Preaching to postmodern people, such as that which takes place in the vintage worship gatherings, is much different than the modern style of preaching. Modern preachers often take snippets of the scriptures and elaborate upon them, using three-point formulas and teaching “incorruptible doctrine” to convey the gospel message. In communicating the gospel message to postmodern people through preaching, several things need to be kept in mind. First, the focus needs to be on Christ. The focus is not on postmodernism, it is not on the Christian, it is not on the Church. It is on Christ. Everything goes back to Christ, his sacrifice, and our new lives in and with him! Second, we must continually tell the story of God and humans. This goes back to the foundation of narrative theology. As preachers and teachers, we must see the world through a theological, big-picture, scriptural-story lens. We must continually tell the story of God and man, from the original creation to the “new heavens and new earth,” emphasizing Christ and the role that is ours to play because of what he did on the cross. Third, we must redefine and reconstruct biblical terms. Most people do not know what “justification,” “sanctification,” “redemption,” and even “grace” really mean! We must redefine these terms and perhaps even come up with new words to describe what the gospel is all about. Fourth, we must use stories to communicate the gospel. We must use stories from the Bible and from the lives of Christians to tell the story of God and the relevance it has to our daily life. Fifth, we must restore the roots of our Jewish faith. Christianity is an ancient religion that found its root in a Palestinian, Jewish carpenter. Our ancestry traces back to the days of Sumeria. This is intensely attractive to postmodern people.

Throughout our preaching, there are several things we must preach about. First, we need to preach on living as Jesus’ disciples. Christians are, at the heart, “disciples of Jesus Christ.” We need to teach on what this means and encourage Christians in their lives of discipleship and its importance. Second, we must teach on the triune God. The doctrine of the Trinity is extremely important in a culture of pluralism. Third, we must teach on Jesus being the only way to God. In a pluralistic culture, this message cannot be proclaimed enough! Fourth, we must teach on human sexuality. Sex is not bad, it is a beautiful gift reserved for those within marriage. In our sex-driven culture, this is a message that needs to be preached. God desires us to abstain from sexual immorality. Fifth, we must teach on heaven and hell. Heaven and hell are of great interest to the postmodern, though using them as pawns to bring about salvation may not be the best way to utilize these concepts. Sixth, we must teach the trustworthiness of scripture. In a pluralistic society, the Bible is seen as only one of many sacred texts, so we must emphasize over-and-over how it is the Word of God alone. Seventh, we must teach on how our discipleship will be messy. There are no perfect Christians, and this must be acknowledged with humility and love.

There exists within the United States a growing disenchantment with Christianity. We cannot simply keep doing what we’re doing in the hope that it “goes away.” It is most definitely not going away. In Great Britain and Australia, the modern church has all but disappeared in its influence in the culture. The modern church is failing more and more, and it is dying. Postmodern people look at the modern church with disgust. The Western church must change or die. It must abandon its modern ways and transition into effectively communicating the gospel to postmodern individuals. To remain in the rut of modernism (a rut that effectively conveyed the message to modern people while failing to do so to those who are postmodern) is to do a disgrace to the gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel began in a pre-modern culture and thrived in a modern culture; we must allow it to thrive in the post-modern culture! Is there any hope? Yes! For those who look at the modern church with distaste in their hearts are completely in love with Jesus and his Way. Postmodernism is growing and growing in the United States. Modernism is on the way out, and postmodernism is creeping into every door of the church. With all the challenges presented, there are also great opportunities. May we please God and honor Christ as we effectively communicate His message to the culture in which we live.

Bibliography

Ashley, Jennifer et al. The Relevant Church: A New Vision for Communities of Faith. Lake Mary, FL: Relevant Books, 2004.

Burke, Spencer, and Colleen Pepper. Making Sense of Church: Eavesdropping on Emerging Conversations about God, Community, and Culture. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2004.

Driscoll, Mark. The Radical Reformission. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2004.

Kimball, Dan. The Emerging Church: Vintage Christianity For New Generations. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2003.

