The Bruised Reed

My Blog Has Moved!!!

2008-05-24T07:07:00.002-04:00

I have moved my blog. I will no longer be posting blogs on this site. I am going to continue blogging just on another site. Over the past month or so I have been redesigning my blog and I hope that you enjoy it's new look. I encourage you to check it out, I think it will serve you better than the one I have been currently doing. Remember to change your bookmarks and update your blogs links to my new one.

Check it out

http://jeremygreenberg.wordpress.com/

Grace & Peace,

Jeremy Greenberg

Christianity & Liberalism

2008-05-15T08:22:00.004-04:00

I blogged a few days ago about an awesome book that I recommended you to check out. I wanted to give you a taste of what is inside. So here are a few snippet from the book. It is ridiculously sweet book and has really blessed me.

..."the message of the resurrection was not isolated. It was connected with the death of Jesus, seen now to be not a failure but a triumphant act of divine grace; it was connected with the entire appearance of Jesus upon earth. The coming of Jesus was understood now as an act of God by which sinful men were saved. The primitive Church was concerned not merely with what Jesus had said, but also, and primarily, with what Jesus had done. The world was to be redeemed through the proclamation of an event. And with the event went the meaning of the event; and the setting forth of the event with the meaning of the event was doctrine. These two elements are always combined in the Christian message. The narration of the facts is history; the narration of the facts with the meaning of the facts is doctrine. "Suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried"--that is history. "He loved me and gave Himself for me"--that is doctrine. Such was the Christianity of the primitive Church." page 29 from the Doctrine chapter

"The fundamental fault of the modern Church is that she is busily engaged in an absolutely impossible task--she is busily engaged in calling the righteous to repentance. Modern preachers are trying to bring men into the Church without requiring them to relinquish their pride; they are trying to help men avoid the conviction of sin. The preacher gets up into the pulpit, opens the Bible, and addresses the congregation somewhat as follows: "You people are very good," he says; "you respond to every appeal that looks toward the welfare of the community. Now we have in the Bible--especially in the life of Jesus--something so good that we believe it is good enough even for you good people." Such is modern preaching. It is heard every Sunday in thousands of pulpits. But it is entirely futile". page 63 from the God and Man chapter

Psalm 61

2008-05-14T08:01:00.003-04:00

I was just reading through this Psalm this morning and it just spoke to me so I figure I would throw it up here. I was struck once again with how it is ALL about the Lord. It is Him who leads us and sustains up, who provides for us and called us out of darkness into light! I loved the distinction that David makes between his cry and his prayer in verse 1. I don't think I cry out to God much....

1 "Hear my cry, O God,
   listen to my prayer;
2 from the end of the earth I call to you
   when my heart is faint.
Lead me to the rock
   that is higher than I,
3 for you have been my refuge,
   a strong tower against the enemy.

4 Let me dwell in your tent forever!
   Let me take refuge under the shelter of your wings!
5 For you, O God, have heard my vows;
   you have given me the heritage of those who fear your name.

6 Prolong the life of the king;
   may his years endure to all generations!
7 May he be enthroned forever before God;
   appoint steadfast love and faithfulness to watch over him!

8 So will I ever sing praises to your name,
as I perform my vows day after day."

Christianity & Liberalism

2008-05-07T20:15:00.003-04:00

If you have not read this book I strongly recommend that you pick it up and read it. It is a Machen classic. If you are not familiar with Machen he was born in 1881 and died in 1937. He was a Presbyterian theologian, born at Baltimore, Maryland, studied at John Hopkins, Princeton University, and the universities of Marburg and Gottingen, Germany.... Taught New Testament literature and exegesis in Princeton Theological Seminary (1906-1929).... An outstanding conservative apologist and theologian at Princeton, he left the school because of Modernism. Offered the presidency of several schools; but refused each offer. In 1929 founded Westminster Theological Seminary and became president and professor of New Testament from 1929 to 1937. Protesting against the liberalism of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, established an independent mission board. Charged with insubordination, tried, found guilty, and suspended from the Presbyterian ministry. Group of sixteen other clergymen and laymen with Dr. Machen withdrew in 1936 to found the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. This book, first published in 1923, is a classic treatment of the age old controversy between Orthodox Christianity and Liberalism. Machen contrasts the errors of liberalism with the basic foundational truths of Biblical Christianity such as: Doctrine, God and man, the Bible, Christ, Salvation, and the Church. Machen's book is scriptural, thought-provoking, well-reasoned, and relevent today!!! Your faith in the Bible and its basic doctrines will be strengthened. It is worth your time to read this important book.

Summer Camp

2008-05-06T01:13:00.005-04:00

So all of you know, I will be at Rockbridge the next two weeks. Rockbridge is the big summer camp for our region (North Carolina, Virginia, and South Carolina). All the schools in the region are split into two weeks and there are about 750 students that will attend the camp over that time. It's a really awesome and amazing week for the students and also the staff. Exams have finished, the school year is over, summer has officially started and the students get to spend a week in the mountains with a ton of other folks from different schools.

In typical IV fashion there is a main speaker each day, tons of worship music, track time, and a mess of free time. The students pick a track and stick with that one for the week. A lot of the training for the next school year will happen at Rockbridge. There is a small group vision track that is geared to help students learn what it mean to lead a small group and practically how to do it. They get the opportunity to lead a small group through a passage of scripture and get to hear feed back from the group. They also get tools for how to study scripture and prepare a bible study for a group of students. There is also tracks geared solely for non Christian or really young Christians, called following Jesus. It's a great track that goes through one of the gospels and spends a lot of time examining Jesus' life, death, and Resurrection and what that means for us. There are several other tracks but I wont get into them all, just wanted to give you a brief taste of what I'll be doing these next two weeks.

All of the tracks are led by the various staff throughout the region, so be praying for us and it's also a very full and exhausting time for us. I'll probably blog a few time while I'm here to share some of my thoughts, so don't think I'm taking this time off from here :). I'm also reading Christianity & Liberalism by J. Gresham Machen and will assuredly have something to say about that book at some point while I am here.

Together For The Gospel 2008

2008-05-01T11:52:00.003-04:00

If you were not able to go to the Together for the Gospel conference in Louisville KT in mid April I would stronger encourage you to check out the talk on MP3. You can download them at the t4g.org website. I've listened to them all a few times and they have greatly blessed me. Here are the speakers that were there and the topic they spoke on.

