Ok, so I haven’t really kept up with writing on the blog. I notice that the last time I wrote was June 14th. We had just come home from our vacation to TN. A few days later on the 19th we celebrated my birthday. We went on a little drive just to enjoy to it. Dad and Mom’s anniversary is on the 18th. I like telling people “Dad and Mom were married on the 18th and I was born on the 19th.” Though you got to understand that they were married 7 years before I was born. I’m a rascal!
I worked of and on at the Day Care the rest of the month though it was only 3-5.
The last week of June Jesse’s Grandma had another mini stroke. It wasn’t as bad as the ones she has had before but it did leave her weak. With going in the ambulance and shifting around from bed to bed, her arms got very sore and then weak. She has practically spent a month in the hospital. She is now in rehab trying to regain strength in both her legs and arms. Through out the past month I’ve been “on call” for helping her out and taking care of things. Many days I would take Jesse to work and then spend almost all morning with her in the hospital.

July 8th was Pastor Egerdahl first Sunday. I was in the nursery. July 15th was his installment at the church. His father- in -law preached the morning service. I thought that was nice.
I got to take their membership picture on the 22nd.

Dear Friends,
Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. We want to praise our great God and exalt His name, for He has done marvelous works. We have been on deputation for just over one year now, and the Lord has been so gracious to provide us with 91% of our monthly support! We [...]

Dear Friends,
First of all, we would like to say Thank You for your faithful prayers, letters, phone calls, and support. You truly have been treating us in a manner worthy of God (3 John 6). We are so thankful for your kindness and for the partners the Lord has given us as we strike out [...]

Yes, I know that it’s been two months since I’ve posted. I had to take a hiatus [again] because of some personal crises that have since been [mostly] resolved. The Lord has been at work in wonderful and mysterious ways, and although I never would have chosen to go down the path that He took me, my life has improved dramatically and I am grateful to Him for it. I actually wrote this post back in May, but did so on my Treo and simply haven’t thought to post it. If you’re really interested in some of what was going on, there are several posts on SI within the May - June timeframe that I really should substitute for blog posts.

In any case, I actually first heard the following poem/challenge when I attended one of the opening revival meetings as an NBBC Student. Kevin Brownfield was the guest evangelist [he's on staff now], and he read it to us at the conclusion of one of his messages; I found it to be so compelling that I actually purchased the cassette tape - yes, I am a dinosaur, I know - transcribed it, and kept it in various forms and places. My wonderful wife saw it posted in my old bedroom, and was kind enough to research it online, reproduce it on some nice paper, and hang it up in the bedroom for me to review every day. It has proven to be a real challenge - and, at times, an encouragement, so I’ve reproduced it here for you. It’s called the “Fellowship of the Unashamed”.

I am part of the Fellowship of the Unashamed. The die has been cast. The decision has been made. I have stepped over the line. I will not look back, let up, slow down, back away, or be still. My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, and my future is secure. I am finished and done with low living, sight walking, small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tamed visions, mundane talking, cheap giving, and dwarfed goals. I no longer need preeminence, prosperity, position, promotions, plaudits, or popularity. I do not have to be right, first, recognized, praised, regarded, or rewarded. I now live by faith, lean on His presence, love with patience, live by prayer, and labor with power. My face is set, my gait is fast, my goal is heaven, my road is narrow, my way is rough, my companions are few, my Guide is reliable, and my mission is clear. I cannot be bought, compromised, detoured, lured away, turned back, deluded or delayed. I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of adversity, negotiate at the table of the enemy, ponder at the pool of popularity, or meander in the maze of mediocrity. I will not give up, shut up, let up, or slow down until I have stayed up, stored up, prayed up, paid up, and spoken up for the cause of Christ. I am a disciple of Jesus. I must go till He comes, give till I drop, preach till all know, and work till He stops me. And when He comes for His own, He will have no problem recognizing me, for my banner is clear.

I received this forward today fromm a coworker and thought it was a big encouragement… 
Today’s Scripture 
“They did not conquer by their own strength and skill, but by your mighty power and because you smiled upon them and favored them” Psalm 44:3 (TLB).  
Today’s Word from Joel and Victoria 
Do you need God’s strength to conquer something [...]

Today while developing a WordPress theme for a client, I ran into a vexing Internet Explorer 7 bug. Anyone who’s done any website design is familiar with Internet Explorer 6 (or earlier) wreaking havoc with standards-compliant work that looks good in, say, Firefox. But thankfully IE 7 has for the most part been [...]

