What was the hardest personal goal you’ve set for yourself?
Bible college for me was a hard goal I set. I had wanted to go from right when I was a new Christian. When I went the first time I do not think I was ready. Years later I did it and found it a lot better, but still very hard.
Why was it so hard? Some people are natural students. They love to read and learn and they seem to ace all the assignments and quizzes. As someone who is not a big reader, I found Bible college really hard for that reason.
The other thing that made it hard was the spiritual change and growth you have. So many times you are challenged by what the Bible says and where you are at. You see that you fall short and you realise that you need to change. That can be hard, really hard.
I am not saying that I did not enjoy Bible college. It was very hard, but I did enjoy it overall. Especially once it was done. I set a goal and I achieved it. Plus I would not have been able to work as a Pastor and a Chaplain if I did not do it.
So what was a hard personal goal I have set? Bible college is one for me.
I am currently reading through the practices of the early church. In my reading I came across a letter by Justin Martyr in 150AD. The section below is taken from his First Apology Chapter 67.
He was writing to explain what Christians did when they met together. In his letter to Roman Emperor Titus Aelius Hadrianus Antoninus Pius, he explains some of the weekly things Christians did.
It is interesting that they did many of the things we still do today. Things like meeting on Sunday, bless the Maker, prayer, reading the writings of the Apostles and Prophets, a teaching exhortation, celebrated Communion, and a collection and distribution to the widows and orphans.
Weekly Worship of the Christians.
And we afterwards continually remind each other of these things. And the wealthy among us help the needy; and we always keep together; and for all things wherewith we are supplied, we bless the Maker of all through His Son Jesus Christ, and through the Holy Ghost. And on the day called Sunday,76 all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things. Then we all rise together and pray, and, as we before said, when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought, and the president in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings, according to his ability,77 and the people assent, saying Amen; and there is a distribution to each, and a participation of that over which thanks have been given,78 and to those who are absent a portion is sent by the deacons. And they who are well to do, and willing, give what each thinks fit; and what is collected is deposited with the president, who succours the orphans and widows and those who, through sickness or any other cause, are in want, and those who are in bonds and the strangers sojourning among us, and in a word takes care of all who are in need. But Sunday is the day on which we all hold our common assembly, because it is the first day on which God, having wrought a change in the darkness and matter, made the world; and Jesus Christ our Saviour on the same day rose from the dead. For He was crucified on the day before that of Saturn (Saturday); and on the day after that of Saturn, which is the day of the Sun, having appeared to His apostles and disciples, He taught them these things, which we have submitted to you also for your consideration.
Over the years I have done a lot of Bible study and reading to learn and grow in my faith. Reading the Bible, the early church fathers and various church catechisms are really helpful to help you know what you believe.
One thing that has really helped me to understand what Catholics believe (as a Protestant) is the Catechism of the Catholic Church. It has the teachings on the church in one place. It really easy to find a teaching on a particular topic and it has references.
The Catechism is arranged in four principal parts:
The Profession of Faith (the Apostles’ Creed)
The Celebration of the Christian Mystery (the Sacred Liturgy, and especially the sacraments)
Life in Christ (including the Ten Commandments)
Christian Prayer (including the Lord’s Prayer)
From my initial understanding the beliefs are drawn from the Bible, the writings of the early church Fathers, church tradition and Magisterium, the various ecumenical church councils down through the ages.
I am still working my way through it, but have found it very useful. I like the simplicity of the layout and the contents page that points right to the numbered sections. Copies online usually have hyperlinks that are really helpful.
If you are interested in looking you can find a PDF version here.
One of the things I was taught to do at Bible college is to use side by side comparisons of biblical texts. This can be especially helpful if you are unsure of what the text is saying or you need clarification.
In the above example I have John 3:3 open in five different translations. It talks about being born again to enter God’s Kingdom but it uses slightly different wordings.
In years gone by I had to do this manually with seperate Bibles. I would go to the library at Bible college and get out a number of versions. If I was at a Bible study I would ask friends to read their versions out to compare them.
