1. DQ1: The Cognitive Study of Religion (CSR)
1. DQ1: The Cognitive Study of Religion (CSR)
a. (3 paragraphs for reply) (apa format) (apa citations are a must)
My rudimentary analysis of the cognitive science of religions (CSR) approach is that it is based on weak assumptions and associations. I find myself likening the argument to that of the chicken and the egg, which came first. Is religion cognitive and genetic, or is it social and cultural? The answer is obviously “yes”. I do not doubt the role the brain plays in understanding religion or in the interpretation of social and cultural norms.
One challenge is the application of minimally counterintuitive ideas (MCI’s) and assertation that specific areas of the brain are ‘wired’ for religious understanding, expression, and or phenomenon. While reading, I thought the idea of MCI’s had nothing to do with religion, but more to do with the believability of plausible scenarios or outcomes. Though CSR does not claim that they are, their use of MCI’s as one of its two basic hypotheses undermines its credibility.
In the first couple of weeks during a Human Growth and Development course, I started to see the power of genetics in how we are shaped. However, as we started studying behavioral theory, the role of nurture in nature vs. nurture, overshadowed that of nature. While genetics has a role in our development, nature, which involves social, cultural, familial, etc. aspects of life has a great influence.
While I am a proponent of science, we cannot explain everything through it. Hedges indicates that Boyer and Atran, foundational figures in CSR argue that “studying religion requires understanding the way that religious ideas become embedded in our minds” (2021, pp. 188-189). The idea of this seems to limit the study of religion to scientists who have a focus on the brain. CSR diminishes the importance of every facet of understanding religion we have studied in this class to solely cognitive and genetic factors (evolution).
b. (3 paragraphs for reply) (apa format) (apa citations are a must)
Encouraged by the advances of neuroscience, the Cognitive Science of Religion originated in the 1990s with a proposal to study whether and how the human brain may be naturally inclined to believe in religious deities. One of the main problems of CSR is that it fails to take into account the historical context behind each religion, and fails to analyze religion through a cultural lens. However, as explained by Hedges, the founders of CSR themselves are aware of the limitations of emphasizing the mind to the detriment of other explanations to the reasons why humans are religious. In order to avoid the accusation of being reductionist, CSR must incorporate other fields of knowledge such as psychology, philosophy and anthropology, i.e, the study of religion should be multidisciplinary and interpretative. As stated by Paterson, contextualization is very important – one has to “interpret the word in the sentence, and the sentence in the paragraph, and the paragraph in the chapter, and the chapter in the context”
Another criticism against CSR is that cognition is not limited to the brain per se. Humans are capable of comprehending and interpreting their lives through the use of multiple senses that are not limited to the skull. As this week’s DQ2 encourages us to reflect, humans get input from sensory stimuli that can originate from our emotions, physical and spiritual/mystical experiences, and so forth.
Finally, one of the reasons CSR has not yet been fully incorporated in the field of religious studies is because it proposes to explain religion from a scientific point of view, and this is exactly what it cannot do – religion cannot be explained purely from a scientific perspective.
In an article titled “How to Create a Religion”, Lawson invites the reader to participate in a thought experiment to “create a religion on the basis of what we think that we now know about religiosity?” He then expands on what it would take for a new religion to succeed in the modern era and proposes six ways of maintaining conceptual control over that hypothetical newly founded religion, as follows.
1) instituting a hierarchy with entry into any particular level only under special conditions, 2) distinguishing between ritual practitioners and ritual participants, 3) ensuring that the practitioners have a special status (e.g. a priest), 4) requiring acquisition of special status by means of ritual transition as a patient (i.e. as the recipient of the action), 5) distinguishing between insiders and outsiders and permitting outsiders limited means of participation and 6) having both frequent and infrequent rituals. (pg. 136, 2019)
Lawson concludes his experiment by saying that no matter how controlled a religion may be, there will always be some sort of dissent, such as “odd practices such as shunning or demanding a change of status of someone hierarchically higher, or attitudes to outsiders as infidels, heathen or sinners”. And those forms of dissent have to be incorporated into the study of religion, which is what CSR fails to do.
