One of the blessings of this year is the resources that I have found to study God's word. I have made the Bible Project a part of my daily routine in some way or the other. I have also read books by N.T. Wright, Scot McKnight, and Nancy Gutherie. The common thread of all of these is their emphasis on Biblical theology - that is seeing the Bible as one complete story that leads to Jesus. All these things have given me a new perspective on God's Word.
I have lived in the mountains of East Tennessee all my life. I can see Mt. LeConte from the dam where I walk almost every day. I have driven in the mountains and even hiked to Alum Cave. I have never had the desire to climb that mountain. I have been content to simply see it in the distance and drive around it. But the time with my camera has given me the desire to climb it. All these resources that I have studied this year have been like a gift. They have given me the desire to climb the mountain of God's word, to read more than just the familiar passages. I want to read more deeply and actually study the Bible in a way that goes beyond "what 's in it for me." I want to do the hard work of finally climbing the mountain, of studying the way I did for my degree and teaching. When you get to the top of the mountain you see valleys and hills and mountains. I want to begin my journey to the top of the mountain - one that will take as Psalm 1 says every day and night. As I climb I want to see the connections between passages, to see how each part of the Bible tells us more of God's plan. I want those connections to become ingrained - so used that I make them without thinking - that I see them instantly. This will take time just reading God's word as well as reading the work of Bible scholars. Along with this desire to climb there must be a purpose for climbing. Study for study's sake is not enough. I must learn to share what I have studied. I must learn to share the story of Jesus. I am not sure how I will do this - that part God will have to show me. One way may be this website and the blogs but I want to be open to more ways. I don't know if anyone will ever read this post, but if you do and you want to study more on your own I have and will continue to put the resources that I am using on the "Ideas" page of this website. And I would love to have someone to join me in climbing the mountain - to walk and talk about what we are learning. If you would like to do that then you Contact me.
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I have been thinking a lot about my word for the year, purpose. It seems that during this year of pandemic and quarantine that I forgot about that word. I didn't even remember what it was at one point. It was not until I started to work on my yearly book of photographs that I make as a Christmas present for my family that I had to go back and look it up. But as I look back now, purpose was something that I have struggled with especially during the last 6 months.
This year was mostly spent at home, I mean in the house. For the first 3 months of the year I was recovering from hip replacement and then the virus hit. There was no travel, no planning for a road trip, not much camping (the campgrounds were full which was unusual), and only a couple of trips to see the children. As a result there were not many opportunities to get out with my camera. I even had a new camera body but trips to the mountains were even hard due to all the crowds. So I had time to fill. We did work a lot on cleaning out the basement but the other thing I did was to start to spend more time studying my Bible. I look back on my journey of Bible study during the past couple of years and and grateful for the resources that I have found. I discovered the perspective of Bible study called Biblical Theology. The name can throw you off. It doesn't mean theology based on the Bible - for the other kinds of theology, Systematic and Historical, are also based on the Bible. Instead, in the words of the Bible Project, "We believe that the Bible is a unified story that leads to Jesus." The goal of Biblical theology is to trace the unfolding story of the Bible and God's plan of salvation. What studying the Bible from this perspective has given me is the ability to make connections. This way of study has led me to study and appreciate the literary beauty of the scripture, which of course is not possible without the help of scholars who understand Hebrew. Here are the resources that have influenced me during this past year:
This kind of deep study led to a reflection on the purpose of the website. I tried for awhile to put the two together, i.e. what and how I was studying the Bible and my photography and the main blog of the website. This didn't really work. Over the year my rate of posting slowed considerably. Until finally I almost quit posting all together. I did not post at all in October. There was no desire to post and there was no inspiration to post either from God's word or my images. It was like the well was dry and there were no new ideas. I thought about giving up the website and my photography. I worried that the blog was just devotional words that would not lead anyone to study the Bible in a deeper way, the blog posts only encouraged a surface reading of the Bible, reading to feel good. At the same time I knew that I was still struggling with understanding what I was learning at a deep enough level to write coherently. Yesterday, a point of clarity came to me on my walk at the dam. I guess it makes sense that it would come there. It was cold and windy but I was still outside in God's world. I have also started listening to music, podcasts, and my audio Bible while I walk. I think my problem is that I was thinking dualistically. There is a need to study the Bible deeply using all the resources you can, to read all of it even the hard parts. But there are also times when I need to read the Bible devotionally ; I need to hear hope and encouragement and joy and praise in God's word. So what is the purpose of the website, the blog, and my photography? What is the mission God has given me? I don't think that it will ever be one thing. I need to always be open to letting the website and my photography go where God takes it, knowing that it is highly unlikely that God will take it where I expect - that is not His way of working. Recently the devotional ideas are flowing again so I will continue the blog that is the main part of the website. And, just this morning, I will start to use this blog part of the website to share what I am learning. So for now I am going to try to use this "Thoughts" blog to write what I am learning and the main blog for devotional thoughts. So if anyone actually reads this part of the website then please tell me what you think - how can this website help you see God's word in his world. |
This page is in blog format so the posts are in order with the most recent first. Here I hope to post some of the things that I am learning from by Bible study and other topics.
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All the photographs in this site were taken by me. If you use or share anything from my website, please link back to this page. You are free to view and share this website by linking but I ask you not to download or redistribute anything from the site. Thanks.
Soli Deo Gloria,
1 Corinthians 10:31
© 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 Karen Milligan
1 Corinthians 10:31
© 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 Karen Milligan