Reflection Paper #1
THEO: 101 Old Testament Survey
Professor Morrow
Danny Tinoco
Due Date: 1/22/24
Learning about the Bible and its history is one of the more challenging things to learn
about if you have little to no previous knowledge about it, or if you simply are not religious. In
this case, I was born into a somewhat religious household. We went to church here and there, we
were raised with basic Christian teachings, and the names Jesus and God were not unfamiliar to
us as we did believe that Christ is our savior. It is when you begin to actually learn and read the
Bible that there is a ton of information and teachings that you probably will not fully understand
right away. Which then makes Bible study and constantly going to church with an open heart and
an open mind a key part in one's spiritual journey and relationship with God.
Last semester, I had a really difficult time managing work, school, and the schoolwork
itself. I am not proud to say that I have a hard time battling procrastination and laziness. It
impacts the things I want to do as well as the things I need to do. Overtime, this took a toll on
me. I was burned out from working forty hours a week and overwhelmed from the schoolwork to
the point where I let everything fall apart, which ultimately resulted in me leaving Oak Valley
College. I was at a time where faith was at its lowest and took matters into my own hands and my
own understanding which caused me to leave.
For the past fourteen months I have been working on restoring my relationship with God
and expanding my knowledge from a Christian standpoint. It is a journey that never really ends.
With a lot of ups came a lot of downs and it truly has been a time of trials and tribulations.
Leaving school was my idea of getting away from a lot of my problems I had going on and just
getting a break from “everything”. While away from school I began questioning if what I did was
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right and if that was an example of departing myself from what God had in store for me. From
that moment I then realized that I was doing it all wrong. I was doing life wrong. I was so used to
going by what I thought was right by leaning on my own understanding, not by God’s, “Trust in
the LORD with all thine heart; And lean not unto thine own understanding. 6 In all thy ways
acknowledge him, And he shall direct thy paths.” (King James Version, 2019, Mat. 3:5-6).
So I did a lot of praying and worshipping over my time away from college. There were
many prayers that went along the lines of me asking God “If you give me another chance I want
to do it right this time, I want to do everything right this time”. I wanted to do life the right way
which is God’s way, I felt that I couldn’t do anything anymore and really let it all up to Him. I
wanted Him to truly guide and teach me. One thing I do know for certain is that God provides,
and me being here typing this is a live testimony to that.
As for the material, it’s been great and somewhat easy-going so far. Before returning back
to Oak Valley College, I prayed to have something or someone that can teach me about the Bible
in-depth and guide me to fully understanding the teachings and words of God. Here we are only
a few weeks into this course and biblically speaking, I already have a better understanding of
everything that’s going on. The main things I have learned is that each of the books have actual
meanings in the name and that there are time frames for each of the scriptures. For example,
genesis means the beginning and the formation of something, and we read in the Bible that the
book of Genesis talks about how God creates the heavens and the earth as well as mankind. As
for the time frame part, the way the scriptures are being shown and explained to us in class
makes it a lot easier to dissect and understand all of the information that we are reading. In class,
the events that take place in that specific book are written on the board and are followed by the
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chapters. For example, you write down Ex. 1-2; Bondage → Ex. 3-4; Moses, IAM, Burning Bush
→ Ex. 7-11; Plagues (10) and so on.
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