Wednesday's Words of Wisdom...Bayer on Who We Perceive Jesus to Be

"Reviewing popular perspectives on Jesus is as important for us as it was for the first disciples. Who do we perceive as the Master to be? Do we domesticate Jesus merely as the 'Lord of the church,' the 'Lord of my personal prayers,' or the 'Lord of my family'? Or do we bow before him as the Lord of the universe, the Lord over political rulers and business leaders, the Lord over creation and his church, the Lord to whom we are to submit rather than merely asking him to bless what we do?"

Hans Bayer
A Theology of Mark:The Dynamic between Christology and Authentic Discipleship

(HT: Justin Sembler)

Hans Bayer on Interpreting Parables

Below is a video of Covenant Seminary professor Hans Bayer on interpreting the parables in the Gospel of Mark. Dr. Bayer was one of my favorite professors at Covenant, and his book, A Theology of Mark will be released by P&R Publishing this April.

This session was from a Brown Bag Lunch series hosted by The Journey, a church in St. Louis planted by  Darrin Patrick.

(HT: Dane Ortlund)

Be True To Your School

The Beach Boys once sang, in all of their brilliant harmonies, "Be True to Your School."  It can not be debated; I have heeded this command.

I still follow my high school's football and basketball teams as closely as I can from 568 miles away.  I have read about them in the online edition of my hometown's newspaper, exchanged text messages with friends and family members while they were at games, watched games streamed live on the internet and even once upgraded my TV package so that I would have the station that was carrying a game in which my high school was playing.  As a matter of fact, the color scheme of this blog is inspired by the orange and black of the Webster Groves Statesmen.

I still show the same type of support for my college as well.  Each Saturday during football season, you're sure to find me decked out in my Mizzou black and gold, watching the game if the Tigers happen to be on TV, or listening to the radio broadcast online if that's the best I can do. More Saturdays than I'd like to admit have been made or ruined on the basis of a Tiger football game.

As much as I am committed to my high school and college though, I am perhaps even more enthusiastic in my support of my other alma mater.  I have often told others that my three years at Covenant Theological Seminary provided me with a foretaste of heaven.  Thanks to both the teaching in the classrooms and the atmosphere that is cultivated, an ethos of grace pervades the campus.

Dane Ortlund captured my thoughts perfectly when he recently wrote about Covenant:

Every institution is filled with nothing but sinners. We are fallen, and our schools reflect that. And when I left three years ago, the school's overall sin-meter dropped considerably. But the norm is for institutions, even seminaries, to contain islands of grace amidst an ocean of self. Covenant is the only school I've ever set foot on that contains, in the mercy of God, islands of self amid an ocean of grace.

I shake my head with wonder at God's kindness to this institution.

Covenant recently released a number of faculty videos on YouTube that help communicate what makes Covenant so special.  I've included four below from some of the professors who had a particular impact on me.