Here’s a video of a 20-hour blizzard condensed down into just 40 seconds. Photos were taken 5 minutes apart by a photographer in New Jersey. Amazing. I miss the white stuff, but not that much.

Pastoral ministry brings new and exciting challenges every day, but I’ve never regretted my time at The Master’s Seminary. My four years in their MDiv program laid an important foundation in theology, preaching, pastoral skills, Christian character, Bible survey, and biblical languages.

One incoming student recently wrote:

I want to attend The Master’s Seminary because I know that God has called me to become a pastor and I feel the heavy responsibility to teach the word of God accurately and without compromise. I have looked at other seminaries and talked with alumni from those schools. The common theme among the other seminaries was that they had a curriculum that was broadly focused to prepare the student for many jobs in ministry, but they did not offer a theological education that focused on teaching the Word of God and preparing men to preach it. I want to attend TMS because I feel it will prepare me to know and teach the Bible and fulfill my ministry goal of becoming a pastor/teacher in a local church.

I used the TMS website to locate and contact alumni of TMS and asked them to honestly tell me how they felt the school had prepared them for the positions of ministry that God has currently placed them in. The response was very positive and each former student that I talked with said that they felt that God had used their time at TMS to prepare them theologically and spiritually for the work of the ministry and, without exception, each asked if they could pray with me about God’s direction in my life. That was the type of answer I was looking for and the kind of minister I want to become.

I couldn’t agree more. Master’s has a high academic standard and their MDiv program specializes in one thing: producing teachers and preachers of God’s Word.

But is the cost too high? It may not be easy, but when God places a call on your life, you can be assured He will provide the means to obey it. And you may be encouraged by this chart:

There are several great seminaries out there today, but if you’re looking for a place to get thoroughly equipped for pastoral ministry, I cannot recommend The Master’s Seminary highly enough.

Yesterday I watched a 15-minute interview between Mark Driscoll, Joshua Harris, and Francis Chan. Francis is preparing to leave a thriving ministry at Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley to start a church plant in inner city L.A. In the meantime, he plans to spend some time in a third world country to gain a fresh perspective and see things apart from the hustle and bustle of American life. His goal in this whole endeavor seems to be to follow Jesus, to get back to early church life, and to strip away the misconceptions of how ministry should be done.

In the interview, Driscoll asks Chan some very penetrating questions: How do you know that in several years, you’re not going to grow dissatisfied with this new endeavor as well? Is there a danger that we have exchanged the error of a prosperity theology with the error of a poverty theology? In other words, since we know God often sanctifies us through poverty, simplicity, and suffering, have we decided that riches, complexity, and health are intrinscially bad? Should we feel guilty or ashamed by these things and deliberately avoid them?

This conversation hits the nail on the head, and echos cautions made by Mark Dever to David Platt at the IX Marks at 9 seminar in Orlando last June. See also Kevin DeYoung’s review of Radical, where he says,

We must do more to plant the plea for sacrificial living more solidly in the soil of gospel grace. Several times David [Platt] talks about the love of Christ as our motivation for radical discipleship or the power of God and the means for radical discipleship. But I didn’t sense the strong call to obedience was slowly marinated in God’s lavish mercy. I wanted to see sanctification more clearly flowing out of justification.

Most of us are still far from the danger of a poverty theology, and still have much to benefit from the almost prophetic lifestyle and ministry of Platt and Chan. But I appreciate Driscoll’s warning against a Catholic form of asceticism that may be subtly at work here which could ultimately undermine the gospel itself.

We showed this 5 min. video at church Sunday morning to report how God has been at work in Haiti since the tragic earthquake. It’s an encouraging update on how college students are giving their time, talents, and treasure to serve the Lord and make an eternal impact.

The reference mentioned at the beginning of the clip is from Ezekiel 16:49. (It took me and Natalie a while to find this one. It’s quoted from the NLT).

Click to watch: “Haiti: the sweet smell of sweat“

From the makers of Modern Parables comes a great new product called Visual Latin. Here’s their announcement…

VISUAL LATIN IS NOW PRE-SELLING!

We’re excited to announce you can pre-purchase the first 10 lessons of our new Visual Latin curriculum for only $25! (We won’t offer it at this price for long.) If you’re a parent who wants your children to have fun learning Latin, if you’re a school that needs a Latin teacher, or if you always wanted to know what “habeas corpus” means, this is the class for you.

Kick the tires by watching a complete lesson for free at VisualLatin.com. And please forward this email to friends who would be interested. Even if you think you’d never want to learn Latin, go watch the first lesson (it’s only 7 minutes): you’ll get a few good laughs. Or download the four free intro lessons now.

 What exactly is Visual Latin? Their blog explains…

It’s a combination of short videos and exercises that work together to teach your children (or you) Latin. The curriculum is designed so that it requires no knowledge of Latin either by the student or the parent administering the class. Basically, you just hit play and start learning.