Ligon Duncan - Sound Doctrine – Essential to Faithful Pastoral Ministry
Thabiti Anyabwile - Bearing the Image: Identity, the Work of Christ, and the Church
John MacArthur - The Sinner Neither Able Nor Willing: The Doctrine of Absolute Inability
Mark Dever - Improving the Gospel: Exercises in Unbiblical Theology
RC Sproul - The Curse Motif of the Atonement
Albert Mohler - Why Do They Hate It So? The Doctrine of Substitution
John Piper - How the Supremacy of Christ Creates Radical Christian Sacrifice
CJ Mahaney - Sustaining a Pastor's Soul

The Next Generation

2008-04-24T16:50:00.004-04:00

I guess I am sort of on a Joshua Harris kick or something because this post is from him as well. I came across an article that he wrote in the magazine called Tabletalk in the April edition. I thought I would share it with you. It is about mentoring the next generation. I encourage you to read it, I think it's pretty good. It hits home with me because of my involvement with InterVarsity and my belief in the importance of mentoring relationships and what they accomplish.

If you don't know he is the senior pastor at Covenant Life Church, in Gaithersburg Maryland and is the author of Sex Is Not the Problem (Lust Is).

When I turned twenty-one, my dad gave me this simple advice: “Find men that you want to be like and then sit at their feet.” As I launched into manhood, he was reminding me that the lessons I needed most wouldn’t be found in a textbook — they’d be written in the heart and life of a godly man. I needed to get close enough to this man that I could observe his character and be shaped by his example. I needed a mentor.

I didn’t realize at the time how important and prescient my dad’s counsel was. But less than a year later, God brought me across the path of C.J. Mahaney, the man who would mentor me, train me in pastoral ministry, and eventually install me as his replacement in the church he founded and led for nearly thirty years.

Looking back, I’ve become even more aware of what a rare gift God gave me in my relationship with C.J. Sadly, my experience is unique. There are many young adults who desire to sit at the feet of mature Christians. But how many older Christians are willing to let them sit there?

C.J. let me into his life even though it involved personal inconvenience. He literally invited me into his home (I lived in his basement for a year); he guided my study, exposed me to great theology, and both encouraged and constructively critiqued my fledgling attempts at leadership and preaching.

So for me the power of a mentor is no abstract concept. I know the difference that personal example, friendship, and on-the-job discipleship makes. Every part of my life — as a follower of Christ, as a husband and father, and now as a pastor — has been shaped by the investment my friend made, and continues to make, in my life.

One of the reasons I love to tell my story is because I hope it will inspire older Christians to take the time to mentor the up-and-coming generation of believers.

Most of us know that mentoring the next generation is a good idea. And of course it’s unarguably biblical. Proverbs 13:20 calls the young to be companions of the wise — the implication being that some wise person will be willing to let the less-wise be their companion. The Psalms speak of one generation commending the mighty acts of God to the next (Ps. 145:4). And of course, the New Testament example of Paul teaching and training Timothy models the importance of mentoring in the spread of the Gospel and the building of the church.

So we can agree that mentoring is good. But do we do it? And if we don’t, is the problem that we’re too busy? Or could it be that we don’t mentor because we lack real conviction? And could our lack of conviction be the result of failing to apply the truth of the Gospel to our view of the next generation?

How does the Gospel relate to this topic? First, it’s the essential motive for Christian mentoring. As Christians, we have a message — one composed of true facts about real events — that is bigger and more important than any one of us. The good news of Jesus and His death and resurrection for sinners is the world’s only hope. It’s the only way of salvation for mankind. The obvious implication is that passing this saving message on to people who will be here after we’re gone is the most important thing we can do during our lifetime. Our legacy, our reputation, our heritage is really unimportant. A building or company or denomination with our name on it will do the world little good. But if we can teach, train, and disciple men and women to trust in, love, and proclaim the message of Christ and him crucified, then we’ve accomplished something worthwhile.

This kind of Gospel-centered view of life leads to proactive mentoring. And this is exactly what is needed today. Members of the older generation need to take it upon themselves to pursue younger Christians to mentor and disciple them in the faith. Let’s be honest. They might not be beating down the door to sit at your feet. They might not look to you with adoring eyes, amazed by your knowledge. You might not be a “cool” old person. Don’t let that stop you. If you’re motivated by the Gospel, it shouldn’t stop you. Remember, it’s not about you. It’s about the Savior. It’s about what He has done. Whether or not you have the added fuel of feeling wanted, needed, and in demand, you can go out and seek to serve.

But what if you can’t relate to the younger generation? Again, this is where the Gospel comes into play. The Gospel strips away the façade of “generation gaps” and reminds us that, regardless of our age, we all have something in common — we’re all sinners in need of the substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The Gospel smoothes out the bumps of cross-generational friendships. It reminds us that, regardless of our age, we have a lot in common.

It was God’s grace that led me to realize as a young man that I needed a mentor to advise and train me in ministry. And it was God’s grace that prepared a godly older man to be that mentor. Two decades earlier, in the early days of his ministry, C.J. had made a promise to God. He had always longed for but never truly found a godly, older mentor for himself. And so he told God that if he ever had the chance to be that mentor to a younger man, he wouldn’t pass up the opportunity. He wouldn’t be too busy.

When I came along he didn’t see me as a nuisance. He didn’t see me as a threat. His first concern wasn’t preserving his position. He saw me as a young man in whom he could invest in so that the most important truth — the truth of the Gospel — could be passed on. What a refreshing perspective. Our job isn’t to fend off the next generation. Our calling as lovers of the Gospel is to equip the next generation to surpass us in faithfulness and effectiveness.

Somewhere there’s a young man or woman praying for a mentor. Get ready. You could be God’s answer to that prayer. - by Joshua Harris

Copyrights Tabletalk magazine

American Idol Follow-Up

2008-04-24T16:10:00.002-04:00

Here are some things that I found out about the American Idol stuff I blogged about last post. It helped me answer some of my questions so I thought I would share them with you as well.

Fox

A Christian woman named Beverly posted on someone else's blog what I thought was a helpful inside perspective from Fox.

I work on one of the "sister shows" of American Idol...so picture an office, with all of the producers, crew, etc. gathered in watching the live feed at our CBS offices, then this song comes on...an office filled with a few Christians....atheists and agnostic Jews. You could hear a pin drop....it was awesome.....the power that came through....nothing had to be said...no debates....just people being touched more than they realized...producers, writers...crew that had never darkened a church door in their lives, or their only experience with Christians was a negative one. You don't always see the workings of us Christians that are behind the scenes...you don't know how much prayer went into getting a song with that message on a, let us not forget, a SECULAR show. So, from someone behind the scenes, the best thing you can do is write to the producer of Am. Idol and simply state how much you appreciate the diversity they showed in having an very inspirational song in their program. Period.

