I don’t think I’ve updated most of you to the fact that I am now employed, for which I am thankful to God. It was a long time coming (over 2 months), and I started about a month ago at my new place of employment. I work for essentially a software company that is growing very fast and is heavily involved in speech recognition. I work on the Order Management side of things making sure orders and credits are correct and appropriately substantiated. The end of March is our quarter end, so, needless to say, I have been getting pummeled at work this week. The fun continues for the next 2 weeks as the crunch will result in numerous days of overtime and working on weekends. To ease the pain, I have had a signficant increase in pay between this job and the last, and enjoy a flexible schedule, free soda and popcorn, and a take-home laptop.

Although I can see how this job will open up many opportunities for me in the future, it certainly is not my first love. I do go into work everyday feeling a little empty inside, knowing that I want to do something else, namely, working full-time at a church. I want so badly to study Scripture and read all day, to have an open schedule so that I can meet with people all the time, and dreaming with saints about God and his glory spread to his people. I find it funny that I have gone into great debt and spent may years in theological education, while volunteering time for ministry with the goal of working in a church, yet nothing has opened up for me. Yet, I have no degree in business and just about 3 years of experience and I got 3 job offers in one day in early February. Figure that out. People are willing to pay me more money than I would make in most churches even though I have no where near the same level of qualifications.

Well, for now I am rolling with the providence alotted for me in Grace, and am stoked about the prospects of the Gospel in our area. We have a wonderful group of saints gathering on Tuesdays now in Haverhill. In the sixth month of our habitual meeting, I have encountered Christ in very sweet levels. Praise be to him for is infinite power and grace and wisdom to channel his waterfall in the greatest direction possible. Soli Deo Gloria.

Here are some pics taken from our time in the city, about a half mile down looking at Times Square. Suppose I can check that experience off the list. We were standing most of the night on around the corner of 53rd and 7th, I think about 4 hours. It was myself, Kalila, her brother Zach, and his girlfriend Krystal. It would have really been boring had Zach not downloaded Monopoly on his cell phone, which we played for about 3 and 1/2 hours. Oh yeah, and 5 minutes before the ball drops, an 8 foot circle emerged next to us around the guy standing next to Zach. It took the guy a second, but then he ralphed into the cleared circle. Needless to say, no one was expecting that, especially 5 minutes before midnight. It began to reek immediately, causing a very unpleasant celebration. We hoofed it out of there right after the ball dropped and took refuge in the closest Famous Original Ray’s Pizza place. Along the way back to Port Authority, I was able to get a snapshot of the Ed Sullivan Theatre, home of the Late Show with David Letterman, and the Laugh Factory, scene of Michael Richards’ (”Kramer” from Seinfeld) infamous tyrade. The link to the album for the entire event is here.

I do believe that I forgot to mention that I was laid-off two weeks ago as my company was purchased and my office closed. So I am on the job hunt, hoping for a better tomorrow as I blitz my resume across the region. I have had plenty of leads and a few interviews, so we’ll see how things go. I’m just trying my best to stay occupied by consistently mining through the job lists at Craigslist and Bostonworks, surfing the internet for good biblical/theological websites, working on the God-centered.com webpage, cleaning up around the apartment, and catching up with old friends. We are steady financially for the time being, but I would appreciate your prayers if you could think of us. I’ve also had a great deal of time to read and think about some important concepts in theology that I normally don’t have a ton of time to think about, so my time has been fruitful.

Well, below was a teaching I did at an evening service at a church back in September on Covenant and Law. This was recorded by my buddy Moses from the front pew, so it sounds like I’m in a tin can. Therefore, you will need to crank up the volume just to hear me. Oh well, have fun!

 The Concept of Covenant in the Bible [51:10m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download