When Does A Reprobate Realize They're Reprobate?

In Romans 1:18-32 Paul talks about the effects of sin on our knowledge of God and those effects are anything but pretty. As a matter of fact, anyone with a clear mind now should be diligent in understanding what Paul says here about sin's effects. It should terrify any obedient Christian. In effect, what it is saying is this: If you are reprobate you probably won't even know it. If you are reprobate you have already been turned over to your sin and warped/distorted thinking. You are already being punished for your sin. God has already cut you loose and you have crossed the event horizon of punishment. The point of no return. The only way you would ever be able to come back across this invisible boundary is if God Himself pulls you back in His mercy and grace.

The general understanding of the effect of sin on our knowledge of God is, in a word: “detrimental”. In the end it builds up God’s wrath on the unrighteousness which is not a real good place to be. I have chosen, more or less, a hybrid dialectic/antithetic comparison verse-by-verse where the verses were applicable as it helps address individual statements in particular verse. This also helps comparing the sin (cause) and the direct effect on humans (us).

(v. 18) …by their unrighteousness suppress the truth [Gk: aletheia]. (v.19) A truth that is “plain” and “God has shown it to them” so they are “without excuse”.
Andy’s Translation: God (Jesus) is truth (John 14:6 … I am the way, and the truth [Gk: aletheia], and the life). This is to be taken literally so they/we thereby suppress the knowledge of God by suppressing truth.

(v. 21) …although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him.

Andy’s Word’s: Intellectually they/we acknowledge that God exists as many do today but because of sin they did not acknowledge Him in the proper capacity as God, again we see a suppression of the proper reaction to a holy and omnipotent loving God which should’ve been worship and praise. Instead we have feigned/willful ignorance. Because of the above actions man/humans becomes futile in their thinking and their hearts are darkened [Gk: skotizo: obscured; reduced in clarity] (v. 21). Assuming this is the traditional Greek view of the heart this also is the center for where Greeks believed thought originate as both the heart and mind were believed to have been in the chest/breast area.

If they have already rejected God in their thinking as a result of sin, “Claiming to be wise, they became fools”. You cannot have real wisdom without a fear of God. Sinning people have little or no fear of God if they are rejecting God “since the fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline” Proverbs 1:7.

Once humans reach this point they have pretty much have gone AWOL (absent without the Lord) and have begun to rely on their own works and their own volition to get things thought out and to get things done. They become idolaters (v. 23). Humans are released to pursue the own vile dishonorable passions in a continuing downward spiral of sin and sexual immorality thereby receiving the penalty for their own sin and stupidity (v. 24, 26). They serve the creation rather than the Creator. God pretty much release them to pursue their own sin with their “reprobate” minds (v. 28) to pursue them to their meaningless end which is destruction in this world and damnation in the next (v. 32). They turned wholly evil “full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness” (v. 29). They turned into gossips, slanderers, haters of God…haughty, boastful…foolish, faithless, heartless, etc. ruthless.

Unable to think clearly or righteously they begin a downward spiral of sin further corroding any ability to think clearly. A circular trap of their own devising...of their own sin. A Black Hole of sin if you will.

So the answer to the question is this: A Reprobate never realizes he's reprobate unless God intervenes in mercy and grace. Otherwise the downward spiral continues unabated. They continue until they day they die. Consequently, death will not be a release or reprieve for these types of people because I believe God will just allow these reprobates to continue their sinful pursuits in Hell as they are never satiated with these sins or they would've never continued to pursue them during their lives. Think about it folks, what is Hell. A permament seperation from God. When people were/are dwelling and wallowing in their sin here, where were their hearts and minds in relation to God? Seperated from Him. Add them together and you have a place and conditon the never allows you to know full unadulterated happiness and you are seperated from God. You spend eternity pursuing something you think you want but can never have knowing full well that it probably may not be what is best for you anyway. Whats worse is the thing that you should've chose will be forever out of your reach. It sounds nearly Sisyphean to me...it sounds like Hell.

