Forum week 11

Secret time. For most of my life, I've kind of skimmed over any part of the New Testament between John and Revelations (shhhhhh). Those chapters all seemed really obfuscated, unclearly written, and largely irrelevant to the message of the New Testament as a whole.

Oh how wrong I was!

All of the letters and epistles deal with the struggles the early Christians faced setting up a church, confusing culture and tradition with doctrine, accepting outsiders, missionary work, and seeking revelation to grow the young church. Sound familiar?

The second half of the NT is about our church today. Reading it through that lens has given me so much sympathy for the early church and for the struggles in our church today. Most importantly, though, the focus of those chapters doesn't shift away from Christ. 
8 And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God. 
Praising God, not Peter! I'm excited to be able to continue studying these chapters for the rest of the semester, and applying this new outlook as I continue as a lifelong learner.