Rotundus.com

Earlier this week I made the trek down to MEC in search of a few things brought to mind by recent hikes. An earlier hike put the waterproofing of my hiking boots to the test, and they passed that test. (Although I also discovered then that if you end up more than knee-deep in snow without waterproof pants, water can still get in). Last Saturday's 20km-ish hike though left me with a few blisters so I picked up some better insoles.

The previous hike I referred to, which involved snow of greater than knee hike on the trail, rain, and even a little thunder also meant that I needed some better weatherproof clothing. I had discovered that my coat had lost my of its weatherproofing capabilities and so I picked up some stuff to hopefully restore that, as well as splurging on some other raingear.

I also got suckered into buying another guide book before walking out with my wallet metaphorically $200 lighter (who pays with cash anymore?). One thing that the book reminded me of is that the town of Vulcan, AB is just about an hour and a half from Calgary. Given the proximity of a flight museum and that I'm a mild Trekkie, I do think that I shall have to make the trek out there sometime soon.

One thing that I'd previously been aware of, but was reminded of today, is that the order of books in Bibles today is NOT the same as in earlier Hebrew bibles:

Jesus Himself refers to the OT scriptures in the order of the law (Torah), the prophets (Nebi’im), and the writings (Ketubim) and this order is quite a bit different than the order we use today (which appears to be based more off the order in the Septuagint than the Hebrew Bible). There are also a number of clues within the text itself that leads one to believe the Hebrew order is how it should be read.
For example, while the book of Ruth looks to fit historically somewhere between Judges and 1 Samuel, it actually follows the Book of Proverbs as the 4th book of the writings. It’s interesting to note that Proverbs ends in chapter 31 with a description of a godly woman and is then followed by the book of Ruth, an example of a godly woman. There are many other such examples of this type of continuity which can only help to increase our love for the Word of God as we see His hand ever more clearly in its production. It is also interesting to note that the five books of Moses, the Torah, is really just one book with five chapters and is meant to be read in that way. The twelve “minor prophets” are also only one book in the Hebrew Bible and are meant to be read as one as well. While this may seem insignificant, it is quite an illuminating practice to read them with that mindset. Hopefully somewhere down the road I’ll share more thoughts on this.

Also noted in a comment posted by one Andrea Ritze in response to the linked post:

I read (also noted in NIV study Bible notes) that this order of Hebrew Scripture (and Israel’s revealed/written history) is also seen in Jesus Christ’s reference in Matthew 23:35:
“. . . all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah . . . .”
Abel was the first to be murdered in history (Genesis) and Zechariah, whose murder is noted in 2 Chronicles 24:21, was at the “end” of OT Scripture.
(Also note: Jesus Christ was not referring to their names, and was not saying “from A to Z,” because Z is not the last letter in the Hebrew alphabet.)

July marks the one-year anniversary of my first visit to my present church home, and I still can't say that I understand everything about how the church functions. Here's a couple things that I still find odd:

• Teaching elders are officially NOT members of the local church. They're members of the presbytery instead. At first I figured this was a misprint when I noticed this in the church directory - from what I've heard from others I'm not the only one who thought that.
• A person holding a particular type of pastorship (associate or assistant - I can't remember which) is NOT a member of the church's session, the presbyterian equivalent to a consistory. Pilgrim explained to me that this is because that title indicates that the pastor in question was called by the church's session instead of by the congregation, and that only officers elected by the congregation are considered members of the session.

One misconception I had about the PCA was how the hierarchical structures worked, and the level of centralization in the denomination. Once again courtesy pilgrim, here's an article on non-hierarchical presbyterianism which describes the way the PCA is structured.

Perhaps I should take this as a sign that I should be signing up for a facebook account. Seems as though I'm the only one without such an account these days, and I've been getting some hints from people that things would be a lot easier were I to signup there.

I'm a little sick of trying to keep track of a myriad of accounts though.