Wedding Aniversary

Today is our 4th Wedding Aniversary!  I can’t believe that four years ago today I was getting ready to tie the knot.  We still have many great reminders of that day sitting around the house.  Each time I’m I think of that day I am overwhelmed by the love and support that was shown to us by our family and friends.  That support has continued over the last four years and for that we are grateful.

Now we are expecting our first child and are excited about the things to come.  

Finally and most importantly I want to mention how thankful I am for my wife.  She has been incredible over the last four years.  I have tried to balance a number of things and she has always been supportive through those times.  She is a major part of the ministry I do both inside and outside of the church.  She is an example of one who lives for Christ among her co-workers causing them to ask questions and providing her opportunity to share her faith.  It is great to see the ways God is at work in her life. 

She normally doesn’t read this and so I will ask the question, What is a good gift idea? Although our anniversary is today we are going to celebrate tomorrow.  She makes numerous sacrifices for our marriage, and giving up our anniversary night so I can see the season finale of LOST is just another example.   Feel free to email an ideas. 

matt

 

 

Pray for the Chapman family

Be in prayer for the Steven Curtis Chapman’s family!  There son was backing out of the drive way and hit their daughter Maria Sue.  You can read more about the story here.

Steven Curtis Chapman has been carried the flag for Christian music for many years without compromise.  His family has such a heart for the Chinese people and has two other daughters he has adopted from China. 

Please pray for this family in the coming days and weeks. 

Matt

Thanks for the Memories

 

My parents are coming in town on Thursday, and Friday I will GRADUATE.  I picked up my graduation garb yesterday and am letting the wrinkles “fall out” as we speak. 

As I posted the other day I am grateful for the time that I have had at Seminary but looking forward to spending more time with Jennifer and our new son (to be named later) and with ministry. 

Last week I laid out a schedule that you should consider if you only had one semester at Southeastern.  Another piece of advice I would give would be to sit in every chapel service you see Dr. Akin’s name on the schedule.  As a Seminary we are blessed to have such an wise and Godly President.  I know that what your thinking, shouldn’t every Seminary have a wise and Godly President?  Yes, they should, and from what I understand there are many great ones serving right now, but I can only speak for one.  If you are in need of some great Biblical resources or want to listen to some sound Biblical preaching visit his website.  I regret that I never was able to fit one of his classes in my schedule. 

I look forward to thanking him in my brief moment on stage Friday morning.  I know he will hear that from many students on Friday, but I hope he knows that I am truly gratefully for his leadership and his passion for the scripture. 

Matt

Monday Quote

Two more days of school, sorry I keep bringing it up. 

Today’s quote comes from J.I. Packer’s classic “Knowing God.”  He has a section on Meditating on the Truth towards the begin of the book that will challenge the way you study the Word.  I cannot include the whole section so here is a part of the first paragraph. 

“How can we turn our knowledge about God into knowledge of God? The rule for doing this is simple but demanding.  It is that we turn each truth that we learn about God into a matter for mediation before God leading to prayer and praise to God.”

“Meditation is the activity of calling to mind, and thinking over, and dwellingon, and applying to oneself, the various things that one knows about the works and ways and promises and purposes of God.”

 

Have a good rest of the week.

Matt

 

Monday Quote

Well for those of you keeping track at home, today and tomorrow will be my last days of sitting in a seminary classroom for a lecture, at the Master’s level.  These next two days I hope to spend some time during class thinking back on all the classes I have had.  There have been many that reoccur in the context of ministry weekly, others I’m sure will provide some guidance occasionally, but unfortunately there have been those which I will never consider again (unless I can buy the book back on amazon).  If you could attend one semester of seminary at SEBTS here is the schedule I would recommend:

 1.)  Foundations of Marriage and Family – Dr. Mark Liederbach - He teaches other classes in the ethics department, but unfortunately this was the only one I was able to fit into my schedule.  Each class challenged me.  Each class I couldn’t believe that an 85 minutes could go by so fast.

2.)  Introduction to Biblical Counseling – Dr. Jones - His test are rough and the bulk of his reading was a bit crazy, but every book he ever assigned I have used in ministry.  This was the class that made me begin to think about a Biblical Counseling degree, Instrument in the Redeemer’s Hands was the book. 

3.)  Expository Preaching -Dr. Rummage - Unfortunately, if you want to take this class you will have to commute to Charlotte.  Dr. Rummage is now the teaching pastor at Hickory Grove Baptist Church and teaches only at the Charlotte extension, but he is worth the trip.  He made the move after Expository Preaching I and a number of students carpooled to Charlotte for Expository Preaching II.  Of course that was before 3.75 gas prices, but the point remains the same, this guy is a gifted teacher. 

4.)  Theology – Dr. Nelson - I had two good theology teachers in Dr. Nelson and Dr. Hammett, because there are two course not because I flunked, mom.    Dr. Nelson’s style just fit me better, although it could have been that I just responded better to 85 minutes once week, opposed to 180 minutes twice a week.  These courses lay your foundation and is one of those courses that I look to weekly. 

5.) Philosophy -Dr. Little - Ever since the first day when he called on me to answer a question I didn’t understand I fell in love with Philosophy.  Dr. Little is a gifted communicator and defender of the Gospel.  If you ever have a chance to hear him in a debate or lecture take it.  He spends his breaks traveling the globe lecturing at various Colleges on numerous issues as a platform for the Gospel. 

Well I never took more than twelve hours in a semester so I will stop there, but I wasn’t able to mention: Dr. David Jones-Ethics, Dr. Galeotti-Old Testament, and Dr. Williams-Counseling Practicum.

Some of you might recognize that I haven’t mentioned any NT, Church History, or Evangelism courses.  I had each of those and enjoyed them but I only mentioned a few.  There are a number of courses that I didn’t not mention, but are important for ministry, my omitting them was not neglecting their importance. 

I realized that I haven’t posted a quote yet, so how about we just wait for tomorrow. 

I hope you all had a good Mother’s day, especially you Mom, I love you. 

 

Matt

 

Monday Quote

I want to begin by thanking all of you for the phone calls and emails this week to let me know that you were praying.  The funeral service was a blessing to be a part of on Saturday.  Ms. Shirley was great lady and while it was difficult to do her funeral because we were close and because I’m close to her family, it was easy because of the life she lived. 

This week I’m looking to finish up a few papers and prepare for finals.  It feels good that this school stuff is finally wrapping up (graduation May 23rd).

Yesterday I preached on Psalm 19 and focused on verses 7-11.  As part of my Old Testament class I had to memorize this Psalm and I often return to it.  Today’s quote is the final verse of Psalm 19. 

“My the words of my mouth and meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord my Rock and my Redeemer.”

Since I will soon have an opportunity to read some books that are not assigned to me please email me some suggestions.  I have recently bought “Timothy Keller’s book “A Reason for God” and plan to begin there. 

Have a great week

Matt