A Return to Blogging

The past month has certainly been an eventful one. I wasn't able, unfortunately, to make time for blogging during my two-week vacation in Ireland (6-20 August 2010), during which I saw some of the most beautiful scenery I've seen in a very long time. The week after that was kept busy with preparations for a lengthy journey to seminary. Now that I've completed the New Student Orientation process and made plenty of new friends, I hope to blog more regularly. Especially because I can tell from the atmosphere here that this seminary will be a very healthy spiritual atmosphere.

I became most convinced of this during the several chapel services I attended during orientation. This is because of one thing above all else: the Spirit of the Lord is mightily present in the worship of this community. I could scarcely even hope to worthily articulate what I mean to express. Suffice it to say, nevertheless, that at the very first such chapel service (on 2 September 2010), as we -- a crowd of passionately God-fearing Christians drawn from all nations -- sang with one voice and one heart the praises of our God, the Holy Spirit was there. There in power and love. Present to me in a way that I haven't experienced him in the past four years. Present as tangibly as the air that fills my lungs. Present to receive from us the worship that we offered passionately in song and in proclamation. Present to welcome, to invite, to convict, and to grant grace. I, for one, was moved to tears and a trembling voice -- an exceptionally rare experience for me. And the next day, too, did God accept our worship and make himself known, not only as we sang together with uplifted hands but also as we broke bread together and as we prayed together. There is scarcely anything so moving as the presence of the Spirit as hundreds and hundreds of faithful followers of the Lord Jesus Christ gather together around a cross to pray in unison the Lord's Prayer.

Throughout the whole experience over those two days, my mind was simply bombarded with ideas and inspiration. It's my hope that, despite my failing memory for anything not found in a book, I can eventually recover even half of those thoughts in order to expound upon them further, both for my own reflection and perhaps for the use of anyone who might stumble across what I write.

Until then, God bless you all.