T69, 70 and 71 (mon, tues, wed)

Well there we go - I made it to ten weeks! Which also means just three to go until I’m home trying to cope with slightly chillier weather!

These three days have been as action-packed as ever, and the excitement started at 5am on Monday morning. Sleepy-eyed and without coffee I headed out of the house in hunt for taxi to take me to the train station. The first taxi driver, whether by mis-communication or just because he couldn’t be bothered (I think the later, but I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt!) decided to drop me at a local small station that was closed. When I asked him to take me to the big station he just shrugged his shoulders. Thankfully within 10 minutes (and after some prayer!) another taxi driver drove down the quiet street and seemed quite pleased to take me off for my 6.30 train from Taipei. My HSR train was bound for Tainan - I think, the oldest city in Taiwan, and, I’m pretty sure at one point it was the capital city. Now its renowned for its history, and of course, the PCT Theological Seminary. I had enrolled for a lecture course, designed for ordained ministers who are continuing their study. The lectures were run by Prof. Ted Siverns, who is a guest at Tainan Theological Seminary for this year. I had met him amongst others at the PCT missionaries retreat last weekend. Ted gave five lectures on ‘The Bible and The Preacher’. Each lecture presented the depth of writing in the Bible and challenged us to think about how we might convey that and use it in our preaching. The lectures were titled, ‘Humour and the Preacher’, ‘The Child and Wonder’, ‘Drama and the Scirptures’, ‘Spirituality and the Psalms’, and then after a nights sleep, ‘Roman Power and the Parables’. The final session on Tuesday morning was Q&A and final worship - it was good to let the lungs fill with cwm rhonda, even if the sound was more like Welsh than English.

On Tuesday afternoon I headed back to Taipei to give the English Bible Study in the evening. This week focussed on 1 Peter 3:8-22. This is another inspiring (if not slightly theologically controversial!) passage, and, right in the middle is the verse ‘But in your hearts set apart Christ as LORD’. Using this for the structure of the Bible Study we discussed how this leads to us doing good (v.8-14), furthering God’s Kingdom (v.15-17), all of which is a result of believing in the Gospel (v.18-22). As well as discussing the exposition and meaning of the passage we also considered some ‘theological-style’ questions - How does God bless us when we become Christians? For this we decided it wasn’t necessarily with the things we wanted, we can’t barter with God for a new car if we become Christian. Likewise if we trust in the Gospel that doesn’t mean that suffering and struggle will go away, or that we’ll get a pay-rise etc. What it does mean is that ‘the eyes of the LORD will be on the righteous’, he will journy with us and though all things we will have a comforter, a guide and ultimately a Saviour and Redeemer. Secondly we were challenged massively by the verse 15 - ‘Always be prepared to give an answer to those who ask you to give the reason for the hope that you have’. Would you know what to say, or be brave enough to say it if someone asked you to explain your faith? If not, then you need to get yourself prepared! And finally, we get some amazing verses that explain what Jesus has done for us that lead us to do good and further God’s Kingdom - FOR Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. If you need the one sentence to be prepared to share with other people you could do a lot worse than use 1 Peter 3:18. But following this we have an intriguing passage about Jesus going and preaching (or proclaiming) to the spirits in prison who disobeyed during the time of Noah. It may seem trivial to us, but this passage is the sole Biblical text that supports the line in the Apostles’ Creed: ‘he descended into hell’. If we are to stand up and say this in church then we need to try to understand what it means. Amongst different opinions, I favour the one that suggests that Jesus, after the resurection and before he rose went into hell to proclaim victory over sin and death and those that chose sin and death. This particualr reference is to Genesis 6. Other interpretations are available, including the more Roman Catholic view of purgatory and a view that says this this was Jesus in Noah at the time of Noah (i.e. not at the time of resurrection). The later would suggest we shouldn’t say the Apostles’ Creed, but I think there is a strong arguement for the first suggestion. The only problem is that Jesus said to the criminal hanging on a cross next to him, that ‘Today I will see you in paradise’. At this point my brain starts to struggle, but I’m happy to consider that Jesus had at least two and a bit days before he needed to be ready for the resurrection - and considering how much he had got done in the previous 24 hours I don’t think anything would be too difficult for him!

Anyway, theological rambles are great, but the thrust of the passage remains - believe in the Gospel - believe in Jesus - believe that he died for your sin, and then one day you will be face to face with him and be able to ask him for the answers to the difficult questions, if you stilll want to know the answers!

In comparison, Wednesday was a quieter day, mostly spent reading and preparing a sermon to preach on Sunday. I consider it a privelege and honour to have been given the opportunity to bring God’s Word to people in a different culture to mine, and so it really is taking a bit of time to prepare (especially without the safety net of my commentaries!). In the evening we went for dinner with a couple of Elders and then gave a home service at the flat of Dr. Chen. They certainly looked after us well, and the non-Christian couple who were present have decided to come to church on Sunday, so there’s some more prayer needed for Sunday morning!

Just to finish, here’s a picture of Tainan theological seminary:

This entry was posted on 26/11/2009 at 06:16 am and is filed under Paul's diary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.