I sat alone in my dorm room, weeping and wondering what I would say if anyone found me and asked what was wrong. The truth would have been that I was upset because my companionship was rejected, and I didn’t feel that I had the right to be upset. I felt that I was simply […]
Posts in the biblical studies category:
Doing Exegesis Without Biblical Languages
Someone asked me, “How can I do good exegesis if I don’t know the biblical languages?” This is a good question, especially since many seminaries are no longer teaching biblical languages. I will begin by saying that it is good to recognize that the languages are important, even if you don’t have the opportunity to […]
Book Review: Freedom to Flourish
Recently I was gifted a copy of Freedom to Flourish by Elizabeth Garn in exchange for a review (honest of course). Elizabeth and I became friends through a group that connects women who have been to seminary. Our backgrounds and work are somewhat different but it is a joy to fellowship and especially to read […]
On Faith and Prayer
I have been having a number of conversations about faith lately. They all come to one center. I can’t live a life of faith in God and at the same time plan as if God might not take care of me. I have wrestled for most of my life with the concept of what it […]
By Faith and Not by Sight
It may be tempting, when seeing this title on a blind person’s blog, to think that this post will be about something inspirational based on life as a blind person. Blindness gives us great opportunities to live by faith since we cannot see, right? Certainly this is a great idea; but it is a misinterpretation […]
Walking on the Water of Grief
In Mt. 14:22-36, Jesus comes to the disciples walking on water. This is an amazing thing; for who can actually walk on water! Peter, ever the one who wants to be just like Jesus, wants to try this out. Jesus encourages him to go on and try; and Peter does. But of course he becomes […]
The Heart of Confession
Jesus knew that Peter would deny knowing him… Was it because Jesus had some amazingly prescient knowledge of what was to come? Or did he have wisdom about what humans do when in severe distress? He had been in other situations in which people’s family refused to tell the truth because it meant associating them […]
God My Refuge and the Man Born Blind
My introduction to biblical studies did not come gently. My parents did as much as they humanly could to provide me a Bible in a format that I could read; but in the 1980s braille Bibles were costly and hard to store. Individual hard-bound volumes cost $40 each; and 18 of them were required to […]
biblical studies, conferences, disability ministry, disability studies, discipleship, healing narratives
Breaking the Powers of Silence and Exclusion
This is the audio of my presentation from the 2020 meeting of the Wesleyan Theological Society: “Breaking the Powers of Silence and Exclusion: Empowering People with Disabilities for Discipleship”. If you prefer, read the text of the paper. Right click to download breaking the Powers of Silence and Exclusion
Teaching the Holy Spirit and the Church at Smyrna
I am currently teaching via video to theological students in Pakistan about the theology of the Holy Spirit. They have many questions, and I allow their questions to guide some of the plans I make for the class sessions that I teach. Last week, a student asked about the letters to the seven churches in […]
Technology, Online Language Courses, and Discipline
I have taught biblical language courses online at Anderson University since 2015. During the first week of a first-year language course, I introduce the language writing system and sound correspondence, and I introduce enough words that the students can read a few sentences. I also teach at least as much use of technology as I […]
The Rise of Ancient Language Text Access for People Who Are Blind
Recently an article was published on the Anderson University blog and in Signatures Magazine about my work as a braille transcriber. Space is limited in this article, and the author is able to provide limited introduction to my work. The following post is here to give further detail for those who are interested in what […]
Teaching Exegesis Orally Via Distance Learning
I am teaching a live video series on Biblical exegesis for a seminary overseas through a partnership between the Church of God and a church fellowship in the other country. The seminary prepares new pastors to plant churches in their own country and raise their own support. Until now, most of my teaching experience has […]
Sermon: I Will Praise the Lord
“I Will Praise the Lord” is a sermon based on Leah’s response to her circumstances, specifically the fact that even the blessings of God were not enough to make Jacob love her. Sermon text: Gen. 29:15-35: 15 Then Laban said to Jacob, “Because you are my relative, should you therefore serve me for nothing? Tell […]
God’s Call is Forever
Do you ever feel like asking God why you were the one chosen to do something? Why not send someone else? That is what Moses did. Moses was so persistent that God’s anger burned against him. Here is what came of that interaction. Watch on YouTube. Text is Exo 4:1-16.
Remember and Live by Grace
My dear Christian brothers and sisters, I ask that you will read this post and I pray that God will move on your hearts to hear the message here./p> When the Israelites were delivered from slavery, God commanded them concerning their treatment of each other and of aliens living among them. These commands were given […]
Worship in Spirit and Truth
The primary text of this sermon is Jn. 4:21-26. Other texts are Ps. 51:16-17, Isa. 58:2-4, Jer. 29:13, and Heb. 4:14-16. This sermon was preached in Muncie, Indiana. Click to listen or right click to download: Worship in Spirit and Truth
“What Can I Do for You?”
This is the sermon I preached in Muncie, Indiana, on the text of Lk. 18:35-43. Click to listen or right click to download: What Can I Do for You
To Seek and Save the Lost
The text of this sermon is Lk. 19:1-10. The sermon was preached in Muncie, Indiana. Click to listen, or right click to download: To Seek and Save the Lost
Can We Carry the Cross
I ran across a post on Facebook today that mentioned people carrying crosses down the road and concluded with a reflection on how different the world would be if we lived each day with awareness of what it was like for Jesus to carry the cross. This reflection made me think about what it in […]
God’s Favor
This sermon, preached in Muncie, Indiana, defines God’s favor as it is experienced by Hannah, David, Mary, and Jesus. Click to listen, or right click to download: God’s Favor
Bring Your Bible to School?
