Thanksgiving Week

Thanksgiving is always, should always, be a time to give glory to God by recognizing the good things that he has done for us. This Thanksgiving God received his glory in an unexpected and really hard way.

Some of you might know that Beth’s grandma, Julianna Rayburn, was diagnosed with very aggressive cancer about 6 weeks ago. Little did we know just how aggressive it was.

We knew that we needed to visit soon, we knew that the doctors could not promise how well she would be doing this Christmas, so we took the Thanksgiving week to travel to Texas and spend time in Waco with Grandma.

There is much to be said, much that shall be said, but for now it suffices to say that God was perfect in his timing because Grandma passed away Saturday, November 25, two days after Thanksgiving, two days after her 78th birthday, having been married to one of the most incredible, loving, devoted, godly husbands that I have ever had the pleasure to know and love.

In my studies of church history I have learned a number of things about a group of Christians known as the Puritans. One of the most precious and thought provoking came as I read Jonathan Edwards’ Resolutions. The first few times I read through the list of 71 resolutions Edwards made for how he wished to live his life to the glory of God, I was struck by the strange frequency of his mentioning his own death.

As I thought about this reoccurring theme I was struck with a challenge and a question. The challenge: To live and die in such a way that it might be said that I died well…that I found the gospel precious to the very end. The question…how do I do that? And, what does it look like?

Over time, I came up with some answers to my questions and, I think, made positive ground fitting to the challenge. But it was not until this past Thanksgiving that I was able to witness with my own eyes what it was to finish well.

Grandma said many precious things as we spoke to her in the nursing home and, before she passed, in her own home. Just one of the most meaningful to me was when I asked her what she had been thinking about the most over the past few days. And this sweet, beautiful, faithful, frail, dying woman whose body was, literally, riddled with a cancer that was ravaging her body said to me:

“How good the Lord is”

Wow. Praise God for Grandma’s faithful finish. Cancer, pain, and death did not blind her to the goodness of God. My prayer is that, regardless of the hardship that the Lord has for me and my family, that we would follow in the footsteps of Grandma.

Should you be so courageous as to pray that very same prayer for yourself, when you pray pray also for her wonderful husband of 59 years. The Lord saw it fit to bring Grandma through the trial of cancer and, having fought that battle with his bride, Grandpap must endure also the trial of a deep loneliness that I can only begin to fathom as a husband myself of but 18 months. Pray for Everette Rayburn, Grandpap loved his wife so dearly; pray that he would love his Jesus all the more in her absence; pray that God would give him strength in his sorrow, that he would say in the midst of the pain:

“How good the Lord is”

The "Victorian Tower"

For those of you who are concerned that Lee has run away to Kentucky to ascend the “Ivory Tower” of academia, have no fear!

In all actuality, Lee was actually climbed the four stories into his “Victorian Tower.”

You might be asking yourself: “What in the world is he talking about? Has he lost his mind from too many papers and reading jumbled up at the end of a semester?”

To the latter, I have perhaps lost my mind a little bit…but it is just that time of year and it is my own fault for not being more productive earlier in the semester.

To the former, in case you did not know, we live in a part of town known as “Old Louisville,” which just so happens to be the largest Victorian neighborhood in the world (which pretty much refers to the US and the UK). Our home is a bit of a tower, it feels like it going up the spiral staircase to be sure, just check out the view from our roof.

For those of you who are concerned for me, worried that the few marbles I still have might be lost up here in my study in the “Victorian Tower,” have no fear because I am being set free tomorrow afternoon at 2:30, when Beth and I will be boarding a plane to Texas for the week to chill with family and friends!

I’ll still have plenty of work to do for school, but I will be able to do it in a place where you can drive for hours without seeing a stoplight, where you can drive all the way from Austin to Dallas on an access road (no access roads in Kentucky), and I cannot wait to sit on the back porch at my parents’ house and watch a sunset (I’ll bring yall a picture).

If you got excited about our living in the largest Victorian neighborhood in the world, you should check out the Old Louisville Information Center (I highly recommend checking out the “Pictures” section – center column of the website – they are pretty cool).

See you around!

Thanksgiving

This next week is Thanksgiving and I just wanted to make sure and remind everybody that there will be no bible study this upcoming Tuesday.

If Beth and I were going to be in town we will still be meeting, but since we are going to be back in Texas spending time with family, and Beth’s grandparents are not set up for teleconferencing, we will have to wait until Tuesday, Nov. 29th to see yall.

Have a great Thanksgiving. I know for some people spending time with family can be really difficult and, for others, it come be sad as we remember the times we have spent with loved ones who have died in years past, so be praying for one another and remember that the gospel is about reconciliation, so live out the gospel regardless of what is in the past (or the present).

Much love friends

Review: John 3:9-15

As yall know, I am fighting to get everything done for school before the semester expires. So I won’t post a review of last week’s Bible study for a couple of weeks.

