psalms here I come

Okay... 1 and 2 Samuel are done and done... and I have a whole weekend off (Saturday AND Sunday!) Psalms is next week, and from what I hear, the assignment is a lot more creative and a lot less work academically - no essays or charting!!! I love the essays and charting, actually, but this will be a nice break from the side of my brain I don't use quite as naturally.

The weather is changing, and I am (hopefully) getting over a cold, which I've had for a week or so... and I'm helping to put together a "Come as you are not" party tomorrow night for our class. I love parties, and we even get a bit of a budget this time to go shopping for decorations, so you never know what will happen!!!

Missing home a bit, as the leaves are not changing colors here. But... I'm loving the cold fall breezes here... and experiencing dry cold. Very different from Washington or the Tropics for that matter! I got a package from my church and have thoroughly enjoyed the snacks and goodies they sent me!

I would update about everything I learned in Samuel, but my brain is a little dead, so perhaps another time. I might start posting notes on Facebook that are some of my book essays or applications that I don't mind sharing... we'll see!

Love to all from Sunny but Chilly Southern California,

Jillian

Joshua Judges Ruth

Okay, so I'm not the best at updating. What can I say? On my one day of rest, its not the priority on my list usually. But I've got a few minutes before I go to sleep, so I thought I'd give an update to let you all know I'm alive and kicking. Even if I'm not kicking as much as normal!

A few highlights... lets just say reading the bible in the order it was written in makes such a difference. I am realizing more and more of God's goodness in the Old Testament with each book, even Judges! We've studied Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus & Numbers (After which, we went camping in the Wilderness of Joshua Tree National Park and reenacted the stories of the Exodus and hopefully the video will be available soon... its hilarious!), Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, and Ruth. This week we are also doing 1 and 2 Samuel.

But I'll just share on what's freshest in my mind.

Before, I think I read a few stories in Judges, or read the whole book and thought, "What in the world??? Did that really get written???" Because the Israelites kept turning away and turning away. But the Lord really changed my view of this book by one verse that stood out to me... Now the reference eludes me, but the text says, "And the Lord could no longer bear to see them suffer..." It was in reference to the 5th major cycle of the judges, where the Israelites sinned, were oppressed by another nation, then cried out to God, and he delivered them... I understood that it was no longer a book about a bunch of idiots that couldn't figure it out and just follow God... it is a book about a God who hears His children when they cry out to Him and delivers them from their suffering. And if the Israelites were a bunch of idiots, anyway... than what does that make me?

Ruth was great, a bit of a positive story to bring some light to the depressing mood of the Judges time period. It also was amazing to see the story's original purpose was so much more than just a story of a girl getting some threshing-floor lovin'. God's heart was for Israel to be a blessing to the nations, but in the time of the Judges, they weren't exactly being that... so Ruth (like her 2nd husband's mother, Rahab - yeah, Rahab the prostitute from Jericho!) was a Moabite woman (which, do you know how Moab became a people? Its a pretty gnarly story.) And, leaving all behind - her gods, her family, her homeland, she follows her mother-in-law to a land that was rather hostile to foreigners, declaring faith in the God of her mother-in-law, the God of Israel. So, do you see it? Ruth (the nations) is a blessing to Israel because from her obedience and loyalty to her mother-in-law, King David ends up coming from her family line. Bet it made the people in Bethlehem of Judah feel pretty humbled that this foreign woman understood and obeyed their law better than they did! Ruth was amazing. But Naomi, the bitter mother-in-law, wasn't so bad herself. I could understand Naomi so much better in the light of grief and pain. She had lost her husband and both of her sons... but she acknowledged God throughout the story. She may have been bitter, but the Lord restored joy to her life and she recognized it!!!

I could go on forever about any number of these stories, but alas, I must be up early for breakfast prep and its already nearing midnight. Blessings to you all, and enjoy a few photos of me and my classmates at a birthday party I hosted for Eyd (pronounced like the letter A) from the Faroe Islands, and also from the Wilderness Adventure (the scene is the parting of the red sea, and I am playing the Angel of the Lord.)

Numbers and My Classmates

Well, Numbers... I could write a book about this book. Lamentations was awesome, too, by the way. However, I'm going to sum up both of these books with verses I thought were key. However, I'd like to preface this that, these verses DO NOT MAKE SENSE if you don't read the whole book, and if you haven't read the books previous (Genesis and Exodus.) You might THINK they make sense, but we must remember not to miss what God was teaching the Israelites in the Wilderness with these books, before we skip to how it applies to us today... this will make our application much more accurate, AND much more specific. Not to mention, when we understand even a glimpse of what the Israelites had to do to atone for sin, it makes what Jesus did for us just that much more AMAZING!!! Okay, so key verses, here you go:

Lamentations 11:44-45: "For I am the LORD your God; sanctify yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. You shall not defile yourselves..... For I am the LORD who brought you up from the land of Egypt to be your God; you shall be holy, for I am holy."

