A Heart For Theology

R.C. Sproul has said regarding the study of theology, 'It's not theology that we really want but the God of the theology we study that we want.'  And this is exactly correct in that we want to know who God is so that we can be in communion and relationship with him.  Even more, we were created by God and for God, and as Augustine described in his Confessions, "You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in Thee."  I can so relate to these truths as I long to know God so that I can also know who I am and what the meaning and purpose of life are all about.

Often times in our broken world teachers and preachers will acknowledge our longing to know our purpose in life but will direct that longing toward the things of this world.  Even as we are created for God we are also created to be in relationship with other people, but our primary purpose is in knowing and living for the God of creation.  This may sound cold or even academic, but upon further review, we can see that it actually yields far greater blessings for ourselves, and for all our relationships.  Without truly knowing the source of Life we cannot understand the purpose of our lives.

When Jesus was being questioned by the religious leaders of his day about his teachings he recited the Shema prayer from Deuteronomy 6.  In Mark 12:30, Jesus declares, "And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength."  Even though the Pharisees were seeking some reason to discredit and even condemn Jesus, they discovered that he indeed affirmed the greatest commandment to love God with all our being.  And why?  Because it is God who has created us for this very purpose and God alone is the only one who can give us our true identity and understanding of life.  Even more, God is glorified when his creation sings its praises to him as our God in all our hearts and minds.

But it is easy to let the study of theology be an end in itself as the religious leaders of Jesus' day had done.  Just as we can go off course toward loving the things of this world too much, so we can also love the learning and the knowledge of God without really having a love for God to begin with.  To prevent either problem we need to ensure that both the head and the heart are always tied together.  We need to have a heart for God himself so that we will have a passion to know him.  But with this genuine love, we must always be re-minded that we are to "love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength."  We need to always have our heads ruling our hearts because we are so easily distracted.  Our minds must always have the priority and give direction to our hearts, so as to stay committed to the calling of loving God with all our beings.

The Word of God is where we learn that we are to love God with all our souls, and so we must always have our minds engaged to have our hearts aflame.  And in regard to loving people, Jesus added another commandment, "The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.”  When we have a heart for the God of our theology we discover with our minds that it is indeed God who we want and who we need above all things.  And in return, we will have our hearts filled with his grace and we will be able to love our neighbors even as ourselves.  This is good theology, to love God and to truly know God, and then to love our neighbors out of the overflow of our hearts.

FAITH TODAY:  Matthew 22:37, "And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind."

Happy New Career

It is customary to wish people "Happy New Year" on the first day of January every year.  It's a new beginning on the calendar, it's now 2018 instead of 2017, and we can use this opportunity to take on a new and fresh outlook on life.  It can also be a new chapter in our lives as we begin something new in our work or school.  Today it is a new chapter in my life, I begin a new 'career' so to speak, as I've retired from flying and now I can pursue other areas of interest.

Since about 1978 I've been interested in Christian Education as I've found that the Bible and Christianity answer all the big questions of life.  I'm also interested in teaching these truths to other people and especially my own family.  I changed colleges that year to a Christian college and changed my major from Biology to 'Bible' as I believed God was calling me into the ministry.  Due to many extenuating circumstances, I was not able to attend seminary at that time, and in 1982 I entered the Navy to become a pilot.  After several years in the Navy, I tried to go to seminary again, but due to other extenuating circumstances, I wasn't able to pull it off.  So I then pursued a flying career with a major airline and have worked there for the last twenty-seven-plus years.  Wow, it's been a journey, and yesterday was my last day with that company.

Today then is the beginning of the rest of my life!  Ha, but true all the same.  And I'm still interested in Christian Education not only to teach the answers to the big questions of life but to also teach the Bible for all of life.  There's no question that the world is broken and it is a terrible place to live in at times.  And there should be no question that this brokenness provides us with ample evidence that we need God for all aspects of our life.  I need God in every aspect of my life.  The Bible teaches us that we need to know God and that we should live for God in all aspects of our lives.  This doctrine of knowing God is the essence of Christian Education.  We need to know God for our salvation and Spiritual growth.  And, he has created us for this very purpose, it is his delight that we come to him to love him and live for him.

Toward this goal, I've enrolled in RTS Global to begin an M.A. degree in Theological Studies to develop my skills and knowledge to teach.  Christian Education is the catalyst to know and love the God who has created us, which is a ministry we desperately need in our postmodern world.  This is my 'new career' that I've been excited about for several decades.  I'm very grateful to have a chance to begin this new work.  The truth of Scripture brings new "light and life" which is Spiritual life indeed.

FAITH TODAY:  John 1:3-5, "All things were made through him (Christ), and without him was not anything made that was made.  In him was life, and the life was the light of men.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it."