My second week at college

Well after a gentle week of induction followed by a weekend retreat (oops forgot to mention that on the last entry - never mind - I'll just have to squeeze that in a bonus blog entry!) we're now into the course proper.

So last week we were doing "introduction to the bible" which covered what is "scripture"?, the different genres, what does it mean to say it's "inspired by God", which books got in (ie the canon) and which didn't and why, what about apparent contradictions and alleged errors, what authority does scripture have and why, and what is it's role in God's relationship with his people...woh!
Heavy stuff indeed - but this week we look at exegesis and hermeneutics (which I can only spell by copying it off of my notes) which sounds far more terrifying and this is what our next assignment is based on...

Here's some interesting facts about the bible for your pub quizzes:
- written over 1500 years (40 generations)
- written by over 40 authors from every walk of life including kings, peasants,
philosophers, fishermen, poets, etc.
- written in three languages (Hebrew, Greek and errr I don't know)
- written on three continents (Asia, Africa and Europe)
- written in different places including wilderness, dungeon/prisons, palaces, during
military campaigns, etc

So it's been quite an academic week but helped by our lecturer (Dave Perry, who is a bit of a Lord of the Rings fan) who likens the bible is a drama in which God is the author, Jesus is the hero, the Holy Spirit is the "force" that moves the plot, if we follow Jesus we get to be part of the cast and in the end the good guys win! (Hurrah!) He makes it really quite accessible.

Two things stood out this week for me:

The first was how the Torah (first 5 books of the bible) is very similar in style to the suzerain vassal treaties (covenants between the king and his people) that were common around that time and region - and so we can see that in their day they would see God as the king who is making a covenant (promise) to look after his people in return for the people keeping the laws kept in the covenant. Fascinating.

And the second was that after a heavy week we finished on Friday with Dave telling us to spend 40 minutes meditating on Psalm 121 after which we would feed back what we felt God was speaking to us from it. Forty minutes and in SILENCE - any of you who know me will know how hard this must have been! After 20 mins I was all ready to throw in the towel but then something happened and it was like treasure was unlocked...and I was writing all sorts of ideas and inspiration that was coming.

One momentous moment was when I was wrestling with God about the the verse:

The LORD will keep you from all harm
he will watch over your life;

I didn't get it as I was bullied almost all of my secondary school years, had a difficult home-life, had a marriage that nearly ended in divorce, had a wife that got clinical-post-natal-depression and was hospitalised and have had two of my children die. So surely he hasn't kept me from harm.

But then I felt God remind me of how he has healed these memories (in particular I was reminded of the "celebrate recovery" course I attended where we were praying and I just saw Jesus in my mind's eye step into some of these memories and transform them taking away the power they held over me). And I can truthfully say I am not living in fear, or regret or bitterness or whathaveyou - these memories do no longer harm me (before the various prayer sessions these memories used to really hold me captive with fear and bitterness). The LORD has indeed kept me from harm.

Again, with the death of our children Rachel and James I can say I am not bitter, or afraid of trying for more children, or depressed. I am in fact thankful - I am just so grateful to God that He entrusted us with these precious ones no matter how short the time was. It was a real breakthrough moment of understanding for me and I don't think I'm going to be quite the same.

Lots of love
John