You Are Here --> X

"Can anyone hide in secret places
so that I cannot see him?"
declares the LORD.
"Do not I fill heaven and earth?"
declares the LORD." ~Jeremiah 23:24

I have been speaking with elderly gentleman that has been disclosing pieces of his life to me little by little as I gain his trust. Today he asked me, "how can you know God's will for you?" There was a gleam in his eye and I knew he was serious but as is often the case with his questions like this...there is a catch. So I took the bait. What follows is the main gist of my conversation with him.

It is quite often the case that when we are doing what is required of us by the Lord we may not hear from Him during that time and we then discover that we are now in the middle or a period where we will either need to pray harder, rely on the faith already bestowed or both. We go through a dry season, like walking without paying attention to your surroundings and before you know it you are standing in the middle of what appears to be desert. Our meddle is being tested to see if we are ready for the next phase of tempering to harden us against evil and things that will steer us off route.

Many of us will go off track so to speak in this phase and it is often this phase that most accurately shows us our distinct location or "You Are Here" "X" marks the spot moment. We can most accurately tell what His will is for us when we are not doing it or doing something wrong since He will inevitably straighten us out, chastise us or punish us for our unrepentant transgressions. We may go rogue for a season but it will not last indefinitely for a just God will not tolerate us being idiots forever.

An easier way to gain our bearings in these dry seasons is to go back to the place we last were in His presence or He was in ours. We need to back track...or should I say go back to where we jumped the track. Where we derailed. Where the train of sanctification hit a snag in the rails and sent us barreling headlong to disarray. Whatever derailed us was nearly unforeseeable since we were moving at a clip and we probably did not even recognize that we had lost contact with God until we started to skid sideways or tumble away from the path/track laid out for us to follow. In these situations we need to be careful not to do ourselves more harm then we need to and also not to endanger or "take someone else out" in the wreck. We should try to recover as we are loosing control and right the skidding train. Throttle down and slow our progress until we know for sure what happened so not to repeat the problem. Too often people get into these situations, recover and do not bother to learn from the near disastrous outcome. We should thank our Father in heaven that He is first in foremost, forgiving as we will occasionally derail. Second we should be thankful he is merciful and full of grace.

We need to know that we have gotten off track. If we do not figure it out God is attentive and will send us subtle or not so subtle hints. Even if it means laying us over completely on our side and stopping us dead in our tracks so that we take stock of where we went wrong. No matter where we are at when we get off track God knows where to find us and he knows how to fix our problem. Trust me on this one, God has done this to me a few times in my life. Not only does He want you to know you did wrong, many times He wants you to know what you did wrong also. A few of these were extremely painful and left me standing around the wreck called "my life" scratching my head wondering what went wrong and where I went wrong. Sometimes the only thing that gets between us and the successful resolution is us. If we turn it over to Him and stay out of His way to allow his plans to unfold in His time I believe we will find that the ride becomes smoother and less prone to going off the rails. Sanctification is a process and being such we cannot jump ahead and skip parts we must follow a linear path. As we know from life many journeys are fraught with obstacles and dangers and we are well advised to avoid them where possible. Where we cannot we must face them head-on by God's grace we learn and get through them. We must learn if we are to move ahead in the process of growing in holiness. These dangers and obstacles are not place in the path just to be annoying. They are often their to test or teach us something. What obstacles have you overcome recently?

If God has something her wants you to do you can be assured that eventually you'll probably be getting around to it in due time. If you are rogue He will pull you back into alignment with His perfect will eventually. Ultimately, He is a patient God and a loving One and this will be reflected in the fact that when he does bring you back into alignment it will not kill you and you will benefit from it in the long run. Perhaps not now in this life but assuredly all things work out for the good of those who love Him.

"In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory. " Ephesians 1:11-14

All aboard for those departing for glorification. Arrival Time: Eternity

The Most Visible Scientific Statement In The Bible

I heard John MacArthur quote this one time in a sermon he did on science and Christianity and how they could be reconciled if the scientific estabishment would stick to science and stop promoting a methodological naturalist and godless agenda. It was so concise I felt compelled to recite it after I looked up Spenser's quote.

The most obvious truth comes in the very first verse of the Bible. It is consistant with a statement made by Herbert Spenser an Agnostic, English professor, religious dissenter, diehard evolutionist and the man that coined the term "survival of the fittest". Quote: "There are four things that need to be in existence for reality to "be" in terms of scientific thought".

