For Non Christians to really understand your relationship with God

In this class, there are quite a few people who have barely studied Christianity, or have never studied it until this class. Most of these people are only judging the bible and Christianity based on like 3 books in the bible. The bible has over 60 other books in it. I feel like it is difficult to even begin to have a solid idea about Christianity until you have gone through more chapters of the bible. The bible is just like person; in this case person is God. In getting to know anyone, you don't know them just based on two or three encounters with them. You have to spend time with the person. You have to form a relationship with them, the same with the bible. It sometimes takes months even years to really know someone. The same with you relationship with God, and you way to get to know him is through studying the bible, praying and talking to God. Different people go about their relationship with God in different ways. Some people listen through the preacher. Me personally, whenever I read the bible I ask God to speak to my heart. And I ask him to give me his holy word and tell me he wants me to hear.

Somebody also said in class that the bible is a mirror of you. Some people said that the Ten Commandments made them feel like shit. This made me think about this: True friends, those you can trust despite all, who will always be there for you, those are the ones that know you. They know how to talk to you, and they tell you the truth no matter what. Just like the Ten Commandments. They tell you truth, they make you see that you are sinner and if you want to redemption then you need to repent. They make realize what you need to work on to become a better person. Just like any true friend.

 

 

 

 

 

 

    

Yes or no?!?!?!?

Does your actions reflect your intentions? Or is the primary concern is the intentions? Is what is more important the outcome or the intentions? Is it more Chritstian to think about intentions or consequences?

I think what is more important is the intentions. It is just like when somebody gets you a present, it doesn't matter whether not you like it, it is the thought that counts. Now if the persons intentions were to get you present that you liked… well then they failed.

Why does it matter what you feel? What do your thoughts and feelings matter?

I think one of the problems with our society is that everyone wants to be concrete in everything. We want to have these set rules, to make everything fair. The fact of the matter is that everybody can't be happy at one and everybody can't be satisfied that is just the way it is. It has never been like that and it never will be. I mean all people want order order order, in hopes of making things easier. I am not so sure if being so concrete and in order is the best thing, because it leaves no room for growth. Part of being a human is struggling. It used to struggling to survive and still is. It is just that the conditions of which we have to survive is different. It is only natural for there to be disorder. It is ok. It is ok not to be sure about everything. I hope you understand what I am getting at.

Different frames of faith

Should the Bible be questions? Can the Bible only be looked at through the frame of faith?

If you choose to look at the bible from a frame work other than faith, will that have an effect on your faith? Will it automatically make you question you faith if you choose to look at it from a different lens?

• Different frameworks conflict so it is difficult for people to look at it from different prospective even if it may be good. It is threatening and challenging to question the bible in other lights.
  
• "You shouldn't even question the bible… just like you don't question you parents"
  
  • When I was young, I never really questioned on challenged my parents. I was being taught and given a foundation to live by. However, as I got older, I began to want my independence and question and challenge theme more often. It almost feel like I have a moral obligation now, to teach my mother. The same goes for the bible, when you are young, you don't have the capacity or ability to question or challenge the bible, but as you get older, you learn more, you are exposed to more, you are challenged by it or it challenges you. That is why I am ok with challenging the bible, not "God's word", but the bible. To find the true meaning of it. The only thing constant in the world is change.
    
• The problem is we have the tendency to minimize conflict and what that does is screen stuff out.

Just notes

ISorry Guys, I have been slacking on the blog entries. But just to let you know, I have had the intention to write on the blog it just never gets to the computer, so the next couple of entries will just be notes that I have taken after/ during class or during the reading.

 

• How do you read a major text like this?
  
• The bible is so far and foreign and ancient, but it has so much authority.
  
• What was it like reading this?
  
  • It makes people question (as a Christian ) and or go back into depth
    
• God justifies everything he does all the time/ or prepares us (aside from the historical inaccuracies )
  
  • The Flood
    
  • The War on Iraq
    
  • Hurricane Katrina
    
• The church says what is right and wrong and now here we are questioning that
  
• Religion/ faith is more need than want, You need faith
  
• Some people in class said the same thing I think, I am ok with someone who believes in something, but I don't understand someone who doesn't believe in anything at all.
  