Nancy and I (along with Tricia, Peyton, and Oscar) are enjoying a some beautiful days at the family cottage on Piatt Lake, located near Whitefish Bay and fifty miles north of the Mackinaw Bridge. The bridge was completed in 1957, exactly fifty years ago. As you approach the bridge, which is part of Interstate-75, it is pretty overwhelming, as you can see from the photos to the left.

The bridge is approximately five miles long, including the approaches, and it has four lanes. What can be somewhat unnerving is that the left-hand lane going north and south is not solid pavement. The left lane is a metal grid, and you can actually see the water 450 feet below you in the Straits of Mackinac. The reason for this is that the bridge has to be able to withstand the wind currents and have some “give and take.” It was very elaborately designed back in the 1950s. The bridge connects the Lower Peninsula and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

Today (July 24) is also our 37th wedding anniversary, so it is a good time to reminisce about getting married back in 1970. We spent our honeymoon up here at the cottage. Nathan and Andrea Crane (our nephew and his wife) have recently purchased and renovated the cottage.

During our honeymoon we visited the Soo Locks over in Sault Ste. Marie as well as taking a boat trip to view the Pictured Rocks along the southern shore of Lake Superior. We drove down to St. Ignace and took the ferry boat across to Mackinaw Island. In addition to the historical sights such as Fort Mackinaw and other related buildings, the island is home to several dozen fudge shops. Incidentally, there are no cars on the island. One either walks, rides a bike, or rides in a horse-drawn carriage.

But your trip to the Upper Peninsula is not complete without a trip to see Tahqhamenon Falls. There are the Upper Falls (pictured here), as well as the Lower Falls. The river actually has a copper cast to it because of the minerals deposits that the river flows through on its way to Lake Superior. There is a five-mile trail connecting the Upper and Lower Falls, but most people just drive from the one area to the other.

All in all, it’s been a wonderful time this week. Watching our grandkids swimming and having a big time reminds us of thirty years ago when we would bring our own gang up here summer after summer. Nancy’s dad took great delight in his role of “King of the Raft” by throwing the kids off the raft. And Nancy’s mom made great pies out of the blueberries the kids would pick. Nancy often reminded the kids about the children’s classic story Blueberries for Sal, which was set in New England. But we leave Friday and return to Owatonna where we begin in-service training for the fall semester at Pillsbury.

In 2007, Crossway started publishing a slightly modified version of the English Standard Version (ESV). This does not seem to be a much publicized event as I have not been able to find anything official from Crossway (not that I have looked that hard). Nevertheless an update has occurred. If you have Bibleworks, the changes have already been incorporated into the software through their regular update process.

So, what are these changes? There is no official list but Rick Mansfield, on his blog, This Lamp, has listed all the modifications in seven separate blog entries, each corresponding to a different section of Scripture:

Genesis - Deuteronomy
Joshua - Esther
Job - Song of Solomon
Isaiah - Malachi
Matthew - Acts
Romans - Philemon
Hebrews - Revelation

Most of these changes are very trivial but some are both interesting and significant. One of the more interesting changes occurs at Micah 5:2. In this famous messianic passage, the ESV had followed the RSV with, “…from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days.” While it is possible to construct an orthodox interpretation of this wording, I was disappointed that the ESV translation committee did not change the wording found in the RSV, especially since this verse was highlighted in the 1953 BibSac article that originally criticized the RSV’s liberal bias.

The new version of the ESV reads, “…from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.” This translation choice is more literal (cf., 2 Kings 10:27 for the only other usage) and preserves a deliberate play on words based on the idea of “bringing forth” (as seen in the KJV below):

“yet out of thee shall he come forth) (5:2)
“whose goings forth have been from of old” (5:2)
“until the time that she which travaileth hath brought forth” (5:3)

It’s still not perfect, though, because I believe the Hebrew indicates that the “comings” or “goings” are plural (referring to His repeated Theophanies that have occurred since ancient days), rather than singular as it now stands in the ESV. The singular forces an interpretation along the lines of the Messiah’s earthly descent from the family of David, much like, or exactly like, the use of “origin” did in the original wording. My guess is that they changed “origin” because it was too offensive (indicating to some a non-eternal origin of Christ) but in a way that preserved the orthodox interpretation that they preferred.

I still beleive that the best of rending of the underlying Hebrew word is “goings forth” as translated by the KJV, NKJV, and the NASB.

Sporadically and without warning, I am going to post entries to this category. My objective in writing these special entires is to keep you posted on new things (or things that are new to me) that I consider great and…