Late Summer Update

what I've been up to and what to expect

School is just around the corner, so I finished up my summer reading and have begun digging into my reading for the fall semester.

Most recently, I finished reading…

Patmos: Three Days, Two Men, One Extraordinary Conversation by Baxter Kruger

Jesus and the Undoing of Adam by Baxter Kruger

The Great Dance: The Christian Vision Revisited by Baxter Kruger

The Unconditional Freeness of the Gospel by Thomas Erskine

The Wood Between the Worlds: A Poetic Theology of the Cross by Brian Zahnd

Having finished these books, I went ahead and read one of the books that was both on my reading list as well as a potential book I’ll be assigned for the fall: On the Incarnation by St. Athanasius (trans. John Behr, Introduction by C. S. Lewis).

Since I use my Substack premium subscriptions to help pay for school, it’s only fair that I share the fruit of my education with you, so over the next few articles, I’ll be sharing several catalogues of quotations from Athanasius along with some commentary.

Be on the lookout for articles on Athanasius’s view of the scope of the atonement, his thoughts on belief versus unbelief as compared to Thomas Erskine’s ideas, his take on the immortality of the body, the relationship between virtue and knowledge, the fulfillment of the 70 weeks of Daniel, and maybe one on the mechanism of atonement, borrowing from Benjamin Myers.

If any of this seems interesting to you, consider becoming a paid subscriber to help pay for graduate school, but if it would be a financial burden at all, continue to enjoy all of my content on Substack and YouTube for free.

YouTube Stuff

I have a love-hate relationship with YouTube. I love the idea of filming and editing content, but I don’t love three things: (1) the time it takes to actually edit, upload, and share videos, (2) dealing with the unbalanced presence of nonsense, and (3) the dread that the red notification in the top-right corner will be someone who is hateful and ultimately unhelpful.

That being said, I’ve been doing a lot of YouTube recently, which naturally distracts me from other endeavors, such as writing as much as usual.

Before the Beginning

My major project right now doubles as a YouTube series and preparation for a fall Bible class at North Broad. It’s called Before the Beginning.

In this series, I’m focused on what was going on between the Father, Son, and Spirit before the beginning.

So far, I’ve recorded videos on John 1, John 8, John 17, 2 Timothy 1, Ephesians 1, Ephesians 3, and Colossians 1. There are around 24 recorded so far that will publish automatically until mid-August.

My current plan is to record more on 1 Corinthians 1-2, Acts 2-4, 1 Peter 1, Romans 8, Matthew 13, Matthew 25, Hebrews 1, Hebrews 4, and, finally, Genesis 1.

I have plans to create other series as well entitled In the Beginning, After the Beginning, In the End, and In the New Beginning.

But there is a lot of life between now and then, and if you’ve followed me for any amount of time, you know my attention can move between subjects much like a kid in a candy store, which is understandable when you stop to think about how cool the Bible is.

Here’s the link to the first video:

And here’s the playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9hYEK_exryHqVByPC-GmQmBTBNk6FjPa

Tom Wadsworth

The second thing I’ve been up to is doing a deep dive into worship with Dr. Tom Wadsworth.

I’ve been studying the “worship service” for several years. My friend, Dr. Dallas Burdette, “trained me up in the way I should go” through his writings and teaching.

You can access almost everything Dallas has written, including free versions of many of his books, right here: https://freedominchrist.net.

Tom and I have recorded two videos together.

The first is on the word “worship” in the New Testament:

The second is on the idea of worshipping “in spirit and truth” from John 4:

One of the above links takes you to Tom’s channel. The other takes you to mine.

I really appreciated these conversations with Tom. I’ve seen some take these ideas and commit the same error many do: “this is the biblical model; therefore, it is the only way to actually approach God.” In the second video, we clarify that this is not a valid approach to Scripture. The principles we discuss do not detract from the Sunday assembly with which most Christians are accustomed; instead, they transform our approach to “worship” and life altogether.

Church Stuff

I’ve already told you about my plans for my fall class at North Broad, so let me clue you in on what is going on now as well as my plans for 2026.

Paul

Right now, I’m preaching a series on the conversion of Saul from a legalistic fervor rooted in the idea of separation from God to the radical realization that God is not far from each one of us as Jesus has perfectly revealed through his life, death, resurrection, and ascension.

The first sermon can be viewed here:

The second sermon will publish later this week. It focuses on the experience Paul had on the road to Damascus and how this experience led him to write what he did in Galatians 1.

This Sunday, I’ll be looking at Philippians 3 to get another perspective on Paul’s transformation. This humble example of Paul in Philippians 3 should inspire all of us to count “all things” as loss in comparison to the wonder of a God who is near.

I’m not sure what I’ll get up to after I’m done with Paul this Sunday. I’m open to suggestions.

Psalms

On Wednesdays in July and August, we’re sharing some of our favorite psalms. Tomorrow, my wife Laura is going to be leading off the discussion by sharing Psalm 139. Each week, someone reads a psalm, offers a few thoughts on it, and then we open up the floor for discussion. After that, anyone can share a psalm, offer a reflection, or simply sit back and enjoy. It’s been a lot of fun.

Romans

Starting the Tuesday after September, I’ll be teaching through Romans in our Golden Agers class. I’m pretty pumped for this one. I’m not sure how much of it I’ll share since I’ve already done a series of videos on it, but I might record the audios for those who can’t make every class. If so, I’ll share those with you too.

2026

Starting in November (Advent) and running through 2026, I’m going to be doing a series of sermons from John. I love the book of John. A lot of what we’ll talk about will come from my series of articles on the eschatology of John from John 1-11. Ideally, I’d like to continue that series, but it became a bit much with all of the reading I was doing for school. I’m hoping that preaching through John will lead to more articles.

We have an idea for a theme for 2026 to go along with this, but I’ll reveal that when we’re settled on it.

As a hint, there will be a lot of similarities between the Before the Beginning series and the study on John.

School Stuff

As I’ve said, school is right around the corner.

My current plan is to take the following classes:

1. Paul’s Epistles in Patristic Theology

2. Self-Awareness and Counseling

3. Contemplative Spirutal Formation II

4. Ancient Insights for Today II

5. In Quest of 'the Good': Charles Taylor & Hannah Arendt

6. Basics of Biblical Greek I

The addition of the sixth class, which I’ll be confirming later today, will be quite the undertaking, but my experience from the Spring semester makes me think I can handle it. The bulk of the work is in reading, so finishing the reading as well as the reflection assignments before school starts will give me a jump on the semester to enable me to fit the other class in. At least, that’s my plan.

The class I’m most excited for is the one on Paul’s epistles in the early church. I love hermeneutics, so I’m naturally drawn to that class. I have a few books on order for this class to supplement my reading, and I’ll share those with you as I glean from them.

That’s All, Folks

Okay, that about sums it up.

Besides all of this, I’ve been going to church camp, swimming, playing ultimate frisbee, hanging with the family, glamping with Laura, and, of course, playing music.

But now the school is starting back and Cayden is going to Kindergarten, it’s time to start a new normal, which means more time for me to hike, write, and read.

I’ll catch you guys on the flippity flip.