No criticizing. This will go farther than you realize. Also, pray, pray, pray for us Christians that have chosen Hollywood as our vocation, career and our mission field.

The Folks at Hillsong
I expressed curiosity about how the process for rights to use the song worked. This person has some knowledge of it and about Christians in the Idol band.

I know the people from Hillsong who negotiated this deal thru Integrity Music, and the word change wasn't approved, but while they deal with that, they are quite happy the song was song used.
There are also very strong Christians in the American idol band, who are witnesses in places most of us don't have influence—let's rejoice that He is praised, even if by 'indifferent' vessels—let the fruit of our ministry be heard in our churches and in the churches of pop culture.
Let's reserve our 'outrage' for the real tragedies in this world...Let his praises rise... Even from hearts as cold as stones... God can command praise from stones—not just the redeemed.

Joshua Harris
Below is from Joshua Harris about the whole American Idol thing and what he says really resonated with how I am feeling about it all. So, I thought I would share his thoughts with you.

So far, my two posts about the song have been more humorous than serious. I wasn't outraged when they edited the lyrics. I was surprised when they did the song again and included Jesus' name, but I didn't think it was a major triumph of God's kingdom.
As I've read various comments people seem to fall into two different camps. Some Christians are upset—because they left out Jesus, because non-Christians were singing a song of "praise", because it was all about money, because it's another example of Christianity being "censored." Other Christians are elated—because they put Jesus back in, because a praise song was heard by millions of people, because they see this as incredible evangelistic platform.
I guess I'm not really at home with either group. With all due respect, I don't think that having a song like Shout to the Lord sung (even though I like it) is going to usher in revival. This reminds me of the fervor before the movie The Passion of the Christ was released. People spoke about this movie as if it was the ultimate opportunity for the gospel to advance. I don't think it was. Was I glad that it was released? Sure. But I think that it's too easy for Christians to think that any moment in the media spotlight on TV or in film is a bigger deal than it really is. We should welcome any opportunity for media to help spread the good news about Jesus, but I don't think we should put too much stock in that vehicle. The gospel is going to advance as it always has—steadily as it is clearly proclaimed by believers in their words and modeled by their lives and actions. The gospel advances as local congregations receive and live God's word for their neighbors to see.
So I'm more excited about Christians inviting their unbelieving friends over to watch American Idol together so they can build friendships and establish a platform for sharing the gospel in that relationship than I'm excited about an occasional worship song being sung on the show. If both happen, that's cool, too.
Oh, and let me gently disagree with people who are upset about the song being sung, edited or not. Don't get so worked up about unsaved people singing songs of praise to Jesus. It happens every Sunday in churches around the world. It happens in my church every Sunday. Thankfully, a large portion of people at our church are Christians. But there are many people who claim to know Christ that don't. And there are many unbelieving people who come who need to repent and believe.

American Idol

2008-04-11T16:55:00.006-04:00

Wednesday night's are pretty typical for me. I drive to campus to meet with one of my students at 5:30pm to study Galatians till large group which starts at 7:00pm. Large group goes till about 9ish and then I drive back to Newport News (about a 35-40 min drive). Since I'm gone on Wed. nights my wife has some of her friends over to hang out. So, I got home at about 9:40ish and they were watching the normal show they always watch....American Idol. This night on the show was there "give back" night, they were raising money for various charities. I normally walk in the door grab some food to eat and check my email and send a few. This night on the show was like every other till I started hearing the song "Shout to the Lord" being sung from the TV by all the participants of American Idol. I was taken back...I stopped what I was doing and was captivated by what I was hearing. On American Idol they were singing a song that openly proclaimed about worshipping Jesus. Somewhere between 18-21 million people watch this show each week according to the shows statistics. I'm not going to lie, I was a little impressed to hear this song sung on such a mainstream TV show. Why did they change the lyrics to "my shepherd" instead of "my Jesus". Before I finished this post I caught last's night episode and they sang the song again....except this time they sang it "my Jesus". Needless to say dozens of questions are rolling around in my head. Here are a few...How and why are they signing this song? Did Hillsong give them a bunch of money, and ask them to sing this song? What cause them to change the lryics to "my shepherd" the first night and back to "Jesus" the second? I was also curious who decided to have them sing this song. Curious to hear everyones thoughts.

I've put the click below for you to check out if you didn't get to see it. I also put the lyrics to the song below as well.

my shepherd version (above - from 4/09/08)

my Jesus version (above - from 4/10/08)

Shout to the Lord, all the earth, let us sing
Power and Majesty, praise to the King;
Mountains bow down and the seas will roar
At the sound of Your name.
I sing for joy at the work of your hands,
Forever I'll love You, forever I'll stand
Nothing compares to the promise I have in You.

My Jesus, my Savior, Lord, there is none like You;
All of my days I want to praise the wonders of Your mighty love.
My comfort, my shelter, tower of refuge and strength;
Let every breath, all that I am, never cease to worship You.

Greek Conference (the recap)

2008-03-21T10:17:00.004-04:00

I realized this morning that I never shared how Greek Conference turned out. I posted about the conference on Feb. 13 as I was heading to Greensboro, North Carolina.
The time I had there was awesome!! When I was an undergrad and involved with Sigma Phi Epsilon I never went to Greek Conference so I was very eager to experience it and see what it was all about. Obviously it was designed for Greek students. It took place over a weekend and was a place to discuss real-life issues, to investigate what it means to be a Christian, to be challenged and encouraged by other Greek students, and to get practical tools for living in the Greek system and to just have fun with each other. Students from all over the east coast came.
There several students who came that decided to give their lives to Christ. It was powerful to hear them tell there story and to see the excitement they had for being with so many other people who were believers and Greek. I had the oppurtunity to help lead a track that focused on social justice and what God has to say about it. I can't wait to bring some of my Greek students from ASU with me next year. I think too often we write off the Greek community from our outreach and see then as too different or too "far gone". Which is absolutely not the gospel. Or we are content with the mindset of not knowing how to reach out to that community and never pursue building relationships and continuing to reach out even when it's hard.

I'm going to add some photos to this post hopefully later today or tomorrow so check back soon to see them.

Spring Break Trip (cont.)

