Learning to Walk

the end/beginning

Today was my last exam at ICC.  In fact it was my last academic assignment (unless I need to do any resits).  It was on Old Testament Theology and the questions I answered were:

• To what extent can the theme of the Old Testament be expressed in terms of 'relationship with God'?
• What is meant by the biblical concept of a 'covenant' and how is it used in the Old Testament?
• "The election of Israel was not the rejection of the nations."  Discuss.

I felt that my answer for the last question was my best, the middle question was OK, and I scrambled something together for the first (which I did last) and for which I didn't just want to say the same as in the other two, although I think I could have.  I was writing right to the wire and I hope I have done enough - but it was tricky to revise for with so many biblical references needed and so I feel that it could have gone either way, especially if the ones I think I did OK in I didn't...

So that is more or less it.  We get the results next week and, all being well, graduate on the 12th July.  So, what happens next?  Well, I am happy to say that I have a job which I can't wait to get going with.  From the 1st July I will be the Assistant Pastor at St Silas.  To some extent it is a continuation of the part-time role that I have been in this year - coordinating the Small Groups - but I will also be involved in more regular preaching, pastoral work, outreach and some work with the youth.  It has been a great honour to serve God and the congregation at St Silas over the past ten months, and it is a real privilege to be asked to step into this role.

I am a little nervous, a little scared, but really excited too...

my wife

Today is our first wedding anniversary.  It has been a great year; fun lots of the time, hard at other times, overall - brilliant.  I am so blessed to have a loving and beautiful wife who is also my best friend and closest support.  I can't wait for all that we will do together in the next year.

a new hermeneutic?

I wrote this post this morning and wasn't quite sure whether to publish it or not.  As you can see I have now decided to...

I wonder what the implications of this story could be for both the Church of England but also the wider Anglican Communion?

I think it is certainly a step too far and, whilst I am in support of the civil rights and protection which a civil partnership ensures, think that unless the church are willing to take the great liberty of reinterpreting Holy Scripture through a change in hermeneutical method (something which many would not be prepared to do) then we have to face the fact that there is no scriptural (or historical) support for such a ceremony taking place.

There are areas where we are all tempted to take the Bible and alter the interpretation of its message to meet our own ends.  And so as we face an issue such as this we need to do so with a huge amount of humility and a recognition of the weaknesses to which we are all so prone.  But that doesn't meant that we shouldn't stand for the truth of the apostolic faith.

It is a complex issue, of that there is no doubt, but what was the church ever intended to be?  Were we called to 'dodge' the complex issues?  Were we called to conform to the world's norms at the cost of the Gospel of truth?

I, for one, am getting a little tired of all this.  Tired of the fact that by voicing this opinion I could get a name for being 'hard-line', 'radical', or even 'fundamentalist'.  That isn't the case at all: I'm just a guy who's trying to walk with God, still learning, often falling flat.  But not wanting to allow my 'falling' to become condoned and accepted as some sort of syncretistic mish-mash.

God demands more of us than that.  God demands an aspiration to holy living, that we be: "holy as He is holy."  The church should be a world leader - in every area.  Not just a follower of the flock.  Because in Christ we have the only True Shepherd.  And it is to his standard that we must hold ourselves.

we was robbed!

"We was robbed!" could be the shout of many a sports fan complaining at the injustice that has befallen their team in defeat.  Unfortunately for me, however, it has taken on a more literal meaning as on Friday my bike was stolen.  It was locked up in the indoor car park at my college, was still there at lunchtime when my friend arrived and locked his up next to it, but by six it had vanished.

It is particularly frustrating because it was a pretty new bike (I got it just before Christmas) and was itself an insurance claim for its predecessor which was stolen from my old close just before we got married.  To make things worse - and this is entirely my own fault, but annoying nevertheless - I hadn't added it to the house hold insurance and so don't think it is going to be covered.  It also means that I won't be able to get out for a few rides with some friends which has been one of the things that I have been looking forward to doing once Tuesday is out of the way.

Doh!

exam

My exam on Thursday seemed to go OK.  There were nine questions, of which you had answer three.  The three I chose were:

1. Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the Bebbington 'quadrilateral' as a way of defining evangelicalism.  Are any of the alternatives more satisfactory?
2. Is it fair to categorise evangelical political engagement in Britain in the years 1790-1850 as a series of political crusades against specific sins?
3. 'I am a believer in ecumenicity, evangelical ecumenicity.  To me, the tragedy is that we are divided' (D. M. Lloyd-Jones).  Evaluate the arguments set out in the 1966 Evangelical Alliance debates about evangelicals and denominations, and assess the outcomes.

