So this picture is added merely to save it online and allow me to use it in a future post.

So this may very well be the most famouse picture of me ever! That's right, you may have already seen it at yellowstonebaptist.edu, but here it is for all to enjoy!

Dear Amy,

As I was reading through the paper this morning over my cup of coffee, I remembered that I had some things to write to you about. In my last letter I mistakenly omitted my thoughts on a very important book I just finished reading. I just read D. A. Carson's book The Cross and Christian Ministry. A book I was graciously given by a dear friend of mine.

It is one of the best books I have read in some time. He is an apt expositer of the scriptures and is able to translate the text in to our currant situation in such a way that it makes one want to cry and to weep and to get started all at once. The theme is really simply stated: Paul's basis for his ministry was the cross, our ministry should be based upon that too.

I think this is closely related to another concept I have been confronted with recently. The concept of inaugurated eschatology. It's really not as bad as it seems and it is not some third stage of mumps. The idea is basicly that early christians saw that the death of Christ had ushered in the 'end times' or 'last days'. A different Idea than the one promoted by Tim, huh? SO the basic idea is that we are already living in the promised kingdom but the total fulfillment of the promised age is yet to come. An interesting Idea. Dr. Gregory Beale is the dear man who is teaching me this but the idea is found in other writers as well, such as Ladd and Pate and even Dumbrell. I haven't yet suffured through enough of these previously mentioned authors to have recomended one to you but I hope to shortly.

Also I hear you are interested in a rellow by the name of Bobbi Bell? I have heard of him and one of his books is on my desk, but I have yet to make a full understanding of his position. I hope to by my next letter. May Christ who died for sin, continue to sanctify you by the washing of his word.

Your Brother,

Virgil