Well since I may have to present my paper in class on Thursday I better give you a heads-up on what’s coming: I have no idea… Actually I have a slight idea, a very dull flicker of light that just needs a little coaxing to reach full brightness – I hope.
Because I already wrote a lengthy bit about “The Slave,” I’m thinking I’m going to take this paper in a different direction. In all of the classes I‘ve taken with Dr. Sexson, I haven’t wrote my term paper on the ‘what I didn’t know before that I know now’ topic – I can’t remember whether the second part of that topic, ‘and what difference does it make’ has always been there, but I definitely think it’s an important second bit of criteria. Every time Dr. Sexson mentions this option I think, “yeah, I want to write on that topic, that’s a great idea for a topic.” So this time I’m going to write on that, what I didn’t know before that I know now, and what difference does it make.
I’ve been pondering many ideas and things to write about in my paper, a lot about Frye, typology, classes, levels, and stages in literature and especially the bible. I also expect this paper to get a bit personal, reveal a few bits about myself and encounters with the bible and church; how I felt then versus how I feel now. Although I certainly will not accomplish the one main assignment of this class, ‘read the entire bible,’ I have so much more biblical lit under my belt than I did before this class that I could write an entire paper on merely the titles and summaries of great biblical narratives that I had never read before. (I try fairly hard, probably too hard sometimes, to not use the word ‘just’ now, thanks Dr. Sexson. It’s really hard, j*$# as hard as not saying like, like ever other like word. Word. But there aren’t that many other words to use instead of ‘just.’ Many times I can replace it with ‘merely,’ or ‘only,’ but sometimes those just don’t sound right ;) what’s a guy to do?)
I was really excited to see our Acts movie come to life on the big screen in class today. After struggling like a short kid reaching for something on a tall shelf – which happens to me a lot too – on the first movie I did for literary criticism, I had a much better idea of how to approach this one. This go around went a lot smoother and I think the final product turned out great.
Acts was a really tricky book to tackle. As Dr. Sexson mentioned, there is a ton of stuff that happens in Acts, miracles, voyages, thousands of sermons, some death and persecution, natural disasters and phenomena and so much more! Before I open he bible for some references, in my own words, the book of The Acts of The Apostles is about all the acts, events, and ordeals the apostles go through to spread the word of Jesus Christ. The Lord gives the “Holy Spirit” to the apostles, which enables them to do miracles, heal the sick, revive the dead, give blind people their sight back, heal crippled beggars so they can walk again. And of course, when the apostles display these miracles and inform the witnesses that they happened because they have faith in the Holy Spirit and the lord Jesus Christ, people believe them, and convert. I’d probably believe them too, especially if they performed a miracle on me. Along with all these miracles the apostles give very convincing sermons wherever they go, survive horrific circumstances both physically and mentally, expose sacrilegious corrupted people, and always remain completely faithful to the Holy Spirit. They’re really quite amazing guys when I think about it.
A few pages after Acts begins, in the footnotes is a brief explanation or table about more or less what’s going on in Acts. And I just realized that we cut-off one of the most important lines of the book, and it was my bad. In Acts 1.8 Jesus says, “…you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” And that’s what happens: The Apostles receive the Holy Spirit, which gives them the power to perform miracles, and then they go preach in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth as the Lords witnesses and messengers, imploring people to join them and receive the Holy Spirit, be loyal to the Lord Jesus Christ. During the course of spreading the word of Jesus Christ, many strange and wondrous things happen to the Apostles, and if you would like to know more, go read your bible.
