Blown away...

by what was taught in the past 2 days. I'll try to give a snippet and hopefully through my limited expression and notes in point form in the english language, my dear friends at home will be able to know what I've been learning...

Titus by Stuart Allen

1Paul,

a servant of God

and an apostle of Jesus Christ,

for the sake of the faith of God’s elect

and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness,

2 in hope of eternal life,

which God,

who never lies,

promised before the ages began

3and at the proper time manifested in his word

through the preaching

with which I have been entrusted

by the command of God our Savior;

- Why do you think Paul wrote such a detailed introduction to his letter to Titus? What is the main point he is making here?
- The colors match and you can see what's sandwiched stands out...
- Eternal life is at stake!
- The reason behind Paul's calling >> the future hope
- Pursuit of greater good in future, hence present denial

Tuesday Gobbets on Mark (Intro to Mark) by Robin Sydseff
- Learn Mark off by heart, know the rhythm of it, so when you're on tube/mrt, you'll be thinking/pondering over it
- The Gospel books, not just evangelistic tools for non-Christians, also written for Christians (training/discipleship)
- Challenges
(i) Familiarity, most often congregation switches off, people won't be able to tell difference between Mark & John, only that it is about Jesus, the Gospels are the least understood
(ii) Getting a line on the different Gospels - John (evangelism...signs, discourses), Luke (assurance to Theophilus, tonic to the Christian soul), Mark (Messianic secret, centurion's statement is high point "You are the Christ" 15:29, and training)
(iii) Constructing a coherent series - summary titles in bibles have no coherence to the book/rhythm
(iv) Teaching the Gospels to Christians - as well as to non-Christians
(v) Tough literary genre - parables, narratives, discourses, prophesy, miracles....need to switch gears and get the rhythm right
- 4:38 Mark's unique...disciple's fear mentioned. How many times we say "God doesn't care". Reality is sometimes that it's not calmed...got to address it
- 4:39 Jesus saying "Be still!", in Greek is term associated with exorcising, thus we see the waves in a different light, one associated with evil, since you only exorcise evil. Application: Jesus' inactivity doesn't mean he doesn't care!
- Power of nature meets power of God. Storm which could have killed them, the fishermen knew that since all experienced fishermen would have known what kind of storm they could steer away from.
- Don't forget Mark's key contribution! Get back into text!

Doctrine by Tim McMahon
Developing and Teaching Doctrine
- What's doctrine? categories, articulate, how the bits come together
- A human activity with a Divine purpose
(a) Constant reformation...never going to be able to sum up, constantly reviewing
(b) Bible vs Gospel...knowledge of Bible and knowledge of God...heart relationship base on content, can have knowledge but no heart, knowledge which affects life compared to just facts >> anyone can immediately pick out the difference
- our framework needs to be changed by the Word
- The Purpose of studying doctrine.
(a) To inform how we worship God....people's doctrine of God determines how they engage/relate to him (it), consider Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaeo-Christian
(b) To inform our understanding of Blibical texts (a recursive relationship with doctrine - one changes the other)...strangely for a person who has an abusive father, still have an innate understanding of what an unabusive father is like...all due to us being made in the image of God
(c) To inform our gospel preaching (largely doctrinal in evangelical circles recently)
(d) To inform how we live

Trinity
- The nature of God....a philosophical matter?
- Propositional statements about God...look at "God is light", you won't think much about it, but read up 1 John 1:5-7; 2:9-11; 2:18-19...."God is light" is in the relational context, fellowship, loving others
- Don't need exhaustive to have complete knowledge of God. Eg, marriage relationship, will we ever know spouse completely? No. Does it stop us from wanting to know more? No. What God has revealed enables us to have a deep, profound relationship with him.
- Teaching Trinity...recognise the limitations of models to explain Trinity, failure of physical/mathematical models but the relational model of marriage works. Pictures of liquid/ice/steam or egg/yolk/white, all fail because it's not relational. Need relational terms like marriage to describe the unity in Trinity or family terms. Eg, insult wife, husband insulted, or children praised, father is happy but is not in the limelight though he is the one who has brought them up.
Problem comes when equality comes into picture, but equality is not blibical. There's submission and authority, but people have problems with those words in the 21st century, the inadequacy of language. Read Bible, read with picture of Trinity, us being brought into the Trinity relationship which is one of joy and agreement with one another. Amazing!
- Next week is Christology, SO exciting!!!

