Today was a great day--plain and simple. I arrived at school at 6:45 this morning and was able to read through 1 Peter 1-2 which was a tremendous way to begin the school semester of classes. Then I had my two classes for the semester--Advanced Hebrew Grammar and Seminar in History of Israel: Methodological Issues. They will be fabulous classes with awesome professors.Then at noon, I raced over to Pasadena to have lunch with an 'ol college buddy of mine. We actually went to Israel together and were roommates there! We went to this awesome Bar and Grill and got huge burgers (which now clues you in to my title of this blog). Over these juicy burgers, we talked authentic church ministry. I haven't had a conversation like this in a long time--heart to heart, man to man, brother to brother, honest heart before a honest heart--attempting to delve deep into the wonders of "practical ecclesiology." It was a fabulous time of manly encouragement and manly meat!
Then, I was going to go to Fuller seminary to get some library books that Master's doesn't have. Unfortunately, this just "happened" (in the already-planned-before-the-foundation-of-the-world Sovereign decree of God) to be the week that they're closed for remodeling! So, I then went to my third home (first is my house; second is the Master's library)--Starbucks! I was there for four hours working on my thesis--with a little success.
Then, I had a very important dinner appointment today with John Goldingay--an Old Testament and Hebrew professor at Fuller seminary in Pasadena. We met at a Pub and had a delightful time over a burger and talked about Psalm 93, Canaanite literature, Ugaritic, Mowinckel's (totally "speculative and purely conjectural") theory of the "Enthronement Festival of Yahweh" in the Royal Psalms, and shared testimonies. Not only all that, we talked about Israel quite a bit because--having lived in England most of his life and "closer" to Israel--he had been there numerous times! Again, I got a nice juicy (big!) burger with some excellent fries!
After a day of classes, Bible study, fellowship, burgers, fries, ecclesiological talks, and learning from a scholar much smarter than this puny 'ol self about Canaanite literature and its relationship to Psalm 93, I have come to the conclusion that it was a "marvelous manifestation of mutual encouragement and manly meat!"