2008-03-19T08:54:00.000-04:00

Let me just say how great the week was in Richmond. As I said in the previous post, there was 21 students that went. We were gone from Monday to Friday, working with on organization called C.H.A.T (Church Hill Activities & Tutoring). Below are some pictures from the week. We spent the week tutoring kids, playing with the kids, working on the lighthouse (the house that CHAT has all their activities in) to fix it up - painting, landscaping, building railing, more painting, rebuilding piers for front porch.
The students really connected with the kids and with the people who work at CHAT. We had 4 of the students who got application to intern at CHAT this summer for 10 weeks, and it looks like 2 of them are going to be able to do it. The trip was done very well. There was a great balance between the students getting to see the community and learn about it, spending time with the kids, and doing community work. One of the mornings we went of a prayer/trash pick up walk around Church Hill. We broke into several groups and walked around for about 45 minutes. It was awesome to hear what God did in the midst of that time. Everyone came back with a huge black bag of trash (some with several) and many of the students had opportunities to talk with people from the community and pray specifically with them.
I really saw the students grow during this week. They saw what it looks like to serve and to live out the faith that we have been talking about all semester long. For many of them this was there first exposer to a service project/mission trip. By the end of the week they were excited to get more involved in the Norfolk (ODU area) community and begin serving there. All in all, I was very pleased with how the week turned out and hope to bring ASU on a service project there next year. Below are a few pictures from the trip. [If you have a facebook account, I put about 160 pictures from the trip on there if you want to check out some more of the week - if you don't have one here is your excuse to sign up for one :)]

Samson reading with one of the kids.

The group on a bus tour of Church Hill

painting the fence

working on rebuilding the piers and getting ready to install
the corner column.

Spring Break Trip

2008-03-11T07:42:00.002-04:00

So I'm in Church Hill Richmond right now on a service project with 21 of my ODU students. I know I haven't posted in a little while....sorry. It's been a busy past month. Buy I wanted everyone to know things are going well. 21 of my students decided to spend their spring break helping out an organization called C.H.A.T (Church Hill Activities & Tutoring). I'll post more about the trip when I get back to Newport News on Saturday but wanted to let youall know I was still around :). Please be praying for us as we are on this trip!!

Greek Conference

2008-02-13T17:21:00.006-05:00

On February 22-24 I will be in Greensboro, N.C. for CONNECT, InterVarsity Greek Conference. This is a conference that happens once a year. It is a place where hundreds of Greeks from across the country and CONNECT for one weekend to discuss real-life issues, to investigate what it means to be a Christian, to be challenged and encouraged by other Greek students, to get practical tools for living in the Greek system and to just have fun with each other.

Some of you might not know but I am Greek. I am part of the fraternity Sigma Phi Epsilon. I joined toward the end my time at CNU but really enjoyed my time in the Greek system, I had a lot of friendships within SigEp throughout college. While I was at CNU I actually never went to the Greek Conference (there was always something going on the weekend they had it). So, I'm pretty excited about going and being a part of it. I am going to be helping to lead the World Changers break out session (similar to the social justice track I helped lead at the 222 conference I blogged about earlier).

The other reason I am really excited about going to the conference is that one of my Greek ODU students just signed up to go with me. I know this might not be a big deal to you but it is for me. Let me explain why. ODU does not have a Greek IV chapter or really any ministry reaching out the the Greek students on campus. I've been having lunch with the Greek community at ODU this semester and building relationships with them. In a sense I am starting Greek ministry at ODU. My hope is that I will be able to have several students involved when I leave that will be able to continue what I have started and work with Shane (the current ODU InterVarsity staff) to continue to help it grow.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Sovereign Grace Store Sale

2008-02-01T13:57:00.000-05:00

Thought I would let everyone know that today is the first day at the Sovereign Grace Store. All cds are $6 and there's big discounts on books too! They also have free domestic shipping.

I highly recommend the "Valley of Vision" CD. It is comprised of songs that were inspired by the classic book of puritan prayers also called The Valley of Vision. You can check it out on the website and listen to parts of each song. I've listened to them and really impressed by it.

InterVarsity update

2008-01-27T08:13:00.000-05:00

The second semester has just started at ODU. It's good to be back and meeting with students again after the winter break. I have pretty much figured out my schedule for the semester and am feeling really good about how it's all balanced out and look forward to seeing how God is going to work through me.

I wanted to share some of what has been going on the past couple of weeks and what is ahead in the near future.

Over winter break I went to InterVarsity's National Staff Conference in St. Louis. It was a great week. The theme for the week was Rom. 1:16. It was awesome to see and hear what God was doing through other staff workers on their campuses. I also had the opportunity to meet tons of people and have some great conversations with folks. As always it was nice to spend time with the people from my region and hear what is going on in their lives. During the week we had guest speakers who talked each day (went through Romans, an overview of the book), corporate worship, corporate prayer, and break out sessions that were mainly geared towards helping our ministries.

This coming week is going to be pretty full. I have my final intern meeting from Tuesday through Thursday. This meeting with focus on campus strategy and helping us to think about this as we move toward moving to our own campuses and reflecting on this past year. We will also talk a little about possible placements for us this coming year. Then from Friday to Sunday ODU has its chapter retreat at Triple R ranch in Chesapeake. It is looking like we are going to have a about 50 students coming, which is awesome!! We are really excited about this weekend. This will serve as a place for the chapter to grow more as a community and to hear some solid teaching.

If you could be praying for the placement process for us this coming year I would be greatly appreciative. In about a month Tracy and I will find out what campus we are being sent to. Pray for the people who, over the next month, will be making these decisions.

Good Videos (RC Sproul)

2008-01-05T20:13:00.000-05:00

Below are three videos that I thought were pretty good and that some of you might enjoy watching. I will post on some other peoples videos from time to time when I get a collection of good ones.

Justification and Imputed Righteousness (RC Sproul)

According to His Choice, Not Our Works (RC Sproul)

Christ The Only Way (RC Sproul)

New Year

2008-01-01T09:55:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year everyone!!! Hope if you went out last night you had a good time with friends/family. Tracy and I made it over to John and Nicolette Stephens for their party. It was real great to hang out with folks and see their new place after some renovation work. We did not get to stay real late because Joshua needed to get to bed (and so did we). There is not much else I would rather be doing then spending the last night of the year with close friends of mine that have taught me what community can look like. So as I look back over this past year I reflect on the community I have in Newport News and at By Grace Community Church and how grateful I am that the Lord saw it fit to bring us all to CNU many years ago, build his kingdom on its campus through InterVarsity, plant a church in a community that desperately needs Him, and show us what community can be between brothers and sister. What are you reflecting on this day?

