WARNING: SCATTERED THOUGHT PROCESSES AHEAD!

There is a lot to process in this intro and I have a lot of thoughts about it, so I will try my best to make them make sense. 

The first part of the introduction that stood out to me, was when Bailey was discussing the hinge between the problems that were brought to Paul orally, and the problems that came to him in writing. The first thing that popped out to me was that the problems that they thought were more severe, they did not write to Paul, and they probably hoped that he would never find out. No matter how hard they tried to hide that behavior, Paul found out anyway. This resonates with me because I find that in society, we only show each other the parts of ourselves that we want them to see. We put forward a picture of ourselves that we think will be perceived as best, when in reality, there is no hiding who we truly are, especially in our relationship with Christ. No matter how much we want to hide our pasts and our mistakes, God already knows. This reminds me of how we are challenged to pray bold prayers. We present to God, as Bailey would put it, our "polite" problems and hope for answers, but we shy away from praying boldly and offering our whole selves. 

I also like how Bailey explained the way that the letters were written. This might be my inner teacher nerd coming out, but I like how he points out the "asides" as parentheses or marginal notes. I like that visual because it really helps understand the way that the letters are formatted, which is something I never quite understood. I always thought they were just random thoughts, which I guess essentially that's what they are, but they are there with purpose. I also like how he talks about the parallelisms and the structure, because I know when I read scripture, I seldom think of why the verses are structured in that specific way. Everything is done so intentionally and I have never taken the time to really sit with that. 

 Lastly, I like how transparent Bailey is in the Prelude. When he says "Gold is available where you find it. Sometimes one must dig to mine it", he straight up tells us that sometimes, you're going to have to do some digging, but it will all be worth it in the end. 
So excited to dig into this study with you guys! I hope my random thought processes make sense to you guys too! 

 Stef Eriksen

Comments

  1. Reid DelgadoOctober 19, 2018 at 3:58 PM

    I love the digging quote!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Steve MannOctober 22, 2018 at 4:05 PM

    Digging the digging metaphor as well.

    Sometimes people ask me, "why doesn't God make us dig so much?"

    And I really think the honest answer is....."Cuz he set it up that way." We are created by the creator to love him with our mind.

    This is His gym. He's THE trainer.

    He challenges me to buck up and start doing reps so that my wussie, limp wristed, noodle brain actually has some brawn and fortitude and even before the work out has started I'm staring at him open mouthed asking (THE TRAINER) um, excuse me, Mr. Trainer Creator God, tell me again -- why do I have to train my mind? Why do I have to exercise? Why do I have to dig? and the creator must just shakes His head (metaphorically speaking of course) and say IT's MY GYM. This is how I set it up. This is how we train. Its what we do.

    Thanks for this post Stef. Reminds me of how much I need to daily surrender to God and trust His wisdom, His judgment, His training, His sovereignty for life!!

    ReplyDelete

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