Proceed At Your Own Risk!!

I’m back! By popular demand… Haha.

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First things first, unfortunately- the speech. *Darth Vader music* Well, I did it. And I’m still alive, amazingly enough. But I spoke really, really fast, which will probably kill my grade. Oh well. (There's nothing like optimism, can you tell?)

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Thoughts from World Civ:
My World Civ professor rocks my socks off. He’s hilarious, and so nice! Definitely one of my favorite profs. Robin Dummer (Doo-mer) is a middle aged man, slightly heavy, and very fatherly (which makes sense, seeing that he is one). He tells sly jokes, mostly plays on words, which aren’t very funny, but are hilarious when he says them. And the way he says things… It’s great. Today, he was talking about Michelangelo painting the Cistine (sp?) Chapel (the domed roofed one) and how he (Michelangelo) had to paint lying down. Well, when the paint is being applied to a roof, it drips, sometimes into the eyes, and “it’s kinda like, bad for your vision.” That won’t be funny to you, but how he said it was great. Later, Prof. Dummer was talking about the Diet of Worms. “That should be very easy for me to remember, considering my first name.”
Stephanator: What is he talking about??
Stephanator, a few seconds later: Oh. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

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Well, since Biblical Backgrounds went over so well, I can both ejumacate you all and study at the same time! Sounds like a win-win situation to me!!
Prof. Spawn, who teaches BB, is funny too. If you combine Spawn’s jokes with Dummer’s laidback-ness, you get my dad. Scary, I know. =) Anyway, we go through a video series put on by Focus on the Family. I don’t remember what it’s titled, but Ray Vander Laan is the tour guide to a bunch of tourist (wouldn’t ya know!) in Isreal. So we watch a video series for class, with Spawn’s questions “to guide our viewing.”
We shall first visit the area of Caesarea Philippi (Mark 5).
Caesarea Philippi is north of the Sea of Galilee. There are a few things you should know about this place.
To the Jews, this region is the most modern and the most pagan part of their world. The Decapolis (10 cities) is located here, and it is very sophisticated.
Also, these people put great stock in pigs; in fact, they worship them. The pig is the sacred animal of the fertility god. They also use them for meat, I do believe. The more pigs you have, the wealthier you are. So remember, pigs were very important to their livelihood.
Jews in those days did not like large bodies of water. It was quite dangerous, because the Sea of Galilee, though calm a lot of the time, could kick up at any moment and drown them all (how cheerful). Their boats were not the most advanced, so all the more reason to be nervous. The Jews called the sea the great abyss. It often represents death. (Please note from my previous post that whoever misled the children, it would be better for them to have a mill-stone tied around his neck and tossed into the sea- the great abyss.)

So here we are at the end of Mark 4. The disciples are in the boat, a storm comes along, Jesus is sleeping, the waves get higher, they think they’re going to drown, much fear ensues, Jesus calms the storm, they are amazed, they go to the most pagan city in their day. Yup, sounds like fun.
Finally! On solid ground! And at the start of chapter 5! Good thing chapter 4 is done and over. That was not a fun ending. But wait! Who is that running at us and shouting obnoxiously? Great. A demon-possessed man. Oh yeah, that’s right. He’s that one guy… what’s his name? Right, Legion. Because he has a legion of devils in him. He’s the one who runs around the tombs naked, cutting himself with stones. Botheration. Maybe Jesus will heal him. Yup, he does. Oh. My. Goodness. (Sadly, that was cut out of the original text.) Jesus! What are you doing?? WHY are you sending all those demons into those pigs?? Don’t you know? That’s the symbol of the pagans’ fertility god!! And it’s their income to boot. Oh dear. Not good. And, oh, even worse. The pigs just ran off the cliff into the great abyss. That means we have just pauperized someone. They aren’t going to be happy about that one. You see, the inhabitants are making us leave. Well, this was successful. Well, except for the fact that Legion (or whatever his name is now) now believes in Christ, is the only missionary in this area, and ends up converting almost everyone to Christianity.

Apologies, everyone. My imagination got carried away. Hopefully it all made sense. Basically, the point was Jesus went to the most pagan part of the world, healed a man, defeated the other god, made a missionary out of the healed man, and thus converted that whole area to Himself. Christ has a plan for all things, even when situations seem scary/bad idea/bizarre. All things are possible with Him!

One more quick thing. When Jesus fed the 5,000, how many baskets were filled with leftovers? You’re right, 12 baskets. This symbolizes the caring and feeding of the 12 tribes. But what about when Jesus fed the 4,000? There were only 7 baskets picked up. Good point, my friend. The Decapolis had 7 nations. Thus, Jesus symbolized that He would feed and care for Israel and the pagans/Gentiles. These numbers were not lost on the Jewish culture.
So yeah, that’s what I have learned. Hopefully I am not mistaken in any points. If I am, please correct me. Also, I hope it all made sense. I probably shouldn’t be writing at 11pm.

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Goodnight!!