Sources:
Lawson, E. T. (2019, December 30). How to Create a Religion. e-rhizome. https://e-rhizome.upol.cz/artkey/erh-201902-0002_how-to-create-a-religion.php
2. DQ2: Religion as an Embodied Phenomenon. Sacred Action
a. (3 paragraphs for reply) (apa format) (apa citations are a must)
I wouldn’t say I am an extremely religious person, but I identify as Lutheran and I follow the religious practices and traditions of Christianity. When I think back to an experience that impacted my personal orientation of religion I think about going to vacation bible school as a kid. This was basically just a week long summer camp that teaches young children about the bible in creative ways while getting them involved and engaged. (There were of course also many songs and dances performed.) Going to this type of camp was an amazing experience as a kid because it got me excited about going to church and it also taught me things that I wouldn’t have gathered from a traditional church service at that age. When I think back to vacation bible school I am reminded by the songs and choreography we would learn to the christian music, I remember the stained glass artwork that was in my church, and I remember the active games outside in the sun that tied back to religion in some way. I am filled with joy and happiness when remembering these things and it makes me want to get up and be this involved and engaged again. This whole experience also heavily influences my views of Christianity that I have today; when I think about how I became religious I largely think of my upbringing and experiences like this that got me involved at such a young age. I also think it’s interesting to think about how in the moment I had no idea how large of role these seemingly insignificant activities had on me, but looking back on it now I feel like they were essential to my beliefs that I hold today.
b. (3 paragraphs for reply) (apa format) (apa citations are a must)
In the Mormon faith, Teachers, Deacons and Priests, ages 12-18, administer the sacrament to all the members present during church. For some members, getting to church is a challenge because of illness and/or physical difficulty. These members may request the sacrament be administered to them at their home or in the hospital. While it is a duty, what does a adolescent boy want more than to get home and take his stuffy church clothes and watch tv or play with legos. I frequently volunteered to take the sacrament around, likely because I felt obligated to do so. The sacrament serves as a reminder and a renewal of our covenants with God. Members were so appreciative of the opportunity to take it and we would frequently spend a little extra time and visit with them. It was a unique experience to be able to serve on such a personal basis and to connect with the member, as they were from my neighborhood, so we were close. Some were in such bad shape, so their ability to be able to take the sacrament was likely the only joy they had experienced that week. What touched me the most was their faith, their dedication to God, and their understanding of the importance of the sacrament, something as an adolescent boy I had taken for granted.
Another experience was when I was serving as a missionary. After several weeks at the training center, our group began to get a little contentious. Feelings of animosity were present among some of the men, including myself. It was hurting our performance, our training, and the whole point of us being there. I’ll even say disgust, hatred and anger were present. We would spend all day together, the only alone time was while showering and defecating, so it’s understandable that we were getting on each other’s nerves. During one meeting, we were reading from the book of St. John, chapter 14. It was my turn, the key versus were 26 and 27. 26: ”But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. 27: “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you, not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” I think I had a hard time reading the scripture, but there was an immediate change of energy in the room. No longer was there any feeling of disgust, hatred, or anger. There was only peace and love. The feeling was tangible, and I was not the only one to have felt it. (I chuckle as I say this) Most of us were crying. Each of us shared our feelings – that moment was a turning point for the group. Never before had I been impacted so greatly by scripture, or had such an immediate and drastic change of hear
3. DQ3: The Gender Chapter – Diving Deeper
a. (3 paragraphs for reply) (apa format) (apa citations are a must)3.
I conducted my research on the possibility of women becoming priests in the Roman Catholic Church. There is an international movement called “Roman Catholic Women Priests (RCWP)”. Although their website states that the RCWP is an international movement within the Roman Catholic Church, the women who were ordained were excommunicated by the Pope. In 2022, Pope Francis gave an interview to America Magazine (a curiosity: the magazine was founded by Jesuits in 1909, and this was the first time they were able to interview a Pope face to face). During the interview, Pope Francis explained that women cannot be ordained priests because the church relies on the Petrine Principle and the Marian Principle. In very superficial terms, the Petrine principle is the ministerial one, and it has to be fulfilled by men, due to the fact Jesus only appointed male apostles, and that he said that the church is to be founded by Peter, who was the foundational stone of the church. The Marian principle is the feminine aspect of the church, in which women have the role of mother and spouses (I suppose that’s why nuns are “married” to Jesus Christ).