For Numbers, its hard to sum up, because there is SO MUCH GOOD STUFF... but I'll pick this verse, from Joshua and Caleb, Numbers 14:9"Only, do not rebel against the LORD; and do not fear the people of the land, for they are no more than bread for us; their protection is removed from them, and the LORD is with us; do not fear them."

I encourage you to read these books.... God is teaching me so much through the book of the Law!!!

Okay.... so classmates....

There are 25 students and 6 staff from 11 countries and ranging in age from 19 - 40-something!
Of course, being in the USA, we have a variety of Americans with a variety of accents (Ange from Kentucky has my favorite, with AnnMarie from the Bronx, NY in a close second!) Then we also have Korean, Korean-American, Chinese-American, African-American, Nigerian, South African, Norwegian, Swedish, British, Faroese, Canadian, French-Swiss, and German. QUITE THE MIX. Here's a photo of our crew from the first week.



Anyway, I better get back to my homework.... I pray you are inspired to dive into God's Word, because it is SO AMAZING!!! Thanks for everyone's prayers, too! It means a lot to me!

p.s. Before I forget, my friends in YWAM Australia have created a website to help with Samoa's rebuilding ahead of them. Its through a branch of YWAM called ARMS (Australian Relief and Mercy Services.) If you want to see how you could be involved in the long-term redevelopment of an entire nation, check out this website: www.samoaroadtorecovery.org

What am I doing?

Okay, Just in case you're wondering what's keeping me so busy that I haven't been faithfully updating, I thought I would explain what my weeks entail, and a bit of the inductive study method.

Yesterday was my "Sabbath" day of rest which typically includes church (haven't picked a home one yet, but most of my fellow students enjoy Ecclesia in Hollywood and so at least I can get a ride to that one.) And then something else restful, whether a nap or painting my toenails!

Sunday night, I start my first reading - this means I read through the entire book in one sitting, yesterday was Leviticus, and this week we're doing two books, so Numbers will be on Wednesday.
THEN, I go back through the book and create titles for each paragraph, made up of 4 words from the text of that paragraph in order. Leviticus has 27 chapters (less than Genesis and Exodus, thank you, Jesus!) So that's only a few hundred I think.
Monday Morning, I head up the Breakfast Prep and Cleanup Crew. We get to the Kitchen at 6am, serve at 7am, then are done with cleanup by 8am. I also do this on Wednesday and Friday Mornings... Our Breakfast Crew also is America's next Dance Crew... Or at least we'd like to think we are. Then we rush to the main hall for Worship and Prayer. Monday mornings are nice because we have free time after worship until Lunch, and then class starts at 1:30, at which point, I usually need a big cup of coffee.
This week we have Ron Youngblood, the Editor of the Nelson Bible Dictionary, speaking on the books of Leviticus and Numbers... I'm excited to hear more about WHY the Israelites had so many different sacrifices and sin offerings for things like giving birth or periods... Its kind of funny reading in mixed groups about various... discharges... I love the Bible! Hahaha... No, really, I do!

Okay, so Monday-Saturday Night at 7pm we are busy with homework outside of our lectures.

First, its creating a BRI - Basic Required Information for the book. This is information we research from internal and external evidence about the Original Reader, the Author, the Historical and Cultural Background, etc....We put this into a paper we turn in on Saturday with our Charts.

Then, its Charting the book - this is a process of color coding observations we make in our bible (28 different types of obs from conditional statements to lists, repeated themes to figures of speech...), then we create 2-4 paragraph points for each paragraph (in addition to the titles) that use only words from the text to sum up the paragraph and also, we color code our observations in these points, and write out a description for the observation to the left of our chart. Then, when an Observation triggers a question, we ask an Interpretive Question, such as, "Why is this event/law/whatever it is significant to the Original Reader? Then we answer the question based on what we assume about the Original Reader from our earlier research for the BRI. That process is called Interpretation and has nothing to do with me or us. From our Interpretation, we pull out a Timeless Truth - something that is true for all believers for all times, still not about me. From our Timeless Truth, THEN WE GET TO ME!!! This is the Application where I write about how this timeless truth can be applied in my life today, or in the life of my church, my society, etc. This is the Charting Process, which takes up the majority of our time.

In addition to Charting, we have other assignments. Last week, as we studied Exodus, we wrote a paper on 3 of the laws outside of the Ten Commandments and their significance (from Chapters 21-23.) We also painted something that symbolized the chapters on the construction and laws regarding the Tabernacle.

Oh man, its lunch time, I better get going... but hopefully this gives you all an idea of why I haven't been the best at calling home to chat!!!

I'll write more later about my roommates and classmates and staff, they are LEGENDS!

Blessings!