Have
you ever read a book that was so good you wish it would never end? Or even better, have you ever had an
amazing piece of cake that you loved from the first taste down to the very last
bite? Well, that’s what these past
8 months of SBS have been for me: one big massive slice of decadently
delightful cake that just gets better and better with every bite =) With only a
month to go I’ve been trying to savor these last bites.
These
past few months of SBS have completely exceeded my expectations, as we’ve been
going through the Old Testament and learning more of God’s character and his
steadfast love for us. To be
honest, I wasn’t really looking forward to reading the Old Testament, as I had
always thought that it was completely boring and irrelevant. But I couldn’t have been more
wrong! Not only can I relate to
the grumbling Israelites who had to put their faith in a God they couldn’t see,
but seeing God’s pursuit for his people from the very beginning, despite their
rebellion and stupidity really put things into perspective for me; I was really
able to identify with the wandering Israelites in the wilderness. It’s so easy to judge them for
complaining in every other chapter, but if I were in their shoes I would
probably have complained just as much if not more. I never took the time to really think about the situation
that they were in: wandering through an arid desert, eating the same manna
every day, leaving behind everything they’d ever known, and following a God
they didn’t really know into an unknown land that they weren’t entirely sure
they were ever going to get to. I
judged them for having seen God’s provision and then quickly forgetting and
complaining and worrying again… yet when I stop to think about it, how much worse am I? I’ve seen God’s sovereignty in my life
in how he’s saved me from making bad decisions; thankfully even when I was
faithless he remained faithful.
He’s had his hand over my life all this time, and yet I still find myself
doubting at times and worrying about the future! Following the history of the
Israelites these last few months has really challenged me to truly trust in
God. It’s also challenged me to
know that not only is he a sovereign God who knows what’s best for me but also
that he wants only the best for me! God has a purpose for my life and it’s good. I might not know
what it is now and I might not see the big picture yet, but as I look back at his
faithfulness in the people’s lives in the bible as well as my own, I’m
challenged to recognize and acknowledge and believe that just as he was
faithful then, he is still faithful today!
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| Beautiful hike up Table Mountain for the 3rd time! |
In addition to gaining a deeper
understanding of God’s sovereignty and faithfulness, I’ve also gained a fresh
new perspective of the bible itself. I mentioned in my last update how I grew
up knowing that there was a God, but when it came to Jesus I was pretty
clueless and the bible was completely foreign to me.
Even after having become a Christian my bible spent a lot of
time on the shelf just collecting dust and was only opened on weekends when I
went to church.
In the last couple
of years I’ve been more diligent in reading the bible, but even then I didn’t
know how to approach it.
I would
basically open it up, read it, find a good feeling passage, apply it to
whatever situation I was in, and then move on.
Not once did I ever take the time to consider the people
that the bible was originally written to and what that message would’ve meant
to them.
Nor did I think about how
the bible could impact not only my life but others around me as well.
There is so much truth in the bible
that was not only applicable to the people back then but also holds true today.
I think this has been one of the
greatest blessings of this season: my new outlook on the bible, and how it’s
changed from my seeing it as a book that’s filled with good feeling passages to
one that’s chalk full of real history that we can study and learn from!
This
leads me to my next update… my
decision to do an outreach immediately after SBS, which means I’ll be staying
in Africa for another three months!
The outreach will basically be an opportunity for me to take all that
I’ve learned and to teach it to others, more specifically churches throughout
Africa that lack resources for effectively studying the bible. Some of the possible outreach locations
include Togo, Rwanda, Uganda, South Sudan, and the Eastern or Western Cape of
South Africa. I am super excited
as I’ll not only be able to share all of the helpful tips and tools that I’ve
learned, but I’ll also be gaining valuable teaching experience as well!
As
you can imagine, since this wasn’t in my original plan, I am in the process of
trusting God for finances for the outreach: transportation, accommodations,
meals, vaccinations, etc. If you
feel led to contribute to this cause and my outreach fund, any donation would
be greatly appreciated and can be made by using the PayPal link below. But equally appreciated are your
prayers as I finish off the lecture phase and get ready to go out and teach all
that I’ve learned. Please feel
free to email me if you have any questions with regards to the details of
outreach or even if you’re interested in the things that I’ve learned during
this season, I’m more than happy to share =)
So I came to SBS thinking that I
was going to walk away knowing everything that I could know about the
bible. The truth is, over the last
8 months of reading through almost the entire bible at least 5 times, I’ve only
scratched the surface of all there is to know and probably couldn’t recall half
of the things that I’ve learned.
However, what I am walking away with is better than I could have hoped
for. After finishing SBS, I will
not only have a big picture of the entire bible, but I will have gained
valuable tools for being able to continue studying the bible myself and to
teach others as well! This is what
excites me most, that even though my time in SBS is coming to an end, I have
the rest of my life to continue to study the bible and to unpack all of the
history that I wasn’t able to dig deeper into during my time here. So in the end it looks like I can have
my cake and eat it too! The
savoring not only continues but I get to share this delicious goodness with
others too!
