Today was our first of three fitness tests. It consisted of the following: sit-ups and push-ups for one minute each, stretching, checking pulse after three minutes of steps, weighing ourselves and ended with a 1-mile run. Definitely not something to which I was looking forward but we all did it and it was fun. Fortunately it's for our benefit and only for us to know, so...
After lunch I'll be driving some of us to pick up stuff for potluck and other supplies. This ARISE class will be helping with a church plant in Eugene so like any church member, gonna bring food for potluck. I'm still not sure what to take but maybe I'll be inspired once I'm in the store.
Now for the class stuff...
Ty was our instructor for all 6+ hours of class yesterday and he covered so much information, I'm still not sure what happened. The focus was "Who is God?" So in the landscape of The Story, this is part of Pre-Creation, or eternity past. The idea is to look at God with everything stripped away, everything meaning before He began creating angels, other worlds and finally earth and humans - the time before there was time.
In order to look at who God is, we looked at His name. In the Bible, names are characteristic of the person or places. So looking at God, He also has the name Elohim, which in Hebrew is a plural noun. There are multiple Biblical references to the plurality of God. The earliest is Gen 1:26,27 when God says "Let Us make", so God is "Us" and "We", not "I" and "me". In this plurality of God, we see an image or picture of a family unit, an image of love ("God is love") or other-centeredness (a definition of love). Combine this with what we learned on Day 1 and God's essential identity is a relational dynamic of other-centeredness.
When this class was all said and done (and I know I missed lots of info that would better explain his thought process), Ty summarized it this way: In order for LOVE to exist, there must be some OTHER to love. If God is LOVE, and LOVE is not SELF-SEEKING, then it is evident that God is a PLURALITY of personhood, a composition of Being that includes both SELF and OTHER.
Understood? Feel free to post questions and I'll ask Ty for answers. :)
After lunch I'll be driving some of us to pick up stuff for potluck and other supplies. This ARISE class will be helping with a church plant in Eugene so like any church member, gonna bring food for potluck. I'm still not sure what to take but maybe I'll be inspired once I'm in the store.
Now for the class stuff...
Ty was our instructor for all 6+ hours of class yesterday and he covered so much information, I'm still not sure what happened. The focus was "Who is God?" So in the landscape of The Story, this is part of Pre-Creation, or eternity past. The idea is to look at God with everything stripped away, everything meaning before He began creating angels, other worlds and finally earth and humans - the time before there was time.
In order to look at who God is, we looked at His name. In the Bible, names are characteristic of the person or places. So looking at God, He also has the name Elohim, which in Hebrew is a plural noun. There are multiple Biblical references to the plurality of God. The earliest is Gen 1:26,27 when God says "Let Us make", so God is "Us" and "We", not "I" and "me". In this plurality of God, we see an image or picture of a family unit, an image of love ("God is love") or other-centeredness (a definition of love). Combine this with what we learned on Day 1 and God's essential identity is a relational dynamic of other-centeredness.
When this class was all said and done (and I know I missed lots of info that would better explain his thought process), Ty summarized it this way: In order for LOVE to exist, there must be some OTHER to love. If God is LOVE, and LOVE is not SELF-SEEKING, then it is evident that God is a PLURALITY of personhood, a composition of Being that includes both SELF and OTHER.
Understood? Feel free to post questions and I'll ask Ty for answers. :)
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