Time: In the beginning
Force/Energy: God created
Space: the heavens
Matter: and the earth

My thanks to an scientific agnostic for proving the Bible correct. I couldn't have clarified my position any better than this.

Genesis 1:1 is a profound Divine (and scientific) statement.

We must remember that the Bible is not a book of science...but where it has spoken directly to things of science it has not been wrong. Why would I choose to doubt it now? In a day and age where the scientific proposals of what is truth are becoming so absurd, we must constantly remind ourselves that these quotes are coming from highly educated "experts" and not from loonies on the fringe of society (oh...wait, eh, nevermind)

Those That Have No Use For Theology

“I’m just a simple Bible-believing Christian. I have no use for theology!"


How does one respond to a statement like this from another believer?


It is my sincerest belief that every believer is a theologian of some sort or needs to be. We are commanded (Matthew 28:19-20) as a believer to go out into the world with the message of the Gospel or the Good News (euangelion). In light of this some people live out the Gospel and their theology whereas some articulate it verbally to others. Regardless of the vehicle or medium, we as believers need a firm understanding of what theology is or more specifically, what our theology is. Otherwise we will not be able to do either of the aforementioned effectively.


Without an understanding of Biblical Theology (or any theology for that matter), we only have a worldview or belief system that may or may not be based in the Bible. If it is not based in the Bible it is apostasy and/or sin or both. Anything added to or taken away from the inspired Word of God is one of these. Usually things end poorly in these situations as people are steered away from the Almighty God whether the apostasy is intentional, or unintentional through negligence or ignorance. To live or apply the Word or the Gospel we must first know the Word or the Gospel. Why? It tells us of the attributes of God. Why does this matter? It is because God (Jesus) is the author and the central character in the Bible and theology. Let us look directly at the meaning of the word theology itself. Theos: meaning God; and –ology/-ologies meaning a branch of learning, thus a learning of God. Any learning of God including reading the Bible and getting to know Him personally amounts to some form of theology. To say that you don’t need theology is to say that you don’t need to learn about God or be in a relationship with Him. That’s ridiculous, especially since He is eternal and infinite and so are his attributes. He is worthy of all our praise…and also of our brain power in an effort to know about him and to know Him personally as He has revealed Himself within the covers of the Bible.


Every believer knows God. Some just seem to know Him better than others know him. If our eternal life is based on acceptance of Jesus Christ and our relationship with Him, it behooves us to get to know Him to the greatest and most accurate extent possible as it is He that we will be spending our eternity with. The way that we get to know Him is through His revelation of Himself through scripture and the documented historical events in the New Testament (Old Testament too in terms of theophanies). I figure it this way. If I have a best friend or a person I love and I do not get to know them and what they are about, I am an idiot. It’s like saying I wanted marry my wife but didn’t want to know how to please her and make her happy. How much of a relationship do I suppose I would have now if I hadn’t gotten to know her, what she likes and what offends her? We need to understand the ones and the things we love or we cannot truly understand how to love them properly. To understand them we need to get to know them by studying all their different aspects and attributes, otherwise they remain strangers to us even if they remain close to us throughout our lives. How often have you seen this in people's marriages. People living close together for years but barely "understanding" the people they live with? Using a marriage as an example...how many do this in their relationships with God?


“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ Matthew 7:21-23

Aberrant Theologies #2: Liberation Theology

This is my second installment in a series of posts where I will be describing errant theology and branches of the body that are, in many cases either marginally Christian, sorely misguided or not Christian at all. They may have some redeeming values but their cons far outweigh any good that they do. They outweigh it because the bad that they do and the bad things they teach runs the risk of condemning people that follow it and part of my job is to expose false teaching for what it is so it does not lead the flock astray like sheep off a cliff.