I thought I would also leave you with some verses from scripture to meditate on as you reflect on this past year.

Romans 13:11-14
And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.

Philippians 3:13-14
Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Romans 14:7-8
For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.

Apostasy

2007-12-29T17:57:00.000-05:00

This is from Tyris Horton Sr. over at Black and Reformed Ministries blog....Thought this was something great to be thinking about as we enter into the New Year and are reflecting on this past year.

I remember at one time in my walk with the Lord when I thought that Hebrews chapter 6 and 10 was talking to the believer who had sinned after being saved. I was terrified when reading this and thought I was doomed and had lost my salvation. I thought that my salvation was something that I decided and therefore if I messed up I could lose it. Glory be to God it is not me holding it together. If I made the wrong mistake or slipped I was forever lost. This was before I was introduced to the Biblical doctrines of grace.(i.e. TULIP-Calvinism) I hope you know that for a true believer in Christ it is impossible to lose your salvation. Why? Not because I said it, but because God has said this in His Word. (John 10:27-29, Rom 8:35,38-39, 1 Pet 1: 4-5, & Phil 1:6)

I would like to focus on these two passages.

Hebrews 6:4 For [it is] impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, 5 And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, 6 If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put [him] to an open shame.

Hebrews 10:26 For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?

In the book of Hebrews the writer starts out building a case for the supremacy of Christ against everyone else prior to his first advent. He proceeds and makes it ridiculously obvious that the Israelites had seen the wonderful works of God and still would not believe in chapter 3. From all of this we are built up to what we understand to be a warning to the apostates. We understand that this could not possibly be talking about the believer simply because we have all sinned prior and after coming to salvation. (1 John 1:8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.) Christ died for our sins past, present, and future.

Many people today and even then in one way or another experience the blessings of God(Romans 1:20). We see the grace of God alone in just life and breathing and others like the Israelites and the people during the life of Christ seen His works first hand. Let us just think of the Pharisees who seen the very hand of God before their eyes and attributed that good to the evil one. To go even further all we have to do is examine the life of Judas and see how he betrayed our Lord after being with the Lord on many more intimate and personal occasions and still turning his back on Christ. In this we see that mere intellectual understanding does not save anyone. Without the gift of faith given to us from God, surely we would all be without hope. The gift of faith(Ephesians 2) coming from the Father is the key that unlocks the shackles that bind us to sin and the evil one. No this does not mean that after salvation we never sin. If you've been through the book of first John he makes it clear that after salvation our affections change and we begin to love what God loves and hate what God hates more and more as we get to know him in our temporal earthly journey. (1 John 1:6 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.) ( 1 John 2:5 But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him. 6 He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.) We are to be Christ-like. What does this mean? Well we have to get to the understanding of how badly God hates sin. We simply have to look at the first sin that was committed in Eden to see how serious God is about sin.

I caught of glimpse of this first hand last week at work. My boss simply told all of the people on our team to not do something. I knew that my boss was in a meeting and willfully decided to do it anyway. Immediately the phrase popped in my head, "premeditated sin" and I thought of Psalm 19. Now did I lose my salvation? I certainly hope not!!! We as Christians ought to become so acquainted with the Word of God that sin should not be habitual or permanent in our life.

In Hebrews 10 the comparison is made of the ones who rejected Moses, how much more will they be off when rejecting the one time propitiating blood of Christ and regard it as a common thing. The Greek word used here lets us know that this is not general knowledge but more of a personal "knowing without a shadow of a doubt knowledge."
Epignosis akin to epiginosko, denotes "exact or full knowledge, discernment, recognition," and is a strengthened form of gnosis, expressing a fuller or a full "knowledge," a greater participation by the "knower" in the object "known," thus more powerfully influencing him.

I wanted to make it clear that when Paul says in Romans 8:1 [There is] therefore now no condemnation(damnatory sentence, condemnation) to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. He meant exactly what he said. My question is what sin do you haphazardly let reside in your life and say, "it is only a small sin." Does your sin bother you? What things are you doing to eliminate the sin in your life. I leave with a interesting quote by Spurgeon.

“Of all the sins that can happen to us, perhaps the deadliest of all is that of not being conscious of having any sin. A good old Scotchman used to say that there was no devil in the world so bad as having no devil at all, and that not to be tempted was the worst sort of temptation. So I think, and not to be conscious of any sin is, perhaps, to be at the furthest point from God to which any human being can go; for, the nearer we are to God, the more conscious we are of our own shortcomings, and the more earnestly do we struggle to overcome every atom of sin which we discover to be within our souls.”

Humility

2007-12-22T09:11:00.000-05:00

In Romans 12:3 the Apostle defines one aspect of humility: knowing one’s gifts and limitations and acting accordingly. The constant temptation for God’s children is the one that came to Adam and Eve in the garden: we can be as God and know, and by implication do, all things. But we cannot be as God—we all have limitations, we all have a place to fill that no other can fill. One great task for all of us that call on the Lord Jesus is to determine where he would have us serve and do that to the best of our ability.

Sounds simple, doesn’t it? If it were that simple, much of the turmoil in church life and in seminaries and parachurch organizations would be solved instantly, for in all these places we have people doing things they were not called to do. What they and we need to do is to take sober stock of our calling and our gifting and find where we should be. Such sober stock-taking involves looking at our gifts, passions, training, family context, and listening to what others say.

Oh to grow in humility!

Regional Staff Conference

2007-12-17T17:37:00.000-05:00

I just got back from Regionals (yearly get together for the IV staff in our region, NC., SC., & VA.) I had a really great time there. During the mornings and late afternoons we focused on training in chapter planting and chapter building, emphasizing large groups and evangelism. In the evenings we had some great times of worship, reflection, celebration and prayer. There was also time set aside in the afternoon and late evening for recreation. I'm still processing everything I heard while there but I definitely feel like I learned a lot that will help me when I move to my own campus. Another exciting part of my time there was that Tracy and Joshua were able to attend as well. I got to build several relationship with other staff that I don't normally see, specifically the chapter planters at the College of Charleston. It was great to hear what God has been doing on their campus. I am reminded of Psalm 127:1,
Unless the LORD builds the house,
its builders labor in vain.
Unless the LORD watches over the city,
the watchmen stand guard in vain.
All and all, my time at Rockbridge for regionals excited me for being on campus next year and how God will use me. For the house that he is building for me and for the campus he is watching over. He knows were I will be and the students I will be meeting with.

