Tribal People

Today in Romans we dug into the rest of chapter 1. I can't even explain how much I'm learning. We had some discussion groups about whether or not people who have never heard the gospel can go to heaven. We actually had a debate about it, which caused me to think a lot about the topic. Obviously, since I want to go into missions, I've thought a lot about this subject before, but we talked about what others say who might disagree with us and how we are to respond to them. We used the Bible to defend and used verses that we had heard defend both sides...which was a neat approach. It really helps you to think about what the BIBLE says, not just what you THINK it says, but what it really is saying. Basically, it's going to take a LOT more time going through verses and figuring out how to defend the truth of the Bible. It's so crazy to me that people have such different opinions, too! But I'm learning a lot.

I've been working today preparing for a timed essay I have to take tomorrow. I am SO grateful for my teachers and the time that they put into deciding what assignments to give us. All of our assignments are extremely beneficial; there's no busy work at this school. It's really nice to have assignments that cause us to really think about what we are learning and take everything back to the Bible. I am so fortunate to go to a school that does that. Anyways, this essay is basically on the believer and how believers in America make their decisions typically. These decisions are all over the board from what to do with their lives, to who they date and marry. We are also writing about what we think about people and change and how relationships work. It's been interesting to evaluate the "American Christian" worldview on these issues and then try to back them up with the Word...or to see that you can't back it up with the Word and a lot is just influenced by culture. We live in a "Christian nation" with "Christian" ordeals, yet we have little Biblical basis for the way we make decisions...as a whole I mean. Anyways, it's interesting to be learning and to be seeing for myself.

You know what else is totally crazy to me? We have truth in creation, but we reject it. We HAVE truth. Yet we don't want to believe it and we suppress it or cause it to be suppressed in others. This is what we focused on in Romans today. And in a way it almost baffles my mind. So many times I read those verses about someone else, but really, I have that too. Yes, I have more than that, praise be to God, but I have truth in creation as well. I don't know, but there are definitely a lot of sobering thoughts from that book. But now I must leave you all to go and do some homework. :)