Bible 101 Catch Up

Hey everybody! I'm finally posting up the slides from the last three lessons...as well as the rest of the slides. These slides will undergo a reorder and touch up before I do this series again, though. I think I've settled on a different order of the lessons that makes more sense.

Here are some quick summaries of the last three lessons:

Bible Languages and Translations

In this lesson we talked about how the words of the biblical authors get to us from them writing the original in Greek or Hebrew to us reading it in English. We discussed textual criticism and how experts look at many manuscripts form the last two thousand years to come up with what the originals looked like. We also talked about how various English translations differ based on which critical texts they translated from, and their method of translation. Some translations take a more word for word or literal approach, while others take a more thought for thought approach. Both approaches have theirs pros an cons my personal recommendation is to have at least two tranlsations that cover both. No translation is perfect.

Bible Study Tools and Methods

In short, their are LOTS of tools out there to help you understand and apply the Bible to your life. Just be aware that these tools are human made and are capable of mistakes and biases.

The Inspiration and Authority of the Bible

Christians are often accused of using circular reasoning to defend our beliefs that the Bible is the inspired. I think it is true that we cannot prove with observable facts what we believe. However, it is not unreasonable. If we believe the gospel of Jesus we have to accpet the gospel accounts of his life as at least true and historiclaly accurate. Once we do that, we see that they tell us Jesus believed that the OT was the inspired and authoritative This lays the foundation for what we believe.

Here are the slides: http://www.sendspace.com/file/exf0tv

Help

As you guys know, Texas suffered quite a hit this weekend due to hurricane Ike. One of our close friends Lindsey, Shaun and Rylan (6 months old) lost everything. Their home had 6-8 feet of water in it when the surge hit. They also had their vehicle in their garage and lost that as well. They are such a sweet family who loves the Lord and trusts he will take care of them. I was hoping we could help them get back on their feet. Has it been a while since you cleaned out your closets? They lost all of their clothes, shoes, work clothes, baby blankets, crib sheets, baby toys, basically anything you can imagine. She is a 6th grade math teacher and he is a high school principal. If you feel like cleaning out your closet and donating any clothes or baby items you can bring them to church with you and I'll make sure they get them.
Her sizes:
M-L shirt
8-10 pants
6 shoe

His sizes:
L shirt
33, 34 pants
11.5 shoes

Baby clothes:
he is going to need 9-12 month clothes or bigger. he also lost all toys, blankets, etc.

If something doesn't fit them I know they will give the items to another needy family. Their entire town (Bridge City) was lost in the surge.

Thanks so much!

HomeBuilder Happenings

Thank you so much for the donations guys. We were able to donate 18 baskets worth over $600 dollars to the mission trip silent auction. Pretty amazing right?

We were also able to donate 2 boxes to the soldiers for spread the light.

Guys night is this Wednesday at 6:30 at Antonio's Tex Mex restaurant. Guys feel free to meet up for dinner and enjoy manly conversation while eating yummy food.

Also, we are celebrating both Judah and Casey's birthday this coming up Saturday. Dinner and dessert will be provided so please come and celebrate with us. It'll be at the Birch's home around 5:30. Email us for directions.

The Toddlers Bible

Hi, I mentioned to some of you about the great Bible my mom got for Lydia. Most kid's Bibles have too many words on a page or the pictures look silly...This one is called The Toddlers Bible by V. Gilbert Beers (yes its a paraphrase not a translation:) FaithKidz, Cook Communications Ministries. Its for kids from 1-3 and she loves it. All the stories are 4 pages long.
If anyone else has one they like you should comment on this post.
Thanks-Elizabeth

family commitement & domestic support

We continued discussing a list of His 5 largest emotional needs and Her 5 largest emotional needs. We finished talking about Family Commitment. Here are some things group members suggested during our discussion
How can we show our spouse our family commitment?

• Don't undermine the others authority, specifically Husbands make sure to support what the wife has decided if she is the one at home all day with the kids.
• It makes it easier to both be involved in the development if the course of action is decided on in agreement between the two of you. If it is all just one persons idea, the other is disinclined to help.
• Take care of the family in other ways too, not just domestic... wills, insurances, etc - family decisions that she for what ever reason can't or doesn't want to do.

What makes our spouses feel like we do not have family commitment?

• When we give our time to anything else, even normal work sometimes.
• When we make our spouses feel bad for working (this was said specifically about working mothers, but I think wives also make husbands feel guilty for working sometimes).
• If mothers stay home and a husband suggests that it would be better if she worked so they could have more money, making the mother seem unvalued.
  

