Rels Reflection

2

I have learned some rewarding and valuable lessons in the past few classes. Learning these lessons has provided me with a more holistic perspective and different perspectives on the Bible and exploring myself. The Bible also offers different types of worldviews for humans.

There are three lessons that have made a deep impression, which are the most valuable lessons to me. Lecture 1 of understanding the Bible and the importance of world views. This lecture is valuable because I did not know anything about the Bible before, but now I know that the Christian Bible consists of 39 Old Testament books and 27 New Testament books together. The stories of the Bible also transmit a worldview for humans. A worldview can be understood as a comprehensive view of life in which we think, understand, and judge that shapes the way we approach life, meaning, and decision-making. Stories, symbols, and events are the ingredients that make up a worldview.

Knowing the Bible not only changed my way of life and way of thinking but also had a great impact on my character. In the Bible, a lot of stories are centered around God. The Bible helps me to a better understanding of God's will and power. I have become righteous, merciful, loving, kind and holy. I have also become easier to forgive others. I have been struggling in the painful past because of my friend. I am unable to let the grief go. But now, I realize that If I have been immersed in the pain from the past, I will find it difficult to forgive others. Because the damage and the feeling will constantly come out to me and will always affect me emotionally. Therefore, by forgiving others and letting them go, I am also saving myself from sticking to the past and enabling myself to look forward. Moreover, the Bible will also serve as a compass to guide me. Adhering to the fear of God, deep down in my heart, I will restrain bad desires and evil thoughts, to live according to the moral laws established by God.

The second lesson I found valuable is in lecture 3, the book of Genesis. Genesis means the beginning of knowledge of who we are, who is God, and our purpose in the creation. The most impacted part to me is the story of the fall in the Bible. I understand biblical sin is deception, this is one of the big lessons in the Bible. Biblical sin is deception to violate God reveals humans' eagerness and greediness for power. More specifically, sin does not represent unethical conduct, it is more of an unfaithful expression to God. I comprehend that God will notice the sin and punish any type of deception, which can be hurtful conduct to others. As a Christian, I will follow the path that God had assigned, It is also necessary to constrain my thoughts, speech, and actions and not casually violate God's will. In addition, as followers of God, must behave properly and not get affected by the purposes that do not align with God. People whose habit is deceptive will be punished by God because it breaks the meaning God gives to us. For this reason, God hopes Christians should not deceive nor be deceived. Behaving with good qualities in everything is a good way to be a minister of Jesus. Instead, when I am tempted to deviate from the path, that is the beginning of the fall. In the future, because I am aware of deception can be hurtful conduct to others. Christians who listen to others for their own greed would sin and lose the ability to judge. With this in mind, I should follow the values God set instead of breaching their meanings in this society. God provides a remedy for the sin to prevent and hopefully change to avoid the sin. Therefore, sin is the antithesis of morality, it is vital to have the ability to think when faced with choices.

Another thing I learned a lot from this course is from Abraham's stories in Genesis. There is a variety of lessons that I have learned that would benefit me significantly in the future. The first valuable lesson is that it is crucial to have a belief that can help you when you are losing the path to go on. Abraham's belief in the Lord has always guided him or motivated him to act on certain things or enable him to successfully complete his actions. He believes that if Lord wants him to do so, he will believe in it and execute them without no hesitation. Some examples can be when the Lord makes a covenant with Abraham in Genesis 17 which the Lord would give Abraham a child of his own if Abraham followed. The Lord let Abraham to circumcise every male people including those who were bought from outside. Abraham no doubt followed the covenant with the Lord and get what he wants later in the stories. The second valuable lesson I learned the most is that there are no things that are always impossible. When having a belief that guides you on the correct road, everything can become possible. It is often that the thoughts of the impossible can limit the potential to do better. Therefore, always be ready for the impossibility because there can be possible someday. For example, Abraham and his wife, Sarah, have always wanted their own children which have challenged them for a long period. However, even when they were in old age, Sarah still cannot get pregnant. This is until one day when the Lord promises to let Sarah be pregnant in Genesis 17 which is surprising since she is too old to possibly be pregnant. But this is because of Abraham's trust and respect for the Lord that makes this possible.

These two valuable lessons are important to me because I can have a rethink many things. I used to have no beliefs that give me a value to guide me when making any decisions or I would often think that what I was doing is impossible to complete. After learning the lessons, I find out that I would need to have my own beliefs which are also to trust God because God would always give out the direction or guidelines when I am lost which often happens. Moreover, whenever I encounter things that are impossible to me, I would think of God which would give me motivation and confidence to challenge it to make it possible.

The lessons I have learned from this course have influenced me enormously in my thoughts and characteristics. I become more willing to face the challenges that I encounter during these months. I am more willing to solve the problem instead of skipping it to the next one. I become resilient in everything in my life. On the other hand, I become more ambitious to do more things because I am now having my own belief that gives me the strength to challenge more things. If I am doing things that are uncomfortable to me, I would tell myself that God would always be on my side to give me guidance. Also, I become more positive about everything in my life. With my beliefs, I trust in God's guidance that everything can be possible if I just do what God wants me to do. 

These will influence my future life from different perspectives. As a leader, I can have more confidence to lead others because I have a belief that gives me comfort and support. When deciding as a leader, I can make better choices because I would have a value that I followed which the value is ethical and good for everyone. This can reduce my probability to harm others by my decisions as I did before. In the past, I would often surrender to challenges because I feel like I lack ability to conquer it. However, my beliefs teach me to face it and that God will always be my back. All I need to do is to face it, experience it, and learn from it. The worst case is that I fail, but every success comes from failure. Therefore, with this kind of mindset now, I can try to do and experience more things that I have never done before. Even when it is difficult, I would still do it and never give up. 

In conclusion, I have learned three main topics in this class throughout the whole semester. It would benefit me not only in short term but throughout my whole life and career. By learning to forgive others, having my own beliefs, and trusting God would improve me in many areas and I am grateful to have taken this course at this stage of my life.