The Word.
Last night I went to my weekly Nav Bible study. This week we were studying verses related to the topic "The Word": 2 Timothy 3:16 and Joshua 1:8. For each verse, as I think I mentioned in a previous entry, we read the surrounding text to get a better idea of the context of each verse and then discuss the verses' implications. While we were discussing 2 Timothy 3:16 last night, I thought of a really cool metaphor.

The Word
2 Timothy 3:16

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.

So, we were talking about the significance of the order in which the 4 benefits of Scripture were listed. One of the girls in my study suggested that she thought it was odd for training to fall after rebuking and correcting.... when this popped into my head.

The order makes sense to me because you can view the usefulness of the Bible in the same way you view the usefulness of the classes we take here at college....
* Step 1: We go to class for the professor's lectures where he TEACHES us the material.
* Step 2: Then we're given homework or a quiz in which we get a chance to act on what we've been taught. The professor then REBUKES us for our mistakes when he grades this quiz or homework.
* Step 3: Next we have to go back on our own and see what we did wrong and CORRECT our mistakes and the way we approach the material in the future.
* Step 4: Finally, we have to TRAIN ourselves by studying and practicing, embedding the appropriate processes/material into our minds so that it becomes 'instinct'.

Its so easy to just stop after looking at the grade we get back from the homework and not worry about it until test time; but if we skip the intermediate steps of correcting our mistakes and training ourselves in the correct methods, then we won't be sufficiently prepared when it comes time for the test.

Rank Brunch etc.
Today, I cooked brunch for my rank in the MVs. The menu was pancakes, bacon, and scrambled eggs, plus some fruits and a wide selection of milk and juice. I'll be the first to admit that I'm not the most TALENTED in the kitchen. I'm not the worst cook either, but I usually am not the most efficient when it comes to getting a meal cooked. Anyway, this was the largest group of people I've ever even thought about cooking for (with a grand total of 10 mouths to feed), so when I went to kroger to buy the ingredients I had a hard time predicting how much stuff I'd need. So I bought what seemed like A TON of food: One large box of bisquick, 30 eggs, 2 packs of bacon (i think each had about 15-20 slices), 1 quart of whole milk, 1 quart of 1% milk, 1 quart of chocolate milk, 1 jug of pulp-free OJ, and 1 jug of 'medium pulp' OJ.... 2 boxes of strawberries, 2 boxes of blueberries, a thing of butter, and a jug of Aunt Jemima's Maple Syrup (I accidently picked up the 'lite' bottle instead of original... DOH... oh well it still tasted fine). We made about 4 batches of the pancake mix, used 15 eggs for the scrambled eggs, and one pack of bacon. But everything seemed to be eaten pretty well... I bought way too much bacon, but most everything else was mostly used up.... I left with a little bit left in each of the milks and OJ's, but not much.... I have about a half dozen eggs now, about a quarter of the box of bisquick and both of my boxes of blueberries... apparently nobody likes that fruit.

Even though I started off a little rough on the first set of pancakes, everything turned out really well and at least the stuff I had tasted quite good if I might say so.... I might have to make some more pancakes some weekend for myself..... AND I did manage to not burn down Vinny's apartment, so that's always a plus.

Anyway, tomorrow starts the 4th week of the semester and tests are most definitely on the way (though I had my first one on Wednesday). I'm really enjoying my classes this year (you know, as much as one can enjoy Classes); its really cool to be learning specifics (FINALLY) on how these things work. In high school, I was in this elective at one of my schools called "Aerodynamics"; in this class, we had to design, build, and test fly a wing design. The program we used to select the airfoil (or cross-sectional) shape of the wing gave us all these really pretty plots that we all used in our final project display, but none of us really understood what they really meant. Well, in my aerodynamics class now, I'm learning how to derive the formulae to make those plots and what it all means! I think that's really exciting.

Band is going really well. The horn section is a blast as usual. Check out the horn webpage I put together for this year.... www.mvhorns.org.vt.edu


In Nav's this year, our Bible study is focusing on the TMS (Topical Memory System). Each week we learn about 2 verses that follow a certain topic. For the first part of the study the verses relate to the "Nav Wheel". This is an illustration that uses a wheel. At the center (the hub) is Christ (hence the first topic = "Christ the Center". Then the two vertical spokes are dealing with our relationship with God: Prayer and God's Word. The two horizontal spokes deal with our relationships with others: Witnessing and Fellowship. Then the rim represents our obedience to Christ: this is putting everything into action in our lives. Each of the topics (the hub, the 4 spokes, and the rim) have 2 related verses. Then we'll go onto similar types of sets of verses. As we learn the verses we read the surrounding text to get an idea of the context and stuff like that...

That's what's going on in my life though....