Academic Dean’s Blog

What a bravura tribute of love to a saint named Stan, who died on October 28, 2009, writes Pastor Phil Siefkes in his blog “Toward a Godward Passion”:

This man stimulated my life spiritually beyond most people in my circle of acquaintances. He farmed to the glory of God. He raised cattle to the glory of God. He raised hogs to the glory of God. He cleaned hog barns to the glory of God. He climbed and repaired silos to the glory of God. He handed out church bulletins on Sunday mornings to the glory of God. He talked regularly with young children and teens at church to the glory of God. He took people out to eat to the glory of God. He taught himself to play guitar and sang with his dear wife at numerous nursing homes to the glory of God. He ate deserts at church fellowship meals to the glory of God. He loved his wife to the glory of God.

Read the tribute One of My Friends Died Today. May every Christian leave such Christ-centered legacy for benefit of souls of others and to the glory of God.

Saints Are Among Us by Serge_ on Zooomr

I got this twitter message sent by John Piper (I trust my eyes, check it for yourself) then I watched the video clip twice and now I can’t get rid of that thought that there is one war that I must make. There are many wars out there. People fight for different causes; I may feel I should fight for something, strive for something or aim to something. But whole passage of the Scriptures in Hebrews 12 pushes me to conclude that one war is crucial, inevitable and necessary. Read the text online: http://ref.ly/He12.3-17;ESV

Verse 4 reads, “In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood” And that’s so true of me.

Thank you, Jesus, for this reminder. My eyes are upon you, you are my Commander in Chief and the Lord, the Victor. I need your grace to make war against sin in my life, for the sake of my joy and your glory.

What about you my friend, who reads this and watches the video? Do you make war against sin in your life?

Free downloads provided at Kyiv Seminary website. This time we have two new recordings of public lectures that were conducted this academic year. Lectures were presented in English with translation into Russian.

Lecture on February 4, 2009. Scott D. Edgar, Ph.D. presented: “Mentoring – the missing link in Ukrainian Theological Education for Ministry”. The audio in MP3 format is available for download from this page.

Lecture on October 15, 2008. Wesley K. Willmer, Ph.D., Vice President for Biola University Advancement presented: “God and Money: The Vital Link Between Our Earthly Possessions and Eternal Soul”. The audio in MP3 format available for download from this page.

Maybe you’d like to download the files for listening as part of your Russian language study? Or recommend them to your friend?

Finally, thank you for keeping our school (staff, administration, faculty and students) in your prayers.

Just recently Kyiv Seminary registered with Twitter. http://twitter.com/kyivseminary/

You can subscribe to seminary’s RSS Twitter feed right here, without going there. 

Today we made our first post announcing new information related to Public Seminar event at KTS next week.

Interesting and fun way to represent words in visual way. Here you can see my blog presented visually with some words used here. I think that http://www.wordle.net is a great tool for teachers to bring a creative element into their classrooms. I plan to test the service and see how well my students respond to it.

I had wonderful instructive moment this Monday along with starting another module of Exposition of Isaiah class. The class on Isiah itself is excitingly growing experience for me since I can go deeper into the living Word of God in context of personal study as well as teaching and class discussion. But I want to point out to free resource of audio sermons from Christianity Today. Tonight I delighted myself with listening to a sermon by Haddon Robinson: A Good Lesson From a Bad Example: To live to pursue riches and success is foolish, for these things are not eternal.

Here is sermon description and summary from the webpage:

Text: Luke 12:16-34

Topic: What is important in life

Obsessions with worldly priorities keep us from hearing what Jesus has to say.

In Luke 12, a man interrupts Jesus’ sermon on life and death, asking him to divide the inheritance between him and his brother.

Jesus asks him, “Who made me a judge or a divider over you?” meaning the man has missed the reason Jesus came to earth.

Jesus said, “Beware of covetousness, for a man’s life does not consist of the things he possesses.”

Our culture and the media spread a message that life is made up of things.

Riches themselves are not evil, but money can bind us to the physical and temporal and blind us to the spiritual and eternal.

Illustration: Jesus begins to tell the story of a wealthy farmer who would have been esteemed in his community because of his success.

The Bible commends industry, but it’s not progress to move rapidly down the wrong road.

Illustration: The farmer in Jesus’ story is progressive, investing his wealth in capital improvements; however the progress he makes is in things, not people.

Illustration: Robinson tells a story of an American missionary in Africa who tells natives about modern conveniences but notices one of the natives is unimpressed; the native tells him that being better off is not to be better.

If you live to collect riches and as though God does not exist, you are a fool.

Illustration: Robinson imagines in detail when death visits the farmer unexpectedly and takes all his wealth from him, despite the man’s efforts to bargain for his life. The angel of God walks through the cemetery and writes the word fool on his gravestone, for all that the man had collected was left behind.

Jesus is asking, “Is it worth your life to get what you are after?”

Jesus says you ought to make the kingdom of God, not money, the central concern of your life.

Illustration: Jesus illustrates his point with ravens: if they do not worry, and God feeds them, why should we worry that God will not do the same for us?

Illustration: Again Jesus uses a metaphor: as lilies in the field grow carefree, so are we to trust that God will provide for us.

Illustration: Robinson describes people who make money, passion, or power the center of their lives and the inevitable ruin of not focusing on what is eternal.

Illustration: Robinson tells the legend of a master who calls his servant stupid and gives the servant a staff, instructing him if he ever meets anyone more stupid than himself, to give it to that individual. One day the master tells his servant he is going on a long journey from which he will not return and for which he did not he could have. Upon hearing this, the servant gives his master the staff.

Source: http://www.preachingtoday.com/media/audio/56a.html

You can download the sermon at this link: A Good Lesson From a Bad Example

I delight in good expository sermons and I appreciate that Kyiv Theological Seminary takes expository approach in homiletics class, teaching our students faithfully how to handle the World of God carefully and effectively. I appreciate our teachers such as Dr. Thomas Nite who teaches expository preaching in his Homiletics 1 class at KTS. who also uses Dr. Robinson’s texts as intructional materials for our Ukrainian students.  Much to learn from KTS faculty and such a joy to do so.

I am privileged to teach Exposition of Isaiah course to senior students at KTS these two weeks. Wow! So much to enjoy in this book and so much to learn. Please pray for me to have physical strength and spiritual discernment and clarity of mind and ability to communicate well and rightly the truths of God’s Word.

Added few links to Kyiv Seminary Resources page. What did I add? Several more links to faculty blogs and partnering organizations.

This weekend Christianity Today features an article on Evangelical Church in Ukraine on its main page. Faith and Hope in Ukraine: How Eastern Europe’s most missional evangelical church is rethinking tradition and the Great Commission, by Susan Wunderink.

The article has its permanent address as well: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2008/october/25.70.html.

Kyiv Theological Seminary administration and faculty along with other evangelicals of our country contributed to this article. I might comment on the article later since my answers to author’s questions are included as well.

From Video Introduction:

Author Philip Yancey explores the influence of faith and spirit on his writing in this interview with Dean Nelson of Point Loma Nazarene University. Series: Writer’s Symposium By The Sea [4/2008]