One of the things I, as Curate love about these sessions is that I can come in hoodie and as a fellow Disciple rather as group leader ... and then listen and contribute to the group as a participant.
May I welcome those in the Bible Study to "My Wee Blog :-)" my personal wee corner of the internet which dates right back to 2005!
I hope to provide a wee account of the sessions we have covered - with questions which have arisen as well as charting our journey through the book Knowing God.
I promise to those who come along on a Wednesday night that no names will be used.
We began at the very beginning ... a very good place to start ... when you read you begin with ABC, when you read a book you begin with the front cover! :-)
We were challenged to look at the cover and see what we could come up with meaning -
- For me Road conjures up journey, with life and adventure
- Cloud - thinking about guidance, glory God?
- Horizon - the unknown as well as the expected
It was a very good place to start
We then got talking about Christian Basics the principles, the non-negotitables about who God is and what he has done for us.
When we talk about who God is we are limited to language - how do you describe the indescribable? - It is difficult! however we must do something! if we are to get to know God we must use words to describe him.
We looked at what he is ... and what he isn't
immortal, invisible, God only wise, in light, in-accesible, hid from our eyes ...
one hymn writers example of who God is!
As I write this I also wonder how you would describe God? ... here is one preacher's summary (without notes!)
We had a great discussion about the question:
Do we need theology?
My Lecturers in the past, fellow ministers as well as our Bishop will be glad to know that we came up with the answer "Yes" however it was after a bit of discussion about complicating something which is in essence simple.
We looked at how we could get to know God - the image I used was the idea that if we were to go to the International space station we would catch glimpses of the Globe - we would never see the whole earth because of the size and shape of it but we could build up a picture of the globe by taking snapshots of it!
The same with God, we get we bits and pieces - we can concentrate on one picture (attribute) but one is not all of God we need know that there is more to God than simply one wee picture - God is Love yes! but he is also Just, he is forgiving and he is father ... we could go on and on!
In the theology we also looked at the idea that there are Big Questions which the world is throwing out to Christians today and we need to be able to give some sort of answer, some sort of thought out rebuttle to the questions which society is asking.
No longer can we simple "hide under the duvet" but rather we need to be in the marketplace discussing why we believe what we believe. Theology gives us a framework, a way to discuss these things - and that is exciting as well as Challenging.
Theology is challenging because we might get asked difficult questions, our own faith may be stretched bit as we hear others opinions, we may have to stand up for some of the fundamentals of our faith.
We do come as fellow travellers, not as those who stand aloof - as one member of the group reminded us, that we need to grow as disciples. Keeping to, and always returning to the basics but also having our minds stretched by the God who is Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier.
It is an exciting journey, a journey which hopefully will make us more aware of why we believe what we believe :-)
During the Study we were chatting about hymns which meant so much when we talk about God, for some it was the focus on the cross ... for me it has to be this one ...
Before we ended there was reassurance that even after 3 years of studying theology there are many many many questions still unanswered and will remain unanswered but as I said before we all can get to know God better and step forward on the journey.
I Look forward to next week and chatting more about God ... as ever if there are others in the parish who would like to join us on our journey of knowing God ... you would be more than welcome - chapter 1 next week :-)
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