How should we then live?

It has been a restful week and I thank all of you for your prayers. Cara, I know you've been praying that I would rest well and this has occured! I injured my neck, as some of you know, on Wednesday while lifting weights. As the pain increased throughout the day, I decided to go to the campus health center and get some help. After the doc checked me out for 90 seconds he prescribed some muscle-relaxers, anti-inflamitants and pain-killers to get me through the week. After taking the muscle-relaxers I took a two hour nap and later that evening went to bed early for some great sleep! Although I would have much rather spent the time reading journal articles or textbooks, God knew what I needed. Today has been quite productive though.

Classes are going well! Statistics is a peice-of-cake. We have our first test in there next week. Following next week, I have subsequent tests each of the following weeks. Hydrology has been the most difficult thus far. The book is difficult to read and my prof is hard to follow - he knows his stuff, but my mind closes up listening to his voice. Aquatic ecosystems is a lot of fun. I'm learning quite a bit about stream/lake morphology (structural dynamics) and nutrient chemistry. It's a great introduction to more specific classes like biogeochemistry or fluvial geomorphology. I'm reading journal articles at the moment in order to prepare a proposal for my special semester project. This is probably where I need more clarity than anything. It's been hard to understand why I'm doing the analysis that has been given me.

I cooked this week, like really good food, too! Well, let's say that it is god relative to past food I've been preparing. I made a caserole yesterday and spagetti on Tuesday. Blake and Ben have been swamped with work (TAing and interning, respectively, as well as homework). I pray that they would be kept from having a discouraged attitude during this stressful time and that they would trust in God. Thursday I had lunch with a friend I met at Intervarsity. Sarah is a first year masters student in social work and did her undergrad at Baylor. She has a refreshing and encouraging spirit about her. Actually, she reminds me of all the Godly women in my life, one way or another. Praise God for Godly women! All of you make me want to be a more Godly, devoted follower of the Lord. So, thank you.

Last Sunday I visited Stratford Park Bible Chapel. I'm not sure if I posted that or not. The pastor was passionately preaching through the last half of Ephesians chapter one. The sermon was one I would have loved to preach, having been completely moved by that particular chapter in the past. Good, solid preaching - filled with the truth of the doctrines of grace. Praise God, Praise God! It gets me all excited just thinking about! I'm still praying over where to attend, though.

Bible study was last night. We started our study of the book of Numbers with background-type stuff. Particularly, what time period the book covered, who wrote the book, when the book was written, and why it was written. It was amazing that we were able to narrow the date of authorship down to 1400 (+-100) b.c. Some the basis for this was manuscript evidence - like which word was used for God in the writing, Elohim or Yehweh, the types of names used in the book, similarities in writing with other near-East documents, etc. It was really exciting, though. So much there and I, aswell as most people, would just skip over that stuff.

I'm off to check on my sediment samples. They're in the freeze-dryer now and I want to make sure the vacuum pump is still working.

Peace in Christ

Scripture memory for the week - Romans 12:1-2