Bible Study: Warning, Scripture quoted here!

If you don't like to read someone's Bible study reflections, you might want to skip this entry. But if you do, come on in!

After the pond pictures, I cooked a breakfast of scrambled eggs and English Muffins, orange juice, and tea for me, coffee for Steve.

Then I checked my email, read a few blogs, left a comment or two. After a shower, I quickly dressed, then drove to our church for a few hours of Bible Study.

The topic was "Children of the Bible," sponsored by the UMCW (United Methodist Church Women). Our pastor, Alan, presented several of the stories from the book, leading us through related scripture, helping us to gain a new understanding.

It amazes me that every time I attend a weekend Bible Study, or a six-month long workshop, or anything in between, I learn something new, something I hadn't heard before.

What is most interesting is that I hear the familiar stories over and over again, but each time it connects with me in a new way.  I see it from a different point of view, I understand it in a deeper way. I find new meaning.

For instance, and those of you who study the Bible will appreciate this I think, one of the children we looked at was the story of Cain and Abel (Gen 4:1-8).

We understood Cain's anger against God, and that he killed his brother because God did not accept his fruits of the earth as an offering, yet God accepted Abel's blood offering from the best of the flock. But we wondered, why did God not accept Cain's offering, but did accept Abel's?

Our pastor told us to go back to a previous passage (Gen 3:17,18). There we learned that God had cursed the ground after Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit. As a punishment, God cursed the ground, and told them that they would have to toil at the earth, and eat the plants of the field.

God cursed the ground, and Cain toiled in that ground. He brought his offering of fruits from the land that God cursed.

God had chosen Abel (Abel took care of the flocks), and Cain worked the soil. It seems that God is saying "Blood sacrifices are required for my blessing." Abel was born first, and grew to tend the flocks. Cain toiled in the fields. Apparently, Abel chose what God wanted him to do. God doesn't sound like a very nice person here. Do what I say, or you are out of the circle! Make me happy, or you will never be (my thoughts).

The point our teacher was trying to make was that throughout the stories in the Bible, God chooses, or selects, one person over another, one group of people over another. Here, Abel was first born of Adam and Eve, and Cain killed him in a rage. All of the children that would have descended from Abel died that day, too. Cain had stolen much more than one man's life. He had stolen entire generations of Abel's future. I had never thought about it that way before!

I can't begin to relate the other stories, it would take far too long.... after all, it took four hours to cover five stories today.

Reading and rereading the stories of the people whose lives are recorded in the Bible is one way to find out who God is! Certainly, we can find out who He is from our own experiences, and the Bible is filled with stories of people's experiences with the Lord.

And the other thing I relearned today... that despite the fact that down through the ages, God, the God of the Jews, repeated over and over again His selective pattern (remember, He chose Noah, and Abraham. He chose Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Samuel, David, Solomon... He told Noah, take your family and the animals, leave the rest behind. He made a covenant with Abraham's descendants. Moses was called to bring his people out of Egypt, thousands of them freed from slavery), the selection of people ended with Jesus.

God Himself came down to live among us, and by giving His life, all people became inheritors of the blessings of God. God had accepted Abel's blood sacrifice, and then, after thousands of years, He became the final sacrifice. Through Jesus, all are accepted as inheritors of God's kingdom.

Not just those who go to church, not just those who claim to be Christians, in fact. There are many people whose faith is strong in the Lord, but don't belong to a church. One of the stories we looked at is told in two Gospels (Matt15:21-28 and Mark 7:24-30). This is the story of the woman who asked Jesus to heal her daughter. She was not a Jew, and the disciples wanted her to go away, and Jesus told her "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel," and "First let the children eat all they want, for it is not right to take their bread and toss it to their dogs." When the woman replied, "But even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs," Jesus accepted her faith and healed her daughter.

This tells me that even the crumbs left behind for the dogs are spiritual nourishment, life-sustaining, blessings. Even those who act like they don't believe can show the littlest of faith and reap the same rewards as the ones dining sumptuously at the Lord's table!! No less... as much as!

What kind of promise is this? The most magnificent promise ever made. One that isn't selective, one that includes everyone. That's the God I believe in. That's my Lord!!

I'm sure that I haven't told this in the correct theologic manner with all the Biblical references, but you know, sometimes you got to read it for yourself.  I didn't cover everything we talked about today.

I just wanted to write about what I discovered again, and for the first time. Today. 

Today was a good day to read and reflect on Scripture.