See you then!

News Flash!

This just in: Jason N. has won the grand prize for being flipping cool.

How did he win this prize – and the many perks and accoutrements that come with it? Quite simple, he was the first person to post a comment since the blog started like forever and a day ago (well, more like 3 or 4 weeks).

Congratulations! Simple present yourself at Bible study Wednesday night to receive your just rewards (that is the same thing as the “perks” and “accoutrements“)

PS – see Jasons comment below for but a single example of the multitude of comment styles that you too could post according to whatever fill you with boisterous delight

PPS – I have now officially started the “Hunsinger Main Event” group on facebook.com. If you are not yet a member, join it. If you are not on facebook.com it really is much better than MySpace.com…so think about making the switch, heh?

Uf! School is Straight Killing Me

Hey, sorry about the apartment photos not being posted yet. Getting nice shots and completing the finishing touches just doesn’t quite fit into the schedule right now. I have 3 weeks of school remaining and I feel like I have 5 weeks of work to do (pray for me).

The good news, however, is that Beth and I will be travelling down to the great nation of Texas for Thanksgiving week. We were planning on making the drive come Christmas, but Beth’s grandma’s cancer diagnosis is bringing us home sooner than expected.

So, here’s the game plan. The first half of Thanksgiving week will be spent in Austin with Lee’s family (what up my Austin folks). The second half of the week will be spent in Waco with Beth’s family (Dallas folks…lunch or dinner maybe?)

Looking forward to spending some time at home. Lee and Beth, signing out (for now). And, the apartment shots are coming, just a bit slower than expected.

Wednesday November 8,2006

Brace yourself, if last week was any indication of how Bible study is going to be this Wednesday night, it should be a fun filled, question packed couple of hours studying John.

Last week you guys really did an impressive job of engaging with the text and asking some awesome questions. So keep up the good work of studying the passage before Bible study so that we can work on developing the answers to our questions together, bringing everyone’s study of the bible to bear on our questions and thereby increasing our ability to rightly answer questions and interpret the text.

I have really enjoyed watching our group mature as a group in our study of the Bible. Keep up the good work and continue to invite your family members (“College” Bible study is descriptive, not prescriptive), people living in your neighborhoods and buildings, and your friends and coworkers. Remember, two thousand years ago the Church began with two guys chowing down with Jesus, meeting the Savior of the world, and today more than 2.1 billion people call themselves followers of Jesus.

A little Bible study can turn into something miraculous if people are meeting Jesus and being changed by him.

For this week we will be studying John 3:1-21 (we focused on the first 8 verses last week and we will finish the passage this week), Numbers 21:1-9 (in its context), review the Prologue of John to refresh yourself on the important themes that will be popping up in John’s Gospel, continue to think about what the “kingdom of God” is, and just linger on this passage because it can be one of those passages that we have heard so often that we become numb to it…fight that response with prayer and diligence in thinking about the passage.

Review: John 3:1-8

Preface:

• U Gotta Pope? According to Catholic tradition, Jesus commissioned Peter to lead the early church as God’s authoritative representative. As such, one of the Pope’s most important (and dangerous) roles is serving as Catholicism’s official interpreter of the Bible. As Protestants, we recognize that the office of Pope is not a biblical office and that it is the responsibility of all Christians, individually and corporately, to rightly interpret the Bible. Despite that fact, when we uncritically sit under a teacher or a preacher who is walking us through the Bible, we — in affect — entrust to that teacher authority to interpret the Bible for us.
• Moral of the Story: Remember the Bereans [Acts 17:10-12]? They were taught by Paul — you may have heard of him — but, despite that fact, they still examined all of his teaching to be certain that what he taught about Jesus fit with Old Testament Scriptures. Be like the Bereans, develop a healthy Berean critical eye and ear when it comes to sitting under the teaching of anybody.

Nicodemus (v.1-2)

• Who was he? Pharisee, a ruling member of the Sanhedrin (he has hot stuff)
• Why did he come to Jesus at night? Perhaps so his visit would be hidden by the cover of darkness, or maybe so he could have more time to talk to Jesus — who was quickly becoming known as a worker of miracles
• Was Nic sincere in his statement to Jesus (v.2)? His curiosity is obvious but, it would also appear that the Spirit might be at work in him — according to [John 7:50, 9:39] — but the Bible doesn’t tell us everything that is going on with Nic)
• Did Nicodemus become a follower of Jesus? Perhaps this is the beginning stages of Nic turning to Jesus and believing that he is Lord. Maybe the wind was blowing as Jesus taught Nic and, in the two passages listed above, we can see the grass moving, the results of the Spirit at work (v.8)

Jesus Schools the ‘Teacher of Israel’ (v.3-8)

