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| Reading the Bible out loud in class |
If you have never read either of those books (which I strongly recommend) heres a brief overview:
Philemon is a letter that Paul wrote in the hopes of bringing reconciliation between a slave owner (Philemon) and a runaway slave (Onesimus). In that, its themes are repentance and forgiveness.
Titus, which I have renamed to "Living Life for Dummies, the Manual," is a detailed letter from Paul to Titus about how to instruct the church and rise up more leaders (elders) in Crete. This was a big task in light of the rowdy society that Titus was trying to disciple and so the boundaries and actions for believers to live out are very clearly outlined in the text so that they could be noticeably set apart from the rest of their Pegan society.
This week, especially while doing interpretation on Titus, God was giving me continual revelations!! The book of Titus holds the keys to several practical tools for living out good doctrine, leading, and equipping others.
The biggest revelation I am taking away from this week is that "the reality of God's grace causes responses of humility. I was bewildered and horrified at the realization that I have been taking the amazing gift and reality of God’s saving grace so lightly in my heart and mind. I now want to spend time just meditating on the meaning and being in awe of God’s grace, so that the true meaning of it would be embedded in my heart and cause me to operate and live my life out of a place of utter humility and gratitude towards/ for God.
Overall I am loving this course more and more as God's word is becoming alive to me.
Blessings xo
Liz
Mmm, yes... the doctrine of grace is so incredibly powerful, isn't it? The more we think and dwell it, the more it provokes humility within us. It's something I've been learning over and over again in the last few years... I think it's one of those life-long things.
ReplyDeleteThat is one of the most beautiful things I have found about John Calvin; regardless of what you believe about certain things, Calvin ultimately gave us a doctrine which called for total reliance on God... we owe absolutely everything to God because of His grace. If not for His grace we would never have known Him, let alone accomplish all that we have and will through Him.
Keep at it, Liz! I'm sad we haven't been able to hang out much and stuff... I leave Monday for good :(.