Despite there being no open discussion about women becoming priests in the near future, it seems that Pope Francis is trying to bring about some changes in the Roman Catholic Church. The Synod on Synodality is Pope Francis’ effort to bring about changes in the Catholic Church that will prepare the Church to better participate in the modern era. It emphasizes listening, discernment and mission and includes laymen and women for the first time. The Pope has also recently appointed 5 women to an administrative role in the Vatican, which he said was revolutionary. Pope Francis has also invited several female theologians and even a female Anglican Bishop to advise him and the Council of Cardinals on the role of women in the Catholic Church. Sister Linda Pocher, a Salesian and professor of Christology and Mariology, was also invited to attend the meetings of the Council. She said that even though “there is an “easy identification” between women and the Marian principle and between men and the Petrine principle, this “identification is not good for the Church, because it makes roles rigid and makes the mutual exchange of gifts difficult”.
Pope Francis has publicly stated that there is a need to “demasculinize the Church”. So I believe that things can change, and that it is very possible that women’s ordinations to priesthood in the Catholic Church will be considered normal in the near future. In Judaism, only the orthodox movement does not accept women as rabbis. In the United States, the Reform movement ordained its first female rabbi in 1972, the Reconstructionist movement in 1974, and the Conservative movement in 1985.
Sources:
The Editors. (2022, December 15). Exclusive: Pope Francis discusses Ukraine, U.S. bishops and more. America Magazine.
b. (3 paragraphs for reply) (apa format) (apa citations are a must)
The person mentioned on Hedges Chapter 10 that I decided to do deeper research is Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) who is known for the first wave feminism who emphasizes the equality of men and woman as rational beings epitomized by a work like “A Vindication of the Rights of woman” (1792) (Hedges,2021).Mary was born in London, married William Godwin, had two children Fanny Imlay Godwin and Mary Shelley Godwin. Mary Wollstonecraft was an English writer and philosopher who is well known for her feminist thoughts, offering valuable insights on her intersection of religion, gender, and social justice. Her experiences with religious standards and theories of morals led her to advocate for women equality and access to education. Mary experience with life and works show a relationship with religion including her fathers religious influence overall her own spiritual seeking.( Tomaselli, Sylvana,2020). Her best-known work challenges to religious patriarchy is , “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman;(1792)”, it asserts the intellectual companionship is the ideal of marriage and pleads for equality of education and opportunity between the sexes using religion to justify gender based oppression. (Wollstonecraft, Mary,2018). Through this famous writing Mary promoted critical thinking encouraging individuals autonomy and to question principles and those in control.
Bibliography
– “Thoughts on the Education of Daughters” (1787)
Example from media
4. (Discussion Board Post) (3 paragraphs ) (apa format) (apa citations are a must)
Find one example from any media source that discusses the effects of conflict on an organization. Speculate what you think fueled the conflict.
5. (3 paragraphs for reply) (apa format) (apa citations are a must)
a. Google has long been known as a worldwide powerhouse – financially successful and a tech industry giant with a reputation as a stellar organization with which to work. But even the biggest companies on the planet can and do get hit by workplace conflict.
According to Fung (2019), Google, which had been a standout for offering its employees generous working conditions, including free gourmet food, free childcare, excellent health care benefits, flexible leave time and more, was having significant issues internally. Although Google had made a point of creating a transparent workplace environment, employees were unhappy with the organization when they sensed they weren’t being told what the company was actually doing.
Apparently, the values Google had established within its organizational culture (Spangle, n.d.) were not ringing true. Workers accused Google of issues such as poor handling of sexual misconduct allegations, of Google’s military dealings, and of the company’s work with U.S. Customs and Border Protection activities regarding immigrant processing, running counter to many employees’ values.