Christmas Music

2007-11-27T19:24:00.000-05:00

So I came across this Christmas CD a little bit ago and thought I would share it with everyone. If you are looking to buy a new Christmas album, and I know you are....how do I know you ask? Because I am (no sarcasm there)! Well, do I have one for you. It's called Savior: Celebrating the Mystery of God Becoming Man. I've listened to it a bit and it's actually pretty decent. It has twelve original songs on it and was put together by Sovereign Grace Ministries. If you are interested in checking out what's on the CD go here and you can listen to about a minute or so of each song and can actually download the an entire song. You are also able to read through all the lyrics on the site as well.

Below is a video of Bob Kauflin explaining why they created this Christmas album.

The business that is my life

2007-11-27T18:29:00.001-05:00

Alright....back from a bit of a hiatus from blogging.

The last month has been a full one, especially the last week or so. We just recently had a retreat called 222. It is a retreat for all the Eastern Virginia students (Christopher Newport University, Old Dominion University, Randolph Macon College, University of Mary Washington, University of Richmond, Virginia Commonwealth University, William and Mary). There were a ton of students who came (actually the most we have had for several years). 222 is a conference based off of 2 Timothy 2:2 and is a weekend gathering designed to help college students grow as followers of Jesus Christ. To the left is a picture from the retreat of a few of the ODU students. We had a great turnout of ODU students who ended up coming.

I also just went to an intern meeting in Greensboro, NC for two days. Nine other interns were there with me. It was a time to process through the first semester as InterVarsity Interns and what we have learned and seen during those months. It was also a place for us to share stories and good/hard experiences as staff workers. We were able to spend a lot of time in prayer and in scripture which was great as well. Over all it was an awesome few days.

Life will be back to normal for the next two weeks before the fall semester is over and students go home for winter break. It's hard to believe that the semester is already almost over and my internship is half over. I'll be finding out in Feb. where Tracy and I will be getting our placement for staff and that will be here before we know it. Please be praying for us as we move towards this decision.

Knowing Scripture

2007-10-29T15:58:00.000-04:00

I was talking about this book to several of my students that I was meeting with last week and was recommending them to read through it. I started getting real excited by the end of the week and am now starting to reread it some and thought I would give a blog spot to it. I highly recommend this book to anyone who hasn't read it before. If you are interested in buying it check it out at wtsbooks.com they have it for 25% off at $9.75. Below is an quick explanation of the book.

R. C. Sproul helps us dig out the meaning of Scripture for ourselves. He lays the groundwork by discussing why we should study the Bible and how our own personal study relates to interpretation. Then he presents in simple, basic terms the science of interpretation and gives practical guidelines for applying this science.

"Here is a basic book for both beginning Bible readers and those who have been at it for a long time. With his usual common sense and bubbling enthusiasm, Sproul explores why every Christian should study the Bible and why so many get discouraged. He then offers clear explanations of the basic steps of interpretation and gives simple how-to's for using them. Excellent for beginning Bible readers. R.C. Sproul outlines the principles of textual interpretation of the Bible, offers guidelines for personal application, investigates the role of culture in biblical relevation, and discusses the use of paraphrases, concordances, commentaries, and expositions."

Horton and Osteen on 60 Minutes

2007-10-16T17:24:00.000-04:00

In case you missed 60 minutes Sunday night Joel Osteen was interviewed by Byron Pitts and then had Michael Horton, professor of theology at Westminster Seminary in California, offer his thought's on Joel Osteen's gospel. Here is an 11 minute clip from the interview. I thought it was a pretty good interview and enjoyed a lot of what Michael Horton had to say.

I also have a video from YouTube by Piper that was put together and has his thoughts on the propagation of the prosperity gospel in America and throughout the world. It's about 3 minutes. Thought some of you might like to check this out as well. Enjoy.

My Thoughts

2007-10-14T09:30:00.000-04:00

Some of you asked how I liked the book and why I didn't really post anything about my thoughts. So I decided to put up some of my thoughts about Gordon Macdonald's book Ordering Your Private World. (refer to previous post to get overview of book)

As you can see I give this book 2 stars. Even though I am giving it only 2 stars, I do want to add that there are several parts of this book that I enjoyed a lot and that I was able some good idea. There is a lot of truth in this book that can be pretty convicting. My main complaint about this is that it seems to emphasis the importance of budgeting time, prayer, journaling, reading (any books), meditation much more so then it does spending time in scripture and learning about who God is and our need for Him. I don't think that any of the things he lists in his book are bad necessarily but when they are where you are placing your hope for order then there, in my mind, is a problem. Because the main catalyst for change that you are holding onto is in things that you are doing not in the God's work in your heart. Another reason I have trouble reading/applying this book was that Gordon Macdonald ended up having an affair in the mid 80's and in turn stepped down from his pastoral role at his church. I didn't end up finding this out till several weeks after reading his book. (this just solidified some of my thoughts about this book). I have trouble listening to a man who for most of his ministry has been studying and encouraging people that his idea of ordering your private world in the ways he mentions in his book will keep your world from being in disorder. I could post more but I think this will suffice.

Study Program

2007-10-07T14:24:00.000-04:00

Part of my internship with InterVarsity is a study program that consists of me writing 5 papers. In preparation for these papers I will be reading usually three books and listening to speakers/sermons on the topics and checking out various articles.

My first paper is on discipleship. The first book that I read was called Ordering Your Private World by Gordon Macdonald. He writes the book from his own experiences throughout his life and lessons he has learned along the way. The book addresses the concept of living a driven vs. called life. He is very much a driven person (admitted as much in his book). MacDonald divides the book into five categories: motivation, use of time, wisdom and knowledge, spiritual strength, and restoration. What he mainly attacks is the western values that is seemingly embedded into many of us (our tendencies to get consumed in busyness and overworking while neglecting other more important things, wife, personal growth, kids, etc.). He focuses much of the book on the importance of developing spiritual disciples in our lives and how important this is. His premise is that if you don't develop inner discipline, you will eventually need it and discover that you lack it. Leaving aside traumas and disasters, the regular grind of day-to-day life will eventually expose you as a hollow man. His suggestion is to put your heart, mind, and spirit into "order". He suggests prayer, Bible study, journaling, and budgeting your time.

