Two days ago
Greg Beale and his wife Dorinda flew from Chicago to Philadelphia, where he will, Lord willing, spend his last and most fruitful season of ministry at
Westminster Seminary. Walking to the downtown Wheaton Starbucks the day before he left, a friend and I ran into Dr. Beale, also on his way to Starbucks, and spent some time together talking about the Lord and how to serve him with all our minds. A fitting final memory.
The two greatest academic privileges of the past three years have been, one, writing a dissertation on Paul under Doug Moo, and two, spending time with Greg Beale.
Dr. Beale helped me put the whole Bible together in Spring 2009. I now read passage after passage with new eyes. He has done a world of good to a generation of students, communicating the treasures of Scripture not only in what he said but how he said it. My dad told me of the reverent intensity with which Dr. Beale exegeted the Bible when they were first-year Greek students together at Dallas Seminary. That wonderful love for the Scripture has not waned. He has stood up for currently unpopular aspects of evangelicalism this past decade, heedless of personal cost. He has served his students, his institution, and his God, with courage and strength.
Wheaton's loss. Westminster's gain. The Lord be with you, Dr. Beale.
[A] young man who fervently loves God, although adorned with limited gifts, will be more useful to the church of God with his meager talent and academic achievement than a vain and worldly fool with double doctor's degrees who is very clever but has not been taught by God.
God sent me this little treasure today, via Clive Staples:
Two days ago Greg Beale and his wife Dorinda flew from Chicago to Philadelphia, where he will, Lord willing, spend his last and most fruitful season of ministry at Westminster Seminary. Walking to the downtown Wheaton Starbucks the day before he left, a friend and I ran into Dr. Beale, also on his way to Starbucks, and spent some time together talking about the Lord and how to serve him with all our minds. A fitting final memory.
From current Christian publications, you might think that the most vital issue for any real or would-be Christian in the world today is church union, or social witness, or dialogue with other Christians and other faiths, or refuting this or that ism, or developing a Christian philosophy and culture, or what have you. But our line of study makes the present-day concentration on these things look like a gigantic conspiracy of misdirection. Of course, it is not that; the issues themselves are real and must be dealt with in their place. But it is tragic that, in paying attention to them, so many in our day seem to have been distracted from what was, is, and always will be the true priority for every human being--that is, learning to know God in Christ. 
[I]f man is to find mercy, Christ alone must be the means. He alone makes us paupers rich with His superabundance, expunges our sins with His righteousness, devours our death with His life, and transforms us from children of wrath, tainted with sin, hypocrisy, lies, and deceit, into children of grace and truth. 