Hebrew Bible and Christian Scriptures

In two of my undergrad classes and in one course at Truett I have had professors assign the task of pretending that something historically noteworthy did not happen or that someone did not exist as it is traditionally understood.  For example, I was asked to imagine in research format what the future of the church would have been if Benedict had not been born.  This often requires more intense investigation and reflection than direct study.  This was an interesting experiment for me as a class discussion direction when I taught Baptist history for Howard Payne as my internship experience. As I reread Genesis, some of the most familiar and some of my favorite passages, I am using this technique to look at the narratives in a different light.    What if Cain had simply turned away from God and the family instead of killing his brother?  What if Abram had not acknowledged God’s sovereignty and had refused to “sacrifice” his son?   What if Isaac had resisted fought his father and turned away from God in anger? This can be enlightening and frustrating but it allows me to consider God’s timing, creativity and force me to look at more difficult issues such as election and the preordained sovereign presence of a God I do not completely understand.

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I'm here. Currently, most of the furniture just arrived at my cottage, so I'm staying with John and Sheila until everything is delivered and set. We should be ready for me tomorrow. Then I move down the street into my very own cute little 'cottage'. I'll post pictures, but as of now, I still haven't even seen it! They wanted to surprise me with it furnished.

Travels went well. I met a girl on my flight from Philly to Boston who knows Nick Deere, a friend from Baylor-- totally odd! Then, I made friends with the girl next to me on the long flight from Boston to Dublin and is tudying abroad in Spain. So now I have someone to visit in Spain! I did struggle a bit with the whole getting all of my silly luggage down to the train. But I didn't go through customs! I went through immigration in Ireland, but not in the UK. Kind of made me wonder why I bothered worrying about and getting the visa...

Now we're off for sheila to show me around Stokesley--I'm pumped to see the library! Apparently it's very close to my house :)