Week 4

Working long hours back home, it felt like the days were busy, but empty. Here there is not a huge workload, but every day feels full. There is always something to do, whether it is hanging out with people at camp, praying, getting involved with people at the church, or just spending some alone time with God.

Probably my favorite group outing so far was on Valentine's Day. The pastor had the students over for dinner and fun, he had a giant slip & slide set up, and a nice relaxing hot tub.

In sadder news, one of my tentmates left last week. He disappeared for a couple of nights, and once he came back he had decided that Bible College wasn't for him. He flew back to the mainland on Saturday.

Discipleship 102 is looking to be an interesting class. It could be called "leadership training": we break up into small groups twice a week and the students alternate on who leads the small group. On top of that, we are going through the book Spiritual Leadership by J Oswald Sanders, and the teachings have mostly been about leadership. And on top of that, the main homework in the class is to disciple a younger believer, taking them through a curriculum going over the basics of Christianity.

Last week in D102 we took a personality profile test. I met with our teacher (Pastor Bob) yesterday to go over my results, it was an insightful time. There wasn't anything really new, it was just a profile of my own personality and a lot of it I was already aware of, but it really confirmed what I have been learning and inspired me to grow faster. Basically I need to learn to communicate better with people, to share more openly rather than making it hard for people to get to know me. He picked a verse to share with me, 2 Tim 1:7, the same verse that I had picked for myself earlier this semester!

We've been setting traps in the kitchen area to catch some mice that have started roaming around. Some of the girls were upset when we killed one they had nicknamed "henry". We are starting to get flies around the food area again, soon we may be overwhelmed.

Kauai Ranch Photos

Campfire in the rain. It was pretty cold and wet the whole time.

Tents by the reservoir. I managed to avoid sleeping in a puddle.

I'm not a fan of horseback riding. I had a bad experience.

The tiny but delicious pineapple guava.

Warming our feet by the fire.

I think everyone had pruny feet by the end of the day.

Took the kayaks out exploring.

Back in Hawaii

I'm back at Kauai Bible College! I flew in Wednesday night, and was greeted at the airport by some familiar faces. I have been keeping busy since then, there are some changes this semester.

First of all, I'm in Tim Brown's tent, and I am a dorm steward. Tim has a knack for building things, his tent is the only guys tent with electricity, which he has hooked up to a solar power array. I didn't know what I was missing last semester! It's odd being dorm steward (in charge of the tent), since Tim is on his fourth semester and I'm only in my second.

This is the biggest semester the Bible College has ever had, despite Spring usually bringing a downswing on attendance. Most semesters don't see very many returning students, but this year only three students didn't come back! Combined with the incoming students, we are up to 26 students, and with staff there are 35 people staying on campus.

Student orientation brought up a changing focus for the Bible College: this semester they are emphasizing the context of the whole experience, rather than focusing mainly on content. The idea is that in the information age all the knowledge can be obtained without leaving home, so the Bible College should provide an experience. This includes things like constant fellowship with the other students, opportunities to serve, and even a new healthier meal plan this semester.

Friday night we joined with a local young adults group to go camping at the Kauai Ranch, a beautiful 4,500 acre property owned by a wealthy couple. Several movies have been shot there, including Jurassic Park and Tropic Thunder. Unfortunately it was cold, overcast, and rainy for us, and to top it off we didn't have any food due to fasting! It was a good time though, some people went horseback riding or took ATVs around the property, and I took a kayak to track down some pineapple guava. Saturday night was the best Chinese food I have ever tasted!

Sunday the weather turned hot and sunny again. I went to the beach and hung out with some of the students. Classes started today, but my first class is tomorrow. I'm signed up for four classes and debating whether or not to add an apologetics correspondence course. I'm taking homiletics, which means how to teach the Bible, and the big part of that class is actually teaching a large crowd of people on Wednesday nights! It sounds scary, but there probably aren't many places where I would get that opportunity.

The church here is very healthy, making a real effort to do things Biblically. They are trying to give people chances for leadership and to get plugged in at the church, and to that end there are over twenty small groups going on. Pastor Bob has a desire to allow other people to teach on Sundays, giving him a chance to train up more people for leadership. The young adults group is also hoping to train up some leaders to go start new groups on other parts of the island. Even the kids in the youth group are stepping up, giving mini messages every week.

For me personally, I'm trying to grow in the areas of courage and self-discipline. Being a dorm steward and teaching via the homiletics course should help in these things. I picked a verse that exemplifies what I'd like to learn this semester:

For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline. - 2 Timothy 1:7

Christmas Break

A lot has happened in the last couple of months. I'm posting this from the airport as I prepare to go back to Kauai.

The semester ended in December, we had a banquet and talent show on Friday the 11th to cap things off. I got back to the mainland on Thursday the 17th, a couple of students took the same flight and had a long layover so my mom and I took them out to Pike Place Market.

My sister and her family joined us at my parent's house for Christmas and New Year's. We celebrated my nephew's first birthday. He's walking now, it was fun being around him.

The week after Christmas my dad asked me to share what I learned from my Discipleship class with the Wednesday night meeting at church. That went pretty well, I talked about the importance of quiet times and spending time with God.

In January I flew to the midwest for a week. I spent 5 days with my grandparents in Iowa, then went to Chicago where I saw some friends and toured the city a bit. Then last weekend I went skiing at White Pass with a couple of friends.

