Andrew Busch

"No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations” (Gen 17:5).

Abraham = "father of many" (NIV footnotes)

I find this fascinating. God changes Abram's name to "father of many" before he has any children. God's reasoning included the past tense: "I have made you a father of many". It was already done by God's reasoning but had yet to happen (a year later). So here is Abraham, changing his name at 99 years old to 'Father of Many' while he has no children. People must have thought he was crazy: "There goes the childless 'Father of Many'."

While reading the Bible, I'm struck by what jerks many of the characters are; they just keep doing stupid things over and over. It's comforting to know that they are mess up just like we are. It's also comforting that God keeps his promises to them (and us) often in spite of them (and us). We play a very small part in whether God keeps his promises to us. He is faithful. His kindness knows no end. That’s just what he’s like.

This reminds me of a Graham Cooke teaching. Graham talks about stepping out into God's promises for us. God speaks a promise over us and then he begins to interact with us from the standpoint of the promise fulfilled. God changed Abram's name to Abraham before he had children. God referred to his reasoning using the past tense--"I have made you…" though the event of Abraham becoming a father was still a year away.

Paul picks up on this same story in Romans 4:17b "the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were."

God often does the same thing in our lives that he did in the life of Abraham; he speaks promises to us which make zero sense based on our current situations. This is where faith enters the picture; we step into a spiritual reality based on God’s promises--often in spite of our circumstances. It’s our job to believe; it’s his job to work out the details.

I recently came across this infographic from Edutopia.org on the value of a STEM education (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math). I think it does a great job outlining the 'why' of focusing on the sciences and math in our schools: STEM is where the jobs are now and where they will be in the future.

However, I do have something to add--something these articles understandably miss most of the time. The primary reason we study the sciences is not to simply get good jobs but rather to better understand the world around us; better understanding of the creation leads us to better understanding of the Creator. This is the reason the sciences flourished under the pre-Reformation Catholic church and in the Protestant church afterward; all truth is God's truth. There is not and cannot be antagonism between the sciences and Scripture because they are both works of the same author; they both point to God. If an apparent conflict exists, we do not assume one or the other is wrong but that our current interpretation is wrong.

We study the sciences not only because they help get us good jobs but also because they help us worship the Risen Christ with our head as well as our heart.

(I LOVE to talk about this subject and can point you to more books and websites than you can shake a stick at. If I had to pick, I'd probably start with the Colossian Forum. Feel free to buy me a cup of coffee some time and I'd be happy to talk chat you up about the relationship between religion and science.)

Conferences ruin everything. Last week I attended the MACUL 2013 conference in Detroit. I am now convinced that I have no clue what I’m doing; these other teachers and schools are light-years ahead of me. All I want to do is sit in their classrooms for a week and take notes on implementation of technology into the math classroom.

Realistically, it’s not quite as dramatic as all that. I talked with many of them and started reading a couple of their blogs--they feel just like I do. It’s all trial and error and learning through mistakes. If there is anything I am convinced of it is this: there is no easy way to engage all students in learning for the entire year.

I also came home with quite the 'to do' list. 1) Change the way I use PowerPoint in every one of my classes. 2) Completely redo my Bible Curriculum. 3) Market my classes using social media. 4) Sign up for Twitter in order to accomplish #3. 5) Visit Zeeland Public to see one-to-one iPads in action at the secondary level. 6) Look into iTunesU. 7) Run a Math Technology EdCamp at the Wexford Missaukee ISD. (Math Tech roundtable) 8) Look into becoming a Google Certified Teacher. 9) Learn how to play blues guitar (because Ben Harper's new album with Charlie Mussel White rocks) 10) Start an after school programming group. 11) Sign up for Edmodo and start using it instead of waiting for our technology company to install Moodle on our school server. 12) Start presenting what I'm currently doing in my math classes at conferences around Michigan and at CSI next year. 13) Sleep for 2 days.

Speaking of educational technology, a surprising thing happened to me: I now lean towards iPads at the high school level as opposed to laptops. This is a first for me. Now we just need the money to move forward at our school. Here’s a great website to check out iPads in the middle school math classroom.

"It is important to lay aside perceptions when they become inappropriate or inaccurate" (Graham Cook).

What am I unlearning?

I am unlearning a toothless God and discovering a God of wrath. Many of the preachers I listen to have at one time or another mentioned that God does not currently deal in judgment with the world. God's wrath has been completely poured out on Christ and there will be a day of judgment; now is a time of Grace.

Yet, this is poor logical reasoning. It ignores the stories in the New Testament regarding God's present day judgment: Paul speaking judgment over the magician and he went blind, people eating the Lord's supper incorrectly and getting sick or dying as a result, and Ananias and Saphira. I agree we should be wary of calling natural disasters God's judgment on a region, yet neither can we be sure it is not. It is better if we counsel people to evaluate their hearts and motives rather than placate them by saying everything is going to be okay.

