Saturday, February 17, 2007

Roger Powell Jr. Named Performer of the Week (Feb. 12) in the NBA D-League

I try to check the Arkansas RimRockers website, especially after a game night, and he has done very well there. He leads the team in scoring most games, in rebounds as well other games. His 46 point game on February 2 is the best single-game scoring performance of the NBA D-League this season. Congratulations, Roger!

NBA D-League News:

Roger Powell of the Arkansas RimRockers is the D-League Performer of the Week for February 12, 2007.

Powell thrice led the RimRockers in scoring as they compiled a 2-1 record last week. In the first game of the week, he recorded his second double-double of the season with 26 points and 14 rebounds in Tuesday's loss to Austin. Over the weekend he sparked a two-game sweep of Fort Worth, posting 22 points, five rebounds and five assists on Friday and in Sunday's win scoring 33 points and grabbing six rebounds.

For the week, Powell averaged 27.0 points, 8.3 rebounds, and shot .545 (30-of-55) from the field. Since joining the RimRockers on January 19th, he has averaged 24.9 points and 7.5 rebounds in eight games while posting the best single-game scoring performance in the D-League this season when he scored 46 points on February 2nd against Fort Worth.

Powell, a 6-6 forward from Illinois, was acquired after being waived by the Utah Jazz on Jan. 4th, where he appeared in three games.

Honorable Mention:
Randy Livingston, Idaho
BJ Elder, Austin
Dijon Thompson, Albuquerque
Elton Brown, Colorado

Friday, February 16, 2007

The Great Latin American Hope

In things spiritual, I echo the words of the hymn writer Edward Mote: "My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness."

In things temporal, however, especially regarding baseball, my hope springs eternal (every spring that is, though for many years is had waned during the dog days of summer) for the Chicago Cubs to become (to quote Rob Dibble), "World Champions of the World."

On a Cubs message board, I found this cool photo of the Cubs' Great Latin American Hope, Alfonso Soriano:

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Surprise! Kerry Wood Starts Spring Training with Injury!

All is well with the Cubbies! The pitchers and catchers have reported to Spring Training, and Kerry Wood is injured. Here is the AP version (as reported on Sports Illustrated's website):

MESA, Ariz. (AP) -- Oft-injured Kerry Wood is out again -- this time because of a flub in a hot tub.

The Chicago Cubs pitcher is not expected to throw off the mound for a few days after he slipped this week getting out of a hot tub at home. Wood landed on his stomach and chest.

"It was just a little spill," Wood said Thursday. "I didn't think anything of it. Nothing's wrong. It's just going to be a few extra days. My arm feels great. My body feels good."

Wood said he probably would not have thrown off the mound until Friday had he not gotten hurt. He participated in most drills on Thursday when pitchers and catchers worked out for the first time.

Bothered by an injured right shoulder the past three seasons, Wood is being converted to a reliever after being limited to four starts last year.

All players report on Monday. Eamus Catuli!

Bruce Metzger Dies

Bruce Metzger, who was perhaps the most widely renowned textual critic of the New Testament, passed away yesterday at the age of 93. Here is the AP obituary:

PRINCETON, New Jersey: Bruce Manning Metzger, professor emeritus at Princeton Theological Seminary and an authority on Greek manuscripts of the Bible, has died. He was 93.

Metzger died Tuesday of natural causes, according to The Mather-Hodge Funeral Home in Princeton.

At the time of his death, he was the George L. Collord Professor Emeritus of New Testament Language and Literature at Princeton Theological Seminary.

Metzger earned a bachelor's degree from Lebanon Valley College in 1935, a bachelor of theology degree from Princeton Seminary in 1938 and a doctorate in classics from Princeton University in 1942. He became an ordained minister with the Presbyterian Church in 1939.

Metzger began his teaching career at Princeton Theological Seminary in 1938, where he stayed in the New Testament department for 46 years. During his time at the seminary, Metzger developed 25 courses on the English and Greek texts of books in the New Testament.

In 1986, Metzger was elected to the American Philosophical Society in the class devoted to the Humanities. In 1994, he was awarded the F.C. Burkitt Medal by the British Academy for his contributions to biblical studies.


Metzger would be most widely recognized by OCC students (especially students of Greek) for his book The Text of the New Testament, Oxford University Press, 1968, and for his Lexical Aids for Students of New Testament Greek, and his A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament.

I have written earlier about Metzger's disciple, Bart Ehrman, who walked away from a conservative view of Scripture, I would think much to the dismay of Dr. Metzger himself. Ehrman's book, Misquoting Jesus claims to be earth-shattering, and new, but does not really present anything really new. I studied the essential characteristics of New Testament Textual Criticism as a freshman in college thirty six years ago. Our text was by J. Harold Greenlee, Introduction to New Testament Textual Criticism. When I began reading Ehrman's book several months ago, I was distressed by what I interpreted as theological arrogance. It seems to me that he totally ignores conservative evangelical scholars with academic pedigrees at least as prestigious as his, as though they and their arguments don't even exist! I will likely finish Ehrman's book, but am distressed that many might read it, and conclude that there is no basis on which to put faith in the Biblical text, when there is much reason to do so. Ben Witherington, Daniel Wallace, and others have written reviews of Ehrman's book, and have done a much better job than I could do. I offer links to their reviews.

