Buddy is sick and it's very sad. I'm taking him to the vet this afternoon, assuming they'll prescribe an antibiotic that will make him better.
He has fluid in his lungs that makes he cough and sneeze. His breathing is raspy and difficult, especially in the morning when he gets up from his bed. It's pathetic. Especially because he comes to me with a "please fix this" look in his eyes (Brittanys have big brown eyes that can take on a very forlorn look) as he's hacking up a lung.
I've grown quite attached to Buddy.
Since I wrote that paragraph I've been to the vet. He doesn't have kennel cough (that's good) and whatever he does have isn't serious. His temp is at the high end of the normal range, his heart sounds good (Brittanys are susceptible to heart problems) and his lungs, while congested, don't sound terrible. He's on a 7-day course of antibiotics and should improve dramatically in the next couple of days.
I feel much better about this.
Isn't it strange that I can raise goats from birth, including bottle feeding, and put a 9mm through their skull, cut them into pieces and eat them, but a doe-eyed Brittany flat out owns me.
Like an increasing number of evangelical churches, UFC doesn't have an adult educational hour (aka Sunday School). I've been told that the church plans to offer a series of adult classes (9-11 week courses) on a weekday evening yet to be determined. The plan is to rent an under-utilized church one night a week and have all UFC's mid-week ministries at that place at the same time. So Jr. Hi, Sr. Hi, college, and this adult class would happen together.
And I'm the teacher.
The first major hurdle is finding a church on the south side of Eugene that works in terms of the space available and wants (needs) the income our rent would bring in. One of the young guys on staff is working on that. God can pull it off or guide us to another option.
I asked Dave (exec. pastor and my supervisor) what I should teach. "That's up to you."
Oh.
Oh my.
My first thought was to start with a course on hermeneutics - how to read and study the Bible. That's an important and too often ignored area that determines whether Bible study is profitable or a hot mess. Much of the really screwy teaching out there happens because people do bad hermeneutics.
So I ordered and started reading "How to Read the Bible for All It's Worth." It's about 20 years old, has been through four editions that included updates, and is a well respected book on hermeneutics.
Except that 75 pages in I don't like it.
The grammar and syntax are still 20 years old (read: clunky) and the two well-respected authors, Gordon Fee and Douglas Stewart, come across, in my opinion, as negative and overly opinionated. It also seems like they get commission from Zondervan, publisher of the NIV. They clearly prefer it almost every time a translation issue comes up.
In short, I don't see it as an appropriate text for the average layperson either in terms of text or content.
But I do need, or want a text that people can buy and read as a support to the class discussion. And I'm not aware of another reputable book on the topic.
So I'm thinking about doing (in order) the divisions of systematic theology. That gives me all kinds of options, including Enn's "Moody Handbook of Theology" which I really like. Dr. Enns was one of my profs at seminary and a truly good and godly man. He wrote a very good book, too. That Moody published it says a lot.
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We're just back from our small group. It's raining and the forecast is for up to 1" overnight and winds to 40 mph. It's times like this that I wonder about living under very tall fir trees.
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