Holy Bible, Batman! I can't believe it's already been a month... time has passed so quickly. And not necessarily because I've been having fun as much as I've been buried in the Book so far I can barely crawl out for air- meant in the best possible way. I'm totally loving SBS- the workload is a lot um... heavier than I have ever in my life experienced, but that is all part of this new experience! It is so great to be back in Taiwan, to be settled in my apartment with five great roommates, to have running water...
There have been a few periods of adjustment for us, our apartment being new there were some problems with the water for the first couple weeks, but after about the 80th time the neighbors from downstairs came up to cuss me out because their ceiling was leaking, all the leaks have been repaired and we have hot running water for showers now, which you never really appreciate until you haven't gotten a shower for over a week.
So far we have turned in Titus, Galatians, Ephesians, and Mark. We are using the inductive method to study the bible, which involves a minimum of five reads of each book. We first read the book aloud, then go through and color code the text according to 28 observation questions. After we color code, we re-read the text and pick out the main idea of each paragraph (called paragraph titles) and summarize it in four words or less that come directly from the text. Next, we write a few page history detailing the goings on in the world at the time the book was written so we can observe the Bible and chart it out as it was originally intended for the reader. After that, we make a horizontal outline of the book using our paragraph titles by picking out the key verse from the book, the one verse that sums up the whole book, then creating a title for the book, then creating points of main division in the book and titling them, then making smaller divisions and titling them. From the horizontal charts we can then make vertical charts which allow us to expand on the paragraph titles we had previously chosen and color code them according to what we observed in the second read through. From that, we can get more detailed in our observation, expanding on certain observations fro
m the perspective of the Original Reader and what the text would have meant for them and why it was important. After each observation we usually pick out some timeless truth about God that we can see illustrated in the text and write about how we can apply that to our lives. All of this gets put into our final application of the book which summarizes what we learned and what it means for us as Christians today. WHEW! I'm tired even thinking about all this (now imagine doing it for all 66 books of the Bible... in nine months...)
My two favorite parts are the color coding and the BRI (background info)... I think God knew there had to be some way he was going to keep me entertained, so he threw in the coloring for my artistic side, and... unbeknownst to me until a few weeks ago, God had been preparing me for SBS long before I ever would have considered it- through the computer game (with which I was obsessed through most of my childhood) Age of Empires, which put a very special love in my heart for the time period in which the Bible was written. As we're doing the BRI, I'm like, oh yeah him! and woah!! I remember imagining all about this place when I was a kid! and yeah! I bought silver from those people! Thanks, Ensemble Studios!
And though it's terribly hard for me to sit still, I've so enjoyed the lectures, especially those of Scott Contival and Don Gillman teaching Ephesians and Mark, respectively. Some things that have really stuck with me are "am I being a good steward with the gifts God has given me (especially the Gospel, God's greatest gift), or am I being selfish and letting excuses control my life?" and "you are never fully alive until you're already in a freefall with nothing left to grasp onto except for Jesus."
Family night continues to be a success, last week we had 33 people, a record both for family night and number of people I've ever cooked for in my life. Also, there's been a new addition to my family of pets, I have a baby turtle named Master Wu Gui who lives on my desk and helps distract me from my studies with his cuteness.
Well, my color code on Luke is calling my name, so I'll have to go for now, but please stay tuned for more, and your prayers for focus, direction and finances are always greatly appreciated. If you want to contact me with prayer requests of your own or just want to keep in touch, please send me an email, I love hearing from friends!
