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torkellHousegroup was strange this evening - that's saying something given how bonkers our housegroup normally is! We ended up discussing no end of random topics from cat ownership to nuclear power plants.
I'm reminded of times at the Brighton House, wherein we would start off chatting about one topic and an hour later have passed through a whole slew of subjects to arrive at some vastly different item. Occasionally you could almost see the cogs turning as someone would go through and pop half-a-dozen or so items off of their mental stack before heading off on another tangent.
Anyway we did manage to make time for a short piece of bible discussion. Ca dug out a book of studies on the Psalms and randomly picked Psalm 46 which oddly enough I posted about last year - an extract from verse 10 forms the motto of Sussex University. This time rather than the whole Psalm we particularly looked at the first few verses (NIV translation):
Of course housegroup then went off on another tangent - the way the sea is considered to be this unfathomable hostile thing with waters roaring and foaming, while the river is peaceful and brings life (possibly these references come from the Nile and how the regular floods nourished the land?). But we came back to the start of this Psalm, which is God is there for us as a refuge no matter what the world brings.
I find there's something very comforting about that.
I'm reminded of times at the Brighton House, wherein we would start off chatting about one topic and an hour later have passed through a whole slew of subjects to arrive at some vastly different item. Occasionally you could almost see the cogs turning as someone would go through and pop half-a-dozen or so items off of their mental stack before heading off on another tangent.
Anyway we did manage to make time for a short piece of bible discussion. Ca dug out a book of studies on the Psalms and randomly picked Psalm 46 which oddly enough I posted about last year - an extract from verse 10 forms the motto of Sussex University. This time rather than the whole Psalm we particularly looked at the first few verses (NIV translation):
1 God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
3 though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging.4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy place where the Most High dwells.
5 God is within her, she will not fall;
God will help her at break of day.
Of course housegroup then went off on another tangent - the way the sea is considered to be this unfathomable hostile thing with waters roaring and foaming, while the river is peaceful and brings life (possibly these references come from the Nile and how the regular floods nourished the land?). But we came back to the start of this Psalm, which is God is there for us as a refuge no matter what the world brings.
I find there's something very comforting about that.