As I begin to see God's anger as a present reality (since Christ was crucified before the foundation of the world), I realize how much I appreciate it--how necessary it is to God's redemptive work. If God didn’t get angry over how we hurt each other and use each other for selfish gain how could he love us? I expect a God of love to be at war with everything which corrupts his original intention for our lives. Granted, God does not sin in his anger; He does not fly off the handle. There will be a day of judgment when all people will give an account for their lives. But we also live with God's judgment all around us. The cross was God's judgment against sin. Healing is God's judgment against sickness. Judgment is about setting things right not punishing. God's anger is redemptive--it's what he's like.

In reading through Acts we find opposition to the gospel over and over again: arrests, beatings, riots, etc. Then in Acts 17:10-12 we meet the Bereans who receive the gospel with great eagerness. Yet even in their desire to believe, they did not forsake their duty to check the validity of what Paul said: they “examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.” Doing our best to push and prod someone's message is not unbelief—it's due process. The Lord does not put doctrinal issues before us and force a quick decision. He allows time to tease out the details. I find it comforting that the Bible describes noble character as an open heart and healthy skepticism—gentle as doves and wise as serpents. We eagerly accept the message and we process the truth together in community; we are open to what God is doing here and now and we check everything to make sure it lines up with Scripture.

I’m making a concerted effort to use my iPad in the classroom. These are the apps I’ve tried to use. Some worked, some didn't. Here’s a little background on the type of learning environment we have: Our school does not yet have a one-to-one or BYOD  program (I'm working on it. Hopefully, we start rolling out a program next year). We do have a couple of laptop carts and an iPad cart available for check-out. In my classroom I have a laptop, an iPad, an Apple TV, a digital projector and a sweet stereo system.

Bible: I’ve not yet found a Bible program that can replace the NIV Study Bibles we use in class. They’re so chocked full of content that replacing them would take days of my time to catalog the (often less-than-trustworthy) information available on the internet. When I put a price tag on my time (and my motivation) this is a non-starter because I'm not getting paid for either of those things. Switching over to the paid NIV study bible app for $25 would save us at least $15 per Bible… except that we don’t have a one-to-one iPad program. Logos’ Bible app comes close but it’s too hard to find something simply and quickly.

CalenGoo: I’ve switched over to the digital calendar world. Apple’s iCal doesn’t sync tasks with Google’s calendar so I had to look for another option. My wife started using CalenGoo and it works great. In fact, the formatting is a step up from both iCal and Google Calendar on my laptop. It's worth the $2 if you're going digital.

ClearCam: With the poor resolution of my iPad 2’s camera, this app makes images useable by taking multiple shots and aligning them. Now I can take pictures of what we do in class and you may actually be able to tell who is in the picture.

Dropbox: Enough said. If you hope to do any sort of content creation on the iPad I’ve found Dropbox a must for storing the work. (This is such a central part of my work I've included a link to it in the tabs at the top of my website.

Educreations: Very useful for a one classroom iPad. Although this app probably deserves a post all of its own, I'll include it here as well. I started creating little videos covering our homework questions in class just this past month. I enjoy the simplicity of the program but I don't like being locked into using their website to store the videos. Also, writing on the iPad is a frustration all to itself; it feel likes I’m trying to write with a large toddler crayon without the ability to stabilize my palm on the writing surface. The result is a less-than-legible but informative presentation. (I even bought a top-of-the-line stylus which only helped slightly.)

•     [Edit 2013-03-03 I dislike having my screencasts owned by the Educreations site. I've decided to take my own advice and pay for a better app. I plan to use Explain Everything ($3) and post my class problems either to Vimeo or Youtube.]

Graphing calculator apps are okay but they don’t beat out the functionality and ease of use of my old TI graphing calculator. Plus, you can’t use an iPad on the ACT or MME. So, graphing calculators are here to stay for the foreseeable future.

Keynote and Pages: I’ve used them a couple of times but without a dedicated keyboard they’re not nearly as useful as I’d hoped. I think things would work a little more seamlessly if I brought my MacBook Pro to work every day but I already have a PC laptop at work. Like many workplaces and schools, the Microsoft Office environment dominates all. I know iWork exports to Microsoft Office but the coolness factor of Keynote presentations loses a lot in the translation to PowerPoint.

Khan Academy: What a letdown this app is compared to the website. You can only view videos; the lack of exercises make this kind of useless for in-class work. I do have an iPad cart available but even when we try to use the website, the keyboard on the iPad makes typing in numbers a three-step process for every number. Doing exercises on the iPad is no easier than using pen and paper (not to mention I have more engaging problems than Khan Academy). One thing math websites do offer is instant feedback. Our elementary just bought a subscription to IXL. Maybe when we finally go one-to-one I'll convince the powers that be a site license for the high school is worth the price.

