Friday, February 11, 2011

First week of classes - and I'm off ...

Alright.  That's it.  I'm fairly certain I have killed my brain.  I have to quit studying and processing information - right now!

Well, that isn't going to work too well.  I still have a blog post to get written and posted tonight over on my Pour Out a Blessing blog.  Fortunately, those are more of a joy than a challenge for me.

I have read about The Trinity in Theology this week, begun reading "Classic Christianity," which is for my Church Doctrine class.  From the reading in that book I am supposed to respond to a question about having a conversation with an agnostic regarding the question, "Does God Exist."  Some of my classmates are answering that question and I'm afraid that I'm going to end up disagreeing with their premise.  I do not believe that I can convince an agnostic of anything.  Believing in and having faith in God is not something that is an intellectual pursuit.  And until God prepares a person's heart and mind, my words will have no impact - much as I like to think that I have great words.  So ... I'm processing on my response to that.

The reading for my Church History class is interesting.  The book is, "Back to Jerusalem" by Paul Hattaway.  He discusses the evangelistic mission of the Chinese church.  In reading this book, I think that these Christians are far ahead of most westerners with regards to the mission field.  This in an incredible read - really exciting stuff.  I'm not terribly sure how this fits in with the beginnings of church history.  The only thing I can think is that our professor is Chinese and she wants us to understand where she is coming from.  I have to get a paper written on that book by Monday.

I'm diligently working on the Hebrew alphabet.  I woke up this morning and was able to picture all of the consonants in my mind along with their English transliterations.  I need to continue working on the vowels.  This is such an interesting language.  Vowels don't actually have forms of their own - they are attached to the consonant that precedes them in the form of a dot or character underneath the consonant.  I'm training myself to read right to left and hoping to understand more of it as we go.  It will come.

Tonight I watched the first lecture for Greek 2.  Just about the time I think I'm grasping concepts, he opens up new and more difficult issues within the language.  But, he does keep reminding us that English is a most difficult language to learn and comprehend, so I'll try not to complain as I learn.  I'll probably fail at that.

There will be no weekend for me.  Two language quizzes every week, papers due nearly every Monday, discussions that I have to post every Thursday for one class and every Sunday for another class as well as be responsive to other class members posts.  It's exciting and ... grueling.  But, I'm off and running!

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