At the root of Liberation Theology we see secondary meaning given to the ordinary meaning of the Scriptures. Eisegesis is being performed on the text or things are being read into Scripture that is not really there. People are seeing in the words of Scripture what they want to see through a filtered lens. A lens fogged and smeared with decades or centuries of subjugation of peoples either by their own governments or colonial powers. There is the implied idea that the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is in reality the means of liberation of all people from things related to physical oppression or subjugation. The historical and salvational aspect of the Resurrection as a release for humanity from sin is largely ignored. This theology thrives where there is a subjugated or oppressed "proletariat" or minority of people that are either being used, abused or exploited by the "powers that be". Worse yet, they may perceive that they are being abused but are not, thereby creating a enemy of a legitimate ruling power causing political strife fueled by misguided religious fervor.

The idea that man is sinful and is in need of an atoning sacrifice is largely absent from Liberation Theology. The Liberation observed by this theology is largely viewed as political. Liberation Theologians view themselves as liberating their unjust oppressors from sin by overthrowing them. They view social injustice as the greatest sin and violation of God's standards.

The hope in this theology is not based in Biblical constructs or the belief that Jesus Christ is the way to eternal life but rather hope is related to the reshaping of the present to affect a positive change for the future. The vehicle for doing this is often revolution or change. For some within this aberrant theology they do not believe in objective revelation from God as given in propositional truths but it is a theology "in motion", changing and that change is related to society. It is Marxism with a Christian paint job. Liberation theologians often allow their political agendas to interpret Scripture to suit their own ends.

This theology emphasizes practice or, more technically, "praxis" over doctrine. They misinterpret Scripture and base their social action upon the Bible scriptures describing the mission of Jesus Christ, as bringing a sword (social unrest), e.g. Isaiah 61:1, Matthew 10:34, Luke 22:35-38 Matthew 26:51-52 — and not as bringing peace (social order). This Biblical interpretation is a call to action against poverty, and the sin engendering it, to effect Jesus Christ's mission of justice in this world (wiki).

By its very nature it contradicts James statement of faith and works and makes salvation not only partially an earthly release from oppression but also turns the act of doing so into one giant socialized/societal form of "works".

Liberation Theology is in direct opposition to Romans 13. It interprets Scripture not through inductive study but rather through a political & social lens and that lens is clouded if not completely obscured by precepts and presuppositions of aberrant human thinking. The Bible should shape or thinking. Our thinking should never shape how the Bible is interpreted.

Liberation Theology needs to be viewed through a clear lens. It is using the very people it needs to maintain its existence and claiming it supports them. It capitalizes on the disgruntling nature of oppression and uses it to radically change or overthrow existing structures through activist and political means. That is politics people, not religious fervor. It is placing the importance of an institute of man before God thereby making the institute of equal importance with God. I don't know about you but that flirts dangerously close to the apostasy line.

Exodus 20:3-6 "You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand {generations} of those who love me and keep my commandments.

Frankly, I get the impression that God doesn't want company in the god department.

**The odd depiction of Christ in the photo of this post is from the cover of Gustavo Gutiérrez's 1971 book A Theology of Liberation. This book was essentially accredited with having started the Liberation Theology movement in Latin/South America. The book was written by Gustavo a Peruvian priest principally as a moral reaction to the poverty caused by social injustice in that region.

[pruh-gres-iv....ri-zis-tuhns]

I'm betting you probably thought you were getting a workout article when you saw the title of this post and the dumbbells.

You are. Sorta.

People have been asking why I have not been posting much lately. To explain this I must paint an analogy. My course load at school has nearly got me at crush depth. The best way to explain it is "overburden". Only a person called to this would do this as it is extremely rigorous and taxing on the mind. A new language from scratch including most of the characters. Pondering the depths of God as He has revealed Himself to humanity in all His subtle and not so subtle glorious nuances. Memorizing more Scripture in 14 weeks than I did over the last 40 years of my life. Memorizing Greek noun declensions of which there are a slew. Verbs and parcing of verbs. Learning and perfecting the art and science of proper interpretation in hermeneutics...and so on. Simulateously enjoying every minute of it with a sense of wonder that defies description. The overburden that I am experiencing mentally is best described by a comparison to the other passion in my life (besides God and my wife) which is weightlifting. Lifting is also something that puts me through my paces and I thoroughly enjoy it.