New Student Retreat

2007-09-24T12:24:00.000-04:00

I spent the weekend on a retreat with ODU's InterVarsity chapter. We were at Camp Rudolph (I spent many retreats there with CNU so I was pretty familiar with the place) in Yale Virginia. The retreat was the New Student Retreat designed for....wait for it.....new students, haha. It was an awesome weekend. Their was close to 50 students in attendance and a good number of freshman. Their was also a great mix of older students, new Christians, non Christians, and people who have followed Jesus most of their life. The focus of the retreat was our identity, including our brokenness, grace, and God as the good shepherd. There was also a good amount of time for the student's to spend in quiet by themselves reading through some passages that Shane and myself prepared for them. One of the other big goals of the weekend was to encourage relationships to be deepened and formed and to continue them when they return to campus. The weekend was a great success in our eyes. We could see God working in the hearts of many of the students. We were able to have some great conversations with many of them about what was talked about over the weekend. It will be interesting to see how things unfold these next several weeks. Continue to be praying for us as we proclaim God as supremely valuable above all else.

I'm Back...

2007-09-19T09:07:00.000-04:00

Sorry that I have not posted anything in a little while. As most of you know Joshua was born almost a month ago now (WOW!!). On some other exciting news....I have enough of my fundraising in for InterVarsity that I can be on campus and start my intern year. I am at about 87% of my budget, so praise God for that and continue to pray that I will be fully funded soon. As you can imagine this past month has been pretty crazy but really good in the same breath. You can once again start checking the blog a little more frequently...I'm going to start posting more often.

Newborn Son

2007-09-01T16:46:00.000-04:00

My son, Joshua Conklin Greenberg, was born Aug. 27 at 11:03pm. He weighed 7lbs and 1 oz and was 20 inches long. He is such a blessing and we can't be more excited to have him as part of our family. For those who are wondering who he looks like, he looks very much like me when I was a baby, he even has my ears. Tracy and I are home from the hospital and she is resting and recovering well. Our families have been great to us and have been helping us around the house.

Reformed Rap

2007-08-25T21:21:00.000-04:00

Not sure how many of you have heard of Curtis "Voice" Allen. If you haven't I encourage you to check him out. I have been spending the past several days listening to him and needless to say I am impressed by his music. There are few artist that I can say that about when I first heard them.

So, I thought I would make available some resources that I have seen on the web and let you read through and listen to them. Thought this would be more effective then anything I could say.

1) His feature in WORLD magazine, February edition.
2) An article from Curtis Allen about his struggle with personal humility. You should definitely read it.
3) His podcast called napcast. It's basically him following the road to the New Attitude conference with Josh Harris and Eric Simmons.
4) Justin Taylor's interview with Curtis on his blog, Between Two Worlds.
5) He has two CD's out, "Progression" and "Crucible". As he describes inside the CD, this album is "a bit different" from his previous CD, "Progression." "The music is not the same style, nor is the delivery. Progression was more live instrumentation and acoustic guitar, where The Crucible is more traditional Hip-Hop with an East Coast rap soun. This is more my roots musically and so I am excited about this album."
6) The video of when he rapped at Bethlehem Baptist Church (John Piper's church).
Here's a YouTube video of Curtis Allen rapping "Unstoppable" at Bethlehem Baptist Church.

Let me know what you think about him

Housekeeping

2007-08-25T10:24:00.000-04:00

So I decided to make some changes to the blog. I basically overhauled it's look. Hope you all like it. I just wasn't feeling the other "look" of the blog. I like this one better. I'll probably be adding some other slight changes to the page, hopefully in the coming weeks.

A good friend of mine, Jeff, showed be this rapper he has been listening to some so I have started to check him out. He is pretty solid, I'll probably be posting something about him soon.

Talking to children about race

2007-08-09T16:07:00.000-04:00

Talking to children about race has has been that I have thought about recently as my son is about to be born into a world that struggles so deeply with the topic of race and really struggles with racial reconciliation. My wife and I desire very much to care for our child in a way that he will have a heart to serve not just people that look like him but people who look different as well and to be able to point them to Christ. That we will be able to impart a God that cares for more than just America, but for Asians, Latinos, Blacks, Mexicans, Whites, African-American, Caribbeans, Russian, Jews, etc.

So I came across this post by Thabiti Anyabwile about speaking to your kids about race. I encourage you to read it....even if you don't have kids yet. I would love to create some dialog about this. En joy!

The Holy Spirit

2007-07-30T21:08:00.000-04:00

I thought I would put this quote up from John Calvin and see what everyone thinks about it...try to stir up some conversation amongst us.

"The work of the Spirit, then, is joined to the word of God. But a distinction is made, that we may know that the external word is of no avail by itself. unless animated by the power of the Spirit ...All power of action, then, resides in the Spirit himself." - John Calvin

Around the Corner

2007-07-25T20:14:00.000-04:00

Tracy is now 5 1/2 weeks from her due date. It's crazy. We are so excited and can't wait till he is born. We are so eager to usher in this new life into our world. I thought I would put a picture up of Tracy for our out-of-town friends.

He truly is a blessing from God. It will be nice to actually start reading books to our baby son in front of me instead of reading baby books to Tracy's stomach. Life will be much different around the Greenberg household but we gladly move towards it. I believe that it is part of our calling as believers to have children and raise them to be disciples of Christ. It is not the main meaning of marriage but still a biblical and big piece of it.

The the deepest meaning of marriage—displaying the covenant love between Christ and the church—is underneath this other meaning of marriage—making children disciples of Jesus. It is all woven together. Good marriages make good places for children to grow up and see the glory of Christ’s covenant-keeping love. (there are many passages that speak to this in scripture, i wont put them up in this post)

May the Lord give Tracy and I a united focus on what really matters in marriage: Husbands and wives loving like Christ and the church, and the children seeing it, and by God’s grace, loving what they see.

Getting ready for the baby

2007-07-14T21:00:00.000-04:00

I very much desire to be writing about the theological right but a majority of my time as of late has been spent either preparing for starting on Intervarsity staff (ie fundraising), working at my job, spending quality time with my wife, or preparing for the baby to be born. This is not to say that I am not spending time in scripture or studying theological issues but that they are at a much smaller percent of my weekly time allocation than usual. Give me a week or so and I'll have a theological post up.

So, today Tracy had a baby shower where she got a ton of great items for the baby. We are definitely very fortunate to have a community that cares well for us. While she was at the baby shower I was running about a million errands. I got the baby seat installed in our vehicle at the local fire department, bought some travel toiletries for when we are in the hospital, researched and bought a changing table (which we got for 50 dollars less than we thought :)), and did a little cleaning around the house. The baby room is now finally starting to come together. We are now only 6 weeks away from our son being born....It's crazy!! We are very blessed with the opportunity to bring life into this world and be able to teach and raise that life. It is really hard to put into world the feelings we have right now. Saying we are excited really doesn't give justice to how we are truly feeling.

