Well the week of lasts turned into exams, graduation, & then packing. The latter of these continues with this being our last day in Sydney!!
People keep asking what our Sydney highlight has been. This is easily answered with "Bible College and learning about God every day." But otherwise it is very hard to pin down what we have loved about the place Sydney. What we have hated about Sydney is a lot easier: The traffic...the roads...the weather.
Its quite cliche but I'm guessing we wont know what we really love about the place until we are no longer here. Well not long to wait for that now. We hit the homeland in just 5 days!!
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Monday, October 31, 2011
Lasts
This week is very much a week of lasts. Last chapel, last church history lecture, last time of lining up for food, and so on.
The funny thing is you would think that finishing up would give us some confidence in what we have learnt. But if anything college has shown me that I am a mere human, and don’t know much, and never will!! So the feeling of inadequacy is definitely there at the moment.
But there are also lots of other strange feelings. Like the fact that we realise we are really going to miss the strange place that is Bible college.
We are going to miss the three sermons a week we are privileged to hear. We are going to miss the constant learning about the Bible. We are going to miss eating our meals with 100 other people.
This has lead to this week of lasts being a rather emotional week, and not just cause exams are just around the corner!
The funny thing is you would think that finishing up would give us some confidence in what we have learnt. But if anything college has shown me that I am a mere human, and don’t know much, and never will!! So the feeling of inadequacy is definitely there at the moment.
But there are also lots of other strange feelings. Like the fact that we realise we are really going to miss the strange place that is Bible college.
We are going to miss the three sermons a week we are privileged to hear. We are going to miss the constant learning about the Bible. We are going to miss eating our meals with 100 other people.
This has lead to this week of lasts being a rather emotional week, and not just cause exams are just around the corner!
Monday, October 10, 2011
Holidays...
So we just spent our 2 weeks of holidays at home hanging around. Here is a bit of a snapshot of what we did:
- Thought through decisions about next year...which resulted in the booking of the boat!
- Visited different parts of
- Read Jane Eyre & reflected on the loss of the English language in today’s society...which resulted in many conversations in old English.
- Watched lots of the West Wing...which resulted in me thinking that I was receiving all the up to date news.
- Surfed the internet, cause it was actually working...which resulted in many ebay bidding wars.
- Went shopping for clothes...which resulted in many fustrating hours spent, & nothing bought.
- Marty went on some fishing trips... which resulted in once again being disappointed by the lack of fish in NSW.
Friday, September 23, 2011
Cookies farewell
Today is a rather sad day for SMBC. After 26 years, the Cooks are leaving. David has served as the principal of SMBC for that whole time! That is kind of incomprehensible to us, because we haven’t even been alive for that long!
Just thinking about the fact that they have faithfully served God that whole time and maintained the centrality of the Bible to the college is an awesome thing. While others around them may have pushed for other things, they have kept the main thing, the main thing. This is just a huge testament of perseverance to us.
Yet, it also shows that Gods word withstands time. It is just as relevant 26 years ago as it is today and it still needs to be kept central for the next 26 years.
Just thinking about the fact that they have faithfully served God that whole time and maintained the centrality of the Bible to the college is an awesome thing. While others around them may have pushed for other things, they have kept the main thing, the main thing. This is just a huge testament of perseverance to us.
Yet, it also shows that Gods word withstands time. It is just as relevant 26 years ago as it is today and it still needs to be kept central for the next 26 years.
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Cake theology
I think I have a new fav book: A Meal with Jesus by Tim Chester
Here is a little snippet:
Here is a little snippet:
"Every time you bake a cake, you're fulfilling that creation mandate. Every cake is a reminder of our freedom to create and be creative in the image of the Creator. Every time you place a meal on the table with quiet satisfaction, you're sharing the joy of the Creator at the creation of the world when he declared everything good."
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Job
Whilst going through the book of Job in class, we have been reflecting on the very comforting fact that God is far beyond our wisdom. He is in control of the whole universe. He made it all and sustains it all. This is comforting because there are many things that don’t make sense to us in this world, but it does to God and he is in control.
So, this begs the challenging question in regards to Job, are we ever going to know the reason for our suffering? Or maybe the better question is, should we go and try and find the reason for our suffering?
If someone we know is suffering, so often we try and figure out why it is happening. But maybe the book of Job is showing us that this is not necessarily the best response. Instead, the best response seems to be to admit we dont know why, but God does and thats what matters.
So, this begs the challenging question in regards to Job, are we ever going to know the reason for our suffering? Or maybe the better question is, should we go and try and find the reason for our suffering?
If someone we know is suffering, so often we try and figure out why it is happening. But maybe the book of Job is showing us that this is not necessarily the best response. Instead, the best response seems to be to admit we dont know why, but God does and thats what matters.
Monday, August 8, 2011
Church...
It seems that many churches, and the idea of church, have very much been influenced by individualism and the consumer culture of our society. Church seems to be more about what one can get out of it. So people choose churches based on what suits them best. This is often based on music styles, and demographics.
The sadness of this is that it is not at all what God seems to have intended for church. Being Gods people in very nature gets rid of all selfishness and individualism, so the idea of church should also be nothing like that. Instead Christians should see themselves, and the church they go to, as part of being involved in Gods plans for the earth.
The sadness of this is that it is not at all what God seems to have intended for church. Being Gods people in very nature gets rid of all selfishness and individualism, so the idea of church should also be nothing like that. Instead Christians should see themselves, and the church they go to, as part of being involved in Gods plans for the earth.
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