In weightlifting you gradually overtax the muscle of the body to strengthen it. It is called progressive resistance. In science its proper definition is as follows:

Progressive Resistance [pruh-gres-iv ri-zis-tuhns] : A strength training method in which the overload is constantly increased to facilitate adaptation (also known as progressive overload). Progressive resistance is essential for building muscle and reaching strength goals. The body adapts to exercise and needs to be constantly challenged in order to continue to grow and change.

I short, it is a conditioning of the body to handle increased loads.

See any similarities to what God is doing with my melon (a.k.a.: my head)?

As any lifter will tell you...while lifting and overtaxing the muscle, you are acutely focused at the task at hand. This serves a two-fold purpose. It helps maintain the intensity that will be required to continue to push the threshold where true growth comes. Secondly, if you do not stay intensely focused you will mentally drift and injure yourself. It is what most athletes call "the zone". You become hyper-aware of your task. The rest of the world hazes out and drifts to the periphery into white noise.

Strangely and similarly, this uber-intense studying has taken me to a new place in my personal worship of God and my sanctification. As noted in an earlier post there are different types of worship for different people. I am not usually highly emotive when it comes to worshipping God with music or other aesthetic ways to approach Him. I do get extremely intense when studying scripture and then expounding on it. This study has put more of what God is in me and pushed out a lot of the refuse that does not belong in me. The ugly stuff that took up residence in my cranium over the period of 30+ years of being a reprobate. It is also keeping out some of the new stuff that wants to get it too. When you cram everything into your cranium that your cranium can handle, it leaves no room for anything else to get in. The old adage is: "It's like stuffing 10 pounds of stuff in a 5 pound bag" or like "pushing a 1 inch block through a 1/2 inch opening". There is no room for anything else let alone the stuff that is suppose to go in the bag or opening.

God does the same with our faith. He builds on the last episode where we required faith and slowly but surely our faith grows so that in time, even at our weakest we are much farther ahead of where we were at our best a few trials before. The harder things get for me in school the more I pray, and generally am rewarded although not always in ways I expect. Case-in-point: It has gotten to the point where I can stare at charts of 25 case endings for nouns only once or twice and I can picture them in my mind. Dare I say my memory has become marginally photographic at this point. Think about it people. I am talking about a reprobate that spend nearly 25 years drinking and 5-10 of them as a user of narcotics also. God uses the foolish things of the world to...eh...never mind.

I do not watch TV. I listen to teaching seminars and sermons on my way to school. You know, MacArthur, Sproul, Paul Washer, Piper, Dever, etc. When I get to class I learn at school. I come home and try to be a good dad (usually fails within 10 minutes). I study after the kids go to bed for about 2 hours. If I have spare minutes like now I type a zinger of a post and publish it to SoulJournaler. I sleep. I get up and repeat the cycle 5 days a week. I study and write papers all weekend. No time for stupidity only time for the Lord. God is making me see what will break me intellectually/mentally I think. As odd as it sounds, it contents me. Just like the 25 year period lifting weights. It isn't that I like pain but I appreciate seeing what the limits are of this creation that people call Andy Pierson. I am only coming through this world once and I need to make up for lost time.

Is it easy, nah. Besides, as I stated in the previous post. I was never promised easy, I was promised what was best for my eternal salvation and what is best for all the lives of those I can touch with the Word. As a matter of fact, I don't want easy. Jesus essentially told me otherwise:

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30

By implication it can be understood from this passage that I will always be required to carry a load or bear a burden anyway. I am not given a choice of "no load" or "slacking" in this verse. I either bear the sin of the world or I bear the yoke of Christ. I am either slave to sin or a slave to Christ.

Just call me Andy δοῦλος Χρήστου [slave of Christ]

Now back to my Greek vocabulary flashcards until beddybye which is...ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Aberrant Theologies #1: Health & Wealth / Prosperity Gospel

God never promised a pleasant journey, He only promised a pleasant destination and only if we accepted the work of His Son on the cross at Calvary.

I generally do not criticize Christian denominations as it is counterproductive to Christ so that should give you a clue to where I stand on this topic. There are certain "Christian" entertainers that I do not even consider Christian and if they think they are, they are sorely mistaken because their works and words give them away for that they are. Frauds and charlatans.

