Proverbs 19:21 (ESV):

Many are the plans in the mind of a man,
but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.

God’s sovereign plan often amazes me, especially when the plans that we make for ourselves are overruled and we are sent on a different path than the one we might choose for ourselves.

After my first year of college, I decided to persue a degree in Theology, and transferred to Davis College.  When I arrived I made a number of new friends, many of who wanted to serve as pastors, missionaries, and in other ministry positions.  Two of the guys who desired to be pastors are still dear friends of mine.  

When I arrived at Davis, I had absolutely no desire to be a pastor.  I wanted to know more about my newfound faith, as I had only been a Christian for a year, but occupational ministry was not on my radar.  I thought it might be good to get an undergrad degree at Davis, and then go on for a masters in counseling or political science, with the goal of serving as a counselor or professor.

During that first (sophomore) year I felt God calling me to the pastorate.  I did a pastoral internship at North Country Fellowship in the summer of 2003, and haven’t looked back.  I’m now serving bi-occupationally as a Pastor/Elder at North Country Fellowship, and would like to go full time at some point in the future, Lord willing.

You know what happened to my two close friends who wanted to be pastors?  One discerned that he wasn’t called to be a pastor, but was called to counsel professionally. He is now working to finish a masters degree in marriage and family therapy.  The other guy is currently serving as a Youth Pastor, but is working on his MDiv, with the ultimate goal of earning a PhD and a professorship.

Funny how we all sort of swapped paths a bit, eh?

According to a post on a LGBT site, this is a pregnant man, Thomas Beatie.

Beatie, who was born a woman, chose to undergo medical procedures aimed at changing her gender to male.  Her reproductive organs were not modified when she chose to become he.

I’m almost at a loss for words with this one.  I guess I can make the obvious statement that I don’t think this is “right”, not just from a moral or theological perspective, but even from a secular social and cultural perspective.  

I mean, heck, I struggle to refer to Beatie as a he, simply because he’s a she, and I’m of the (non-religious) opinion that gender isn’t something that can be “reassigned.”  

On the other hand, I do feel badly that these folks feel they are being discriminated against, particularly in regards to medical care.  If indeed this isn’t a hoax, and there is a baby involved, I sincerely hope that appropriate medical care is found.

We’re going to be seeing a lot more of these types of currently-atypical cases in the years to come, and if the only thing we do is condemn people, we’re stupid.  At the same time, one must recognize that this sort of thing is so severely out of the revealed will of God for marriages and family units, that it must be commented on.

So how is the church to respond?  In what ways can we as Christians both love God and love others, in this case?

I’ve been using the English Standard Version of the Bible as my standard translation for about four years now. I preach from it, teach from it, do personal study with it, and generally use it for everything. It’s a great translation.

One of the first things I noticed about the early ESV product line in 2004 was the lack of a solid study bible, containing notes and commentary. Over the years, there has been the Reformation Study Bible, as well as a Literary Study Bible, however both of these have a specific audience in mind. I was looking for more of a general purpose study Bible. The ESV site said they had one in mind for long-term planning, but no details were available.

Over time, my personal desire for a Study Bible has lessened, primarily because I’ve found my other tools and scholarly texts to be more useful as study aids than any one condensed study bible could be. However, I do actively teach verse-by-verse studies through the Bible in my church, and more often than not, the folks I teach don’t have the resources or desire to purchase dozens of commentaries and systematic theology volumes.

That brings me to the point of this post. Crossway is about to announce information regarding the release of the ESV Study Bible. This is quite exciting. I’m looking forward to seeing what they come up with, and have signed up for email news bulletins as info becomes available.

Justin Taylor has confirmed that Wayne Grudem is also the General Editor of the Study Bible. This makes me even more excited. I’ve found Grudem’s Systematic Theology to be immensely helpful, and am sure this study bible will be great for my people.

I’ve registered for the Pastor’s Conference to be held on Tuesday, April 22nd at Davis College. Are any of you planning to attend? I’d love to meet up with old friends, or make some new ones.

I’m especially interested in seeing and interacting with the college’s new president, Dr. Dino Pedrone, who was scheduled as the “guest speaker” before his presidency was announced.

While we were at the tobyMac concert, I was involved in two conversations I thought were amusing.

