Campus Ambassadors @ UAlbany

Jesus is Practical: Attraction

First in our Jesus is Practical Romantic Relationship series of talks from our meeting on campus.

Jesus is Practical – Attraction

What is a Bible lexicon?

The word “Lexicon” has some specific meanings, and other perhaps more theoretical meanings. The lexicon is a list of all the words in a language; if it includes definitions, it is of course a dictionary. This seems clear and precise, but when you consider words in any language, you soon realize that to include every single possible form of every imaginable word would be impossible.

So the idea of lexicon becomes a little theoretical. It can be thought of as a list of all possible roots of a language, or all morphemes– parts of words that contain no smaller meaningful parts– that can stand alone or be combined with other parts to produce words.

A lexicon is the knowledge that a native speaker has about a language. This includes information about:

• the form and meanings of words and phrases
• lexical categorization
• the appropriate usage of words and phrases
• relationships between words and phrases, and
• categories of words and phrases.

Phonological and grammatical rules are not considered part of the lexicon.

What to look for in a Bible Dictionary:

To choose a good Bible Dictionary/Bible Encyclopedia you should consider the following:

REPUTATION: What is the reputation (reliability) both of the contributors as well as the publisher? What do you know of them? What is their theological point-of-view? Has the publisher released other reputable reference tools?

RECENCY: When was this reference first published? If it was first released many years ago, has it been revised? You need a reference tool that presents the most up-to-date information.

REFERENCES: Does this tool have Bibliographies that point you to more information on a subject? Do they quote (or cite) an adequate amount of Bible passages for you to investigate? Does it have indexes that cross-reference subjects to more than one location in the book?

RELEVANCY: Is this tool the right one for your needs? Enough detail – without being overwhelming? Does it require pre-requisite knowledge (such as Greek or Hebrew)? Is it a tool for scholars or specialists? Is it written from a particular perspective, or with a particular audience in mind?

What is a Bible Dictionary?

Have you ever used a “regular” dictionary? You simply look up a word (which is listed alphabetically) and the dictionary will give you information on the various shades of meaning of the word, where that word comes from, examples of its usage in a sentence, etc.

A Bible Dictionary is a lot like dictionaries you use – except that the entries (words) are words that might be meaningful for the study of the Bible. A Bible Dictionary has entries for Biblical people (like David, Abraham, Moses, Jesus) – Biblical places (Jerusalem, Rome, Babylon, etc) – Biblical concepts (like faith, repentance, sacrifice) – Biblical events (like the fall of Jerusalem, the Babylonian Exile, the Resurrection of Jesus) – and other types of information may be presented as well: outlines of Bible books, pictures, charts, diagrams, and the like. The entries are usually brief – especially if the dictionary is only one volume – so if you need more in-depth information, you need to check a Bible Encyclopedia, which is a lot like a Bible Dictionary, except that the entries are more lengthy and may also include lists of other references to consult on the subject (Bibliographies).

Does God Hate Fags?: Christian reflections on Fred Phelps’ visit to UAlbany

The answer is certainly No!  Absolutely not.  God loves all of us.  In fact God in the form of Jesus is the embodiment of love.  One of the biggest misunderstandings out there is that God Hates people.  I don’t know what goes on in the mind of people like Fred Phelps [leader of WBC] or why they think the way they do.  Since it is not my job to judge, all I can do is speak truthfully about God and hope that my voice will drown out voices like Phelps.

Phelps’ hateful claim however, raises an interesting question.  What does a loving God hate? Continue Reading…

What is a Bible Concordance?

The term ‘concordance’ is usually applied to literary and linguistic studies, but it is an extremely useful tool which enables people to access a piece of text non-sequentially or to study the ways in which it uses language.  A concordance is “a citation of parallel passages, and specifically an alphabetic arrangement of the words contained in a book with citations of the passages in which they occur.” - Encyclopedia Britannica, 11 ed.

A concordance’s function is basically to bring together, in other words, to ‘concord’ passages of text which show the use of a word. It searches for instances of a word or phrase and comes up with each case of it.  A concordance will show each instance of each word together in the context from which it came.

So a concordance is a bit like a computer; it will find things for you, but it will not do the thinking, you have to do that. What it will do is to get you on the right track when, in this case, it comes to deeper analysis of a piece of text.

Jessica Smith

I was the former President of Campus Ambassadors. I am a junior at UA studying business and accounting.  My favorite activities are jet skiing and four-wheeling.  I also love to travel to different places around the world.

As a freshman I wanted to make sure I stayed grounded in my faith so I joined Campus Ambassadors. I have made so many good friends and had the opportunity to share my faith with SUNY Albany!  I hope to see the group grow in size and continue to be a light to the campus.

Dexter Reardon

Dexter at the Annual Phileo Party

I am currently the Website Coordinator of the UAlbany Campus Ambassadors. I am an information science major and a business minor. I enjoy watching anime and playing video games.

I have been with C.A. for about 2 years now and look forward to all of the upcoming years.

Francesca’s Infusion Experience ‘09

I was not even sure I was going to ‘Infusion’ this last May. Stephen and Kim had mentioned it to me.     I wanted to go but I did not want to deal with the pressure of feeling the need to walk around with a       fake smile plastered on my face, pretending to be happy. Because the truth is, I was not happy. I was     struggling with all sorts of questions and doubts. There was an intense anger burning in the pit of my   stomach because I didn’t know what to do with knowledge about the Bible and God. I thought, “I           know about God and about the Word and all that, but what the heck am I supposed to do with it?”

There is so much I wanted to do with my life, and still do. I want to make a practical difference in           people’s lives. I want to be a friend not a judge, and to give. I thought the Bible required me to be a judge, but I wondered, “How could I judge anyone when I was such a sinner myself?” My struggle was taking me all over the place intellectually and emotionally. I didn’t know how to be me and be a child of God at the same time.

I felt like an impostor to everyone. To my non-Christian friends I was Continue Reading…

Jessica’s Story

During my summer before college I went to my first “party”. I had come to know Christ as my Savior when I was eight years old, but I had entered a temporary period of straying from my faith. When I got to college my friends and I would go dancing or to parties on the weekends. It was a lot of fun, but not necessarily what I wanted to be doing all the time. It was hard to stop, because my friends would always want me to go out with them.

I tried to fill my time with other things so I would have a good, legitimate reason why I could not go out. I started going to other school events; and I joined CA and Impact. I made many new friends with people who had other interests besides drinking. I began to hang out with them more often, so that I would not be tempted to go out. Just like my step-dad said, “If you want to succeed in life, surround yourself with successful people”. Proverbs 13:20 instructs us that “he who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm”.

I wanted to have a stronger relationship with God, and to be better example for others and better representative for Christ. With that in mind, I have been surrounding myself with spiritually strong people with similar values to mine. It was not easy at first, Continue Reading…