The Sojourners Class
(for the Season 2008 / 2009)
(An adult discussion group
about the Bible and our Beliefs)
(Teacher and Moderator)
Notes: Dates have
been arranged to display the latest first.
The Bible that we use is the Good News Bible published in
1976.
(That’s Pam at the end of
the table in the yellow blouse)
Pam puts a lot of effort in
class preparation and is quite happy at the popularity and participation in her
class. She invites all adults to
attend. She spent four years in college
studying the Bible and has a BA in Religion.
She knows this stuff and has an excellent presentation. We may criticize what you say but we will
not criticize you for saying it. We
have a lot of fun while we learn and talk about the Bible and our beliefs.
11/22/09
Today we discussed the
parable of the “Seed falling on the ground”.
We thought the seed represented people and we were concerned that some
people had the bad luck of falling on rock and not being able to grow. Was this fair? Someone suggested that it was the other way around. The seed represented God’s message and the
fertile ground and the rock and the thorny bushes represented people. The message that fell upon people that are
receptive took hold and flourished. It
took all the time and a lot of discussion to arrive at that conclusion.
11/15/09
Today we discussed some more
of Jesus’ miracles and what they meant.
There was one in particular that we tried to explain. Luke 11, vs. 24 thru 26 is about the return
of the evil spirit. It paraphrases that
one evil spirit will garner together others.
We concluded that this could mean that if one sinful act is permitted to
exist then others will follow. If a
person is bad in one way then it is easier for them to be bad in other
ways. (What else?)
11/08/09
Today we continued our
discussion of the Book of Mark. Mark
talks about the miracles that Jesus performed and the effect they had on the
People of that day. Some were impressed
and believed what Jesus was teaching them.
The heads of the Jewish religion and the Tax Collectors realized that
something was going on and planned to kill Jesus.
11/01/09
Today we started a new
topic. We will study the Book of
Mark. Pam suggests that the other
Gospels may have used this as a reference.
As usual we got diverted on to something else, defining evil. This took the rest of the time. Evil can be defined as the absence of good
or God’s plan since both good and evil can not exist at the same time about the
same thing. (There may be a philosophical problem with this but I hope you know
what it is that we are getting at.)
10/18/09
Today we continued our
discussion of I Corinthians Chapter 15.
We reviewed what we had said before and added a few comments. Pam added that she thought that the body did
not go to Heaven because it was filled with sin. A question was raised. Do
we think that the good part of the spirit was saved while the bad part was
disguarded? (A partial save?) Does the Bible negate this? Pam will be away next week but will return
the following week.
10/11/09
Today we showed the first
half of a movie about the life of the Apostle Paul. Pam will return next week 10/18/09.
10/04/09
Today we talked about topics
discussed in I Corinthians Chapter 15.
The resurrection of Christ, our Resurrection, the resurrection of our
body and spirit etc. There were varying
opinions from the old atoms actually get together to we are resurrected in
spirit only. Some people can really be
dogmatic about their beliefs and allow no variation from the words in the
Bible. This isn’t the case in our
class.
Pam will not be here next
week, Oct.11. We will try to show a
movie about the Life of Paul. Pam will
return on Oct. 18.
9/27/09
Today we discussed why we go
to church and a few other related topics.
9/20/09
Today is the second meeting
of our class and we had a good attendance considering some people were still on
vacation.
Pam wanted to finish up
where we left off last year. The
discussion centered around the events leading up to the crucifixion of Jesus.