Galatians

Once or twice a certain question has come to my attention recently: What of the Old Testament applies to us? Because there are some laws in there that just aren’t done anymore, so what distinguishes the ones that are from the ones that aren’t. My answer used to always be that with Christ came the new “law”: to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and strength and your neighbor as yourself. True as it is, this answer seemed a bit unsatisfying.
It just so happened that I found a Bible study book on Galatians much like the James and Titus Bible studies from our church and it talks a lot of this exact question and many more. It says:
“When Paul says that non-Jews (Gentiles) are no longer bound by these laws, he is not saying that the Old Testament laws do not apply to us today. He is saying certain types of laws may not apply to us. In the Old Testament there were three categories of laws:

Ceremonial Laws
This kind of law relates specifically to Israel’s worship. Its primary purpose was to point forward to Jesus Christ. Therefore, these laws were not longer necessary after Jesus’ death and resurrection. While we are no longer bound by ceremonial laws, the principles behind the—to worship and love a holy God—still apply. The Jewish Christians often accused the gentile Christians of violating the ceremonial law.
Civil Laws
This type of law dictated Israel’s daily living. Because modern society and culture are so radically different, some of these guidelines cannot be follow specifically. But the principles behind the commands should guide our conduct. At times, Paul asked the gentile Christians to follow some of these laws, not because they had to, but in order to promote unity.
Moral Law
This sort of law is the direct command of God—for example, the Ten commandments. It requires strict obedience. It reveals the nature and will of God, and it still applies to us today. We are to obey this moral law, not to obtain salvation, but to live in ways pleasing to God.

Anyway, I thought that was helpful. Also, in this study is a lot about the faith of Abraham and the Law of Moses. Before I never really understood or noticed the difference and significance of the two. Whenever I saw the word “law” I would just skim through because I didn’t understand it. Now I do and it is amazing the way God laid out His plans. “The covenant with Abraham shows that faith is the only way to be saved; the Law focuses on actions to show us how to obey Him.” I’ve learned that the point of the law is to reveal the nature and will of God, and to point out people’s sins and show them that it is impossible to please God by trying to obey all His laws. The whole thing is beautiful in a way and I am so glad that God’s revealed this to me.
You know what’s funny. For awhile I’ve kind of balked at the idea of studying the Word in a deeper level because I thought that lead to getting ideas that didn’t line up. In my mind, the people who are Bible scholars are the ones who know how to argue all those controversies like “once saved always saved” “Predestination” etc. and read all the books concerning said issues. I clung to the fact that ours is a simple faith and that when we read the Bible it should be taken as that: simply. I still believe that it is a simple faith, were it not, I would be the first one to burn (as Karin would say) because I can never seem to understand any of those arguments and that’s ok with God. But what has changed is, instead of just reading the Bible and not daring to look more deeply into it, I’ve learned how to read and make connections with other parts of the Bible, to read whole books at a time to see the big picture, and to read single verses and cross reference them to others, to find out the definitions to words, to figure out where the end of Paul’s long sentences are in order to better understand his point, to find where the things I’ve read applies to my life, and to love what I’m reading. In no way could I call myself a Biblical scholar or even Bible smart, honestly I don’t think my intelligence will ever allow me to grasp enough of the Bible at one time in order to earn a title such as that, and that’s alright because that’s ok with God. He made it all easy enough for me to understand and hard enough that I will always have more to learn. Christianity is perfect.
Oh I could go on and on, and I do often to mom who is so wonderfully patient with all my inspirations, but I’m afraid, the blog could not hold it all, and I bet it’s boring to read. So the fun stuff.
For these past two weeks, my family has returned to school and work, but I’m am still on break. The original plan was to go to Disney, but that fell through, so I’ve been a couch potato. Just kidding, I’ve gotten a lot done and its been a lovely respite.
Karin and Grandma went away to Haiti for these past two weeks to spend time with the Reinhards. We have been blessed with the privilege of watching their dogs. Anni has been sleeping at Grandma’s house to keep Heidi, her German Shepard, company, and Karin’s dogs: Elli and Studley came to our house. Well, lets start with Heidi. Jessica, Anni, and I have actually enjoyed Grandma’s house a lot. It’s a little log cabin situated right above a beautiful lake. Cozy is an understatement to describe the interior of the home, but it is all I can come up with for now. It’s always warm and smells good. We’ve had some good times watching home videos, playing board games, and the most fun is playing house. All on our own we eat supper, spend an evening together, and go to bed. Then in the morning, all on our own, we prepare breakfast, clean dishes, make the beds, and go on our merry way. One morning I woke up earlier than Anni and Jess and made them breakfast so they woke up to the smell of coffee and bacon. It was so delightful to treat them in this way and I can’t wait for when I get married (if it’s God’s will that I do of course) to treat my husband in the same way (I would do it for my family except they all wake up so stinking early!). The only downside to watching Heidi is that she keeps running away. She ignores her shock collar and she and Ebby, Diane’s dog, go gallivanting around all the time.
With Studley and Ellie, the story is a little different. Ellie was dropped off at my aunt Beth’s way back when. The little dog was so loyal to her previous owner, that Beth said she waited by the road for three days. When Karin took her, she put her loyalty on her in the most extreme way. Ellie never let Karin out of her sight, pushing herself to the limits to follow her even on horse trails. The only way for anyone to dog sit Ellie was for Karin to leave her car there. Well, as precious as Ellie’s loyalty was, she became quite old, as most living creatures do and with that her breath began to smell and she was always panting. She got a gross tumor in her eye and, as we discovered, really bad breast cancer. Though, I’m sure, deep deep down, Karin still had a little bit of feeling for the little dog, she told us before she left that if she runs away or get hit on the road, she’ll pay us extra (you have to understand Karin’s humor, she is not as cold hearted as this sounds). Well, the cancer on her belly was bad. One of the tumors had ruptured and was seeping, and she just looked terrible. Mom called Judy to see if Rhoda would look at her and Judy, along with Diane, right away made the decision to put her down. They felt it would be best to do it without trying to get ahold of Karin because 1. they are not easy to get ahold of down there and 2 they didn’t want her to feel guilty. Judy was taking a trip to the vet anyway that day so we chose to send Ellie along. That morning was dreadful for me. Mom told me, that since it was her last day I should be extra nice to her. So, knowing that this was her last day to live, I showered Ellie with attention that she hadn’t had in a long time. I fed her treats to which she almost purred at and spoke soothingly all morning. Though it was difficult to even look at her I did it. Well, when it came time to meet Judy I was a mess, and I apologize to her for that. I understand that she was a smelly ugly dog, but, well, she was a living creature. (Now I know I’m pathetic because just writing this I’m tearing up) Well, the deed was done, and in the end I’m glad we did have her put down because, she really was in awful shape and it could only possibly get worse from here. However I’m not sure we’ll be doing much dog sitting in the future. “Hey, Karin! Glad to see you’re back, here’s one of your dogs, we killed the other!”
As for Studley, he has actually been enjoyable. His spunkiness and loving nature is almost contagious and he and Abby have been getting along beautifully. When I bring Steve in, they love each other and show their affection by licking each other's faces. It’s cute.
Last weekend, on Saturday, a group of us went up with the Bible class for the ski trip. I’m not sure if I’ve ever had so much fun snowboarding! It was great. On top of that, we some great conversations on the way back.
On the weekend of the 22nd a group of us girls are taking a trip to the Creation Museum. I am so EXCITED!!! so that should be great.