Summer Fun?

Well summer is here and there's no rest for the weary Bible student. I've been working full time since my return and thankfully sales are so high at work they can afford to give me my hours and sometimes more, while still having both the managers and a fourth person working in the same department. Nearly all of us are working full time too. I worked a straight 12 hour day yesterday so I could end up with 40 hours by the end of the week. It's been tough work physically. I doubt I could handle a second job as I'd considered before leaving the campus. It would have been a less physical job... like a cashier somewhere or something, but I'm already pretty tired as it is.

I've been out witnessing once since I've returned. It was nice to see the guys again and even some new faces from a nearby Bible college and their street preaching team. I got to take Nick out with me that week. He's a 17 year old from my church who's been a believer for less than a year. He really enjoyed his experience and his thinking was stirred quite a bit. He said he got see another side of Christianity. He hadn't seen people being yelled at for preaching the gospel... until that night. Sadly the heckler's threats and reaction cause Nick's father to disallow him from returning with me. I can understand parental concern, however the area is littered with police of whom I have the direct phone number... not to mention the many Christian adults out there. Please pray for that situation. I believe this was a tremendous growing experience for Nick. It's also been a growing experience for me as I interact with and walk alongside a new believer.

I'm making progress in my reading of the Old Testament to prep for taking the survey class next semester. I'm in the middle of Joshua. Hopefully I can reach the end in the next 3 months before I head back to school. it sounds like an easy task... if that's all I did with my free time. I've also undertaken a study of biblical Greek to prepare for that class. I'm pretty confident with the alphabet and transliteration and I'm moving into pronunciation, grammar terms, etc. I've been starting to study with a guy from church who put down his Greek studies a while back and found this as an opportunity to begin again.

I've also endeavored to spend time with my best friend... studying and talking. He really has needed the accountability as I do I in some areas. I've reached a kind of dilemma though in my counsel with him. It's been difficult to address the issues at hand in a new way. Questions enter my mind... what else is there to say? is "something new" the answer at all? how can I best use our time together? am I truly serving my friend as a brother in Christ? How can I do that effectively? I had a brief talk with another friend today that helped answer soem of these questions... and it's interesting how these things are often much simpler than we make them.

May the Lord guide this summer and I grow in His grace.