Hi Everyone!
I’m so sorry it’s been a while since I’ve updated. I just finished my first term of SBS
and am now enjoying the end of our three-week Christmas break =) It’s been a crazy roller coaster of a
ride these last few months filled with highs of exciting revelations in God’s
Word to lows where I was so physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausted
that I didn’t think I’d be able to go on.
But God faithfully carried me through as I relied on His strength and has
blessed me with these last three weeks to take in some of the beautiful sights
of Cape town, enjoy spending time with friends, to relax, and even take some
time to process through the last term that seemed to fly by so quickly.
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| A beautiful day at Chapman's Peak on our class outing =) |
As I look back, I came to SBS thinking that I was going to build
on my knowledge of the bible and get some of my questions answered so that I
could grow stronger in my faith.
Instead I found it addressing so many of the misconceptions that I had,
stripping everything back down to the core basics of my faith, and forcing me
to question what I believe and why I believe it.
Growing up I kind of had the idea that the bible was just
some storybook written by some guy, that God was a distant God far up somewhere
in the clouds, watching us from heaven above, and Jesus… well, He was the guy
whose name was said at the end of every prayer.
In the past, I approached the bible deductively, taking the bits
and pieces that I liked and ignoring the rest that didn’t ‘apply’ to my
life. I had basically treated the
bible as a self-help book, looking for ways to better myself. But the truth of the matter is that the
bible isn’t just any old storybook written by some guy at some point in time to
use for our self gain, rather it is a collection of historical accounts, books
and letters written from numerous authors inspired by God over a span of
approximately 1500 years. These
last few months of studying the bible inductively has really helped to make
this truth more real for me as I’ve taken the time to learn about what people were
going through at that time and why they wrote things the way they did; finding
the true meaning behind the verses that I thought I knew and realizing that
these people weren’t just characters in a story but that they were real people
like you and me, people who witnessed something so incredibly significant that
they had to write it down so that we too might believe. Once again that the bible wasn’t
written so that we could just take it apart and apply what we want for our own
benefit but rather so that we might know Who Jesus is and what He did for
us. That Jesus wasn’t just some
fictional super hero but that He was God in the flesh, Who came down to earth
and lived the most human life that one could ever live, to show us the way and
to die for our sins that we might be saved and have a relationship with
Him.
It was in the book of Romans that I finally came to realize
what salvation really means. As I was
processing through the verse 10:9-10 which reads, ‘That if you confess with
your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him
from the dead, you will be saved,’ I started to wonder, ‘What does it mean to
believe? And why is it that a
person’s salvation comes down to this one single event of Jesus’ death and
resurrection? For some reason it
just doesn’t seem like it’s enough, that our salvation relying on this single
event seems too good to be true.
So often we think that Christianity is all about going to church and
doing good works making it as though we can somehow earn our salvation. But it isn’t about that at all. Rather it all comes down to faith, recognizing
that we’re sinners, that we need God, that only He alone can save us, and
believing that what He did for us on the cross is enough. It’s as simple as that yet somehow
we’ve made it so complicated.
I’m so thankful for the last three months as I’ve been able
to process through these things and am looking forward to diving in to the next
term as God has given me a fresh perspective and hunger to learn more about Who
He is and gain a better understanding of what He’s done for us.
Here are a few pics from my time here so far =)
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| Hanging out with Debbie and Skyler |
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| A typical afternoon of studying in SBS =) Having fun doing some historical background research with Wouter. |
Remember this mountain from my first post? Well, I’ve been staring
at it for the last three months wanting to climb it but after hearing
horror stories about how difficult it was I decided to postpone it until
Christmas break where I would have the time to fully recover. The first day of break I looked up at
the mountain, said ‘I’m going to climb you,’ prayed that God would give me the
strength to make it to the top, and guess what? I did! Not
only that but I was able to climb it with ease and was perfectly fine the next
day as well! I felt so victorious
afterward that just a few days later I was taking on one of the biggest
mountains in Capetown, Table Mountain!
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| Enjoying the view from the top of Muizenberg Mountain with Monja! |
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| Snapshot of Table Mountain from Blouberg beach |
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| Enjoying the view from the top of Table Mountain! |
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| Visiting a beautiful vineyard in Stellenbosch with my beautiful German friends Debbie & Monja =) |