I read on Facebook that Focus on the Family is sponsoring a “Bring Your Bible to School” day in October. The comments, as I expected, were all in favor. Some people even asked, “Why does everyone else get to show their faith and we have to hide ours?” I was a bit stunned when I […]
when forgiveness matters most
One of the greatest temptations when working through trauma–or any kind of situation involving hurt–is to hold on to anger as if it is my right to feel it. I have even read comments from some people via books and articles that it isn’t necessary to forgive the person who hurt you. After all, the […]
A Woman Named Salome
While doing my Easter Bible study, I came across a name I had never noticed before. It is the name of one of the women at the tomb. Two of the women were named Mary. That is something I have known for a long time. The third woman’s name is Salome, pronounced Sal-o-may. I decided […]
biblical studies, chronic illness, disability awareness, disability studies, healing narratives, ministry, prayer, theology
musings on the healing narratives
If a doctor can treat an illness, then why do we need Jesus? Perhaps it is a question worth asking. Is it just a matter of making a statement, of rejecting the world’s system for the Christian one? Or is there really a situation where a miracle can happen? Sometimes, it is both. It is […]
Remember
Sometimes, even with the best of intentions, I have difficulty remembering to make my medical appointments. My husband has been reminding me all week that I have an appointment to make. Sometimes I have asked him to please remind me during the day–after all, I cannot make the appointment in the late evening. Sometimes, during […]
why I don’t say happy birthday Jesus
As I grow older, I become increasingly irritable when I see so much Americanization and dumbing down of holy things. My parents laugh when I express these signs of my age. But I hope that some of my general disquiet might be worth taking seriously. The current object of my disquiet is the phrase, “Happy […]
biblical languages and scholars who are blind: state of technology
Yesterday, I announced on Facebook that the Bartimaeus Alliance of the Blind has released a digital braille format version of Jacob Weingreen’s A Practical Grammar for Classical Hebrew. This, along with other digital braille files available on their site, may be an important breakthrough for people who are blind and who want to study Hebrew. […]
a note from the chair in the back room
My Facebook posts often say something to the effect of, “Editing Hebrew with some coffee and a purring cat in the chair in the back room…” I thought it might be about time that I gave my readers a glimpse into my Hebrew editing life. I hope that my Hebrew colleagues will indulge me a […]
the dark cloud of limitations
Several years ago, I participated in a guided dialogue via email with a group of people with disabilities. One of our earliest assignments was to describe ourselves in terms of our limitations. Our facilitator said that typically people have difficulty with this assignment; and throughout the time that I knew him, he maintained that he […]
“since” vs. “because”
Greek words often have multiple meanings in English. So a clause may be translated either “If [blah blah blah]” or “since [blah blah blah]”. Of course, this distinction is very important when doing biblical translation. But I’m not translating right now. I’m just thinking about life… Think of the difference between saying, “if I am […]
disability studies, touch, and theology
I recently read an article in which the author relates an experience in which a male priest makes the sign of the cross on her forehead as he passes her while leaving her niece’s confirmation service. She is offended in part because a man touched her without her permission and in part because she is […]
SBL/AAR conference experience
The SBL/AAR conference was an extremely positive experience for me. I found some links online to articles for students about how to get the most out of conferences, but I didn’t get much chance to read them ahead of time. So I just threw myself in with abandon and treated it the way I do […]
What are we singing?
It has become fashionable to rewrite the words to songs so that they are gender inclusive or otherwise politically correct. Sometimes this has a fairly neutral effect. Sometimes it destroys a song’s theological meaning; and sometimes it is quite powerful. As a songwriter and a minister, and also as a person who is a member […]
about the call to ministry
Recently a seminary student asked me how I hear God and how I know what I am called to do. I wasn’t surprised by these questions. Many seminary classes open at the beginning of the semester with times of introduction when students share their sense of their call to ministry. In other words, they share […]
meditation on a hymn
Come Thou Fount of every blessing Tune my heart to sing Thy grace; Streams of mercy, never ceasing, Call for songs of loudest praise Teach me some melodious sonnet, Sung by flaming tongues above. Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it, Mount of Thy unchanging love. Here I raise mine Ebenezer; Hither by Thy help […]
holy places
Holy places… I think of these as “places that are holy.” In Hebrew the phrase would be translated literally, “places of the holy.” This implies a slightly different meaning. The place itself is not holy. It is a place where the holy is encountered. Without God’s presence, or without the interaction between God and person, […]
It Is Well
Hebrew… The gift that keeps on giving… I love it when that happens! Last week in church, we sang “It Is Well”–all three verses. Singing “My sin, not in part but the whole / Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,” I was deeply moved and thought back to my discussion […]
transgressions
Today in Hebrew, we read in Gen. 50 where Joseph’s brothers tell him that God commands him to “lift up the transgression of your brothers.” I mistranslated it; and this led my professor and me into a discussion of the fact that sacrifices could be offered for sins but not for transgressions (rebellions). The only […]