On a happier note, I found a a quiz on another site. It is called the Ultimate Bible Quiz. If you know much about the Bible, you ought to be able to score 100%!

You know the Bible 100%!
 

Wow! You are awesome! You are a true Biblical scholar, not just a hearer but a personal reader! The books, the characters, the events, the verses - you know it all! You are fantastic!

Ultimate Bible Quiz
Create MySpace Quizzes


Sunday, February 11, 2007

Shawn Sealy Ordination

This morning I traveled to Park Grove Christian Church near Lowry City, MO to participate in the ordination service of Shawn Sealy. I rode with Mark Scott, my boss (OCC's Academic Dean). Shawn introduced us as professors who had made an imprint on his life. In 2001, when I went to Barbados to teach a short course, Shawn and his fiancée were students of mine. Shawn came to study at Ozark in 2004, graduating last May. At OCC, I had him in Old Testament History and in Greek I. He was an excellent student, and is an excellent preacher.


Mark Scott gave the traditional charge, and I spoke about Leadership Across Cultures. There was also an ordination/commissioning service for three elders from the church. I preached a 3 or 4 day revival meeting at that chur
ch in 2002. I think in the time after that, the congregation went through quite a bit of turmoil. A member there told me that when Shawn first went there to preach (nearly 2 years ago) that the church was very sick, and that he had brought healing.


Shawn will be married to Anastasia Charles on July 14 in Florida. Anastasia came to the U.S. to do a master's degree in education, and is currently teaching
in Florida. Unfortunately, she was not able to be present at the ordination today. The people at Lowry City obviously love Shawn very much, and he serves them diligently. Seeing former students do well in ministry is extremely satisfying.

God's best to you, Shawn! Serve Him well!

Miscellaneous Stuff

The last two days I conducted a Seminar in Educational Technology. This year I had three students in the seminar, all very capable upperclassmen. Two of them will graduate. One of them has kept the scorebook for OCC Ambassador basketball games for several years, and other than being an insufferable Kansas Jayhawks fan, is a really nice guy. That seminar class will keep a blog for the next couple months.

After the seminar was over, I watched the visiting Grace University (Omaha, NE) lose to OCC's women, and humiliate OCC's men on the basketball floor. Wait a minute, maybe what occurred to our men's team should be called auto-humiliation. I actually ran the shot clock for the men's game, so that my colleague, Monte Shoemake, could sit in the stands an watch his son's Senior Night (sic) with his wife. About the same time, the visiting Kansas Jayhawks were humiliating the Missouri Tiggers (intentional misspelling), cf. Andrew's post on the above-mentioned blog.


Roger Powell continues to do well with the Arkansas Rimrockers. He has played 7 games for the team, starting 5 of them, and in 5 of the 7 games he has played in, has either led the team in scoring, led the team in rebounds, or both. Go Roger!

Saturday, February 03, 2007

Nice Game, Rog!

The headlines say, "Powell Explodes for 46!" Last night, the Arkansas RimRockers got a Win down in Ft. Worth, TX. Last year's CBA Rookie of the Year is getting a chance to play again, after being waived by the Utah Jazz.

Here is a link to the boxscore.

Remember to give glory to God, Roger!

Thursday, February 01, 2007

Roger Powell Jr. Resurfaces in Arkansas

I have written earlier about Roger Powell making the Utah Jazz roster. Later, when he was cut, I lamented about what I was going to do with my Utah Jazz T-shirt. Now I know where Roger ended up.

I got this information from a true Illinois fan. Last weekend I was in Greencastle, IN, representing Ozark Christian College at a Missions Conference. Ed Nichols, long-time friend, former missionary to Africa, and representative of ACM International was also present. On Saturday afternoon, while I was participating in a scavenger hunt around Greencastle, IN titled The Amazing Race (my team came in 6th, out of 6 teams!), Ed Nichols hid in the church office with a radio so he could listen to the Illinois-Purdue game (Purdue slaughtered the Illini). Finding a kindred spirit, I talked to Ed about how happy I had been that Roger made the opening season roster of the Jazz, but that I was saddened by his release. I told him that I had not been able to find any information about what happened to him. Ed provided the information that he was playing in the NBA's Developmental League. He could not tell me which team, but that he had heard that he was playing in that league.

I made a trip to the website (linked above), and found out that Roger is now a member of the Arkansas RimRockers. A visit to the transaction page says the RimRockers acquired Roger on January 19. So far he has played in only three games (they play tomorrow night), but is averaging 16.7 ppg.

As an aside, the RimRockers play in North Little Rock, AR. I considered going to the Illinois game vs. Arkansas on December 4, 2004. OCC basketball player, Marcus Moeller was there, watching his friend, Steven Hill, play. I had been in Little Rock the week before, as my brother-in-law, Mike Gage, underwent surgery on a brain stem tumor. On that trip, as I drove past the Alltel Arena (where the RimRockers play their home games), I saw the promo for the then-upcoming game with the Fighting Illini. I chose not to make the trip. Illinois won 72-60. Roger led the Illini in both scoring and rebounding, with 19 points, 11 rebounds. Steven Hill (who played for College Hts. Christian School in Jr. High) scored 1 point, had 4 rebounds and 6 blocks.