It's July already. Nooooooooo! Time marches on. Well on to business.
"We being what we are and all things else being what they are the most important and profitable study any of us can engage in is the study of theology.”
AW Tozer[1]
Theology is simply the study of God. The Greek words theos (God) and logos (word or thought or discourse) make up the word we understand to be theology. Tozer also said, “What comes to our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”[2] Have we taken the time to carefully think about how you view God and were we receive our information from?
In out modern evangelical Christianity we have focused on our private personal “experience” of God to the exclusion of searching out and seeking true knowledge about God. But God has said in the Scriptures, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. (Jer 29:13)” And he said, “But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul. When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, then in later days you will return to the Lord your God and obey him. For the Lord your God is a merciful God; he will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with your forefathers, which he confirmed to them by oath. (Duet 4:29-31)” The study of theology (The study of God) is of the utmost importance. It is not a subject for academic high minded philosophical types with Ph.D.’s. NO! As J.I. Packer says, “Knowing about God is crucially important for the living of our lives.”[3]
Everyone is a theologian. As soon as you think about God you are “doing” theology. Please do not deceive yourself. Not only are we all theologians, we are all capable theologians. It simply takes time and effort. We can do it!
But how?
Martin Luther said, “A simple layman armed with Scripture is greater than the mightiest Pope without it”
I was recently challenged by a conversation I had with a young man. He told me that he has committed to spending the rest of his time at seminary to reading through the bible four times a year. His reasoning was that if he is called to pulpit ministry, his main duty will be to teach and explain the scripture and to do so he must be thoroughly familiar with and soaked in God’s word. Oh, how I agree. While in seminary I have begun to notice that my personal study of the word has fallen of. There is so much study done to finish assignments and write papers that personal intimacy with God is often shuttled to the back burner in light of the tyranny of the urgent. You may not be in seminary but do work and children and spouses and soccer games and piano practice and golf rounds and favorite TV shows and, this and that and on and on, cut into and crowd out personal time with God in his word?
Remember this is not a race. You do not get graded on having read the bible more times through then anyone else and thus get a free pass to heaven. No. God desires that we act on the information we have and faithfully do that which we know. We are not to get through the Bible but to get the Bible through us. Having and knowing God's heart, through reading Scripture, will create in us worshipping heart that will produce good works "which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Eph 2:10)" We can tell that our Bible reading has produced a proper theology when we move from being self centered to being other centered. The Apostle James said, “What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, ‘You have faith; I have deeds.’ Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. (James 2:14-18)” We turn to serve those who are placed in our paths by God providence.
Let us all recommit to faithful, structured bible reading and study. The world needs you as God’s theologian. The people you meet need you as a theologian. One of tools of the trade is our Bible reading and study. Lets get to work.
"We being what we are and all things else being what they are the most important and profitable study any of us can engage in is the study of theology.”
AW Tozer[1]
Theology is simply the study of God. The Greek words theos (God) and logos (word or thought or discourse) make up the word we understand to be theology. Tozer also said, “What comes to our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”[2] Have we taken the time to carefully think about how you view God and were we receive our information from?
In out modern evangelical Christianity we have focused on our private personal “experience” of God to the exclusion of searching out and seeking true knowledge about God. But God has said in the Scriptures, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. (Jer 29:13)” And he said, “But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul. When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, then in later days you will return to the Lord your God and obey him. For the Lord your God is a merciful God; he will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with your forefathers, which he confirmed to them by oath. (Duet 4:29-31)” The study of theology (The study of God) is of the utmost importance. It is not a subject for academic high minded philosophical types with Ph.D.’s. NO! As J.I. Packer says, “Knowing about God is crucially important for the living of our lives.”[3]
Everyone is a theologian. As soon as you think about God you are “doing” theology. Please do not deceive yourself. Not only are we all theologians, we are all capable theologians. It simply takes time and effort. We can do it!
But how?
Martin Luther said, “A simple layman armed with Scripture is greater than the mightiest Pope without it”
I was recently challenged by a conversation I had with a young man. He told me that he has committed to spending the rest of his time at seminary to reading through the bible four times a year. His reasoning was that if he is called to pulpit ministry, his main duty will be to teach and explain the scripture and to do so he must be thoroughly familiar with and soaked in God’s word. Oh, how I agree. While in seminary I have begun to notice that my personal study of the word has fallen of. There is so much study done to finish assignments and write papers that personal intimacy with God is often shuttled to the back burner in light of the tyranny of the urgent. You may not be in seminary but do work and children and spouses and soccer games and piano practice and golf rounds and favorite TV shows and, this and that and on and on, cut into and crowd out personal time with God in his word?
Remember this is not a race. You do not get graded on having read the bible more times through then anyone else and thus get a free pass to heaven. No. God desires that we act on the information we have and faithfully do that which we know. We are not to get through the Bible but to get the Bible through us. Having and knowing God's heart, through reading Scripture, will create in us worshipping heart that will produce good works "which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Eph 2:10)" We can tell that our Bible reading has produced a proper theology when we move from being self centered to being other centered. The Apostle James said, “What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, ‘You have faith; I have deeds.’ Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. (James 2:14-18)” We turn to serve those who are placed in our paths by God providence.
Let us all recommit to faithful, structured bible reading and study. The world needs you as God’s theologian. The people you meet need you as a theologian. One of tools of the trade is our Bible reading and study. Lets get to work.
1 comment:
Man seeking God. Where in the
Bible does it say/read that un-
regenerate man sincerely seeks
God? We have the passages that
man knows there is something
beyond the phys., life; but what
of the ability for man to truly
seek God in faith? Today's so-
called theology,(religion)would
say otherwise. What has happened
to the teaching(s) of the
doctrines of grace in western
Christianity/American churches
today?
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