Nearpod: This seems like a great idea. The teacher creates presentations which can include multimedia content and student feedback options but you’re only limited to 10 presentations on the free version. Upgrading to the paid version for $120/year is a bit steep; that’s a new iPad every 3 years.

OnSong: lets me import my guitar chords from Dropbox, create and share set lists, and transpose music on the fly. This is extremely useful for chapels.

Penultimate: Starting to look really useful now that it’s paired with Evernote (which I love) and is free. Useful--except for the whole writing-on-the-iPad thing (see above).

Splashtop Whiteboard: I use it every day in my classroom to remotely control my computer and as a second screen when giving presentations. I bought the program when it was $14, I think it's up to $20 the last time I checked. It's worth every penny because the app just works.

Vernier Graphical Analysis and Vernier Video Physics: I’ve already written about these but I’ll say it again: they’re worth every penny for turning the iPad into a content creator and teaching device for someone in either math or physics.

Zite: Aggregates news from around the internet based on your Google Reader account and your areas of interest. I keep up on technology by giving it a read a couple times a week.

If you have any suggestions, I'm all ears.

Acts 11:1-18 Peter has just come back to Jerusalem after visiting with Cornelius and seeing God give the Holy Spirit to the Gentiles. When he got back, the believers in Jerusalem confronted Peter. Before when reading this I always took a negative view of these believers; "there are always people in the church opposing what God is doing".

However, Peter willingly and painstakingly explains himself. In the footnote on 11:1 it says "in matters of great concern the apostles did not act alone." Peter left in one paradigm and came back in another. The church in Jerusalem was holding him accountable to the paradigm of Jesus being the Jewish messiah. But God changed all that. Notice their response after Peter's explanation: "When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God…"

Sometimes, willingly subjecting yourself to the scrutiny of others not only diffuses the situation but also brings them into God's plan for their lives.

After a several month hiatus, I picked up Paul E. Miller's A Praying Life and found myself reading the chapter dealing with unanswered prayer. I think he captured the tension and difficulty with prayer well.

Multiple times in the Gospels Jesus says something along the lines of "Whatever you ask for in my name you will receive" (Matt 7, John 14, etc). So, we ask. We pray believing that we ask as God's representatives in the situation. We ask in his name… and nothing changes. We remember Jesus' parable of the persistent widow and we continue to pray and still nothing changes. I have prayers I've prayed for years and still nothing changed.

When reality confronts our hope there is often a divide between the two. We don't know what to make of the Bible's promises regarding prayer. The temptation is one of two things:
1) We become bitter at God.
2) We stop hoping for the big things and pray prayers that are more in line with reality. Instead of praying for healing we pray that the doctors would have wisdom.

There probably is a 3rd option here as well:
3) one in which people ignore the reality of their situations. People claim to be healed and still die of cancer. The pain and frustration involved with living in the tension of unanswered prayer becomes too much.

It's hard to live in the desert between God's promises and the pain of our situations. Life is hard enough and then we add the pain of testing our faith. All sorts of questions come to mind when God doesn't answer prayer; the scariest of all is the one calling into question the veracity of what we believe. If God says he will answer our prayers and my prayers don't get answered then maybe it's all a hoax. All of a sudden faith seems like a house of cards about to collapse.

I think this is where experience comes in. Our history with Christ becomes an anchor for the soul. In our confusion and desperation our minds cry out for something to grab hold of and the reality of our experience provides a footing. That happened. God revealed himself. He spoke to me. This is real. And from that ledge we catch our breath and re-assert our faith--I don't know why this has (or hasn't) happened but I do know God is good and He is in control; we remind ourselves of what is true and continue leaning on the nature of our Heavenly Father.

As Saul/Paul is on the way to Damascus (Acts 9) to keep the Way from spreading he encounters Jesus. This is a full on encounter: an audible voice, a vision--everything.

Here's what caught my attention: "The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone" (Acts 9:7). Later in Acts 22:9, Paul recounts the story and gives us a little more detail. Paul's companions heard the voice but did not understand it. This is an awful lot like John 12:29; the people heard the audible voice of the Father but did not understand it. They did not have ears to hear.

This begs the question: what is the role of experience in faith? For Paul the experience he had on the road to Damascus changed everything; it changed his understand of Scripture and his view of the nature of God. Before encountering Christ, people could have argued with Paul until they were blue in the face and he still would have strung them up. When we meet the risen Lord in a tangible way the experience provides a monument in the life of the faith. In our hearts, we pile 12 stones on top of each other to remind ourselves of what God has done. This was real. It happened. God met me here.

