Deep Study

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Good morning friends!

There are three days left until the final, and with this my last day off I have locked myself in my home office and won't be leaving until I have a firm grasp on everything that may or may not be on this final! For those who have wondered, I'm feeling pretty good about it. Just a couple of butterflies as I'm gearing up for my first exam in over 4 years.

One of the things that I really have enjoyed this term is how much my work has been influenced by my schooling. Yesterday at the Bridge, I preached a message that was almost entirely inspired by the things that we had been reviewing in Dr. Barnes' class (Don't worry, I cited). It was a sermon that I spent an inordinate amount of time researching, reading, studying, and preparing for, and at least in my mind it paid off. Rather than just throwing something together at the last minute as an after thought, this sermon took time to create. And I loved it.

My next class at the seminary will be on the New Testament, and according to the course description, specifically on the culture and make up of the Gospel writers. I simply cannot wait! I feel like the scriptures open themselves up more and more the further and further we dig into them, and this course sounds like it's going to be ditching the shovels and bringing out the backhoe.

So I've got one eye on my books for Spiritual Formation, and one eye looking kind of longingly at NT 02. Obviously, I'll keep you posted as to what I'm learning, but in the meantime if I can offer some encouragement to pastors and youth workers, don't forget to do deep study. I know we have like 80 billion things going on in our world, but it's very important.

Here are some things to look forward to this week on the J-Blog:

1. The Countdown will reach zero.

2. We'll have a finals post-game wrap up.

3. I'm working on book reviews for all three of the books I've read for this class. Should be some good stuff there.

4. And of course, I'll be blogging from the NYWC in Atlanta beginning Friday. You know you don't want to miss that!

Rock on rockers!

Godspeed,

Jason

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