Frost, Michael, and Alan Hirsch. The Shaping of Things to Come: Innovation and Mission for the 21^st-Century Church. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2003.

Gibbs, Eddie, and Ryan K. Bolger. Emerging Churches: creating christian community in postmodern cultures. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2005.

Jones, Tony. The Sacred Way: Spiritual Practices for Everyday Life. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2004.

McLaren, Brian et al. The Church in Emerging Culture: Five Perspectives. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2003.

McNeal, Reggie. The Present Future: Six Tough Questions for the Church. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Brass, 2003.

Sweet, Leonard. Post-Modern Pilgrims: First Century Passion For The 21^st Century Church. Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2000.

"Why are we here?"

It is the question that has haunted every tribe, every clan, every civilization since the dawn of time. It is the question that keeps us awake at night, that puts restlessness in our bones, that makes us groan inwardly in this sad world we live in.

"Why are we here?"

We pursue answering this question through our lives. We try to find meaning, yet find it unattainable. Why do we bash King Solomon for all his searching when we do the same thing? He sought meaning in pleasure, in work, in fame, in knowledge... Yet meaning did not make its residence in any of these. Pleasure is met with grief, work is met with weariness, fame is met with being forgotten, knowledge only brings agony and futility.

"Why are we here?"

We cannot answer this question for ourselves. We must look out into the world to answer this question. We must step into the Temple of God and look out over the vast reaches of the earth to understand, to catch a mere glimpse of the answer.

"Are we here to be better people?" No.
"Are we here to not sin anymore?" No.
"Are we here to go to church and read our Bibles?" No.
"Are we here not to smoke, drink, cuss or dance?" No.

Purely and simply, "We are here to worship and serve the Universe-Creator."

"How do we do this?" We help other people. We make the world a better place. We change the world around us, in small ways and big ways.

"How do I do this?" I am still struggling to find that answer.

"speaking in tongues": a conversation

Dad and I went to Borders late last night (I picked up St. Augustine's Confessions, what a great book!). On the way back, Dad asked, "Just out of curiosity, what's your view on speaking in tongues?"

He opened quite a can of worms with that one. I said, "Okay, here's what I think. When we talk about 'speaking in tongues,' we're talking about what happened at Pentecost, right? And whether or not still happens today?" Yep. "There are lots of churches that claim to speak in tongues, but the speaking in tongues that happens there is most often babbling or something of that nature. Random noises shouted out in praise to God. Nothing wrong with that, but it's much different from what took place at Pentecost and in the days of the early church. The speaking in tongues the New Testament talks about is what happens when a person is miraculously able--by the power of God--to speak in a foreign, human language he or she does not know. The person speaks the foreign language with its accents, its tone, its words and grammar. The point of it was to spread the gospel out past the Aramaic and Greek-speaking peoples into the Mediterranean world. Does this happen today? I think God can do whatever He wants, and I've heard stories of missionaries in foreign countries who speak the native language in sermons or in evangelizing, and they don't even know they're doing and have no knowledge of the language. The purpose of tongues is to glorify God by advancing the gospel message across language barriers."

"So what about speaking in tongues today where it happens in churches?"

"Well, I think this is more of a psychological thing than an ultra-spiritual one. Caught up in the joy of worshipping God, human words cannot contain the emotions, and the person begins spilling out worship in a spray of sounds and utterances. Is it a foreign language? No. It is not a language at all. Is there anything wrong with this? Absolutely not! It is a beautiful way of worshipping God. But it is much different from what happened on Pentecost and what took place when Cornelius and his household were brought into God's family. But, like I said, there's nothing wrong with it. In fact, apparently Christians in the early church used this as a method of worship. But not everyone has to utilize it, and those who do not are no more or less spiritual than those who do."

"What do you think about that being the 'tongues of angels'?"

"Some people say that this 'babbling' that is unlike any human language is the language of the angels. However, the foundation for this belief is 1 Corinthians 13.1, where Paul says, 'Even if I speak in the tongues of the angels, but do not have love, then I am nothing.' 'Speaking in the tongues of angels' is an ancient phrase used to depict something impossible. Paul isn't acknowledging the possibility of speaking in the languages of the angels. Rather, he's saying, in a way the intended audience of his letter could understand, 'Even if I do the impossible, but I don't love other people, then I am nothing.'"