Deuteronomy by Christopher Ash
Deuteronomy 4:21-31 why religion is wrong (why grace works)
v21 angry theme...Lord angry with Moses
v24 God is a consuming fire [good healthy jealousy, all or nothing God]
(1) consumes & burns up those not loyal to him (DANGER)
(2) if we're loyal, enemies will be consumed (SAFETY)

A. Idolatry scatters the Church (v21-28)
v25 I create the god I'm worshipping....projection of me
Theological: If 2 individuals create god, bound to be scattering, conflict, etc
B. Grace gathers the Church (or God gathers the Church by his word of grace) (v29-31)
v29 from there = place of scattering/from exile/from place where taste bitter fruit of suffering
v30 will return = repent
Theological ques: How does Moses know that some of them will repent/turn back?
Ans: because God swore the promise to Abraham so they will return. Gospel of grace Moses preached.

- land = rest
- what does it mean to "take the land"? Believe in the promise/faith. Unbelief hence didn't enter the land. We're not in the rest now.
- Deut = about faith, not legalism. Believe and hence live out your loyalty to God.

Conclusion: Post-modern doesn't care about church scattering, but mention family breakdowns, disharmony, they'll understand. And when they see changed lives, they'll be amazed.

Changed lives, changed hearts are all God's work! We couldn't do it even if we tried really hard. God's grace teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions. Let's consider what they means in each of our lives...
Titus 2: 11For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. 12It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, 13while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, 14who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.

Still not snowing...

but it did frost in the early part of Dec as shown above.

There was also mist on Christmas eve, to my surprise.

Review of 1st term at Cornhill

With the 1^st years, we went through…..

2 Timothy (Christopher Ash)

Bible Basics (Stuart Allen)

session 1: The Law

session 2: The Former Prophets

session 3: The Latter Prophets

session 4: The Writings

session 5: The Gospels

session 6: The Acts and Letters

Principles of Expository Preaching (David Jackman)

What kind of book is the Bible? (Nigel Styles)

Ministry Topics: (Christopher Ash)

- Who decides what the Bible means?

- Why do Christians meet?

- What kind of leadership do churches need?

- The blessings of Expository Ministry, “The Whole Counsel of God” (Acts 20:27) Planning Bible Teaching Programmes, Study Resources for Bible Teaching, Putting the talk together, Getting the talk across

- Christmas Speaking Opportunities

Pastoral Topics: women and men in Christian service (Christopher Ash & Carrie Saddom)

Gobbet Groups: 1 Tim, Luke, Acts, Deut, Malachi (Stuart Allen)

Exodus (David Jackman)

Pastoral Topics: Thinking Blibically about Christian meetings & buildings (Mark Ashton)

Carol Services (Christopher Ash)

Pastoral Topics: Contemporary Culture ‘Where in the World Are We?’ (Mark Maynell)

With the 2^nd years, we went through….

Romans 1-5 (Christopher Ash)

Principles of Exposition – Epistles (David Jackman)

Principles of Exposition – Gospels (David Jackman)

Principles of Exposition – Prophesy (David Jackman)

Malachi (Lee Gatiss)

Revelation (John Richardson)

Women’s Stream….

Recovering Blibical womanhood (Carrie Saddom)

Godly Women, Godly Beauty, Godly Speech, Godly in Good Deeds (Caroline West)

Blibical Womanhood at Work, ‘Careering out of control’ The pressures on working women today (Carrie Saddom)

Training women to serve, Encouraging Women into ‘Full-time’ Ministry (Jane Leggett)

Women in cross cultural mission (Genevieve Jennings)

Teaching children & all ages (Caroline West)

Model Expository Talk (Jane Leggett)

Evangelism with women, Evangelism strategy and programme, Teaching Women (Lizzy Smallwood & Daphne)

Model all age talk (Caroline West)

Ministry to married women (Tricia Marnham)

Leading Bible Studies (Annabel Heywood)

God’s sovereignty when things go wrong, God’s sovereignty and human responsibility (Carrie Saddom)

Issues women face, addressing pastoral issues (Caroline West)

Ministering to Singles, Single in ministry (Jane Leggett)

How did God us these women in their situations? (Carolyn Ash)

