So we just finished studying the Old Testament in Intro to Scriptures, and I have come to a significant realization. I'm sure other people have already figured this out, perhaps I'm way behind the times here. Until very recently I was not all that big on reading, so when I did decide, on occasion, to pick up the BIble and read it I never went to the Old Testament. But now with my new found love of reading (and making good grades in my class) I have read through a lot of the Old Testament, and not just skipping around from chapter to chapter but starting in Genesis and ending in Malachi.

Now I don't know about you but I always had the impression growing up that there were in essence 2 different Gods. The "Old Testament God" and the "New Testament God". This God of the OT was full of wrath, judgment, fire and brimstone if you will, as opposed to the NT God who was full of grace, love, mercy, I mean he sent his one and only Son to die on a cross for us. In my mind these two views of God were so separate that I felt bad for my Jewish friends because they did not know how loving and caring God could actually be...boy was I wrong.

Just read the OT straight through, seriously try it, and see what your view of the God of the Old Testament is then. Now sure, God has his intense moments in these books: sending the Israelites to kill entire nations of people, coming in the night to kill Moses, I mean he even wiped out the entire Earth except for Noah, his family, and the animals. But look past that, what do you see? The Old Testament is about a God who yearns for his chosen people to follow him. He makes covenant after covenant with them, renewing them over and over again, and the Israelites take it for granted. He sends prophets, raises up judges, and delivers them from their oppressors, and what do they do? They worship other gods, make idols, pursue all types of immorality. Eventually they are oppressed by their enemies and then, finally, they come running back to God, begging for him to deliver them....over and over again, a never ending downward spiral. After reading Judges I was surprised God didn't give up on us right then (note to self: re-read the story of Samson...apparently not such a hero after all). But not only did he not give up, he gave the Israelites what they wanted, a monarchy.

Now I'm not sure that it was ever explicitly described to me that "the God of the Old Testament is very different than the God of the New Testament", but that's the view I apparently held as truth through my sunday school education. Let's fix this. Let's teach our children in the faith that God has been yearning for us since the creation, that God has been there the entire way trying to catch our attention and it was us who constantly turned away. That the God of the Old Testament was just as loving, caring, and merciful as the God of the New Testament. In fact let's not refer to him in these contrasting ways at all, let's get rid of the phrase "The God of the Old or New Testament." Let's teach the story of the Old Testament as it is read from Genesis through Malachi; the story of a God who loved his people so much that he picked them up every time they fell down, welcomed them with open arms whenever they came running back to him, and continues, to this day, to desire for himself to be the one we worship and adore.

This week I have two midterms on Tuesday (Intro to Scriptures and Intro to theology) and then an Ethics paper due for my social work class on Wednesday. I've spent all day in the library and actually got a lot of work done. I've decided to stay up late tonight and Sunday night so that I can get everything done by a reasonable time on Monday in order get a good night sleep before my tests.

It has been a lot easier to study in grad-school than in undergrad. I feel like I've really been soaking up the material as the weeks have gone by, so instead of learning all new material before the test, I'm just reviewing, it's so nice!

After this crazy week Steven and I are going up to visit our good friends Amber and Ryan Hatch in Stillwater OK and are going to the Baylor OSU game. I absolutely love our trips up to Oklahoma (we try to go at least once a year). It is always nice to put school and work on hold and slip away for a good time with friends...and hopefully nice fall weather! Plus it's nice to have something to look forward to while I'm studying non-stop for tests!

Alright, time to hit the books until I can't keep my eyes open anymore...


Oh one last thing. Here are a few pictures from TCU parents weekend this past week. I love my family!

By far my new favorite picture of Mom and I. We look so pretty...humble I know...


I can't believe how old we are getting. This was at dinner for Lizzie's 19th birthday!


Bubs and me! You know you have a good brother when he doesn't mind taking impromptu pictures with you.

...to a stress free week. Get all your reading done for class over the weekend!

Now granted this does not leave a lot of time for fun, spur-of-the-moment activities, but come Monday you will be feeling pretty good about yourself.

Alright, now it's time to go study for my test on Thursday.

...on second thought maybe this week wont be completely stress free...

...and I've only learned one thing.  I think perhaps Augustine said it best,

Ok so I'm sorry if i've held any of you in suspense about when my next post would be (as far as I know my mom's the only one who has really suffered) but I don't think I had any clue about how busy I was going to be! 

Seminary is fantastic!  I love my classes, love my professors, and love the new friends I have been making.  My main concern before classes was that since I wasn't a religion major I was going to be so far behind a lot of the people in the class.  Luckily it seems that the intro classes I'm taking all share one major goal, to make everyone realize that they don't really know anything about the Bible, church history, and even aspects of God.  

So far I have been pushed to take sides on several of the main theological debates and write short papers on them such as, the inerrancy of the Bible and God's omniscience.  Now we haven't signed these in blood so obviously we can change our mind...and I inevitably do after we discuss them in class...but writing these papers has been very challenging.  I tend to take the "middle road" approach on controversial issues, not really taking one side or the other but picking and choosing from both, and here the professors wont let me.  It's been a great learning experience.  

Check out this website, www.theraveproject.com  Yesterday we had Nancy Clark, the founder of the corporation come into our Social Work class and discuss domestic violence.  Through her studies she has shown that a lot of church ministers have expressed that they don't feel educated on the issues of domestic violence.  This website gives a lot of information about it; shelters in your community, prayers to use with someone who is a victim, scripture references that can help if someone approaches you about domestic violence, sermon outlines, etc.  Look through it and pass it on to your friends and pastor!  Right now the foundation has received a 5 year grant to see if they can get their program up and running on its own. 

I hope you are all doing well!  Hopefully now that I'm starting to find a "groove" with my schedule I can post on here more often.  (that will probably help future posts not be as long as this one!!)

Lastly here is a pic of me and my best friend Caroline SMILEY! she just got married this past weekend, I'm so excited for her and Brian!