CBS

That's Community Bible Study, not the tv station.

Imagine meeting with 15 other people who came from a potential pool of 21 different churches than the one you attend, to discuss 1 Timothy 1 which begins to address the matter of "false doctrines," but with one catch: no church names can be mentioned out loud, and you don't know which person comes from what background.

--giggle--

Sounds like a dream, doesn't it? Well this morning it was reality for me.

--giggle--

We spent a good 15 minutes of that hour just discussing my absolute favorite pet-topic, grace vs. law.

Now, I've been going to this study for a couple months or more and I think I have spoken out loud like, three times in many more sessions. The reason is that all of them with the exception of one, happens to be either two or thee times my age, and, they are so much more articulate and wise than I am.

I heard two of the most common attitudes about the law, that it just means the ten commandments, and, that the law helps us to get saved. I then decided to quote from memory a couple of verses and then said that I thought it was opposed to both salvation and sanctification, and backed it up with a couple more. I started to breathe hard because I was so invigorated. Dear me.

Gosh, I'm such an idiot. I absolutely must get over myself. But... I could tell I had a few of them provoked to think differently.

The problem is that I am still way, way too excited to discuss this stuff with others. Three of them said to me afterwards, "It's really neat what you said; I can tell that you know your scriptures really well." I denied that I knew them all that much and then confessed the truth of the matter: "Because I did study for awhile in isolation, I just love the thought of sharing in the midst of a variety of people to know that I am reading my bible the same way everyone else is. I kinda need that verification." It was enough at the minimum to get out of the compliment mode, which makes me uncomfortable. I know if they knew what I knew about myself they wouldn't see me as fit for the compliment.

Regarding the next time we meet, if I can just calm my little self down in some way that will work, I might get away with nobody discovering how much I really am an idiot. Then I would have a lot more fun on an already fun day.

CBS is perfect where BSF was almost so. BSF is exactly the same format and rules as CBS is; interdenominational bible study. The only difference is, they won't watch babies, so, I switched, about three months ago. I wrote a smallish treatise against this policy which I shared on my myspace blog because, yes, it is way way too long for most people to endure. I put the junkiest stuff over there.

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=88830241&blogID=213276474&MyToken=c82d72b5-ccb2-403b-ac16-7ee777a3757a