In the first conversation, I found out that I’m a celebrity. I had shaved my head a day or two before, and was wearing a ball cap. My goatee is two or three inches long, and apparently, some event staff people thought I was Bart Millard of MercyMe. I had to explain to them, in all seriousness, that I am not the guy who sings “I Can Only Imagine.” They told me they could have gotten me backstage if I wanted to. Nice, eh? Maybe I should have said I wanted to go backstage anyway…

In the second conversation, I was invited to apply to be a student at Davis College, again. I was with two of my high school students, looking at the merchandise tables. One of the tables had literature from Davis, so I picked up a view book, and started looking for pictures of people I know. I saw Will Hall, Naaman Pallo, and a few others from my Davis days. The guy standing at the table asked, “Are you interested in going to Bible College?” “Absolutely not.” I replied. “Oh…Never mind.” I jokingly told him that I graduated from the school twice already, and didn’t think I wanted to do it again. He continued the conversation, asking if I enjoyed the school. I told him that I enjoyed it some days, and loathed it others; that I loved and hated my time there, and that I think that’s okay. He just stared at me, like I had eight heads.

Oh well. I thought they were amusing, anyway.

Last weekend, I and the other youth leaders at North Country Fellowship, had the pleasure of taking a group of teens to Elmira, NY in order to check out the Boomin’ Beyond Measure tour, with tobyMac, Jeremy Camp, and Matthew West. Due to a severe winter storm that hit most of New York, it took us five-and-a-half hours to get to First Arena (it usually would take three), and after the concert, it took us another forty-five minutes to get to the homes we planned to stay at overnight. The church we intended to worship with had canceled their services for the next day, so I led an impromptu service in the living room of the house we had gathered at, and after a big lunch, we headed back to Carthage, with clear skies and dry roads almost the whole way.

I have to admit, tobyMac isn’t my kind of music. I’ve never before enjoyed his artistic style (though I don’t dislike hip-hop), or his attitude in his performances. I didn’t like dcTalk much either, so I guess it’s a carryover from that. Regardless, the live show was pretty good; especially the last song (no, not just because it was over), the old dcTalk hit “Jesus Freak”. Having listened to dcTalk when that album was new (and before I was a Christian), that was a lot of fun. Jeremy Camp’s set was my favorite of the three artists, and this is despite the fact that he was ill with some sort of respiratory infection, and coughed up a lung in between each song. Matthew West was decent as well. He served as a nice mellow introduction to the two headliners.

The best part of the concert, for me, was watching the youth from my church eat it all up. For many of them, it was their first concert, and I believe that most of them consider tobyMac their favorite artist. It was a great night for them, and one I doubt they will quickly forget.

I think it was a great time of community building and friendship. I took Calvin’s advice, and outlawed all digital gadgets during the trip, so the teens wouldn’t be texting their friends and spaced-out in their own little musical world. Good advice; it worked like a charm.

My good friend Calvin Park recently had an article published in the online edition of YouthWorker Journal. The article, Teaching Students the Torah, is very much representative of a passion that he has had since our undergrad days at Davis College.

Calvin is now Youth Pastor at Immanuel Baptist Church in Ipswitch, MA, and is working on his MDiv at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. He also blogs at Random Bloggings.

Be sure to check out the article, and visit his blog too. And don’t ask him about the Woolrich logo.

The Southern Baptist Texan has an article stating that Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr. is likely to be nominated for the post of President of the Southern Baptist Convention, when the SBC holds their Annual Meeting in June.

Dr. Mohler is currently President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. He also a nationally syndicated radio host and blogger. I enjoy his radio program, despite disagreeing with some of the conclusions he draws at times.

I am not a Southern Baptist (I am affiliated with CBMNE and CBAmerica), so I really can’t comment on whether or not he would make a good SBC President, though he seems like a good option to me. However, given the current climate in the SBC regarding Reformed theology, I would think he’d be a controversial figure. Do any of you readers have any thoughts?

Many of you who read this know that October has been designated “Pastoral Appreciation Month” by some random group of individuals. The same group of greeting card industry executives who created Mothers Day, Fathers Day, and Grandparents Day probably created it, but I digress.

October is supposed to be a thirty-one day span of time in which Christians go out of their way to bless and encourage the spiritual overseers God has given to the Church. In general I’ve always enjoyed Pastoral Appreciation Month. I’ve been fortunate to sit under the teaching of a number of respectable pastors over the years, so blessing them during this time of the year was always a delight.

Last November I was installed as a Pastor at North Country Fellowship. That means that this October it was a new paradigm: I was on the receiving side.

Many of the common gifts for Pastors include ties, pens, and Bibles. All are good gifts, but ties aren’t me at all. A number of people in the church know that I have more Bibles than the local Christian bookstore. Actually, I did get an incredibly cool engraved pen, and I love it! However, the church didn’t just stop there… They blessed not just me, but my whole family; Diana, Elijah, and our baby-on-the-way.

The church bought us a 1998 Buick LeSabre with 50,000 miles.

It. Is. Totally. Incredible.

Diana and I had been praying about how we would be able to fit two baby seats and two adults into a ‘96 Neon. We hadn’t really told anyone we were concerned, but we just weren’t sure how we were going to make it happen since we don’t have the cash to buy a new car right now.

We are so blessed…