Dark Void came out on Tuesday the 19th, but I haven't played the final release version yet. It's getting ripped apart in the reviews, hopefully the sales are still all right.

Of course, this is just briefly hitting some of the highlights of break. I filled my time visiting numerous friends, and hanging out with family. It was really quite busy. I'm glad for all the people I got to see and sorry that I missed a few.

What I'm Learning

Things I've been learning at Bible College, by class:

Romans:

We've covered about half of the book of Romans so far. Romans is written as a formal argument, almost like a legal document. It starts off by establishing that people are guilty of sin and don't deserve heaven, then introduces the grace of God that brings justification. Justification being a one time act of forgiving sins, so that sinners may be pardoned and permitted entrance to heaven. Then it continues on to the topic of sanctification, which is God continually at work in the Christian's life to purge sin and produce holiness.

Discipleship:

Discipleship is my favorite class. It's going over a bunch of basic Christian doctrine, in order to prepare us for discipling new believers. The topics covered include daily quiet times, prayer, fellowship, being Spirit-filled, witnessing, and Biblical reconciliation. Lots of good stuff, much of which I have heard at points before, but it has really helped me to have it presented in such a focused format.

One controversial subject that was brought up in this class was a teaching on forgiveness. According to the teacher, Pastor Bob, forgiveness in the Bible is only given to those who are repentant. For example, Jesus said that if someone sins against you and repents seventy times seven times, then you should forgive them seventy times seven. On the other hand, we are called to forgive others as we would wish God to forgive us, so it seems we should forgive unconditionally. I just brought it up because I thought it was an interesting point of discussion, and I'm not entirely sure what the answer is.

Hermeneutics (Inductive Bible Study):

This class is about how to study the Bible. There's a focus on preparing students to lead a small Bible Study. We pick a passage of scripture each week, do an outline, and go through the verses recording observations, interpretations, and applications. Then the class period is discussing what we got out of the text.

John:

Nothing special about the course requirements here, we're pretty much going straight through the book of John with insights from the teacher. I like the teacher, he's quite a character. He cracks jokes like "My wife is great, when she's humble." The book of John is also a great book, some recurring themes are the deity of Jesus, how the Jewish leaders tried to suppress and kill Him, and how His teachings were repeatedly misunderstood by the unbelieving Jews.

Genesis:

This is also teaching straight through the book of Genesis, although the homework is varied a bit from the standard (some papers and memorization). Many Christians believe that Genesis 1-11 are not literally true, but figurative in nature. These are the chapters that cover creation, the flood, and the tower of Babel (origin of languages). Interestingly, the percentage of Christians taking a literal interpretation of Genesis 1-11 is higher if the Christians in question are scientists! The teacher for our class takes a literal interpretation.

Other:

We have a class called "Chuck Tracks" which is pastor Chuck Smith teaching straight through the entire Bible. This class takes all 4 semesters, so for my semester I am just going through the first half of the Old Testament. He likes to emphasize the importance of relying on God to work rather than trying to rely on ourselves.

I've also been doing a little studying on my own time when I get the chance. I've been reading through From God to Us, which is all about how we got the Bible and why Christians claim it is inspired.

Another interesting point that was touched on in both the Sunday sermons and the Discipleship class was that of a Sabbath day. The pastor here believes that the Sabbath should still be observed, not according to strict rules about what times and actions are acceptable, but rather setting aside one day a week to relax and spend time with God. We put this into practice in the Discipleship class, setting aside a few hours one Saturday to go on a 3 hour prayer retreat. Since the point was relaxing and enjoying time with God we weren't required to force ourselves to pray for all that time, we were encouraged to come prepared with a devotional book or a sermon we wanted to listen to. It was a good thing, and something I think I'd like to work in to my weekly routine.

Discussion: Bible Prophecy

"No unconditional prophecy of the Bible about events to the present day has gone unfilled. Hundreds of predictions, some of them given hundreds of years in advance, have been literally fulfilled."

- Geisler & Nix, From God to Us

In my mind, prophecy is the most convincing evidence for the authenticity of the Bible. If the claim above is true, it seems like almost incontrovertible evidence. This thread is the place to discuss it.

Note that if the Bible is really inspired by God, then we can expect 100% accuracy. If it can be shown that even a single prophecy went unfulfilled, it would have huge ramifications.

An Open-Minded Faith

A brief statement of faith:

I believe that God exists, that He created the universe and He cares about people. I believe that the Bible is true, the divinely inspired word of God. Therefore, I will try to live my life according to what the Bible teaches.

This is something I've believed for a long time, but the Bible College experience has helped solidify it for me. I hope that going forward it will be a bigger part of my life.

Since I do not have perfect knowledge I cannot make a claim to know with 100% certainty that this is true, instead I take it on faith backed up by evidence from the small portion of knowledge that I do have. I also have faith that if I challenge and examine my beliefs, then they will stand up to scrutiny. Therefore I would love to hear from anyone who disagrees with me, to test my theory that my beliefs hold fast against criticism. I'd like to call this "open-minded faith".

For starters, there's one thing that's been on my mind that I'd like to hear more about:

Romans 1:20 "For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse."

So according to the Bible, the existence of God should be evident from creation. I'd like to hear more people's thoughts on this, to see if they agree with it or not.