So it’s been a few days. Wanted to let everyone know that I survived Hurricane Ivan. It didn’t hit Tallahassee too hard. He had some pretty strong winds and scattered rain, but no damage or flooding or anything like that. School was canceled on Thursday as a precaution, so that was cool.
The week that was. I managed to make it through my Christian Apologist class. I feel very unintelligent in that class. Everyone knows all this stuff about Hellenism and Stoicism and Platonism and Whateverelseism and I just don’t know anything about that stuff. The whole class is based on participation but every time I participate I show the whole class just how little I know. I like the topics, but don’t like my lack of outside knowledge.
I’ve got a little story from Wednesday (if you’re not into little stories, and you know who you are, skip to the next paragraph). First of all, on Tuesday I had an A-Team meeting in the SSB. I left my Nalgene bottle in the conference room we were in, so on Wednesday I went back for it. I tried to just walk into the room and grab it but the door was locked. Through the window I can see the thing. So I go to the front desk. The girl there doesn’t have the keys to the room, but says the girl who does will be back soon. Right before my next class I try to get it again. This time I look in the room and the bottle is gone, so I figure the girl went in and picked it up for me. I ask if she’s there. The dude there says that she’d been back but was gone again, and that her office was locked so he couldn’t check to see if she’d picked it up. Alright, well I’ll try again after class. I get back and finally she’s there. I ask if she’s got it. She says that between the first and second time I went to ask the janitor cleaned the room and threw it away! What?! Come on, I know it doesn’t take much of an education to be a janitor, but does a Nalgene look disposable? Wouldn’t even occur to him that someone left it there? I told her it was okay, and that’s the truth. It’s just stuff, though I was a little annoyed.
Okay, enough of my whining. Like I said, there was no school on Thursday. I went out to lunch with Andy, Allen, and some more of Allen’s friends to “celebrate” the occasion. I met with Dave Wirgau for more than two hours after that, which was more than awesome. We did have Navs that night, though my Bible study only had two other guys show up because of the weather. It did make it easier to lead, and it made it so that we could all share more, but I will like it better next week when we’re all back together again.
I’m about to get teachy preachy, just to warn you.
Here’s a bit from my meeting with Dave. We took a look at Genesis 4, which is the story of Cain killing Abel. Right after the murder God says to Cain in verse 10, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground. Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your bother’s blood from your hand.” Cain says that the punishment is too much for him to bear, so God promises him that if anyone kills Cain that person will suffer seven times over. A little later on in the chapter, one of Cain’s descendents named Lamech says, “If Cain is avenged seven times, then Lamech seventy-seven time.” This basically means that the vengeance will be more than is imaginable.
Does that seven times versus seventy seven times thing sound familiar? It should if you’ve read Matthew 18. In verses 21 and 22 it says: “Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, ‘Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?’ Jesus answered, ‘I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.’” Again this is exaggeration, but this time meant to convey that there is no limit to how much you should forgive others. Historians will tell you that the book of Matthew was written to Jews, and written in such a way so that it resembled the Torah in structure (i.e. it has five parts, Jesus is depicted as the new Moses, etc.). So for that audience this would have been very significant. I love how Jesus answers Peter in a way that not only will he understand but that will be meaningful to him.
So now you have to turn to Hebrews 12:22-24 for this next bit. “But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.” Take a look especially at that last line. You have to ask yourself what Abel’s blood was speaking. What do most murders cry out for? I would say justice and vengeance. But now you have Jesus’ blood crying out something so much better: mercy and forgiveness.
I’m not really sure why I put that in my blog, and I’m not sure if I explained everything I needed to explain. I hope someone who reads this gets something out of it. Maybe you can tell me if you do.
