This is a bit of a longer post, before we go away on holidays in August.
I’ve finished the corrections on the first (large) chapter of my thesis. This is more than a third of the entire thesis which is a great position to be in by the end of the first academic year. Here’s a quick summary of my argument: Paul says, at the start of Romans, that he is not ashamed of the gospel because “it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek”. This is a summary of the TWO important themes in Romans: firstly, salvation for those who believe, and secondly, the advantage of being Jewish. Both of these themes are important in Romans; they are connected but nevertheless they are two different issues. I have concentrated especially on the Jew-Gentile issue. As I’ve read Paul’s letters (especially Romans 2:17-29), I’ve found that Paul thinks that being Jewish is a special privilege, BUT he insists that being Jewish is NOT the same as being saved. You don’t have to be Jewish to be saved; however Jews in Paul’s day still had other important advantages over Gentiles. The big advantages are that Jews in Paul’s day knew their Bibles really well and so they were in a unique position to teach other people about God.
I’ve also completed the talks on Isaiah for the 2010 Word Works conference in Malaysia (September 10-11). It’s been a huge encouragement over the last few weeks to look at the big picture of the whole book of Isaiah, and to observe how God achieves his glorious salvation - not through human wisdom, but through the suffering of his chosen Servant. Please pray that I get to Malaysia safely in September and can communicate these great truths to the conference delegates, and that they will learn how to read and teach Isaiah for themselves.
Our financial situation is looking encouraging. We’ve had some additional donations, and the exchange rate is excellent at the moment. If this good situation stays as it is, we’ll have just enough finances to finish the PhD and get our plane tickets back home at the end of June 2012! Thank you to all who have prayed and given and spoken to others about our situation; it is humbling to be supported so richly through God’s people.
We’ve had a great year with our church family. I’ve been tremendously encouraged during the year by a prayer triplet with two other postgraduate theological students: Benjamin from Germany, and Dave from California (picture below!). As I write, the kids are about to go to the final day of an evangelistic sports holiday club run by our church. One of Harry’s friends from school is also attending the holiday club; in fact, it’s attracted lots of kids from non-church backgrounds. Please pray for these kids and their families, that they would hear and respond to the good news of Jesus.
We’re about to head off on a long-awaited holiday. For the first two weeks in August, we’re staying in Northern Ireland with friends in their parents’ large-ish country house. Later in August, we’re looking forward to the arrival of my parents, who will be here for almost a month.
The meeting on Wednesday with my supervisor, Francis Watson, went very well. Francis had read the first chapter of my thesis very carefully and had some good insights. Overall, he seemed very pleased with the progress so far. I’m now more than a third of the way to completion of the PhD. This is a great position to be in at the end of the first academic year, and we are looking forward to some holidays in August!
Ellie is progressing well in her communication skills, and in her general contentedness. We saw a paediatrician a couple of weeks ago, and she agrees that Ellie does have a significant developmental delay. She’s organised some further testing. Please pray that we would have patience in dealing with the National Health Service (Medicare equivalent), and that we’d work out how best to care for Ellie.
I’ve submitted the first draft the foundational chapter of my thesis to my supervisor. He will give me feedback on Wednesday. It’s about 27,000 words + 7,000 words in footnotes. Please pray that Prof. Watson reads the chapter carefully and that his feedback would be incisive and constructive.
I’m about to start preparing 7 lectures, 2 sermons and 5 Bible Studies on the book of Isaiah for the September 2010 Word Works conference in Malaysia. Please pray for insight into this gigantic book of the Bible, and the ability to help Christians in Malaysia grasp its message. We are thankful that my parents plan to be in Durham with Bron and the kids while I’m away.
Thank God for an extraordinarily long succession of dry, fine and warm days. We don’t quite agree with our neighbour’s description that it’s a “heat wave” – it’s more of a “pleasantly mild wave”. Durham is a beautiful part of the world at this time of the year.
That my talks on the authority and sufficiency of Scripture seem to have helped to increase the students’ understanding of and desire to read the Bible
For more steady progress on my thesis over this last week
Please pray for swift healing for Bronwyn, who’s had a cold virus for about a month and is now recovering from acute conjunctivitis.
