Abroad

So, first of all, I would like to state that this is being composed on an iPad, so you must forgive any typos.
Now, we get down to business! This week I have been to London, Paris, and I am currently residing in Florence, Italy. Tomorrow I am heading to Rome.
I was definitely impressed with London and Paris, but today Florence stole the show. The people, the culture, the language, the FOOD. There is this great easy going atmosphere in Florence. I also love how the people really love their city, and that really shows when you converse with them.
It is bothersome to see the church seemingly not present in the places that I have been to. I have seen beautiful cathedrals, but no action or even sense of the presence of Christians. Paris and Florence are deeply entrenched in catholic culture, but definitely not in a holy way. It's sad to see such apathy towards Christ, which definitely shows that there is a need for missions there.
On a lighter note, I have decided to get a soccer jersey from every place I visit. So far I have one for Chelsea, Paris Saint-Germain, and Florantina. Tomorrow I hope to get a Roma Jersey.
That is all for now, good bye.

It's 12:15 A.M. and I am sitting in my comfy chair. I was about ten pages into A Tale of Two Cities by Dickens when I realized that I was not nearly in the right mind to read A Tale of Two Cities by Dickens. Then it hit me that I have a blog. So why not update it?

I am leaving in T-Minus 3 hours to go to Fayetteville, where I will get on a plane to Atlanta. From Atlanta I will go to London. I will be joined by my family and another family, and it will be a grand time. We are visiting London, Paris, Florence, and Rome. There are optional detours, the most exciting of which is to Versailles. I am looking forward to seeing Louis XIV's great palace (I just took a Western Civ. test that dealt with Louis XIV and other Monarchs of his time).

I have never been outside of the States so this should be a great trip. Armed with several novels and a D40x, I am prepared to be cultured. I hope I don't run out of clothes. Anyways, I might just update this thing with a few thoughts or pictures while abroad, and you should look forward to it. However, if I were you, I wouldn't hold my breathe on that. So maybe you shouldn't look forward to it, but just casually wonder if Taylor might have updated his blog. Yeah, I like that better.

I've been chewing on Romans 12 this week. Today, I have focussed more on verse ten, which says: "Be Devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor;". Where does that period go? Who knows? More importantly, what does "give preference to one another in honor" mean? From what I can figure out with my humble Greek abilities, it is something along the lines of "with honor, consider one another better." So maybe it has this idea of honoring one another by considering them better than ourselves. That makes sense now, and I feel kind of silly for not getting it at first. Nonetheless, there is nothing like seeing some thought process, right?

What a great verse, though. Especially in the context of Romans 12, titled by the NASB as "Dedicated Service," and is kind of describing some of the things a christian should do (like serve...). So let's do it! Let's think of others as more important than ourselves and honor them by treating them that way. I should have many opportunities to do this whilst on a family vacation, because there is always fatigue and frustration that leads to self-centeredness on long trips.

Well, that's all I've got. Stay tuned for more!

Latest Thought...

As I have been sitting in the library, I have been contemplating how blessed I am. I think Satan’s largest success in my life is that he frequently shields my eyes from the many blessings God has given me. No matter what angle I look at life from, all I find are blessings in all forms. I constantly have to remind myself that I need to take advantage of all the things I have been given. Far too often, however, I am stagnant.

One thing that I am extremely grateful for is that I have grown up with a full family. I have a father, mother, sister, and four grandparents. I am of a select few who have grown up with a mother and father who are not only present, but are still married. Even more rare, I still get to see four grandparents, all of whom live within 15 minutes of my house. I have a sister who worries (could be replaced with cares) about me more than I could ever know.

One of my grandfathers is a master of electronics, and knows all there is to know about Ford Mustangs. The other is a Master Mechanic and knows all about farm and rodeo life. My parents started an extremely successful business from the ground up. I have been given time with all of them, and am just trying to soak up all of the wisdom and knowledge I can. If that is not a blessing what is?

My family has given me anything I have ever needed and more. I have never gone hungry, or even out of style for that matter (some people may disagree with the latter). I have been graced with thousands of dollars of musical equipment and gear. When I had an interest in building a boat and a guitar, I just happened to have access to two workshops to work out of as well as any tool I could ever imaging using. My family has urged that I can do whatever I set my mind to since I was a child, and, thus far, God has given me the ability to do just that.

Since I was young, I wanted to go beyond the basics of the bible. Then I was able to go to Ouachita Baptist University. Anyone who has glanced at the tuition of Ouachita knows how much of a blessing that is. I get to study Hebrew and Greek under the most intelligent men I have ever met.

All of this is to say that we need to realize what God has given us. Not just in material possessions, but in family, in opportunities, and in potential. I am striving not only to remember just how blessed I am and but also to use what God has given me to serve him and my neighbor.

So I had a conversation with some friends last night about whether women should be able to speak in church. What a hot topic, right? Shall we just shove it under the rug? I think not!

We were mainly discussing what Paul means in 1 Corinthians 14:34-35:

34 women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the Law says. 35 If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church.

