Short and Sweet, Sweet and Sour: A Reacquaintance with Abandon

I don't think I realized while I was in seminary how unaccustomed to simple faith I had become. No doubt, I would have thought (and expressed to you had you asked me) that my faith was growing. As a student I have been trained to examine the Bible, religious practice, and my spiritual experiences with a  critical eye. Now preparing to teach for an organization that is dependant on the financial support of others, I am faced with a daily need for simple and unyielding faith. While I can (and do) pray, I am solely dependant on God's provision for myself, my family, and my coworkers. While it may be tempting to ask God for, or to seek a way out of such a challenge, I'm asking God to grow me through it... I think it's good for me.

God is God and You are Not: Simple Advice for Seminary Students

Seminary can be challenging (to say the least). From one student to another, I would like to offer a simple word of encouragement… God is God. Amidst all the discussions, lectures, and debates students can rest assured that God has not changed. Quite to the opposite, the Bible teaches you and I that: “Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Heb. 13:8). While the Bible is God’s sure and timely word to every generation, teachers and pop-Christian writers are not. No matter how much academic pedigree a teacher might have, their assertions can and should always be challenged (if only in the quietness of your own study). Blog postings (such as this one) and popular Christian writing (from the latest theological treatise on God’s love to Beverly Lewis’ newest Amish romance novel) should be challenged even more. Every good teacher, writer, and self-opinionated blog author will joyfully concur.

That said, you are also fallible. Just as teachers must teach with humility, so also students must learn with humility. Most importantly we must all approach God and His word with due humility, for it is through God’s word and with the Holy Spirit that you and I can discern the truth from human knowledge.

So, when you hear a lecture or read a book that is propagating something you disagree with… don’t be discouraged; only submit these thoughts to God’s word to see if they are founded on Godly wisdom. In the same manner, don’t become a slave to your reason or pride. You are not God, and your thoughts are not His thoughts (Isa. 55:9). Only submit your heart and mind to God and let Him minister to your needs: academic, emotional, spiritual, or otherwise. Above all, never forget that though God is transcendent (in many ways) and unchanging, He is also your heavenly Father.

Give ear, O heavens, and let me speak;
And let the earth hear the words of my mouth.
Let my teaching drop as the rain,
My speech distill as the dew,
As the droplets on the fresh grass
And as the showers on the herb.
For I proclaim the name of the LORD;
Ascribe greatness to our God!
The Rock! His work is perfect,
For all His ways are just;
A God of faithfulness and without injustice,
Righteous and upright is He. (Deut. 32:1-4)

God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good? (Num. 23:19)

“’ALL FLESH IS LIKE GRASS,
AND ALL ITS GLORY LIKE THE FLOWER OF GRASS.
THE GRASS WITHERS,
AND THE FLOWER FALLS OFF,
BUT THE WORD OF THE LORD ENDURES FOREVER.’
And this is the word which was preached to you.” (I Pet. 1:24-25; Isa. 40:7-8)

5 Things I Will Be Doing This Year to Deepen my Relationship With Christ

1. Read my Bible - I usually read at least a chapter from the Bible everyday. I don't follow a reading plan so much as study through books of the Bible. On the tougher days I might read from the Psalms (it's great to read about God "smashing the teeth of the wicked" when you're mad at someone).

2. I am reading the Morning and Evening devotional written by Charles Hadden Spurgeon. You can download a free ebook copy here This is a solid and time-tested devotional.

3. Walk with Jesus - For a while now I have been in the habit of imagining myself walking and talking with Jesus. I know this sounds flaky (it still does to me), but what I can't deny is that Jesus has ministered to me during these times. Give it a try sometime. Look into a landscape photo or imagine your own landscape, and picture Jesus there with you.

4. Pray with my wife and children before we go to bed - This provides a great way, not only to connect with my wife and sons spiritually, but also as a way to lead my family by example. I pray that in the future my sons will pray because they saw that it was important to me.

5. Spend more time at home - I feel closer to God when I'm spending time with my family. It isn't that seminary and bus driving are necessarily less wholesome activities, but I'm coming to recognize that home is where Christ's love is (or should be) shared and experienced most intimately. In other words, I feel Christ's love best, when I'm experiencing it through my wife and kids. And maybe they understand Jesus as the "bridegroom" and God as a Father if I am being a loving husband and father.

This is my plan...what's yours?

The Gospel Everyday

"I once assumed the gospel was simply what non-Christians must believe in order to be saved, while afterward we advance to deeper theological waters. But I’ve come to realize that ” the gospel isn’t the first step in a stairway of truths, but more like the hub in a wheel of truth.”
In other words, once God rescues sinners, his plan isn’t to steer them beyond the gospel, but to move them more deeply into it. All good theology, in fact, is an exposition of the gospel...."

I highly recommend this post from Tullian Tchividjian

The Gospel Everyday