So...  I think that I answered bits of the first and second one well, and got a lot of information in.  For the third question I got quite a bit down but in my revision I had focused on events leading up to 1966 quite extensively (i.e. the ecumenical movement since the start of the 20th century) and didn't feel that I could find a way in for much of that information (although a friend said to me after that the lecturer had actually said that if you get stuck in an unseen exam you should just write down all the facts that you can remember!).  It will be a nervous few minutes waiting to go in and collect the results in a few weeks time, but I hope I've done enough...

I am now in the process of revising for my final exam which is next Tuesday.  It is an Old Testament theology exam and we know that there will be questions on six topics of which you answer three but unlike history we cannot merely learn three of them because they are going to be coming up in sections (two or three questions per section) and you have to answer one question from each section.  This means, of course, that if I only learn three areas that they could all come up in the same section leaving me with no answers in the other two!  So today I will be continuing my revision, the topic areas being:

• God's self revealing: his names
• God's self revealing: his nature
• Particularism and Universalism
• God's grace in Election and Covenant
• Human suffering and God's faithfulness
• The People of God and Eschatology

I also have an assignment, due on Monday, and which I still need to make some changes to and add a bibliography.

But, heh, what are sunny Saturday's for?

exam prep

Sorry to anyone who checks regularly, but things are pretty manic this end.

I am in the middle of preparing for my first exam which is this Thursday on 'The History of Evangelicalism'.  It is the first time that this class has been assessed in this way so we don't have any past papers to look over so it may prove to be somewhat hit or miss.  We do, however, know the topic areas, and so we only need to prepare for the three that we want to do.  I have chosen 'Evangelical Identity', 'Evangelicals and Politics' and 'The 1966 Controversy'.

It is really interesting, somewhat challenging, and a little daunting (the exam and the issues that the topics are raising in my mind).  But that was the whole point of coming to ICC.  I just can't quite believe that this time next week it will all be finished!

pre-season training

I can't quite believe it but pre-season rugby training begins tomorrow!  I think it might actually be the earliest pre-season that I have ever been involved in, although my second season in pro rugby also had an early start.

Although official training starts tomorrow I have been training hard recently, especially with my running, and am pleased to report that it might be starting to pay off.  In fact, I have lost about 5kgs (11lbs).  There is still a long way to go, and the final two weeks of term may prove a little harder, but it is a start.

There are two main reasons for this weight loss: First, running.  I have never really liked running, but being a big lad I long ago realised that it was the best way for me to lose weight.  I have even started to kind of enjoy it now, and that enjoyment will only increase as I get fitter.  Second, diet.  I have been realising over the past few weeks just how little we actually need to eat.  Previously I would eat mid-morning and afternoon, but I have been discovering that actually I don't need to, and, if I do, that some dried fruit will be sufficient.  I have also cut out carbs, which I hate doing, but which is again something which I realised long ago 'works for me'.

So, pre-season continues.  Whether I will be there or not is another thing as the next two weeks are very busy and also as training is going so well that I think I might actually be better sticking with what I am doing already.

But we'll have to see what the coach thinks about that...

still here

I think it's about a week since I last blogged...  Sorry to anyone out there who checks regularly but I've been pretty busy completing two essays and doing stuff for work.  But be assured - I am still here!  I will also endeavour to keep myself a little more regular over the closing two-and-a-bit weeks of the term (and my college career).

Two-and-a-bit weeks.  Crazy!

marching on

The Red go marching on!  What a game - I thought we should have had it sown up by half time, but fair play to Chelsea who could (should?) have won it in the second half.  But that's sport for you...

Things are marching on in other areas too - some quicker than others.  My science essay has been going well and I was hoping to get a good chunk of it completed by the end of tomorrow.  Until, that was, I was contacted to say that forms (which I only received yesterday) and a personal reflection (which I only found out about yesterday) had to be in Edinburgh by Monday morning in order for me to attend this panel and not have to put the date back.

Then this Saturday is the Small Group Leaders training and there are still a few bits and pieces that I need to get done for it (mostly photocopying and collecting food etc), although we have a speaker coming and taking the morning which means less work for me.  The great news is that the books that I ordered a few weeks ago have arrived which means that everybody there will get theirs.

So, marching on.  Although at this rate I'll be crawling over the finishing line in a few weeks time!  But I will be finished.  Bring it on...

assignments

It is that time of the term again (and how I hope that this is the last time for a while that I have to start a post with a statement like that)!

One assignment has been handed in, another is close to completion, and so tomorrow I will get stuck into what is potentially the trickiest of the essays, for Christianity and Modern Science, the title I have chosen being: "What is meant by the 'fine tuning' of the universe and how has it revived the old Teleological or Design Argument?" 

Of all the potential questions this is the one with (I think) the least 'hidden traps' and I have also found it quite interesting looking at 'fine tuning', and although I would be lying if I said that I had grasped it I hope that by the end of this week I will be slightly further down the road of understanding than I am now!