Please pray that my talks on biblical authority and sufficiency this Monday and Tuesday at our church’s “Bible Week” will increase the students’ confidence and joy in God’s word.
My thesis is progressing steadily. Please continue to pray that I would understand the Bible well and express myself clearly. The plan is to complete my foundational (20,000-25,000 word) chapter by the end of July.
Please pray for me as I engage in an ongoing theological discussion with a Christian brother. It’s quite draining. Please pray for this brother, that our discussion will help his own gospel ministry.
We’ve had some excellent weather this week. We had an Aussie-style BBQ in our back yard with some friends yesterday evening. Thank God for English summers!
Adelaide turned 8 on Thursday. She invited her best friend from school to share in some activities with her around Durham, including a rowing boat ride on the river, a milkshake in town, and a princess cake in the local park at 9pm (in daylight!).
Please pray for me as I prepare 2 talks on the authority and sufficiency of Scripture for “Bible week”, an in-house conference for the students who attend our church’s evening congregations.
If you subscribe to these prayer points via e-mail, you wouldn’t have received the video of our family in the rowing boat – sorry! If you want to see it, you can follow this link.
After a great amount of thought and prayer and Bible reading, I’ve had an “original” idea about the meaning of Romans 2:17-29. It’s an idea which my supervisor Professor Francis Watson thinks has a lot of promise and it should form a solid basis for a significant part of the thesis.
This is both encouraging, and also a bit worrying. It’s encouraging because a successful PhD requires original contributions. But it’s a bit worrying because the task of a Christian teacher isn’t to have new ideas, but to hold fast to the old truth of the gospel.
However, I’m pretty certain that I don’t need to be worried, for two reasons.
Firstly, because all I’m trying to do is to carefully read Romans 2:17-29 in its own right. Professor Watson, who is very good at carefully reading texts, thinks that most commentators tend to move too quickly through this passage without really engaging directly with its concerns.
Secondly, I’ve run my idea past a colleague, Jono Linebaugh from Pennsylvania, who is a very gifted scholar studying Romans in its first-century Jewish context and is demonstrating that 1:18-3:20 supports the Reformed views of sin and grace. Jono reckons that my idea further supports this.
Thanks for your prayers and assistance as we live and study in Durham – the opportunities to interact with world-class scholars is sharpening my understanding of God’s word. Please pray for insight, humility, and the ability to clearly write up my findings over the coming months.
Spring / summer seems to have finally arrived! Last weekend we went to our church family’s annual getaway in the Lake District, near Keswick – it was a time of great fellowship and encouragement from the book of Job, and an opportunity to see some spectacular scenery. This weekend we’ve had an extraordinarily warm 25 degrees. I took Adelaide and Harry rowing on the river, and we all went to the beach at Seaton Sluice to make the most of the sunshine. Temperatures will return to a maximum of 8 degrees on Tuesday…
Here’s a video Bronwyn took of me inexpertly rowing on the river with Adelaide and Harry navigating. The voices in the background are French tourists trying to hire a rowing boat!
The other day I was walking along the leafy riverbank below Durham cathedral on the way to the library, with the Greek text of Romans 2:17-29 in my hand, thinking and praying about the meaning and implications of each individual word. What a privilege to be able to take the “time out” to do this in-depth study! Most likely, Romans 2:17-29 will form the basis of my first chapter, which I’m working on now. I have a few ideas about this passage that seem to make sense of what Paul says about Jewish identity in other parts of his letters−pray that God’s word shapes my ideas, rather than the other way around!
We had a review meeting at Eleanor’s nursery (a.k.a. pre-school) on Friday with everyone involved in her development (speech pathologist, educational psychologist, Special Education Needs Co-Ordinator, nursery teachers, Ellie, and us!). We are so thankful to God for all this professional help and the care they show for Ellie. There may be more areas of developmental delay but we’re very thankful for her amazing progress so far. Please pray that we will be able to meet soon with the paediatrician, who slipped on the ice in winter and broke her ankle, so has had to take substantial time off work. This has caused our appointment to be repeatedly delayed.
