Let the Waves Cover the Sea

"For the earth will be filled
    with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord
    as the waters cover the sea."

Habakkuk 2:14

If you've been following these early stages of St. Barnabas Bible School then I am sure that, at some point, you've noticed this verse. It was in our first intro video and in our second video and it's even part of our logo.

What a picture it is, and an incredible promise. The glory of God - his weighty, substantive, resplendent worthiness - will fill the earth, and the knowledge of it will slosh into every corner just like the water sloshes into every corner of the sea.

As we grow in Christian maturity, this kind of vision begins to resonate deep within us. Week-in week-out as we gather with God's people, hear God's word, learn to see God's world we start to understand his multi-faceted glory. We start to sense the weightiness of it, the heavy-laden worthiness of Christ, and the brilliance of his perfection.

This vision starts to resonate within us as we come to realise the grandeur of what we were made for; reflecting the glory of God into every corner. It begins to capture us when we see that this is what we've been re-made to do. A re-making won through the death, resurrection and ascension of Christ.

Jesus Christ is Lord, he died, rose from the dead, and now sits at the right-hand of the father. And so, the outcome of history is sure. But in the meantime we've been given the honour of spending our lives to see this beauty rolled-out. Often we do that with courage and hope in the face of things looking bad. Nevertheless, the certainty of the vision remains.

The glory of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. And those waters will even slosh over Cyprus.

The reason we started St. Barnabas Bible School (SBBS) is to help the Church of Christ live for this hope and to help fill the church with the knowledge of God's multi-faceted glory, even if only in small measure.

A church filled with the knowledge of God's glory, one that knows the immeasurable worth and beauty for which she lives, is the kind of church that will be faithful and fruitful from generation to generation until the vision is complete; until the day that Christ returns and Cyprus is filled with the glory of God.

Biblical and theological education isn't everything, but it is something. And we want to offer it to the Lord for the sake of his church.

As many of you know, we had hoped to begin a one-day a week bible and theology course this year. Unfortunately that course has not proved to be viable at the moment.

In place of that particular course though, we want to take the opportunity to make our theological and biblical training as accessible as possible throughout the next year. To that end you can expect these things from us:

• Day-Conferences

  These will take place on three saturdays throughout the year, and each will focus on one particular area of interest. The first is planned for Saturday 11th November, and you can find more details and sign-up for that here.

• This blog 

  Approximately once a week we will post a short-ish blog post here. Zack and I will take turns to write these, and most will be snippets of teaching from courses that we would have taught this year, or are planning to teach in the future. Starting next week, Zack will begin a short series on how the Old Testament's promise of rest is fulfilled in and through Christ.

• A podcast

  Every three weeks we will release a podcast. Some of these will be interviews, some will be discussions around upcoming conferences or follow-ups from recent conferences. If you speak Greek, you should note that we already have one podcast channel up and running on which we publish the recordings of our regular Thursday night classes. That can be found here.

• Evening Classes

  Currently we have Greek-language classes running every Thursday at the GEC hall. If you speak Greek, please feel very welcome to join us. Keep an eye out for details of other evening classes in due time.

• A longer conference in Summer 2024

  We are still in the very early stages of planning for this, but we hope to have a summer conference at some point in 2024. This will likely be three or four days, residential, and will be well worth your time.

The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of God as the waters cover the sea. That will happen whether our particular efforts here are effective or not.

But we hope and pray that you would join us, particularly if you live in Cyprus. And at the very least, may the teaching we offer help you to know, love, and live for the glory of God more in a year's time than you do now.