Paul says that women should not speak in church, and that they should be in submission. This is a good enough explanation for some, and they apply the scripture in a very literal way. However, it troubled me. If Deborah was around today would we not let her preach? She was a boss! I had heard arguments for other interpretations of the passage, so I did some research and found this: http://www.ntwrightpage.com/Wright_Women_Service_Church.htm

It is N.T. Wright's views on women in church. Luckily, he addresses this passage and seems to explain it very well. He says (actually he got this information from a source he cites in his paper) that services in that time were usually performed in formal or classical Arabic. Men would know this language, whereas women usually did not. Also, men and women would sit on opposite sides of the room. A common result of this situation would be women talking amongst themselves (which is a reasonable idea, seeing as it would be boring for myself, not knowing arabic, to sit through an arabic sermon), which caused distractions. I have to point out that they weren't necessarily having selfish conversation. They might have been asking about something because they did not understand it. This idea is supported by verse 35, which says they should wait until after the service to ask about whatever they do not understand. Either way, they would usually have to be told to be quiet.

So is the reason Paul says women should be quiet simply because they are women? MAYBE not (stress on maybe). I don't know all of the ins and outs of this argument, but it does seem that there is something important to be found here. Women were stereotypically uneducated. They did not understand much of anything that was spoken in the church services, so they would talk (some things never change, do they?) about it and discuss what the pastor meant. In this context, Paul wouldn't tell them to be quiet because of them being women, but because they were causing distractions.

So what does this mean to us? If we are to buy into this argument, it seems that it isn't women in particular that should be quiet, but the people who are either not understanding or not paying attention to the pastor that should be quiet and not cause distractions.

What I think is most important to understand about this passage is what it does not mean. It does NOT mean that women should not address the church or teach the church. This subject does not fit in to the literary context (order in worship). However, distractions during worship do fit into this context. Verse 34 and 35 seem to be saying that people in attendance at church should not cause distractions for the others who are trying to listen to what is being taught.

These are just some thoughts. I have in no way completely decided what I believe. I think this argument has some merit, but it also seems to be a stretch. So, feel free to leave comments, and tell me what your view is!

Also, I don't want to act like all of these thoughts originated from me. I am not that smart! The vast majority of these thoughts came from professors' ramblings, N.T. Wright's exegetical, and conversations with friends.

So recently I have been questioning how much my faith is affecting (effecting?) my life. Am I really living out what the Bible says? I have been challenged by this on so many levels. Is a ten minute bible reading enough for a whole day? Am I treating my body in a way that honors God? Am I treating my money in a way that gives God glory? Am I listening to what God is saying to me in classes that I may not enjoy? Am I making deep, Christ-centered relationships, or am I putting on a front so that the person likes me? The list goes on and on.

It has been a while since my last post, so I thought I would throw another post up here while I had time. I just got back from a ski trip with K-Life, which was a lot of fun. I tried snowboarding for the first time, which was very bumpy but also very fun. The theme of the trip was being set apart, and I thought that was a great idea that gets looked over a lot. I have been trying to be holy (set apart) lately because one of my professors brought it to my attention very well. I may never be completely holy, but that is no reason to try. My professor's view is this: Can you be holy for one second? If one second, why not two? Why not a minute? An hour? A day? This really encouraged me, so I thought that I would share it with the few people who might glance at this. Have a Merry Christmas, and a happy New Year!

First Blog...Get Excited!

Obviously, I have decided to start a blog. I hear that blogs are fun productive, so I thought I would give it a try. For any readers sakes, I will try to limit this site to legitimate thoughts and posts and try to avoid pointless ones. Actually, scratch that; I have too many random thoughts to guarantee that none of them will be pointless. Anyways, shall we begin?

I have recently been really down on myself because I just can't seem to get out of my habitual cycle. I am having trouble breaking out of the mold that is my life. I just kind of go through the motions of Christianity and always end up disappointed. There are times when I truly live it for a short time, but I have yet to make that time as much as I would like (which would be infinite). I always end up side tracked by any number of things.

The result of this cycle is a whole semester of school in which I have produced very little fruit. I have not grown nearly as much as I had hoped I would in my first semester. I figured I would be past my juvenile ways, but no, they are just as, if not more, prominent than they were a year ago.

I have been trying to meditate on James 4:7-10, which is "Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts you double minded. Grieve, mourn, and wail. Turn your laughing to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up."

This verse really hit me hard. Its simplicity is amazing. Submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will leave you. Come to God and he will come to you. Cleanse your hands and purify your hearts. From there it kind of threw me for a loop.

Why would James encourage grieving, mourning, and wailing? My guess is that we are to grieve over our sin and unfaithfulness. If we truly realize the wrong we have done, will we not grieve over it? It seems as if we should be upset if we truly believe that we have defied the God of the universe. I feel like that grieving goes hand in hand with humbling yourself before the Lord. When one realizes his sin enough to mourn over it, he is humbled because he is ashamed. God then, in grace and mercy, lifts us up. Man, would I like to be lifted up!

Maybe the reason I do not feel lifted up is because I do not grieve over my sin. It has almost become routine to just accept sin. How bad is that? Many times I do not even react to my sin, and I definitely do not remember the last time I grieved, mourned, or wailed over it. So, with that in mind, I have been praying for a heavy heart. I have been praying that God would convict me of my sin, and that I would no longer have a heart of passivity towards it. I want sin to impact me. I want to be so impacted that I grieve over it.

Well, those are the thoughts of the day. Hope they were helpful!