• Someone said "The bible doesn't really have any context but the meaning is something we find"
  
• "To read the bible is to look in the mirror"
  
• The bible can justify everything that is going on right now. "It can be just as bad as good if you interpret it that way"… I am not sure if I agree with that.
  
• Can you separate what God wanted and the societies that produced it?
  
  • For example, from a feminist point of view. Is the question of if God is really a man? Some can argue that God is a man because we have and always have lived in a male dominate society therefore having God be a man further perpetuates this males supremacy.

CIE DD IS DA SHIT!

This may seem like a really dumb blog post, not worthy of being noted… but guess what? ITS NOT. It is worthy to say that our class is the bomb. I really like the dynamics of our class. It reminds me that I am not in high school anymore. I have had more deep conversations since I have been here than I have had throughout my entire high school career, in fact, life. It makes me really love college in the classroom and outside the class room. I feel like I can make connections with people on so many levels. I feel…. In place. You can't just talk about the you philosophies about the bible or about the deeper meaning behind Gilgamesh, just anywhere( No seriously….who goes out and says.. I am going to go get that book Gilgamesh…nobody!) I feel comfortable going up to people,( even under the influence… I didn't say what influence ;D) and just have a deep conversation. People would think I was crazy. But here I can do that and I love it. What makes our class special is not that we have so many different viewpoints in the class, because I sure that is how most classes are. But I get the sense that

1. We all wanna learn something… we all find it intiging hearing out people's view points.

2. I feel as though we respect other people's viewpoints, even if we don't always agree, we respect it.

3. We have a kool ass teacher, who is just down. I mean he is not a slacker, but he is not all uptight trying to make us do everything. I think it is safe to say that we all respect him for that. He wants us to learn, but have fun with it too.

 

But one thing I do think is important to say, and I think we touched on this in class. It is all good to respect people's thought and everything, but don't be afraid to challenge people. When you challenge and question people, not only do you grow, but they grow from it too. It helps make your ideas and thoughts stronger.

But keep up the ambiance in the class. I dig it!

Yall thought I was playing when I said I was going to write a blog about this. Nope …. Not I.

Well, I can't wait to see yall in class Friday.

Interpretation

When discussing the story if Abraham's sacrifice of his son to God. The question was brought to the table, what is the lesson being taught in this story, what do we take from this story. I found it interesting the different ways that people interpreted. Some people say, and what is general taught from a religious point of view is that, We are supposed to fear God and faith in him. God was testing his faith and fear in him. Through Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his only so by his wife, he demonstrates all faith and trust in God. What another person took from this story is that God is "fickle" and "childish." They thought of it as showing that God is terrible for basically torturing Abraham and putting him through such a thing. I am not trying to discuss which interpretation is correct. I am just using this as an example to show that there are so many different ways that the texts that our society is founded on can be interpreted. People always want to say what is right and what is wrong, but who is to say that? Nobody really knows. You will find that many Christians do this. We hear what the preacher says and we take what he say as the word of God rather than looking for ourselves what the God is trying to say.

The story of Ham and the decedents of Ham, Canaan were curses and to be slaves. Can you believe that this was the text that was used to justify slavery? Homosexuality is not really accepted in most if not all denominations of Christianity. Some churches justify this through the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. Can you believe that? I don't see the correlation. Often time one story can be interpreted in multiple ways. But what we do is we force ourselves to take a single view and to believe in only one thing. I don't know where I am really going with this. I guess I am just very aware and interested in how different interpretations mold our values and our actions.

This leads me to think about what the time frame has to do with the interpretations of texts. For example, many people mentioned the role of women in the bible as incubators, and the ones to blame for sin. I think that it is interpreted like this is because of women's actual role in society at the time. There was a need for justification of why women were below men at the time ( and still are). So they used religion as a vehicle to justify this and they interpreted the bible to cast down women to mere incubators!

Again I am not sure where I am going with this but I hope you understand what I am talking about.