WOW! After I’ve reviewed what I’ve learnt, it’s a lot! Some may have doubt it since it’s a non-certificated course. But a lot of my school-mates will testify that it’s a really intensive course and stress at times, as our 5min gobbet, 7min exposition & 20min talks are like our exam dates. And the preparation for each will be 2.5hrs, 3.5hrs and 10hrs respectively. And besides that, you’ll need to spread out those hours, because it’s unlikely you’ll be able to think of the big idea (ie, forming 1 sentence of 10 or less words) in a day from the passage you’re studying. You’ll need to ponder and I struggle a lot with my sin and my background spectacles I read it with, keeping in mind that there’s the impact of the letter at those ancient times, and aim to handle God’s word aright and teach it correctly, especially teaching it to myself and often my mind gets blown by the treasures found and how it all clicks together. 5min gobbet’s audience is a mix group of 12, 7min exposition’s audience is the whole class of 50, 20min talk’s audience is 3 women school-mates. Every session there’s at least 1 teacher around supervising.

I get feedback from teachers and also fellow school-mates who assess what I’ve said based on context, content and whether teaching points came from the passage. I get encouragements too to trust in the Holy Spirit to do the work in men’s hearts and just keep praying.

Aside from that, there's the weekly homework to do. For example, this morning we can be given homework to read the 10 plagues in Exodus tonight, and the next morning we have to discuss about it. Phew! Keeps you on your toes and doing the work is really beneficial, because it helps the discussions we have with each other. Of course, there'll be some of us who can't get homework done because we're busy with ministry/church matters. How good it is to be able to spur each other on and sharpen each other.

Did I mention how humble my teachers are? They are all grasping God’s grace and teach with such quiet confidence, holding out God’s word for us to understand and heed, to follow our Lord Jesus for the rest of our lives till He returns! And they allow others to challenge them, to sharpen each other and they are always learning, knowing that though they may teach currently what it means at 45 years old, God may correct them when they’re 70 years old and they’ll accept that it’ll happen, not thinking they know it all and close their ears. You can see God’s work in them, for they couldn’t be the person they are if not for God working in each of their lives, turning them from darkness into the light of the kingdom of His son.

Sure am looking forward to my 2^nd term!! There’s mission trip to get more exposure as we go away separate ways to help various churches around London. Hoping to get to know my school-mates better too. In total, we have 21 countries represented. I’m the only Singaporean. Other Asians include Koreans, China,….Pakistan and Uzbekistan aren’t Asian, right? There are 2 english girls, one can speak better mandarin than me, and another can speak fluent Japanese, and both plan to return to China & Japan to continue with their mission work which they left for awhile to be equipped for further work there. So encouraging! Praying that there’ll be more Asians equipped in wanting to handle God’s word aright.

Know that I promised some of you that I’ll update my blog with what I’ve learnt weekly (at least I thought I’ll try), but the time went by so fast, that alas, like some of you told me already, it’s good enough if I’m able to do it monthly =) Shall try updating monthly…

So precious is God's family...

just like our own family whether married or single. Singles do still have family which seems to be lost in conversations sometimes =) So nice to hear "how's your mom?".

Being in God's family, being able to pray for each other though physically distant from each other and our Almighty God hears us no matter where we are. That strangers can think of each other and ask God to protect them, to build them up in a Christ-like manner, and when we meet, we're like brothers and sisters cos we believe in Christ who saved us. This must sound strange to a non-believer. And the individual who's prayed for is supported by prayer and knows it, and strives onwards, trusting in God who gives us life and sustains us, and knows our every need and provides us with all we need, not want, according to His good purposes, working it all in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amazing how God designed our relationships!

Thank you to all who heard about my mom and prayed for her & me during this time. As her shingles attacked her brain nerves, it might be that she'll have to learn to cope with constant pain for the long term, though thankfully her sharp pains aren't happening every second. She's also thankful that God had mercy on her and she's learning to trust Him.

THANK YOU to all who helped me to look out and look after her, amidst your own family responsibilities (like coping with a 6 month old baby) or illness!! It really means alot to me! Showed me visually and practically what being in God's family means, sharing and bearing each other's burdens, going out of the way when we're able to, only because you all know how God demonstrated his love to you through Christ dying on your behalf, on the cross.

May we all consider how we live our lives daily, to number our days aright because we know what is at the end (Jesus' return!).