• Friends who love me even when I'm not very lovable or when I don't make much sense.
• Family who I still get to see, despite the many miles that separate us.
• Stars... nuff said ;)

• Patience - sometimes God takes longer to get things done than I wish he would, and I want to work by his timing.
• Faith - sometimes it's a bit thin on the ground...
• Diligence in study - I've been really challenged lately to be more diligent and orderly in my life. Pray that I can keep learning this.

• Jogged 4 days and walked every other day (for about 40 mins every day... sometimes a bit longer).
• Did my personal best jogging distance -- almost 1 km! Ok, all you people who are actually fit may laugh, but I'm working my way UP!
• Read LOTS of books.
• Cried more than usual (just one of those weeks, I'm afraid).
• Realised that by the time I finish college in 3.5 years, I'll be part of the furniture.
• Decided to go visit my lovely Brisbane cousins in September!

• Researching Jansenism (just think Catholic Calvinism... yep! Bizarro mixture!) for our Church History presentation next week (and essay this week).
• Rereading Hebrews in Greek and English.
• Going over to UNSW to get my eyes checked.
• Attending the SMBC annual clothes swap... woot yeah!
• Keep jogging most days and try to go further without dying!

I clearly don't blog very often, but I was talking to some of the girls here earlier about how good blogging/keeping a journal is to process one's own thoughts, so I thought... "what they hey... "

One advantage to living in college is that heaps of people share their itunes libraries over the network, and you get unlimited listening variety. It's great! Today I've been enjoying Missy Higgins' music.

Her song "Where I Stood" got me a-thinking. I used to listen to that song an aweful lot. It struck a cord with me because when I sang it, the lyrics echoed exactly what my heart was feeling. This would have been 6 or 7 months ago now, and I remember thinking as I listened to it that I couldn't imagine getting beyond how I felt at that moment. I realise I'm speaking in vaguaries, but anyone who went through that time with me knows what I'm talking about. Suffice to say that there comes a point in some relationships (I guess in any kind of relationship) where your identity becomes so tangled in another person, that something has to give - either the relationship or who you are. In my case, I had allowed the other party to so take the place of God to the point where when Missy Higgins sings "I don't know who I am without you, all I know is that I should," it made my heart ache with loss.

The point of my writing that is not to talk about that situation, but how wonderful God has been to me. I hadn't heard that song in so long, that it took me back for a moment to that time and I realise how God was so merciful in not just removing me from that situation completely against what I wanted. I prayed so hard that he wouldn't do what he did, but he knew best, and now not too long later I can see how it really was the best thing he could ever have done for me.

That just blows my mind that he has brought me round so far in such a short space of time. What a gracious God we have!
 

l was looking at the Answers in Genesis website to get a bit of a grip on their viewpoint of their six day creation theory and came across this explanation for how they know that Cain's wife was his sister.


A closer look at the Hebrew word for “wife” in Genesis reveals something readers may miss in translation. It was more obvious to those speaking Hebrew that Cain’s wife was likely his sister. (There is a slim possibility that she was his niece, but either way, a brother and sister would have married in the beginning.) The Hebrew word for “wife” used in Genesis 4:17 (the first mention of Cain’s wife) is ishshah, and it means “woman/wife/female.”

"And Cain knew his wife [ishshah], and she conceived and bore Enoch. And he built a city, and called the name of the city after the name of his son—Enoch"

The word ishshah is the word for “woman,” and it means “from man.” It is a derivation of the Hebrew words ‘iysh (pronounced: eesh) and enowsh, which both mean “man.” This can be seen in Genesis 2:23 where the name “woman” (ishshah) is given to one who came from Adam.

"And Adam said: “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman [ishshah], because she was taken out of Man [iysh]” (Genesis 2:23)."

Thus, Cain’s wife is a descendant of Adam/man. Therefore, she had to be his sister (or possibly niece). Hebrew readers should be able to make this connection easier; however, much is lost when translated.

Now, the first thing is, the logic doesn't flow. All that argument tells us is that she was human. Seriously. Think about how many times the word אִשָּׁה (ishshah) must be used in the Old Testament -- if we're going to understand that the etymology 'aided' the orinal audience, we must be careful to consider all the other occurrences of the word. Clearly we cannot apply this 'hidden meaning' to the other instances in the Old Testament and therefore without some more applicable evidence, the argument falls flat on its face.

(Can I just say here that I am making no comment as to whether or not Cain's wife was his sister -- I am aware of various arguments in this area and feel disinclined and unqualified to comment.)

Furthermore, they have made no effort to back up their assertion. Presumably their etymological claims are based in Genesis 2:23, "Now this is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman' for she was taken out of man," but what they don't take into account is that the Bible never sets itself up as a linguistic textbook, and as it turns out the words אִישׁ ('iysh' = 'ish') and אִשָּׁה ('ishshah') are unrelated apart from sounding alike.

I found this helpful post on Balashon (a blog exploring the linguistic interplay between Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek and other ancient languages). Note that the author of this blog states quite clearly in his biography that he is not a professional linguist, but what he does in his article is provide references to professional linguists who are licensed to make the claims. He gathers them together to make it more readable, but does not pretend to be someone or something he's not. I find that refreshing. If only so many presumptuous Christians would take a leaf out of his book.

http://www.balashon.com/2008/10/ish-and-isha.html

On a related note, reading this article has made me really reconsider how I view the Answers in Genesis/Creation Science approach to the book of Genesis. I have had grave concerns about their simplistic way of viewing the world and every scientist I know has told me they present scientific evidence from a very one-sided and badly researched point of view, but as I am not myself scientific in the least I have been unable to comment. This however has confirmed everything they've said, but in an area I do know. What they have done in Genesis 2 is to take a statement ("because she was taken out of man") and taking it on face value have applied a whole theory to it. They haven't even considered whether the Bible is really making a true linguistic etymological claim or whether it is more like a pun. I cannot comment on what the author of Genesis is trying to say with that comment, but I would be very careful before I built a whole theory upon it, especially without researching the implications and basis for such a claim.

I'm sitting here in sweltering heat, blown away (just about) by my desk fan which is placed about a foot and a half from my face, surrounded by half unpacked junk and feeling thoroughly exhausted.

I've been in college almost a week now, although I confess I feel as though I've been here for at least three... just so much has happened. Not significant-wise... I just mean that the whole week has been a massively intense information overload.

I want to post properly at some point, but I just wanted to say that I'm changing my blog address (I didn't want to import my old blog, but I wanted Facebook to keep the new one imported regularly). I don't think I'll be using my gilraenh.livejournal blog anymore.

Prayer would be appreciated. I'm feeling really exhausted - not just physically, but emotionally and spiritually too. It's a pretty intense place to be living... especially since this week has been largely about meeting people, which is good... but when you're starting off without knowing anyone, it's just tiring!

Two good things happened tonight. The first is that a couple who knew me in Armidale (who are going to Moore and live just a few blocks from my place) asked me over for tea. It was really very nice of them, 'cause I didn't know them very well at all in Armidale and they made contact with me. They only knew I was in the area because they read it in a bulletin from the diocese.

Now, to explain the second good thing, I should say that everyone at college has to do two hours’ worth of duties around the college. It just helps to keep fees down etc. Anyway, one of my lecturers called me over just before and told me that he’s requested that my duty be as his research assistant! I couldn’t be happier!