Camping Weekend

2007-07-03T18:03:00.000-04:00

Some buddies that I grew up with, Matt Oberlin, Dave Servais, Mark Ritchie, and Caleb Reed, and myself went camping last weekend. We went to Blacksburg at a property Mark's parents own. We had an awesome time!! It was a blast, we rode ATV's for most of Saturday and went everywhere on them. We went on dirt/gravel roads, offroading in the woods, took them on jumps (which was sweat), and through water. Outside of getting to see and spend time with guys I grew up with, that was probably the highlight of the weekend. I thought I would share a picture from the trip. As soon as I figure out how to post a bunk of picture I will (hopefully that is possible)

ONS part 3

2007-06-28T16:25:00.000-04:00

After the fund development training was done we moved onto campus training. This centered around multi ethnicity, evangelism, leadership development, and small groups. I think that covers it all (I'm sure I missed something). Instead of going through each of the facets of the new staff training, I will just speak on one. I'd love to talk with you about my time their if your interested.

I went to a session called "Saturation Evangelism". It was interesting, a different way of approaching evangelism. I'm still processing it but was intrigued by it. The session analyzed the "multiple modes, multiple team" approach within the value integration theory on a campus-wide level. It not only reaches many for Christ but also positively impacts the campus perception of evangelicals. That is a quick sum of the session. The session was done by York Moore who is the regional director of evangelism for IV in the Great Lakes East region and his website is www.tellthestory.net. The saturation evangelism event includes conversational evangelism, Proxe Stations, niche’ evangelistic events, and a main event. Check it out on his site.

ONS part 2

2007-06-23T12:35:00.000-04:00

It is Saturday and we have been in Madison, WI for ONS since Monday. We have been mainly focusing on fund development. Today is our day of rest were nothing is scheduled and we have time specifically set aside in our day for rest. As much as I love hearing about fundraising, I am very glad that it is over with. I feel that our region, Blue Ridge, does a good job caring for staff in this regard, so I am very excited to move onto other topics. The rest of our time here we will be discussing Chapter Building vision, Multi ethnicity, Evangelism, Small Groups, Our Campus Witness, and a few other talk specific times. I will be posting my experieces in most of these sessions on here. I haven't really been posting this past week since we have been doing fund development training.

ONS

2007-06-17T11:11:00.000-04:00

Tracy and I are heading to ONS (orientation for new staff) tomorrow for ten days, we will be getting back on the 27th. ONS is something that all new staff go to that are with Intervarsity. It takes place in Madison, WI. So, today is full of packing and last minute things we have forgotten to do this week. This last week has been a whirlwind for us. We have been trying to do some major cleaning around the apartment, getting everything in order for being gone for 10+ days, etc.. Then we had about a million and one things that we needed to take care of that we didn't plan on come up throughout the week. Isn't it funny how that seems to happen when you have everything all planned out? It wasn't too bad, we managed to get everything done that we wanted to and have time to do all the "extra" stuff.

I will be posting while I am in Madison. It's going to be a great time!!!

Anniversary Weekend

2007-06-10T19:26:00.000-04:00

Well it was our 1 year anniversary today and we decided to go away for the weekend. We went to Williamsburg and stayed at the courtyard marriot. We had a great time, it was real restful for us and as always nice to get away for a few days. We got to the hotel Friday night and went swimming for a little while and then watched a movie. On Saturday we walked around Williamsburg and William & Mary's campus for a bit and did a little window shopping at some outdoor shops. Then ended the day with another swim and a movie. The weather was great! Couldn't have been any better. All in all it was a great weekend and awesome for us to celebrate this last year that God has brought us through. It's crazy to think that we will be having a baby soon and starting on Intervarsity staff. God is doing some cool stuff through us.

Being an Effective Leader

2007-06-04T17:04:00.000-04:00

This is a quote from a friend about leadership and how we view it today.

"In our culture we under-value the concept of identity and character because we vastly over-value decision-making. We think that leadership is all about decision-making. It's not. 99% of what we do every day is not about conscious decision making. We simply act. And we act out of who we are, out of character and identity. And so if we truly want to be women and men of impact who lead others with integrity, courage, and faithfulness, we have to be different types of people, not just better decision makers."

What do you think about this quote?

Back Home

2007-05-21T19:27:00.000-04:00

The Vacation was awesome!!! It was a much needed time of rest for us. We went to the local park, played some board games, watched some quality Cubs baseball :), spent time in scripture, and just relaxed. Now we are back in the News feeling a little more energized to begin the final push for starting on staff and the final leg of the pregnancy. Only two and a half months left till our baby boy is born and 2 months (Lord willing) till I start on staff with Intervarsity.

Weekend Plans

2007-05-10T09:27:00.000-04:00

Tracy and I will be taking a much needed vacation this weekend. We are heading to North Carolina to Arrowhead Beach. It is going to be so nice to get away from our hectic schedules and to relax for a few days. This is going to be our view each night. It will be a nice change from our normal view from our apartment in Newport News. Hopefully we will have a relaxing time there and come back feeling a bit more energized. Life has just been so crazy lately with both of us working full time, helping to plant a church, fundraising for Intervarsity Staff, and getting everything prepared for our new baby boy, and making time to spend with each other. I hope to be able to spend some good amount of time in scripture and get to write down a lot of my thoughts.

Wife's Civic

2007-05-05T09:57:00.000-04:00

So, it's been a while...but my hope is that this will be a place that people will get a glimpse of what is going on in my life and head (scary I know).

I am about to start fixing Tracy's civic today. Her back right door isn't opening period. It's jammed shut for some reason. My task for the morning is to figure out why and fix it. I'll let you know how it goes. I am trying to get her car ready for the when the baby is born since her civic is the only four door car we have. Lord willing the civic will last for another year before we have to buy another vehicle. Once I get the civic squared away I will be able to focus my time on getting the Jeep straightened out. It will be a great day (not the greatest but a great day none the less) in the Greenberg household when the Jeep is running well and we can drive it whenever we want.

It's official

2007-04-09T08:47:00.000-04:00

It's official, I have now entered the "blog" world. I am going to do my best to update this. Please feel free to send me any suggestions or anything.

Welcome

2007-04-08T17:04:00.000-04:00

Welcome to my blog.