So that's my view on speaking in tongues. I know a lot of people disagree with me, and that's okay. I have many great friends who speak in tongues. I don't see anything wrong with it, but I do not choose to worship God this way. Does this make me a bad Christian? No. Will speaking in tongues make me a better Christian? No. It is what it is, my friends. It is what it is.

three views on baptism

The first view—“Baptism Needed For Salvation”—is most commonly held with those within the “Church of Christ” denominational camp. According to this view, total-immersion baptism is essential for one’s salvation. While it is the blood of Christ that cleanses us of all sin, according to this view the blood is not applied to us until we “go under” the water.

The second view—“Baptism Not Needed For Salvation”—is most commonly held within the Baptist camp. According to this view, baptism is “an outward demonstration of an inward grace.” One experiences the salvation and regeneration of the Holy Spirit when we come to God in faith and repentance. This grace bestowed upon us that we experienced when we came to God in faith and repentance is demonstrated symbolically in our baptism. It is, in a sense, the “covenant sign” of the New Covenant, whereas circumcision was the covenant sign under the Old Covenant.

The third view (and one not commonly held) is that baptism enables the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, whereas faith and repentance bring justification. While the first view says that there is no salvation outside baptism, this view says that salvation is available without baptism. While the second view says (in essence) that baptism serves no definable purpose, this view says that baptism does play a role in the life of a believer: the Holy Spirit (one of the primary gifts of the New Covenant) indwells the person at this time. However, salvation is available without the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. Faith and repentance are all that are truly needed, though baptism is definitely desired!

I slept from 9:00 p.m. straight to 8:00 a.m. Eleven hours of pristine sleep! Amos came in around midnight and woke me up, asking me lots of questions about a hermeneutics paper due today. He was dressed for the day, and I thought I'd slept straight through all my classes! Thankfully I was simply confused, and I quickly fell asleep after I answered his questions and shot off a few emails to some people. In Basic Bible Doctrines we studied justification by faith; I skipped Prophecy and took a wonderful nap. After lunch with Nate and Monk, I went to Hermeneutics and turned in my paper. We studied figurative language in the Bible (hyperboles, metaphors, and similes); halfway through, he paused and said, "I'm done talking to you guys because you're done listening. See you next week." Amazing! So I rushed down to the coffee shop and here I sit, waiting for Kyle to answer his phone because we have a test tomorrow and a 10-page paper due Monday.

I have not mentioned Julie on here for a while, so let me fill you all in. We're friends and nothing more. We're never going to be anything more. And I'm okay with that! I believe that God has a wonderful girl for me. It just wasn't Julie. And I'm okay with that! God knows what He is doing. Julie is being a wonderful confidant, helping me deal with some of the problems I carry around like a dead corpse (that was a simile!). I realize there are lots of areas in my life that I need to clean up, and I am thankful for great friends like her (and Caleb, Brian, and Amos, too) who are behind me. I am also greatly thankful for a God who says, "Forget your past and move forward into the brilliant future I have for you!"

Now I am going to go study the prophet Isaiah since I missed class. I ran into Professor Dyke after Hermeneutics.

"Hello, Professor Dyke. How are you?"

"I'm good. How's your day been?"

"It's been good. I'm kind of tired, though."

"Did you enjoy class today?"

"No. I didn't go. I actually skipped."

"Well, I know what that's like. There are some days I don't want to lecture."

"But you don't get skip days."

"No, we professors don't."

Well, I do get skip days, and you'd better believe I use them.

I am still so tired.

I have not been sleeping well. It's been a very rough week (in the sense of sleep). I don't know why, either.

"I should take a nap." But, oh, wait, you can't! You have a five-page hermeneutics paper due tomorrow and a 10-page research paper on "Communicating the Gospel in Post-Modern Culture" due Monday... and you haven't started on either one of them!

*sigh* Such is my life at school...

I just want to sleep :(