Health and Wealth or the Prosperity Movement. This movement is an anomaly in the Christian faith. In claiming to have direct revelation from God, the health and wealth teachers/preachers have made a radical departure from Christianity. Direct revelation ceased with the advent of Jesus Christ and the completion and canon of the Bible. So when you hear wealth/health prosperity people telling you the God told them that if you just pray to God for something you will get it. Well, that kind of makes God into a cosmic cash register. To me that concept is obnoxious and totally demeans God. It makes God's existence into being there for our uses when in actuality we are here for His.

In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. Hebrews 1:1-2

Another serious problem that arises in these fake pulpits is they contain false teachers that sit in judgment on Scriptures in high profile positions that have the ear of potentially millions of people (Enns 681).

The word faith belief or doctrine is Biblically delinquent and sinful. It teaches that Jesus died not only for sins but also for sickness. It says you can claim health and wealth. It says that we to reign over poverty. We are to reign over sickness. Conquered were the spiritual maladies. We were not promised or guarenteed that all of our physical maladies will be healed. If that is the case tell that to all the people that died of heart disease, cancer, etc. If this is what we were promised then everyone would always be healed and no one would die. If we observe life closely we see that just the opposite happens. We die. The wages of sin is death and we are all sinners. Spiritually we are healed and we are guranteed eternal life if we believe. They say that God has provided physical healing and prosperity to those that obey His commands. God is not a money or health genie. He never ever promised a pleasant journey. So what do you suppose happens if someone does believe and has faith and they don't recieve healing and/or wealth? Does that mean they did not have enough faith? Can you imagine the damage this does to a person's faith that believes this scamboogery? Look at what Jesus Himself said...

"And He was saying to them all, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it. For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world, and loses or forfeits himself? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when He comes in His glory, and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. But I say to you truthfully, there are some of those standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God." ~Luke 9:23-27

Think about it people. Having people constantly pray and expect a person to be healed and it never happens. What happens to the faith of that believer? Do I believe God heals people? Yes, I do. What if He chooses not to even though you want Him to? Things happen according to HIS will, not yours. He knows what is good for you, you do not. God is not a vending machine!

Word of Faith Movement preachers are another branch of this aberrant theology. The ability to speak words to produce positive results in life. These folks get there conclusion from this by saying that God created things by speaking them into existence. Since we are created in His image, we should be able to do the same (Enns 2008, 681).

You know the figures in the movement. They elevate man to the position of God and talk themselves up to the status of "gods". If you can think it, you can speak it, you can become it! Religious motivational speakers. Religious...or should I say spiritual/mystics. The problem is that many people forget that demons and Satan are of the spirit realm also.

Is it possible to be healthy and wealthy and still be a Christian? Of course, but it is more likely it is because of God's grace and mercy rather than anything we have done to warrant it. Because it was part of His bigger plan to begin with. We as humans always try to make ourselves better than we really are. We are all sinners worthy of death. In the flip side Jesus atoning sacrifice made us co-hiers/royalty and can approach the Father with our supplications. Lets not look a gift horse in the mouth expecting the world to treat us like royalty because it probably won't happen. This is especially true if we act like a bunch of spoiled princesses.

Serendipity & Providence: Divindipitous

Okay, I admit it, I just made-up the word divindipitous.

I stand and am mesmerized at the turn of events in my family's life and mine over the last two years. As I have turned the my efforts and zeal towards God. God has blessed us abundantly even though I have lost my job of ten years at Mack Trucks, Inc. as an engineer (quality, application). My wife has started a consulting business that is currently keeping us afloat. When money was needed for seminary it "arrived". When I thought I would be short, I was told to fill out a special circumstances sheet and a Pell Grant is put against my account to pay off the difference loans and cash could not pay off.

The acts of providence by God go deeper though, much deeper. I live next to neighbors I have failed to talk to or even associate with in ten years. Two years ago I begin to talk to him after my conversion and I find out he attended the college I eventually chose to go but he went twenty years previous. I find out he also attended Westminster in Philly. I find out he is (for all intensive purposes) a Greek scholar. He is now unofficially my tutor. It doesn't become official until he says so. The wonder of all this does not end here.

