Today we studied the first five books of the Bible, and took part in our cell groups. The day started off, as ever, with our Quiet Time. Again, I read through more of the book of Acts. It is often said that although the name is often given as the Acts of the Apostles, it really is much more the Acts of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is in every page of the book, and in every encounter between believers and non-believers. He teaches, speaks, guides, instructs, heals, and does so much for so many in the book. A life live for God without the Holy Spirit is a bit like having a wind-up torch, but never having it wound up. You'd be missing out on so much. After Quiet Time we met as a base to pray for the needs of a new YWAM base in Leeds, in the north of England. A couple who are wanting to start a base there came and explained the situation, and helped us pray for the main needs. It was quite good for me to be a part of this. I've known for a while that God has a plan for Leeds - a friend from university went up there after they graduated, and it seems some good work has been going on there. Then we moved on to our next lecture on The Bible. We covered the first five books of the Bible - The Law. I certainly learned a lot today, and it was great to be a part of this lecture. The speaker certainly knows his stuff, and helps us all see more clearly what the Biblw is talking about. For example, when one of the laws is talking about not boiling baby animals in their mother's milk, instead of taking this to extremes and having separate meat and dairy sections of resteraunts, we should look at the context: there were other religions around at the time the law was given which suggested that cooking in this way would magically make more food appear. The prohibition was against the magical ideas. It was also good to see how Genesis was divided - four main events, then four main people people. Most importantly, it was emphasised that how we look at the law now should be based on what Jesus said: love God and love your neighbour as yourself: so many of the Old Testament laws would still stand, but others are not as meaningful when it comes to loving God or others. I'm looking forward to tomorrow's lecture to see what else we are taught. As usual, after lunch (another nice curry), we took part in the standard Community Care activites, then I helped tidy our room in preparation for this evening's mens' small group. In small group we prayed for each other, talked about how we thought the ladies surprise evening went yesterday, and sung more worship to God. It has been yet another good day. I'm so glad i'm here to learn in this lecture phase, and am interested to see what will happen on outreach to India! Thanks for reading. Feel free to add a comment to this or any other blog entry.
