33 down....

Oh, and Judges was the halfway mark...33 books down, 33 to go!!!

A funny thing happened while studying Judges...

I know, that title sounds ridiculous. Judges was not one of the books I was looking forward to studying when I decided to do this school. You know, I thought Hebrews, John, Isaiah, Genesis might be cool, but not Judges!
Some weird stuff happens in Judges. The famous stories of Gideon, Samson, and Deborah are in this book, but it also has the story of the Levite who chops up his concubine and the guy who offers his daughter as a burnt offering to God. It’s certainly an interesting book.
But I realized something in the midst of doing my Judges homework. In the past, I have always approached the Old Testament accusingly. God acts so strange and it’s so hard to understand why He does what He does in there. I’ve learned to separate the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New. He has always seemed to be so different, like he underwent a personality exchange sometime after Malachi. I’ve heard so many of these OT stories over and over again and I’ve never been able to reconcile this strange God of laws and judgment with the God of love who sent Jesus to save us and draw us near (which is probably why I’ve never liked Revelation much either). I guess I’ve always just been a bit angry at God when I read the stories of the OT.
In SBS, we have to draw up charts and analyze the scripture paragraph by paragraph. We observe and examine what it says first, then move on to interpretation – lots of why questions and figuring out what it might have meant to the original readers, and then move on to timeless truths and personal application.
I realized sometime around my 12th or 13th chart that I was seeing the same timeless truth in Judges over and over again – God is constant. He is faithful. He doesn’t change. That forced me to think. If God doesn’t change, then He is the same God who sent Jesus as He was in the OT.
As I processed this, I began to see the subtle change that is coming over me and my view of God. I’ve been amazed to see His love in the Old testament, His heart for His people, His faithfulness, His goodness. I am in awe of Him. I don’t understand everything He does in the Old Testament. Not even close. But I’ve started to let go of my right to understand it all. God is God. To quote one of our SBS teachers “God is the good guy”. Even when He doesn’t seem like it, He is the good guy. He is the hero of even these OT books.
There have been many times, even in books like Numbers and Joshua, where I have had to stop and silently worship this amazing God. How unspeakably awe-inspiring He is and how amazed I am that He loves me. What more can I say? Thank you, Lord.

Coming up on halfway...

SBS is rolling quite along. A few weeks ago we finished the New Testament and I was sad so say goodbye, actually. It was a lot of work, but it's just amazing how rich those books are. I especially enjoyed John, 1 Corinthians, Galatians, and Hebrews. I think the thing that God was speaking to me over and over throughout the study of the New Testament was His incredible wisdom, which I needed to be hearing a lot about considering the big changes coming up in our lives (more about that in a later blog....and no, it's not that I'm pregnant). I was just amazed over and over at the awesomeness of His plans.
On a less deep note, my class has undergone quite a few changes. We've been bleeding guys...in other words, we started with six guys and now we're down to two from that. Visa problems, plans changing, and sickness in the family were to blame for all of them leaving, but now it's 13 girls against 3 guys (one guy joined in the 2nd quarter). But hey, that's the way it is in missions :)
We had a New Testament party after finishing Revelation, and everyone had to dress up as something or someone from the New Testament. Here's a picture of Torben and I dressed up as the five loaves and two fish :)



And now we have started in on the Old Testament. I just finished up my work on Numbers. I've actually enjoyed Leviticus and Numbers much more than I thought I would. Like most people, I have only skimmed them at best in the past. Deuteronomy starts on Monday and in a week or two, we will have passed the halfway mark. It's going so fast! I'm determined to enjoy this time to the max because I know this opportunity to just focus on digging in to the Bible full time won't come again. I am so grateful for this time.