Sharpe's little blog

I’ve been working on a sermon on Malachi 1. One of the things I’m going to talk about is the internal testimony of the Holy Spirit as the proof of the validity of scripture. That’s exactly the kind of heady stuff they tell you to stay far away from in preaching, which is probably why I’m going for it. Actually, I’m including it because of the effect that reading Malachi 1 had on my life. Reading that chapter at the end of last year was one of the few times in my life where I experienced that “internal witness,” where God seemed to be screaming at me through His Word. For me, it was seeing my own doubts and blindness and agnosticism held up like a mirror by scripture.

I wonder, gentle readers, if you’ve ever had an experience like that, where scripture just seemed to scream into your life, reminding you that it really is the inspired Word of the Holy God. If so, feel free to comment and say something about it.

I’ve been sitting around the house for the past 24+ hours, trying to get over a cold. I just realized that in that amount of time, Jack Bauer could have totally saved the world/president/LA about 4 times over — and I can’t manage to get over a little old common cold. Oh well. I’m trying out some Zicam and Airborne, both of which claim to zap colds quick. It’s working decently well so far, but the real test will be if I can sing tomorrow morning. I hate singing when I’m sick.

I’d also been hoping to visit either Brad Staton’s new church or Status to hear Don Miller — both of which are happening tomorrow night. Way things are going now, I’ll probably just come home and sleep until Monday.

The other thing that stinks is that I hate reading when I’m sick. I’m never able to focus very well. This is bad because I have tons of reading to do, and I’m stuck in the house anyway. Then again, I also hate writing when I’m sick. Which is probably why I’m stopping now.

Thanks for your prayers over my Judges-Poets class. I took the test yesterday, and it went really well. I was pleasantly surprised. The questions I was afraid of weren’t on the test, so that was nice. Weird thing: I found that I actually kind of like taking tests. Yeah, that sounds crazy. But I’m kinda a lazy person academically, so I need a good kick in the butt to get working sometimes. And I also find that I learn better when I cut through a bevy of information and accumulate it into answering questions with a certain focus. In that process, I actually learn the material assigned better than I do by simply attending class and reading books. The weirdest thing is that I really do enjoy it. The bad thing is that it takes up so much time and energy that it gets hard to focus on anything else.

But now that’s kinda behind me, and I’ve got a ton of work to keep up with all of my classes. I’ve got 3 classes that are expecting me to read over 200 pages a week. That adds up fast kids. Fast.

The great thing is I feel like I have the time to really get myself organized with my new job. The transition so far has not quite been what I’d anticipated. Nothing necessarily bad; it’s mostly that I haven’t had the time or energy to be as proactive as I need to be to make the kind of changes and assimilations that need to happen. And most of these “changes and assimilations” are more internal (for me) than external (for the church). Sorry, that’s really vague. What that means for me is diving in and trusting God that this is where He wants me to grow, losing my pre-conceived notions and prideful walls that cause me to pre-judge and disengage. And God’s grace has been constantly by my side, both reassuring me and challenging me to fall in love with His one holy, catholic and apostolic church.

I’m spent.

Judges-Poets owns me currently. And not in a good way.

Hopefully I’ll be back sometime soon. I hope.