Today Northern Baptist Seminary begins its last week of classes for the Fall Quarter.  And what a quarter it has been for me!  My academic responsibilities were the heaviest I ever had in all of my years of teaching.  I am glad the quarter is almost over, so that I may return to a normal schedule.

I generally teach two courses per quarter.  This quarter I taught five courses.  This extra load meant that I had to practically work seven days a week reading for classes, preparing lectures, reading and grading papers, and doing a host of other things that demanded all the time I had for extra-curricular activities.

One thing that suffered was my commitment to blogging on a regular basis. In order for me to write my blog, I like to read books and articles before I write on the topic of my blog.  With the little time I had available during this quarter, I tried to write at least one post every Monday, but even this was impossible, since I had to spend Saturdays and Sundays preparing for two classes on Monday.

Another thing that suffered was my sabbatical.  I was scheduled to be on sabbatical during the summer and fall of this year, but because I promised several of my students that I would teach Hebrew this quarter, I had to postpone my sabbatical until the summer and fall of 2012.  During the Christmas break I will be preparing my sabbatical proposal.  At the present, I am not at liberty to give details of my sabbatical proposal, but I hope that by the end of December 2012, I will have finished the manuscript for a book I plan to write during my sabbatical.

As some of you know, I have a web page which I have not updated in many years.  With the help of a friend who knows how to create web pages, I am in the process of upgrading my web page.  The redesigned web page will be a way for me to offer resources to pastors and students that they can use in their work.

It will take some time for me to be able to completely develop my web page.  One of the things that will be new is that my blog will now appear on my web page.  This means that sometime this month, my blog will move again.  I will still be on WordPress, but the URL of my blog will change once again.

Changing an URL is very inconvenient.  I have many people who follow my blog regularly.  Many bloggers have linked their blogs to my blog.  Updating blogs takes a lot of time.  I just hope my readers and fellow bloggers will continue to visit my blog, even if they have to update their blog roll or have to re-subscribe to my new blog.

Tomorrow I will return to my regular blogging schedule.  My post on Tuesday will continue my series on Deuteronomy.  If you have not read my first post on Deuteronomy yet, here is the link: The Social Concern of Deuteronomy – Part 1

Thank you for understanding my absence from blogging.  I hope this kind of absence from blogging will not happen again.  I enjoy blogging and I also enjoy dialoguing with the readers who take time to comment on my posts.

Speaking about comments: I have also not made any response to comments made on my blogs.  For this, I sincerely apologize.  As I return to my normal activities, I will also respond to every comment made to my posts in the past few weeks.