• Jesus doesn’t Mince Words: “Nicodemus, thanks for the compliment, but just so you know, your entrance into the Kingdom of God is not a lock, you must be born twice to enter the kingdom”
• Hard Words: Jesus was a brilliant teacher (Matt. 12:38-42 actually says Jesus is wiser than Solomon). His usual way of teaching was to take an object or a simple scenario connected to common everyday life (and, not infrequently, pulled from the Old Testament). It was easy to understand Jesus’ teaching on an earthly level, but it was much harder to understand the application Jesus made of the earthly thing to the heavenly thing. Why did Jesus chose to teach using a method that is simultaneously quite simple and surprisingly hard to understand? According to [Matt. 13: 10-17] Jesus intentionally taught in this way so that some, who were graciously blessed with the ability to understand, would get it while others, whose ears and eyes were sealed by their sinfulness, would not.
• That’s a Shocker: Nicodemus was stunned by these words, probably for two reasons: 1) He’s thinking “I gotta do what again? I don’t think Mama is going to appreciate that at all” and 2) “How can you tell me, the ‘teacher of the Jews’ (v.10), that I am not already guaranteed access into the Kingdom? I’ve earned it, I’m on the Sanhedrin, I deserve it, I am a lock!”
• Water and Spirit: Jesus, a patient teacher, perhaps aware that eventually Nicodemus is going to understand, explains what being “born again” means, uttering one of the most debated sentences in the New Testament.

Break It Down: the Two Approaches:

1. “Water (pause) and the Spirit” Some people interpret this phrase to be referring to the two distinct birth events, first birth (water) and second birth (Spirit). When this approach is taken some claim that “water” refers to physical birth, the water referring to the water breaking on a mother about to give birth to her baby. Others make the claim that “water” refers to baptism. Both of these positions would agree that the rebirth is salvation accomplished by the Spirit. (The first position is unlikely because there are no examples of birth being described in terms of water in Greek or Hebrew literature. The second is emphatically impossible because it corrupts the gospel of grace by saying we must do some sort of work in order to be saved, it does not fit with the thief on the cross — “today you will be with me in paradise”[Luke 23:43] — and confuses the New Covenant with the sign of that covenant, namely, baptism)
2. “Water and Spirit” This position claims that only the rebirth is described by this phrase. If this is the case, what then does water and spirit refer to? Our best clue comes from Jesus’ expectation that Nicodemus, as the ‘teacher of Israel,’ understand “water and spirit.” If this is correct, the phrase refers to the Old Testament use of “water” to refer to cleansing from sin and “spirit” to refer to transformation and new life (See [Ezek 36:22-27]). This interpretation seems to be the most likely meaning given the context of the text.

• The Spirit: After tackling the nature of rebirth, Jesus expounds upon the spiritual nature of second birth. There is debate as to whether “Spirit” refers to the Holy Spirit or demarcates the spiritual (in contrast to the earthly). In my opinion, the Holy Spirit and the spiritual are so closely interlinked that it is perhaps a bit of a stretch to try to draw a clear distinction in this case (but I could easily be wrong).
• Marvelous, Simply Marvelous: Jesus tells Nicodemus that he ought not to be marveling at Jesus’ teaching (which means that Nic is still stunned and marveling) and proceeds to give an analogy to explain the Spirit/spirit. Jesus brilliantly uses a play on words (pneuma = spirit or wind) to show that the work of Spirit, like the wind, is always happening but we cannot see it move, we can only hear it. In a similar fashion, the spirit is moving and sovereignly accomplishing spiritual rebirth, causing people to be born again of “water and the spirit”

Concluding Questions:

• Why is it that birth is the analogy Jesus uses to explain salvation? The answer, I believe, is ultimately found in the Prologue of John’s Gospel: “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” [John 1:12-13]. In the passage we studied tonight and John’s introduction to the major themes of the Gospel we are told that it is God who is sovereignly at work accomplishing his purposes for spiritually birthing children to be adopted into his family.
• If you think about your own life, have you experienced a rebirth? Have you been washed clean of your sins and repented, turning from those sins and embracing, by faith, the new life, the spiritual life, found in Christ Jesus (see v.9-21)? Think about what we know of Nicodemus. We know that prior to his conversation with Nic, Jesus did not entrust himself to people who believed in his miracle working abilities. Then, one night, Nic visits Jesus in the night bringing compliments of Jesus’ miraculous abilities…and what does Jesus do? It seems that he entrusts himself to Nicodemus, who, as we proceed through the Book of John, seems to be experiencing a life change. (Could this be John trying to teach us, tuning our ears to hear the Wind?) The question for us is this: Am I Nicodemus when he comes with curiosity to visit with Jesus in the cover of night? Or, am I Nicodemus when he brings 75lbs. of expensive myrrh and aloe to anoint and bury the body of Jesus? I wonder what Nicodemus was like three days later when Jesus rose from the dead. I wonder what difference that made for Jesus…I wonder what difference the resurrection genuinely makes for us.