Many of the great men and women of the faith who have gone before mention the central role experience played in their life of faith. Blaise Pascal wrote his down on a sheet of paper and sewed it into his coat. We have no clue what it was--he never tells. We only know that when doubts battered his faith, he would rip open the stitching on his coat, take out the piece of paper and read it to himself. This was real. I don't know how to answer all the questions coming at me right now but I do know this event happened. You cannot argue with an experience. Paul says "God knocked me off my horse and you want to argue that He's a figment of my imagination?".

Paul's companions are a different story. Nowhere do we read about their interpretation of events. Paul lets us know in a single sentence they didn't get it. They were present for the experience but they were not participants in the experience.

This has a couple of applications for teaching on the Holy Spirit. First, it is completely inappropriate for someone to take their experience of God and shove it onto someone else. The "did you feel that?" type questions are fine, but there cannot be an expectation in the group that everyone will be affected in the same way. Second, we cannot discount someone else's experience just because we didn't have one. Paul says "I heard the audible voice of God!" and his companions say "Whatever Paul, it only thundered."

Spirit, give us eyes to see and ears to hear.

In reading through Acts, I'm being challenged in my current understanding of the Holy Spirit.

After the Spirit is given to the church in chapter 2, we see people receiving the Holy Spirit throughout the laying on of hands. "When they arrived, they prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit had not yet come upon any of them; they had simply been baptized ingot he name of the Lord Jesus" (Acts 8:15-16).

It is my understanding that you cannot be a Christian without the Holy Spirit--we cannot be in Christ without the Spirit of Christ (Rom 8:9). My hunch is that this passage refers to something different than the initial filling of the Spirit upon believing in Jesus. (I know it's possible to interpret it as a salvation experience but I don't think it must be that.)

The phrase "baptism of the Holy Spirit" makes many uncomfortable in my circles, though Christ comes--according to John the Baptist--baptizing with the Holy Spirit and fire. Some people in the Reformed tradition use the term "empowered", some "Spirit-filled". Whatever the label, I can't get around the multiple in-fillings of the Holy Spirit in the book of Acts (ch2 then again in ch4). Praying for the Spirit is more than a once-and-your-done kind of thing. If the apostles needed to be refilled with the Spirit (Acts 4:31) surely we do as well. How about we stop ignoring the supernatural aspect of our faith just because a couple of people take it too far? I know it's uncomfortable--we can't explain it and we can't control it--but when I read the gospels, I don't often see God concerning himself with whether or not we feel a bit silly.

Holy Spirit, come fill us again. Empower us to "speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus" (Acts 4:29b-30).

Believe it or not, I'm having some issues with our Bible reading plan; it's too fast for me. I never thought I'd say that, but I find myself wanting to liner longer in certain passages. The chapter a day routine is great for understanding the larger scope and context of the Bible, but it's not the best for a devotional reading of Scripture.

The end of Exodus is rich soil to spend time digging around looking for treasure. For example, take the following text from this last week's readings:

It strikes me that Presence distinguishes God's people from the rest of the world: not miracles, not political preference, not righteous living, not even correct theology. Some of these things are incredibly important but they aren't primary to the faith. Even the 12 Apostles' mandate of preaching, teaching, and healing came secondary to the primary calling to be with Jesus (Mark 3:14).

All the time and effort we spend as Christians trying to change ourselves by our own will and determination is wasted. Just like Moses came down from his encounter with God in Exodus 33-35 changed, so we are changed through encountering Christ. "And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit" (2 Cor. 3:18). We change by by being changed. Our hearts are transformed by being with Jesus. To borrow a phrase from Mike Bickle: "We become what we behold".

Holy Spirit, give us the grace to encounter the Risen Christ. Let our lives be marked by your Presence. Let our hearts hunger and thirst for more of you.

I've been thinking quite a bit about the tensions in Scripture. In church history we just went over TULIP. It's definitely not the first thing I think of when asked to say what I believe but I do believe the weight of Scripture is best explained by Reformed theology. Take the Irresistible Grace portion: students often have difficulty with this because when they read the New Testament they read it through a lens of countless youth leaders calling for a decision for Christ (which is good). But then you get to a passage like Acts 13: 48b "and all who were appointed for eternal life believed". You can't get around the tension in Scripture; it is God who saves you and you are responsible for believing. You cannot come to Christ unless the Father draws you and you are held responsible for rejecting Christ.

These paradoxes are everywhere in the Christian faith:
-We die to live
-We give to receive
-When we are weak we are strong
-The Kingdom of God is now and yet to come
-We are saved. We are being saved. We will be saved.
The list can go on for quite some time.

A life-changing message may exist somewhere in here but for now it simply serves as a reminder that when doing "Biblical theology" we need to be mindful that often the Bible refuses to be categorized cleanly and concisely.