Employees, feeling the division growing between Google’s activities and many of its workers, began to organize, only to have Google’s executives change company policy barring any type of unionizing activities (Fung, 2019). With the cinch tightening, it seemed clear that Google’s reputation as a beneficial employer was being overrun by differences between its top administrators and its workers, and no amount of benefits were going to fix the divide.
Much of the strife seemed to be based on the belief, on behalf of Google’s employees, that they had signed up to work for a company that was created to do good in the world (Fung, 2019). In this way, employees continually witnessed Google going in a different direction than what these employees felt they signed up to work for. There was a sense that this “Feeling Organization” (Spangle, n.d.), to use Myers-Briggs terminology, wasn’t basing its decisions on “what we care about” (Spangle, n.d.), leaving these workers feeling that they lacked the power to set the course straight again.
Google executives began getting the message after workers continually began stressing the importance of transparency in the company’s decisions. In 2019, Google executive Adam Kovacevich was quoted saying that it was key that an open dialogue begin.
It took a well-publicized walkout that involved thousands of Google workers around the world to start mending the conflicts inside the company. With transparency now at the forefront, workers have gained some of their power back and some intolerable conditions are getting the attention these employees require in order to work at Google.
b. (3 paragraphs for reply) (apa format) (apa citations are a must)
The first example that I thought of for this prompt was actually the controversy that surrounded the LuLaRoe company a few years ago. The company is a multi-level marketing company that hires women to sell their leggings and recruit others to join their “downline” and get more people to sell leggings. In the beginning, people were effectively “lovebombed” by others within the organization and promised all kinds of riches if they were successful in selling the product. Eventually, the company got so large that the quality of the leggings began to worsen, people were harassed if they wanted to leave, and some went as far as taking out loans to be able to sell this product.
A lot of the conflict came from the pressure from the higher ups within the company. Essentially, if a seller wasn’t meeting their quota, hitting their numbers, the blowback would come back on the seller. These women were promised “full-time income for part-time work” and were given half-filled orders and an organization that was growing too quickly to be able to keep up.
It feels like the conflict is obvious, these women were promised a particular income if they put in the work, some achieved it, but then there were too many wanting in and the company began to crumble from the inside. There was also a lack of communication from the top that didn’t allow for “consultants” questions to be answered which created distrust within the organization. False promises were another issue as well as bad product.
6. (400 word summary of transcribed meeting) (Apa style) (in-text citations are a must)
Dr. Thompson, are you there? Good evening, Dr. Thompson, I sent you a chat message. Alrighty. Yeah, we’ve been praying for you Phyllis, I can’t even imagine what you’re going through right now.
Thank you so much. We will certainly be praying for you this evening as we head into our last session. Okay.
Thank you, but I’m here. Yes, you’re here. We see your picture.
Thank you. You betcha. Morning, I was going to.
Good afternoon. Great to see you. Good to see you too, sir.
Yes, sir. All right, we got john. Okay.
James. Right, Alice’s chiming in here. You sound a little like romper room.
You remember that TV show. It’s almost like that feel in it. That’s funny, man you’re digging deep.
Oh, that’s a while ago. Today is the eighth or eight. Thank you.
Wait one more minute here, and we’ll get started. On coming in here. Yeah, Jasmine coming in.
Sure. Spencer. Okay.
Alice if you can show your video for us that would be wonderful. Right. Okay, and then we got Sydney.
Okay. Morals. Wow, people are coming in at the last second here we go.
Really. Good evening. Hey, how you doing.
Fantastic. We’re going to get started here because we got, we got a lot to cover tonight. And as people come in, hopefully they’ll slide right into our time of devotion here but I wanted to thank each and every one of you for coming in this evening I know.
Monday nights are sometimes hard especially after a long weekend and then we got the solar eclipse today, so much going on. And see we’re still able to meet some people are talking about Armageddon and I’m like, wow, you have not read the scriptures have you just don’t get it. But I wanted to open up in prayer but before we do, I know that some of y’all have some burning prayer requests you’d like to share.
We’re certainly praying for Phyllis and her son. And, and his situation there. Other, other others that we can be lifting up in prayer.