Next we talked about His need for "Domestic Support" - loosely defined as 'he has a need for comfortable home, and needs his spouse to be supportive in that area'
We only got as far as to hear from Guys in the room about whether or not it was truly a need of theirs and I think it was a clear Yes. We agreed that we wanted our homes to be places of rest and refuge, especially right after work (which is typically when we are called on to take over for the mother). Women also, obviously, would like some domestic support, so here again is an example of how it is a felt need of both spouses. Men just typically rank it much higher on their list of needs than women do. According to his research this author says that men would typically give up affection, conversation, openness and honesty, as well as financial support and family commitment to have a spouse that provided domestic support. We also mentioned that men need to remember the other forms of "domestic support" that may wives provide, not just house stuff, things like keeping up with family members for us, doing the cordial stuff like RSVPin, thankyou cards and birthday cards, wedding presents, things that makes our household better, more hospitable and respected by others. We will pick up on this topic in a few weeks, and continue up the lists.

Here is some interesting reading. The first one, pay attention to the graph, which shows that historically men are doing heeps more work than they use to, and women are doing less than they use to. And, now the increase in work from single to married is about the same for men and women, women just already did alot more work to begin with while single. Also, since I still have access to most of UT's online library I looked up the original publication and I was surprised to find out that almost everything that men typically do around the house wasn't considered "housework", namely house maintenance and repair, yard work, and car repair & maintenance, which I kind of feel helps maintain the home so should have been included.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080403191009.htm
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070827174300.htm

Admiration/family commitment

Ok, so we started discussing his & her five most important needs. Remember the loss of these needs, according to this author, is what leads to distance, lack of fulfillment and ultimately divorce. Here is the authors website if you care: http://www.marriagebuilders.com/graphic/mbi3300_needs.html

The his list is
1. sexual fullfillment, 2 recreational companionship, 3 attractive spouse, 4 domestic support, 5 admiration.
Her list is:
1. affection, 2 conversation/communication, 3 openness and honestly, 4 financial commitment, 5 family commitment.

We discussed that the order might switch around for some people, for example #2 seemed too high on the list for some guys, 5 too low. I am kind of shocked myself that this author says women need money (4) more than family commitment (5)... some women might reorder their list too, but we are going to discuss them in this order for simplicity.

Notes from today: We camped out on "admiration" alot, perhaps too much. Some thoughts about it that people in the class brought out:

• It does need to be verbal , and criticisms limited.
  
• It isn't the same as "respect" or even "appreciation" - it's much simpler.
  
• These needs are interconnected, if he is going to provide the financial & family commitment needs, he wants some admiration for that role.
• Yes, women have a need to be admired & appreciated, though this author says it is much less than the need men have, but it is important to note that these "needs" are not owned exclusively by one spouse.
  
• Admiration doesn't need to be for when things are done "perfect" - you can admire effort, willingness, attempt, thoughts, ideas, integrity, honesty, commitment.... not just jobs well done.
  
• We seemed to equate - and this is my fault - the need for admiration to the needs for self worth. I would say that if a man had the strongest self image possible - he would still be tempted to gravitate away from a spouse who did not full fill this kind of need. God can give him self-worth, but he still has a need to be admired by his spouse for that worth!
  

We began talking about "Family Commitment": here are initial thoughts and questions for next time.

• Women agreed that this was a true need.
  
• Women often carry the burden for the development of the kiddos, they need husbands to be as committed to it as they are.
  
• The synopsis I read says women want men to take a leadership role in the development of the kiddos, but it seemed to me that many ladies said the need was more for support of what they were doing - I'm interested in discussing these two situations.
• ? for next week - What gets in the way from women feeling fullfilled in this need? - guys and girls might have different answers. What are suggestions for men to DO to let the wives see their commitment?

Other comments: There is a tendency to say 'but what about me' or try to find out 'why do they need that' - We possibly talked too much about "why" men want admiration instead of "how" to lovingly fulfill that need. Also, while it is most certainly true that God meets our needs I would caution us that unless we address "how" that can lead us to feeling like "well - it isn't ultimately my job to do those things" when in fact it most certainly is. Take other needs, such as physical needs, God can certainly provide those to people, but it is most often done through others, and it is often up to us to do so. Interestingly reading the new testament we are told that meeting the physical needs of the poor is paramount to serving God himself, when we DO something to meet any need, God is involved through us whether it is a spiritual, emotional or physical need. Now, emotional needs are just as profound and God graciously meets them through other people. Be careful that the "get it from God" doesn't just equal fasting... fasting of course is a great spiritual discipline and Paul even talks about abstaining from sex to devote yourself to prayer (very much as fasting from a basic need) - but fasting forever has ... well.. negative consequences. My point is: yes, God ultimately provides for our needs... and he has provided a spouse to do so.

SplashJam will take place at Elizabeth Milburn Park on Sunday, August 31 from 1 to 8 pm. Their will be live music, swimming, games, prizes, and fireworks. Admission is $3 for adults and $1 for children (pool admission is seperate). The park is located at 1901 Sun Chase Blvd. The pool has slides and other water activities. It looks like it would be a lot of fun for the kids.

• Oak Hill United Methodist Church is hosting their Annual Summer Jam next Saturday, August 23 from 5 to 8 pm. Bands from local churches will be performing. Their will be barbecue and activities for the kids as well. The tickets are $10 for adults and $7 for children. Bring a lawn chair and a swim suit. The church is located at 7815 Hwy 290 West. This sounds like a good Christian family event.