Greek Progress Update

I'm still working on the Greek, a bit each day. I've done lesson 10 in my book, but I noticed that my accuracy of translation was falling off. I was still getting the basic idea of each lesson, but because I had not done the memorization well enough, I was making too many mistakes. So, for the last several days I have been memorizing. Bethany helped me make up better flash cards, and helped me drill. It really seems to be paying off. For variety, I am using the FlashWorks drill program available free on the www.teknia.com web site. This is allowing me to increase my vocabulary.

So why am I trying to learn Greek? A couple of reasons. For years, I've been preaching and saying things like "I don't know Greek, but this word means...". I guess I'm a little tired of this. Studying Greek myself won't make me a scholar, but it should give me a working knowledge of the Greek New Testament. My second reason is something a friend once told me. He is very proficient in Greek (teaching at the Seminary level). He told me that using study tools and commentaries, I can study a passage and learn the same things he can learn from reading the Greek, but that he can do it much faster. So, learning Greek is an investment in the future. The challenge is to stick with it, while I continue to spend time studying the English Bible, preparing sermons, improving my preaching technique and reading other helpful Christian literature.