Right. Why don’t we go to the Lord in prayer, and we’ll get started on our little devotion here and Heavenly Father, we want to take this time to first of all thank you for who you are. Thank you for your goodness.
Thank you for your mercy. Lord, thank you for everything that you’re doing in our lives despite our own sin, our own wretchedness our own fallenness. God as we take a look at this brief devotional this morning, or this evening.
I pray God that you will teach us that you will show us your way. Help us to see biblical principles that we can lay out in our own lives so we can glorify you and that you will help us in those times that we, we don’t hear your voice those times that you are silent. Oh God I ask you that you will allow your truth to just really deepen our spirit and that you will also help us with the application.
Later this evening, as we unpack so much about baptism about communion and so forth Lord, we just commit all this to you in the loving and the precious name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen.
Amen. All right, so we are, I’d like if you have your Bibles, turn to Psalm 30 for me. Psalm 30.
Would somebody like to read Psalm 30, it’s only like 12 verses long but very powerful verses. Who would like to read that for us. All right, John, that’d be great.
All right. Okay, I will. This is a, what am I, the NIV.
Okay, I will exalt you Lord for you lifted me out of the depths, and did not let my enemies gloat over me. Lord my God I called you. I called to you for help, and you healed me.
You Lord brought me up from the realm of the dead. You spared me from going down to the pit. Sing the praises of the Lord.
You his faithful people praise his holy name for his anger last only a moment, but his favor last a lifetime. Weeping may weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning. When I felt secure I said I will never be shaken.
Lord when you favored me, you made my Royal Mountain stand firm. And when you did you hid your face, I was dismayed to you Lord I called to the Lord I cried for mercy. What is gained if I am not, if I am silence, if I go down to the pit.
Will the dust praise you will proclaim your faithfulness here, Lord, and be merciful to me, Lord. Be my help. You turn my waiting into dancing you read, remove my sackcloth filled me with joy that my heart may sing your praises and not be silent, Lord my God, I will praise you forever.
Amen. Amen. Oh, it’s like where do you start.
There’s some. It really is solid stuff. I didn’t see that coming.
Okay. Yeah, there’s so much there. All right, so before I move on.
And if you can show your video that would be wonderful if you could help us out with that. You know the context here is is really helpful for us to understand the gravity of what’s going on in this song. You see, David.
He’s gone through a lot. Right. He is.
He was promised something really, really, really special early on in his life that God was going to make him king. And, and then, obviously, there are some trials that come along his way, and he, he starts doing things on his own power. Before all that things were just going straight.
I mean things were going extremely well. He was able to fight off a bear, a lion. You know, he was able to conquer Goliath.
He was able to lead armies and kill, you know, and protect Israel and just wipe out, you know, all these avengers. And he had God’s favor. He was man after God’s own heart.
But there came a period where arrogance, I think, took over. There’s a period where he began to assume certain things on his own and make decisions based off of human reason rather than godly wisdom. And in those times, God was silent.
In those times, God was silent. How often have you felt your walk with God where he was absolutely quiet and you just could not hear a word from the Lord? Hopefully, I, you know, it’s all of y’all because we’re human, right? It doesn’t matter who you are. There’s going to be times of silence.
And in ministry, why I bring this up is because there will be moments where you’re asking the Lord for direction, maybe for the church, maybe for your family, maybe for your own walk with the Lord. But yet all you hear is silence. What does that mean? Well, you know, there’s a lot of biblical support for different reasons why God might be silent.
But one situation here that David recognizes is that because he was trying to do everything on his own power, his own might, basically God just says, OK, I am letting go and letting you have your way. Now, we see that in Romans 1. We see that also throughout scripture where God just says, OK, I’m going to let you play in the sandbox. I’m going to let you figure things out.
And maybe you might fall flat on your face. You might stumble. But sometimes that’s how people learn.
I know for myself, parenting, I see that in my one of my sons. You can tell him till you’re blue in the face how to do something, but yet he wants to do it his way. And his way is not really ever the best way.
You know, you tell him to go one direction. He says, no, dad, I’m smarter than you. And I’m going to go this way when he finds out that he just went 10 miles out of his way rather than going a more direct route that his father told him how to go.
