Greek Days...

Well, I'm one of the only guys I know that has a Greek life that doesn't include some sort of fraternity. Last semester I took what was probably the most involved course I have ever taken - Elementary Greek. I'm currently on the 6 year plan at Southern Baptist Seminary in KY (online). I love languages, and this was the strangest one yet. For the first time it's a non-Latin language (besides English I guess) which means I get to learn new letters and sentence structure. I'm still an apron strings novice, but I am beginning to see the payoff for delving into this.

I also think it is funny that because of the nature of the course, I haven't been taught how to say "where is the bathroom?" or "what time is it?" like in a Spanish course. But I guess if I were ever in Greece I could walk up to someone, and in a language that must sound the way that an Amish American speaks in terms of outdatedness, ask them "do you know the Lord of heaven who by his love has cleansed his children of all unrighteousness?" hahaha, good conversation starter.

We have just started going through 1 John, and I must admit that it has been refreshing to look at the passage from the original language. Things seem to come out that are harder to express in English. John literally writes in verse 5 of chapter 1 "and we proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness nothing/nowhere" with a double negative that is not taboo or contradictory in the Greek language, but instead is emphatic as to how holy God is.

Also in verse 6, as John says "if we say that we have fellowship with him and we walk in the darkness, we are lying and don't do the truth." Really challenging to look at and examine the truth as something we don't just believe, but are called to perform and be a part of, and to be in the truth or not being an active choice that we make.

I look forward to going on in 1 John, I've only accomplished 10 verses so far :). What an exciting and refreshing reminder that the message of God long pre-dates me, and will long outlive me, spanning languages and cultures I have never even seen.