Thank you, Margaret Daley, for hosting me on your blog today!
http://www.margaretdaley.com/2012/02/interview-with-dr-rebecca-price-janney/
Tags: Margaret Daley, Rebecca Price Janney, Who Goes There? Heaven and Hell
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Most of us have embarrassed ourselves in a language we didn’t fully understand. As a college student in Vienna, Austria, I did such a thing on a streetcar one day. I needed the conductor’s help, and when he asked, “Where are you going,” I thought he said, “Where are you from,” because the words are similar in German. My answer–“America.” Other passengers giggled, and I knew I’d gotten the words mixed up. The man smiled and told me, “We don’t go that far!”
A year later I befriended some Koreans at Princeton Seminary. During that time I liked to wear colorful socks, and one day a male Korean told me, “I like your sex!” At first I was shocked, until I realized he meant that he liked my socks! I didn’t correct him, needless to say, because he would have been mortified.
Many years later I’m teaching Korean graduate students at Biblical Seminary. Most of them have theological degrees from Korean schools, and many are pastors, but they want to study in America. First, however, they need help understand how to write for an American academy. I’m happy to be helping them develop their reading and writing skills. We often share laughs at how we misunderstand each other. I have the utmost admiration for them—if I were in their shoes studying in Korea, well, let’s just say I’d be in big trouble!
Tags: Biblical Theological Seminary, Princeton Theological Seminary
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Sometimes it takes awhile for a dream to come true. When I was 17, I had an inspiration to write a book, and I began working on it. I even had a celebrity lined up to endorse it.
Lo and behold, the celebrity’s secretary lost the best copy I had–lesson learned there, I can assure you–and I tucked the story in the back of my mind for another time.
A few years later I took it up again, starting somewhere from scratch. After many months, I began sending the manuscript to various publishers, who politely rejected it. Back to the proverbial drawing board.
I worked and reworked it, then sent out a new and improved version, with much the same result. This time, however, the rejections were more specific, and I began to work on the story’s weaknesses while adhering to the heart of it.
It got disacouraging to keep on writing a story that no one wanted, but I felt compelled to stay at it. When God puts something on your heart, it’s unwise to walk away from it.
This past Christmas Eve a contract arrived in the mail for this book, making one of the best gifts I’ve ever received! I’m hard at work on the manuscript, which will be published by AMG at a to-be-determined date.
The story deals with a young woman who, in the election year 1968, believes Bobby Kennedy has the answer to all the nation’s perplexing problems. When he’s assassinated, she hardly knows where to turn. A close friend begins to draw her towards Christ at that time, and as she enters college a year later, she maintains contact with him. The story culiminates with the 1970 Asbury College Revival, an event I’ve studied for many years and have actually written about in some other books.
I”m so grateful to God for making this dream come true, and I look forward to the day when I can share this book with you.
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My husband’s cousin is married to a jeweler, which has led to a few happy purchases on my behalf. Najib has made some beautiful pieces for Scott to give me on anniversaries, birthdays, and Christmas—all a great price, I might add! Each time I receive earrings or a ring, Najib gives me careful instructions about keeping them clean.
I treasure each piece, and while I try to take good care of them, I admit that I don’t keep them as clean as they require. After an especially good polishing, I’m careful for awhile. I remove the rings before doing dishes or washing my hands, but then I start to forget, and a small but steady accumulation of soap and hand lotion starts collecting on the jewelry. The pieces are still beautiful, but they lose that special sparkle under the layer of gunk.
Aren’t our lives a lot like that? We begin as these beautiful, unique creations of God and as we get on in years, we make efforts to keep our lives from the stain of various sins. Then we get a little lazy here and a little lazy there and before you know it, we’ve lost our sparkle. Instead of being a shining beacon for Christ, we’re more like a flashlight whose batteries are growing dim.
At Thanksgiving, Najib inspected my rings and eyed me critically when I couldn’t honestly tell him that I’ve kept them as clean as he advises. I have until Christmas to do something about it! Maybe this season of Advent, I’ll also ask God to show me what might be gunking up my life so I can shine more brightly too.
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As I thumbed through Time magazine this week, I stopped to read an interview with Sting. (Just for the record, I dislike Time magazine. For some unknown reason, it just started appearing in my mailbox about 9 months ago.)
In this story, Sting told the reporter, “I’m essentially agnostic. . . I have a problem with religion. I’ve chosen to live my life without the certainties of religious faith. I think they’re dangerous.” (Time, November 21, 2011; p. 64.
This anti-religious sentiment is nothing new. In the U.S., ever since the “Scopes Monkey Trial,” Evangelical Christians in particular, who follow very definite, rock-solid teachings about God, have often been regarded by those in secular academia, publishing, and entertainment as ignorant hayseeds, bigots of the worst sort who would gladly drag unbelievers to the gallows and stakes of the past. The 1925 Scopes trial centered around a challenge by the ACLU to a Tennessee statute forbidding the teaching of evolution in that state’s public schools.
Teacher John Scopes violated the law and in the ensuing trial, was represented by the brilliant attorney, Clarence Darrow. The aging Christian orator William Jennings Bryan led the prosecution. The sweltering courtroom became the center of a national debate about creation v. evolution, God v. science, and because of Bryan’s faltering abilities, as well as a groundswell of support for Scopes in the media, orthodox Christianity fell into national disfavor.