But sometimes we just have to let go as a parent and say, you know what? Sometimes they have to learn through the school of hard knocks. And that’s what God was doing here for for David, where David was at a point in his life where he was very arrogant. He was at a point where he felt like because he had made, you know, with God’s help and he starts to forget about God’s favor, he forgets about God’s blessing in some ways, thinking that maybe it was him that was doing X, Y, Z. But really, it was the force of God behind him that was allowing him to win these battles.
But sometimes those things happen to us in the natural. Right. The flesh is weak.
And so David gets to a point where he is rock bottom. He is rock bottom. He is ready to give up.
And he finally is able to relent and and realize that he needs to get back with the Lord. He needs to make it right with God. And so he recognizes his sin.
And that’s where we see here. He says, I will extol you, O Lord, for you have drawn me up and you have not let my my foes rejoice over me. So basically, David had made a really bad decision.
He had made a lot of bad decisions. But one of the bad, bad decisions that he made was to have a census. Does anybody recall that story about David and the census? Why, why is that a bad thing? It seems like.
Sorry, it seems like he he counted his men because he was trying to prove to himself that he could win the battle himself. So it it the Lord took it as the Lord interpreted his action as not trusting in him. Here’s that T word again, huh? Yeah, that’s good.
Yes. Also, he was relying on his strength. The scripture said by strength alone man cannot prevail.
So he was relying on his strength with the might of his army instead of relying on God. That was why God was like, you know, angry with him. He was relying on God or he was not relying on God.
He was relying on his own strength. Right. That was the intent.
Yes, John, I think that’s this is such an important point because we know people are going to disappoint us. We know God is like on just remarkably faithful and he never disappoints us. And so trusting him and knowing that we’re going to have disappointments brings us back to so much scripture.
Oh, my goodness. I was thinking about leaning on Proverbs. Is it three, five and six leaning on not our own understanding and acknowledging God? He God wants so desperately not desperate.
That’s not what we need him desperately. But all he wants is us to turn to him because he wants that fatherly relationship with us. Right.
That’s why he created us. And yet the only way we’re going to get that grace and mercy as we turn back to him. And I think these are all those lessons, you know.
It’s so rich. I think Charles was going to have a comment there. What was on your mind, Charles? It was sad.
It was just the fact that he he went from trusting to believe in his own press. Yes. He started to think that everything that was written about him was because of his greatness and his glory and forgot that the person behind him or the entity behind him was God that was doing everything else.
He was just getting the credit. And so we get like that a lot, but everything’s going really, really well for us. We forget that what got us there is prayer.
What’s getting us through is God’s working on our behalf. And many times we forget that when things are going so smooth and there’s no no issues and everything is met, you begin to think that you did a good job. And reality, all this happens that the prayer that you did before God got answered.
And we were really quick to forget what God does. But we’re awfully, awfully quick to pry what we need to help. But once we get it, we have a tendency of forgetting that God did it for us.
That’s what David did. Yes, yes. But then he makes the switch.
Right. And that switch here is that he begins to recognize what God has done. And there is this sense of utter gratitude.
In fact, the very last verse here, it says that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent. Oh, Lord, my God, I will give thanks to you forever. Well, he realizes that God could have easily afflicted him.
He could have brought utter destruction to David, but God chose not to. And David recognizes that he could be a dead man. He was a dead man walking because of his arrogance, because of these bad decisions that were that he was making.
In some ways, it was mocking God, but he turns. And that’s, I think, the key lesson here is that sense of repentance, that sense of completely in the heart. It’s not just words.
It’s God knew his heart, that he truly, really repented of his sin and began to follow God here. And what I what I find also interesting is that in verse seven, he says, as for me, I said in my prosperity, I shall never be moved by your favor. Oh, Lord, you may.
You made my mountain stand strong. And then he says, you hid your face. I was dismayed.
And so there is an indication right there that when David was going through some of these weird times, God was silent. God hid his face, you know, and there will be times when God hides his face in our ministry. Now, it begs the question, why is God hiding his face? Why is God being silent? Well, there’s multiple reasons, but this might help us better digest that, because there are times where we think that maybe there was a sin that we committed, and maybe there was.
