Hello again everyone! Hope all your summers are good and everyone's having fun!
I myself have been having a crazy busy summer with traveling all over the place the past few months. I went to Honduras for a week on a mission trip where I fell in love with the country and culture and people (they are sooo beautiful there!!!), then a week after that went on a cruise to the carribeans with my aunt and uncle and cousin (talk about culture shock! but I took the time to learn about their culture and to take time to relax and appretiate life), the week after that I went to the Upper Penisula to my grandma's cabin (we've had that cabin in our family since the 40s, built by my greatgrandpa) with my whole family, and now I'm heading to Tennesse to see my dad's side of the family and my cousin is getting married there! woo! It's been a great experience with so many memories and pictures...
Anyway, I've been reading Simply Christian, as most of you are aswell, and I really enjoyed the first part, with the echoes of a voice. I just ate it all up and have related to so much of it. The second part was also very good, the parts where it really looks at what was going on during the time of Jesus, and the time the Bible was written, becuase let's be honest, most of us don't usually take the time to put all of that into consideration!
A few things I have a bit of a hard time with understanding:
I get the impression from some of the sections of Jesus not knowing what He was sent to do/how to do it. I always thought that Jesus knew what he had to do and how when He was sent down, and so this form of uncertainity from Jesus is hard to understand.
Also, this summer a group of followers and I have been studying "Finding Our Way Again" a book that so far I highly recommend, but I'm really only at the 3rd chapter so I havn't read it all yet, and some of the things we're talking about is how much Christianity is a belief system and how much of it is a way of life, for example how in the bible Christianity was first called "The Way" and it was more of a way of life, or a way of living. But I guess N.T. Wright isn't completely condoning that, just saying it isn't the main focus of Christianity, which I understand somewhat more.
Well, those are just a few things that have been popping into my mind as I read this, I've got lots of highligts (you'll find this out about me... I'm one of those people that highlights EVERYTHING) and little scribbles... Hope to hear some responses on what you take of the uncertainty of Jesus and on Christianity mainly solely being a belief system!
:) God's blessings, and I'm getting reallllly excited to meet you all and spending this year together with all of you!
Here are some pictures of my summer adventures!
Honduras, with my two darling friends Smelly and Sylvia :) Smelly was my little buddy
Enjoying Shuffle board while we were leaving St. Thomas
Horseback riding in St. Lucia!
my grandparents helped build this playground, so my sisters and I have our names on a board!
my friends and I had a tea party at a local park one day! can't forget about those hometown adventures!
Haha.... Thanks everyone for spending time to look at those pictures and read my pondering thoughts... hope to hear from people on the discussions...
