A Little History...

For the past seven weeks I've been taking Western Civilization. I'm not much of a history-buff, probably because I've never really had a very good teacher, so I've never really learned a lot. This year is different. I've got one of the hardest professors here at Houghton, but you know what? ...I am learning a lot, and that's what this is about. There are a few things that worry me about this class regarding my grade and how that will affect my GPA, therefore, affecting whether or not I keep the scholarships I need to maintain to stay here. That's uncomfortable, but as I wrestle with this, I know that I am here to learn, and I am learning a lot in this class...more than I ever have before. Anyway, we just started learning about the rise of Christianity. This is a really captivating topic for me. Today we talked about the bible, and how the books that we read in the bible today, actually made it there. It's so interesting how they determined what books were the "canon" and which ones were not. It's amazing how the Romans deliberated and argued for centuries about whether Revelations should be a part of the bible, and even Hebrews and 2 & 3 John. Many books were dismissed...but all the ones we know today made it through. How did this happen? ...It is said that these deliberations and arguments about what books should be a part of the canon was guided by the Holy Spirit. Is it any wonder? Of course it was! It's just so fascinating for me to learn about the oringinal documents that have been passed down from generation to generation, in which now sits on my desk right next to me. The following reading is from my western civilization textbook. When I was reading it for homework one day...I was just very fascinated.


"Christianity grew slowly in the first century, took root in the second, and had spread widely by the third. Why was Christianity able to attract so many followers? Historians are not really sure but have offered several answers. Certainly, the Christian message had much to offer the Roman world. The promise of salvation, made possible by Jesus' death and resurrection, had immense appeal in a world full of suffering and injustice. Christianity seemed to imbue life with a meaning and purpose beyond the simple material things of everyday reality. Second, Christianity was not entirely unfamiliar. It could be viewed as simply another eastern mystery religion, offering immortality as the result of the sacrificial death of a savior-god. At the same time, it offered advantages that the other mystery religions lacked. Jesus had been a human figure, not a mythological one. Moreover, Christianity had universal appeal. It was not restricted to men. Furthermore, it did not require a difficult or expensive initiation rite as other mystery religions did. Christianity gave new meaning to life and offered what the Roman state religions could not--a personal relationship with God. Finally Christianity fulfilled the human need to belong.
Christians formed communities bound to one another in which people could express their love by helping each other and offering assistance to the poor, sick, widows, and orphans. Christianity proved attractive to all classes. The promise of eternal life was for all." Western Civilization, Spielvogel

Cool, huh? One more thing that I learned today during my professor's lecture was about the paper that these scriptures were written on, the pages bound together to create the bible as we know it today. The scriptures were not just written on any ordinary paper, but extremely expensive paper...paper that they only used for extremely important documentation. They knew that the canon was important. They knew that these words held good news for the world, and for the rest of time on earth. That's pretty incredible. My bible is the real deal. The same words that brought hope to people in Rome, brings hope and encouragement to me today...now that's cool.

Giving Grace Freely

This has been one crazy week. Homecoming was this weekend, and I have never seen a school so prepared and fired up before. My Thursday night, Friday and Saturday were pretty much booked all the way through; something was going on at every moment of the day. It was a lot of fun to be a part of Houghton's 125th Anniversary. I've been taking today off to rest, like usual, but I am worn out. It's going to be hard to "catch up" on sleep if you know what I mean. Anyway, there was a lot of stuff that happened for homecoming and everything that I could blog about today, but I really just wanted to tell you about a lesson I learned this week.

This week, I learned exactly what it means to give grace. I've given grace before, but for some reason it was much harder this time around. This week I was challenged to give grace in a way I've never had to before, and it was a real challenge. But to truly give grace is always hard, isn't it? Or is it? I think the more we become like Christ, the easier we find it for us to gracious. Naturally, it is very hard to give others grace, no doubt, but this process doesn't come easily because we're not Jesus. We need to study, learn, and follow Jesus in order to start to take on His ways and act like Him. I learned this week that in the hardest times...the times where a person or group of people repeatedly disappoint you, the times you find it hardest to forgive, the times where you find yourself surrounded by the lies of another person...these are the times where true grace shines brightest. When I looked up the word 'grace' in the dictionary, I found many varying definitions. One that stuck out to me read: "divine love and protection bestowed freely on people". That's a good definition. But that forced me to look up the word 'divine' which was defined as "of or pertaining to God; extremely good, unusually lovely". Grace is extremely good love, that of God, which is bestowed freely on people. Wow. That's an even better definition. This week I was taught how to do that, I learned how to give grace...not because I had to, but because I wanted to.

I wanted to be a child of God, mimicking His ways. My heart hurt, but I needed to move beyond that, and it required a strength beyond my own. What was interesting when I looked up the definition for grace, there was a second part of the definition that is so obvious, yet disregarded by many, even myself. It read: "grace: an excellence or power granted by God". That is probably the most important part of grace. The fact is that we can't do this act without God's power. It isn't our nature to give grace, mercy, or to forgive. When we do it, we do it because God gives us the strength and the power. Most importantly, we do it because God gives us grace everyday. I think that's what stuck out most to me, the fact that I should give grace freely because I get grace freely. It took a while, but I finally realized that it was something I wanted to do. If it meant being like Christ, adopting His ways, living like Jesus did, then I was all in. It was dumb not to do something just because it was hard. . .it was because it was hard that I knew I needed to do it. The way Jesus lived wasn't easy, which leads me to believe that all the things that I instictively want to shy away from, are probably the things I should be facing head on.

This week I learned how to give grace, and I don't regret it at all, although it's still hard to do on a daily basis, I am learning. I can't forget that I am given grace every day by a God who doesn't have to, but chooses to.