But there are times that maybe God had already spoken his words of wisdom to us, and that’s all he needed to say is one time. Think about the moment when God said, let there be light. Right.
He spoke light into existence. Well, he didn’t need to speak it again. When he said it, it happened.
Right. And so when God spoke, there was light. He doesn’t have to repeat himself at all.
When he says, David, well, it’s going to happen. But what David did not realize, he was going to have to go through a lot of turmoil. He’s going to have to go through a lot of struggle running from Saul.
Right. Running from his new enemy in some ways and hiding in caves and fighting these unnecessary battles just to keep his, you know, just to preserve his life. You know, if we would have been there at the time of God making light for the very first time and, you know, at, say, 6 p.m. thereabouts, you know, we’d be seeing dusk and then we’d start to see it getting darker and darker.
And then we would be wondering why God, you know, was allowing darkness to come over when he said, let there be light. But what we’re trying to explain here is that while God made a promise, he never said that there wouldn’t be darkness. But in the times of darkness, that’s where we must trust the Lord, that indeed there will be light again, because God said there will be light.
You know, in our lives, God never said that we’re not going to go through trial. Right. We’re not going to go through a hardship.
He doesn’t say that. But what he does say is that I will be there with you. Even when it might sound like I am silent and I am not there, when I have spoken and I promise you that I will never leave you, I will never forsake you, that promise will be fulfilled.
So all that to say, sometimes when we hear silence, it might be because God doesn’t need to tell you again. Now, maybe as a new believer, sometimes God has to tell us a few times, you know, just for us to kind of get to know him and have that relationship with God. But as we mature in the faith, oftentimes God almost tends to distance himself so we can trust in him even further and trust in his goodness.
When I take a look at Joseph, think about that for a moment. When God promised Joseph that he was going to be a key leader, and the next thing you know, what’s happening to Joseph? He’s being thrown into a pit, being sold into slavery. And it’s many years later where, you know, he finds himself in a prison, you know, with the king.
But then all of a sudden, somebody opens up the jail cell and says, the king needs you. Your number’s up. You know, I thank the Lord that Joseph was faithful to God.
I can’t even imagine the silence that he was experiencing in that jail cell. He was doing everything right. He was faithful to the Lord.
But what’s so amazing is that he trusted the Lord and knew that God would fulfill his promise. He didn’t know how, he didn’t know with whom, but he just knew that God was going to fulfill that promise. I love in this Psalm here, Psalm 30.
What is it a Psalm for? Well, it’s a dedication to the temple. Well, let’s think about that for a second. The temple was not even a thought yet, right? Because God basically said, because of you making some of these bad decisions, you’re not going to make the temple.
That’s not going to be under your watch, David. But yet he knows that God is going to fulfill that promise that there was going to be a temple built. He is knowing that and trusting that so much that he is having a dedication for something that’s never happened and hasn’t happened yet.
And yet he is trusting in the Lord. It is so beautiful when we begin to.
7. (Original Content Only) (600 words) (APA format) (APA in-text citations are a must)
Watch all 5 GYH videos and read all GYH academic resources for weeks 3.
GYH video Links:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kNa3piw9aL03iJ6K__PY-1DLgroPJ6Tv/view
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SBZpV8E3dAF7XHLgyjwTmbIbPY8fnJ2A/view
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RrNdRFRVV54iZqo_TRU5UnMuIZI489d_/view
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kNh2D00SbrjcVj0GWKkuQGWf95Q_Rlgm/view
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kYckPXeWSFpvy-JcGWAnxLN9qGlrvrzt/view
Each member will bring to the group one takeaway from each of the videos and articles. Group members will take turns sharing their insights and reflections on their takeaways (20 minutes).
Next, group members will then discuss specific ways they have seen the impact of each week’s subject matter impact people in their sphere of influence. Describe the situation, the people involved, and what took place (20 minutes)
Lastly, group member must share their own challenges with the material. Prayer will then be offered as deemed appropriate by all group members (20 minutes). If limited sharing occurs in this section, please pray for the local church es represented I the group related to the various themes of the week.
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