These days it is a lot easier with programs like e-Sword (pictured above) and Logos, you can just open them and easily compare them. I generally use a plain English version, a literal word for word translation, a paraphrase idea for idea translation and a devotional translation.
Using this variety sometimes helps us to understand the text and what it is saying. It gives us a wider view of things and broadens our understanding. This helps us to apply God’s Word to our hearts and our lives.
Leadership is something that is vitally important in all areas of life. We have all had good leaders that we loved and bad leaders who we did not love as much.
When I was at Bible college I had to do an assignment on what we thought was good leadership. We had to come up with five points with both Biblical ideas and reflections on Christian leadership sources.
Surprisingly I found this harder than I expected. There is so many examples of Biblical leadership and thousands of resources on Christian leadership.
In the end I distilled my idea of principles of Christian leadership to the following five points.
1. Christian leaders need to cultivate an intimate relationship with God
2. Christian leaders need to have a servant heart
3. Christian leaders need to be shepherds of God’s people
4. Christian leaders need to live with character and integrity
5. Christian leaders need to be committed to making disciples
For me personally I really thought long and hard about these five things. Thankfully my lecturer agreed and gave me a good mark for it.
If you are interested you can read an online version of my article on my website below. It is a cut down version of my assignment.
I have been on holidays the last few weeks since school finished just before Christmas. It has been a nice time to rest, relax and spend time with family. It has also been a good time to reflect and renew.
During some down town I was looking through some old photos and videos. I found an old photo of when I was in my mid twenties. I was very much in to cycling and weights at the time and I was quite fit looking for me. I also found an old video too that surprised and shocked me muscle wise.
It was interesting on how motivated I was in my training. I would train one hour a day in the gym four days a week and I would cycle 200-300 kilometres per week. I would train six days a week, twice a day and have Sundays off for rest and church.
It was amazing how my reflections turned back to that time and the fitness goals I was chasing. It may have been 30 years ago (wow time flies!), but I could remember the my tiny shed with my gym and the racing bikes I owned. The alarm going off every morning at 4.50am so I could train before work. My motivation was sky high.
This caused me to think about my faith and walk with God 20-30 years ago. I thought about the churches I attended, looked through my old prayer journals, remembered preaching my first sermon and the people who helped me grow in my faith. The passion and zeal I had for the things of God was off the chart.
Somehow in the midst of all of this reflection I could feel motivation and passion being drawn from the past. It was like I was being inspired and motivated by my younger self. The goals and dreams I had way back then became fresh in my mind again. Mentally it was like I was right back there again.
As I have reflected on these things I really think I have gained motivation from my younger self. I was desperate to be well from Rheumatoid Arthritis and now I am. Something I never dreamed could happen! I was desperate to grow in my faith and to serve God full time. This has happened too.
I am just thankful to God for all He has done for me. I really do not know where I would be without Him in my life. I am also very thankful to my younger self and all the work “he” put in to his training and Bible studies. It has given me a new burst of motivation to press on towards the goals that God has before me.
Over Summer I am doing a unit at Tabor titled the, “Story of the Church”. As the name suggests it looks at church history in a broad overview of the last 2000 years.
One of our Text books is Devotional Classics. It has 52 sections that look at some of the great Christians from church history. The 52 sections are divided in to six streams to help us have a more balanced faith. The streams are: the prayer filled life, the virtuous life, the Spirit empowered life, the compassionate life, the Word centred life and the Sacramental life.
For part of our assessments we are required to read a chapter a week, summarise the persons writings and then reflect on how that impacts us. It is meant to be 100 words summary and 100 words reflection. Only 200 words is harder than you think, it forces you to be very concise!
I have really enjoyed the book and the assessments so far. It has allowed me to look at some of the inspirational people through church history. So far I have looked at Athanasius, Gregory of Nyssa, Augustine of Hippo, Bernard of Clairvaux, Francis of Assisi, Martin Luther and Teresa Avila. I have five to go!
Once I have finished the unit and the 12 people we have to look at, I am actually considering doing the 200 word reflections on all the people in the book. It has been such a useful exercise. It has added so much to my faith and life.
If you are interested you can check out the book at Koorong.com. It costs about $45 but it is well worth it.