The Sunday after the trial ended, Bryan died suddenly of a heart attack at his home, a man at peace with God and ready to meet his Savior. Years later, an ardent admirer interviewed Clarence Darrow in his home, asking how the lawyer would sum up his life. To his surprise, Darrow immediately walked over to a coffee table and picked up a Bible, the same book he’d spent his life ridiculing. He said, “This verse in the Bible describes my life,” and he opened to Luke 5:5. Changing the “we” to “I,” he read aloud, “I have toiled all the night and taken nothing.”
He replaced the Bible and caught the man’s eye. “I have a lived a life without purpose, without meaning, without direction. I don’t know where I came from. And I don’t know what I’m doing here. And worst of all, I don’t know what’s going to happen to me when I punch out of here.” (Janney, Great Stories in American History, p. 127)
The Bible says those are blessed who do not “sit in the seat of mockers.” (Psalm 1:1) I hope this is something that Sting is able to come to terms with.
Tags: Clarence Darrow, Scopes Trial, Sting, William Jennings Bryan
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What a neat date! Aside from the numerical alliteration, it is also the anniversary of the armistice that ended World War I. My favorite hero from the Great War—aside from the fictional Snoopy and his exploits with the Red Baron, of course—is Alvin York, whose amazing story became the subject of a major motion picture in the 1940s. (Starring Gary Cooper, no less.) York was an undereducated man from backwoods Tennessee, a hard-scrabble fellow who became a Christian after realizing that his rebelliousness not only was breaking his mother’s heart, but was also costing him the woman he loved. As I wrote in Great Stories in American History, “York . . . made his peace with his family, his sweetheart and the Lord, but the world was not at peace.”
When York received his draft notice in June 1917, he was conflicted, believing that as a Christian, killing was wrong. In spite of his objections, however, he said, “I had to answer the call of my country, and I did.” A little over a year later, Alvin York became “the hero of the Argonne,” a much-decorated soldier who helped save many American lives by taking out a German machine gun nest and capturing over 100 prisoners. He refused to take credit for his exploits, though, pointing instead to God’s work in his life. His biographer John Perry wrote:
“He is a hero because he had the moral foundation to be a hero. Certainly he had his faults and shortcomings; even heroes are fallen creatures. But his life was guided by unshakable absolutes founded on the teachings of the Bible, which taught him what was right, and taught him his responsibility in seeing that right was done, regardless of the sacrifice.”
(Sgt. York: His Life, Legend, and Legacy, p. 332)
Tags: 11.11.11, Alvin York, Armistice Day, the Great War, Veterans Day, World War I
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It gave me great joy back in the summer when my doctoral degree alma mater, Biblical Theological Seminary, contacted me to see if I’d be interested in teaching part time in their program for international students. I would be instructing them about theological reading and writing in English, using some of my own writing as a backdrop.
Biblical has been a favorite destination for ministers and ministry candidates from other countries, especially South Korea, to come and prepare for theological studies in English. Sometimes, though, they need extra help to be able to express themselves in their second language.
It’s been a real pleasure to teach two groups of Korean students from diverse backgrounds. Their courage in coming to a new country to study inspires me. I know how I would feel were I to step away from the comforts of my home and language to enter a school in unfamiliar territory. These are accomplished men and women who humble themselves before those who set out to teach them what they already know; they are adept at theology and ministry, just not in English or in America.
Many of them are here because they feel indebted to America for sending the first Christian missionaries to their country a little over a hundred years ago. Now they want to give back. Hopefully, I can help equip them for their amazing journeys.
Tags: Biblical Theological Seminary
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News of Muammar Gaddafi’s death got me wondering how Americans of the World War II era responded to the passing of Adolf Hitler, another dictator responsible for the lives of millions of people. I found an article from Yank, a U.S. Army publication, dated June 1, 1945. In it, several servicemen commented on the news that Hitler had committed suicide. Their responses are full of candor:
A solider from Chicago, who was wounded in action by a German, said:
“I hope the ______ was as scared of dying as I was when that SS officer left me have it in the stomach. I thought I’d had it. . . I don’t think Hitler’s death changes anything about Germany. It just might be part of a deal to soften us up so they can stick another knife in a soft spot.”
A Sergeant from Scranton, PA commented:
“Mussolini is dead. Hitler is dead—but what’s the difference? There are lots more.”
A Southern soldier put it this way:
“I wish I was the guy who killed him. I’d kill him a little slower. Awful slow.”
And a Minnesota soldier said:
“Why waste words on Hitler?”
(http://www.oldmagazinearticles.com/pdf/YANK%201945.pdf)
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I am very excited about an upcoming speaking engagement! My denomination, the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, has a fabulous ministry for women, the REAL training event. According the the Women in Ministry web site, “REAL Training is the initiative of EPC Women In Ministry to equip women to serve as ministry leaders both inside and outside the walls of the church.” There is an inspirational guide book that accompanies this training, and it can be downloaded off the internet.
Next Friday and Saturday, October 14-15th, the WIM national director, Jacky Gatliff, will be at my home church, Oreland EPC, leading a REAL training event. I’ll be discussing the importance of having a Christian world view; other speakers include Cathy Deddo, Susan Nash, and Jean Smith.
May God bless our gathering and be glorified in the results.
For more information visit: http://www.epcwomeninministry.org/#/real-20/training-gatherings
Tags: Cathy Deddo, EPC, Jacky Gatliff, Jean Smith, Oreland Evangelical Presbyterian Church, REAL training, Susan Nash, Women in Ministry
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