Summer!

God's blessings to you all.  I apologize for going so long without writing to you all.  However, I have spent the last week writing some very long and detailed papers.  But I am all done now.  I am writing this between classes quick, then I have two more classes to sit through and I am officially done with my first year of my seminary career.  That means I am a third of the way done with classes, and a fourth of the way done with the entire process.  I have been so richly blessed during this first year, and it has went by so fast.  I cannot believe it is over.
Like I said the last week has been a rough one, but I survived.  I preached my first sermon, wrote my first exegetical paper, and attended my first jambalaya fest.  I did try a couple days ago to upload the video of my preaching for class so you could all see my first experience preaching.  However, it is a QuickTime video, and I cannot for the life of me figure out how to get it to work with this blog.  I do not want to put my manuscript of that sermon up here because it changed dramatically from what I typed up to what I actually preached.  I like the sermon I preached better so I will keep trying to figure out how to get the video up.  Overall, it went well.  I was kind of quiet, which was shocking to me since I have not been quiet ever.  Also, I was very mono-tone and kind of dry.  It definitely lacked personality and charisma.  However, I think that will come with time and practice.  My exegetical turned out better than I thought and I was quite impressed with my work.  However, we will see if thee Great James. W. Voelz, who probably knows Greek better than most Greeks, thinks as highly of it as I do.
What's the jambalaya fest you ask? Well, let me tell you.  A church from New Orleans raised ten thousand dollars in order to load up a convoy of vehicles, drive all the way to St. Louis and host this awesome feast for us. They brought all the ingredients and made the huge pot of homemade jambalaya. 1600 bowls of it to be exact. They fried catfish and had it on sour dough buns. They had Zapp's chips a New Orleans special I guess, and King cake for dessert. It was such good food and the people cooking and serving were so nice. I ate way too much like usual. They also had Sangria, wine, beer, and a Louisiana punch which definitely had a little kick to it. It was just an amazing thing to see that these good faithful Lutherans raised that much money, to drive all the way up here, cook such great food, and feed the entire seminary campus. We had a great turn out of students, faculty, and staff. The coolest thing is, I guess this is the fifth year they have done this. I was thoroughly impressed.
I plan to pack up my car Saturday and drive to Iowa Sunday.  Then I head to Nebraska Tuesday and start work at the State Wednesday.  I am excited to be working again, even if it is picking up dead animals.  I also am super excited because the guys I am living with this summer have been texting me for the past week telling me there are enjoying a cold beer either beside the pond right by our house, or out on the pond in the paddle boat.  I cannot wait to sit by that pond, enjoy a cold brewski, and just enjoy being back in the heart of God's country with the crops and calves growing.
I do intend to try to at least once a week to sit down and blog.  However, summer is going to be very busy and I may not be ale to keep that intention.  Either way though, I do promise to pick it back up next fall when I get back to school.  Just a little memo to all of you who enjoy following this blog.
My thought for the day comes from Dr. Kolb and confessions class.  A student was asking a question about the burden of guilt.  Now Dr. Kolb loves life and I do not think he has any guilt for anything.  He truly believes in the power of forgiveness through absolution, and he lives his life in that peace of Christ's forgiveness.  So he was explaining to this student that if you confess your sins and hear the absolution, and yet you still feel guilty, you do not truly believe in the power of Christ's forgiveness.  He then went on and put it this way.  "You do not have the right to feel guilt! You should not steal from God.  If you try to stick your hand into the tomb of Christ you steal your sin back, you're liable to have a big rock roll onto your hand!"  I love how he put this idea.  When we keep feeling guilty for our sins, we are reaching into the tomb of Christ, trying to steal back and hold on to a sin Christ died for and forgave.  When Christ forgives us, He takes our sins away, and gives us His righteousness.  Now He does not try to take His righteousness back, so we should not try to take our sin back.  We just leave it in Christ's tomb, which is also where He left them all when He rose and ascended.  All Praise be to Him who has taken all our sins away, not letting us have them back, because instead we have His righteousness.  Happy Ascension Day!
Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank you so much for the gift of Your Son, who died to clear us of our sins, rose to give us new life, and ascended to give us our hope of eternal salvation in heaven with You.  Also, thank you so much for not just taking Your Son home and leaving us here alone, but instead, when You called Your Son home on this ascension day, You sent Your Spirit to be and abide with us.  Keeping us in the one true faith until that day that You have promised when Your Son will come again to bring all Your children home.  In the name of Your Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen.  


I apologize, my catechism is packed up so I will not include a section from this time.