Along with my wife...it is decided that I will abandon a career in the engineering field after 22 years. I will go back to school. To learn everything man can teach me about my God. I go back to learn a new language (Greek). I go back to school to learn how to reach others. To defend my faith. Many reasons continue to come to mind but the one that shapes where this blog will focus is learning the Greek language.


I have two sons. The oldest is Seth and he is learning sight words/ word families: cat, hat, mat, sat, etc. He worked on all these words last year and throughout the summer. His first grade started last week and he is now using that repertoire of word power to construct sentences. This is where the wonder of it all staggers me. The timing of this is absolutely parallel to my learning of Greek vocabulary sight words and...parsing the Greek. Parsing is essentially breaking the Greek down into its rudimentary grammatical structure and meaning. I then, based on the parsing, can reconstruct sentences. As a newbie to Greek it is painstakingly slow, one word at a time. One verb, one noun, direct objects, indirect objects, indefinite article, definite article. This continues until I have an coherent English sentence...just like my son nearly 35 years apart. The only difference is I have technical terminologies for what I am doing. Additionally, my younger son Bryce is just beginning to learn his numbers and alphabet for preschool just like daddy finished doing for the Greek alphabet. What is even more amazing is that when I have problems I now speak to a neighbor that I treated like junk for a decade and we lived 300 ft apart. Just like my boys can talk to me.

Since it is brutally obvious that it is no accident all this is taking place according to His will not "mine" or "ours". I begin to pray and to contemplate this and ask God what I am to take away from this. As I lay with my son to try and help him shutdown and fall asleep after a long afternoon of building sentences (both he and I) he begins to speak with me and says, "I made my own sentences today daddy, just like you." Yes, just like me. The wonder of it all.

God took away a job and a former life and gave me back double what I had, perhaps more. I have a wife who has increased her economic viably/saleability in the IT (Information Technology) field through her online consulting work for Sharon Pierson Database Consulting (a shameless plug for my wife's business for all you Christian IT people out there). I have a children that are running parallel paths to their father, just as the father is trying to run a parallel path to Our Father. I think about Seth's tenacious and diligent work to perfect his vocabulary. His love for words. His love of meanings. His desire to to be exact in his usage of his words.

It then dawns on me that there will be help from God but based on what I have seen from my son my takeaway is this. I will need to work diligently like a laborer at his work. I will need to "put my back into it" to get out of Greek what I will need to be a good teacher or pastor. Just because things are as wonderful as they will ever got doesn't mean things will be easy. God put us on this earth to do things, to work and through our actions we glorify Him. There is no greater feeling than the feeling of having accomplished something for God knowing you toiled over it to brin it to fruition. Toiling adds a greater gravity to what has been accomplished. Toiling instills a deep appreciation.

There is beauty in all of this that I am just now beginning to grasp and appreciate as my schedule often puts me in a state of intellectual overburden. As I stopped tonight to take it all in... I felt compelled to tell you all one thing. God is truly amazing and He can do bigger things than you can even imagine. Please don't hem Him and limit what you think God can do. Take his yoke. It will be to your benefit. My family is a living example. A living sacrifice to Christ.

"At that time Jesus declared, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." Matthew 11:25-30

Have things been perfect? I believe the future is now and it will never get any better than it is now. Along the way my faith is solidifying like rock. With all these turns of events, how could it not. Even those outside these events look in and are struck by the storyline. It use to be that I did not believe in the fantastical and the whimsical but this is as close to idyllic as I have ever seen in this life and it is hard to believe it is happening to my family and those associated with us. God truly rewards those that are faithful, obedient to His statutes.
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For humor's sake I have added a list of what is expected of a 1st grader (ironically overlaps with my requirements).

Reading & Writing

Recognize and write all of the letters of the alphabet
Identify sounds corresponding to vowels and consonants
Uses initial consonant sounds/patterns to read words (ex: fat,cat,mat)
Read several sight words
Retell a story including details
Put events of a story in order
Write simple sentences using sight words and phonics skills
Recognize single and plural forms of nouns
Write in complete sentences

It also says Seth's homework should only take about 20 minutes...I wish that was the case for me. If I get clocked in at under 2 hours I am lucky.