Sunday morning alarm goes off and we take our precious time getting ready and occasionally eyeing the clock. The time comes for us to walk to the bus station and we leave only a few minutes after that (I know I know - ugly horrible habit I need to nip in the butt!). We have to get to the station in 10 minutes so we think we're fine since we've already accomplished such a task. We get to the bus station - to our doom the bus is gone :/ Chelsea assures me there are other ways to get around but that we just might be a little late. (bummer.) As we are looking around at schedules, Chelsea asks me "Do you have our USF ID's?" (without these ID's we have to pay mucho dollars to ride the Transit System). I begin to stare at the ground and say under my breath 'oops'. Neither one of us has cash, so we walk over to the Walmart where I have to buy a coke and get $20 cash back so we can make change. To go to Quaker church and back will be $7 (I'm poor - and that's a lot). I reluctantly walk back to the Transit Center to wait for the bus that will rob me. We talk about it and just decide that we are going to have our own church because 'this is just ridiculous!'. We calm down and walk over to the pretty trees on USF campus, find a bench, and open up our Bibles. On the way I was telling Chelsea somethings about Quakerism (only things I have read from their website and reliable sources such as a book I used for 'World Religions' last year at Oak Hall).
If I'm understanding what I've read correctly, Quakers believe in 'Inner Light' (aka The Holy Spirit). It makes me think back to that dorky song we sang in the Cubbies 'This little light of mine - I'm gonna let it shine' haha, anyways. So, something VERY different from doctrine I was raised in. Quakers believe that man is good by nature, opposed to being sinful by nature. They say everyone has this 'Inner Light' within them and that the Holy Spirit convicts you to live for God (in whatever expression that might be). Once someone endugles in the sweet convictions on the Holy Spirit they feel whole, they feel complete, they know that it is God that they want to live for - This feeling and spiritual knowlegde is because the person is reaturning to their nature, tapping into their 'inner light', and fullfilling their purpose as a person. Quakers also claim that people being good by nature explains why we feel guilty when we do wrong, and that if we do the same wrong enough times that those convictions from the inner light/holy spirit dwindle and become a distant voice leaving people feeling empty and uncomplete because they are living against their nature.
Anywase, its very interesting stuff and something that I'm continueing to look into.
So, Chelsea and I reread the story of the woman at the well and discussed the importance of the word 'had' - that Jesus 'HAD' to go through Samaria. I remember from a 'Get Real' Bible study with Mrs. Gina (most powerful woman I know) that the word 'had' is a different meaning. It means 'to fullfill prophecy this must happen'. We talked about Jesus, being a man, how he lived to his optimum by having the most inimate realationship with the Holy Spirit which convicted him to do things (like gave him the knowledge to go to Samaria - because we all know, if a Jew didn't have to go throuhg Samaria, they wouldn't!). This led to another verse that uses the same version of the word 'had' (and unfortunately I could not locate it :( ) But the verse is about how Judas 'HAD' to turn in Jesus ('had' meaning to fullfill prophecy). This lead to the idea of bad sinful situations working out for the good... for example, adam and eve which was a sinful act lead to the rest of God's plan, Jesus being nailed to a cross became the redemption for our sins - After discussing it we realized how God is absent from time and can take the workings/temptations of Satan and turn it into His glory! I used to give Satan more credit than he deserved, I've realized how he is not everywhere like God is, that he is not absent from time, and simply not as powerful as God.
It ended up being a great morning :)
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