Bible Study Begins

Today was the first day of the new year of Bible Study. In the past we have worked through Karen Armstrong’s History of God & Our Religions. This year we are going to focus more on Christianity and are going to be working through A Harmony of the Gospels by Ralph D. Heim. It is a parallel gospel so that we can compare the similarities and differences in each book. As our minister noted, too often we blend similar stories into one and forget the differences. I look forward to really delving into the gospels.

In today’s conversation, I was intrigued by the idea of scripture. As we discussed the writing of the gospels we contemplated the audience to which the texts were written. At that time there was no New Testament, nor a consideration of one. While each may have known of the other’s writings, they were not originally intended to be together. When they were talking of scriptures, they were speaking of their religious scripture, i.e. the Old Testament. This may seem like a silly point but it really struck me as profound. It is hard to imagine that they originally saw themselves as a sect of Judaism and not as the beginning of a new religion called Christianity!

Redemption of the Apple

I am again serving coffee hour tomorrow. I have decided to serve canteloup melon, strawberries, deviled eggs, and apple muffins. I made apple pies for Friday's Church Baked Bean supper so I had some extra apples to work with. I must say that the idea of serving apples at church got me laughing a little bit, so I decided that I should replace my vision of Eve and the serpent with a more positive vision of apples. So here are some apple scriptures that I found:

"Shew thy marvellous lovingkindness, O thou that savest by thy right hand them which put their trust in thee from those that rise up against them. Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings, From the wicked that oppress me, from my deadly enemies, who compass me about." Psalms 17:7-9

"Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye." Proverbs 7:2

There are also several scriptures in Songs of Solomon, but I'll leave those for you to find.



Now interestingly, here comes the learning part of my blog. As I used the concordence to find apple scriptures, I learned that yet again I have been influenced by outside forces. Genesis did not come up. There is no apple in the Adam and Eve story. I had to google this question. I found that apparently in the Latin translation, the word malum means both evil and apple. People clung to this idea and started to use apples in pictures of this scene, thus our idea of the apple. What was actually eaten? fruit taken from the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil. There is no other mention of what kind of fruit it was. I'll bet you it was one of those spiky looking fruits in the produce section of the grocery store.

Does this remind you of the question of the blonde haired, blue eyed Jesus?

A Word about Faith

"Finally, my brothers and sisters, always think about what is true. Think about what is noble, right and pure. Think about what is lovely and worthy of respect. If anything is excellent or worthy of praise, think about those kinds of things." Philippians 4:8 NIV

I was following this verse and thinking on all things good as I came up with the following:

First
Act,
Incline
Toward
Him

Forever
Accept Him
In
Thy
Heart

Focus
Attention
Intently
Toward
Heaven

Finally
Admit
Internally
Thy need for
Help

Father
Almighty,
I
Thank You and
Honor You.

Amen

Can you create a faith statement? Or find another way to live the Philippians’ commandment. Share it with us.

Snippet Verses

Did you notice the new snippets in the left hand column of the blog? I saw these on another blog and had to click the "would you like to add snippets to your blog". The Christian Women Online website has HTML codes to add all sorts of snippets. You can add a daily verse or a snippet that may relate to a particular blog.




Their site also has wonderful articles and interviews. There is blog roll to find blogs of interest for spiritual women. I encourage you to check the CWO site out, to read the snippets on my blog daily, and to try some of these add ons on your site.