Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Decisions

In a Sunday school class I'm teaching we have started a study called "Decisions." We are looking at different people in the Bible and the decisions they were faced with what happened and why.

The first week we looked at Adam and Eve in Genesis 3. It sparked a pretty interesting discussion. With a story like Adam and Eve its easy to bring our preconceived notions to the text. The first question I asked is what do we know about the serpent. Someone immediately answered that its Satan. And I asked, from just this story, how do you know that? They knew what I was getting at, its not clear just from reading Genesis 3 that the serpent is Satan. Its something that we know based on the unity of the scriptures, but its not something we know from that particular text alone. What we do know is that the serpent was crafty. We also know that this particular serpent was somehow different from all the other animals because its the only one we have a record of that spoke. I wonder how eve reacted to a talking serpent?

Anway, this is just to say that when you read or study the bible, try to remove the preconceived notions you have and look at the text in its context. Once you ask about what the text meant to the original author and audience, then, you can ask what the significance is for your life based on a correct understanding about it in its correct context.

Monday, October 6, 2008

New Shoes

Over the weekend I got two new pairs of shoes....and their hip. This is a huge deal for me. I don't think I've bought new shoes in 8 years...literally. The last pair of shoes I bought were the cheapest black shoes I could find and they were for a catering job. I've worn those shoes same black shoes for like 8 years.

I felt so good Sunday wearing a new and hip pair of shoes. Its amazing how much better I felt about myself. Maybe image isn't everything, but it sure means something. I'm hoping to get a hip haircut and some hip clothes to go with my hip shoes soon.

I could spiritualize this whole image thing and say that the book of Genesis tells us we are created in the image of God and that the book of Romans tells us to conform to the image of Christ. Whoops, I think I just spiritualized it.