You See Dry Bones

Surviving Theology – Head vs. Heart

Did it change you?

The more we learn about God, the more we (should) change. Some of us go to an extreme intellectual end and forget about the relational aspect of Christianity. Others of us go to the extreme relational aspect and completely ignore our intellect. I am not here to argue for a middle ground, but something different altogether.

Just give me Jesus.

Instead of trying to convince you to become more intellectual, or to become more relational, I am going to convince you to learn more about Jesus. Some of us can do this really well with out brains. We can learn theology with the best of them.  I sit in this category to a point. Hence the reason I am earning my “fake” masters (really need a better name for that…).  On the flip side, I am not as bright as some of my friends.  You will notice the lack here is in my heart. It is very hard to get the information to move from my head to my heart. This is silly because I know Jesus wants a relationship with His followers. How many of us examine our close friends and family by reading textbooks about them?  Not many.

On the other end, we have people who make the relationship all heart and no head. This can be just as bad. If we think about any relationship we are in, how often do we make bad heart decisions? We get angry because a family member or friend does not act in our best interest. This hurts our heart and we lash out. We have to remember, our hearts are wicked and imperfect. While the Holy Spirit takes up residence inside us, we still have the continual battle with our flesh. Don’t believe me? go to a Pentecostal church. Ask some basic theological question and see what weird things come out. Call them out on some of their practices which are not found anywhere in Scripture. Most likely you will receive an emotion-based response.

***The Disclaimer Strikes Again***

I know, I pointed out a flaw in the more charismatic camps. This will prompt emails and negative comments. Many of you will forget how I pointed out the flaws in the intellectual camp just one paragraph earlier. Bring ‘em on so I can delete them. After you vent, feel free to re-read the second paragraph. Quit getting all emotional on me.

***End The Disclaimer***

We have to know Jesus to the best of His ability.

To many of us, He will give us an intellectual gift. He will help us know Him through books and lectures. He will make concepts real to us others just cannot grasp. We will care about things deeply that others do not.  To others, He will melt our hearts with His supreme love to a point where we weep during every prayer. Our hearts will be so close to Him that we feel His presence during even the most mundane activities. We should be stretching ourselves in order to grow in our relationship. This means head people should pray more, worship with music and quiet times. Try and glorify God through the arts, etc.  For the heart people, pick up a good book by a dead guy (I think heart people would LOVE Francis Schaeffer and John Frame. Well, Schaeffer is dead, but Frame is still with us).

In turn, we should also continue to go with our strengths. Head people, keep studying (but do not forget applying what you learned!). Heart people, Keep pressing in. Continue to learn about God through your activities and prayer. Continue to be lead by the Spirit (and remember to learn how the Spirit operates, it is not some grand secret, it’s in the Bible).

God made us all unique.

He has called some of us to learn about Him systematically, and others experientially. But we are all one Body, and all the parts are equally useful and equally loved.

-Don-

Who Are You Working With?

Build up the Body.

We all have talents and gift sets. Some of us are writers, artists, bloggers, teachers, car repair workers, landscapers, cooks, bakers, and candlestick makers.

What are we doing to help others with our talent?

I am writing this post as I talk to a guy about blogging. He is starting his own blog and I am (hopefully) being helpful in answering some questions. We talked a little about a logo and I was thinking about how this can create a “spec art” disaster. Spec art is when companies take advantage of an artist by making them work for free. I don’t want to get into that argument, but I must say, some spec artist stuff is over blown. It can be downright selfish. And you can quote me.

Because our work should be unto the Lord.

Everything we do is because God gave us the talent to do so. It is by His Spirit we can do anything at all. One of the biggest shames is to NOT use our talent to glorify and Honor God. I am not saying we should do everything for free, etc, but we should be willing to help our brothers and sisters. A good example is a guy at my church. He is an electronics genius.  The dude can ground your home wiring, set up an HD surround sound system, run cables through your walls, and set up sound boards. He talks about the spectrum-prism-something-or-others like its his second language. He will then come to your house and hook up your stuff for free. He set up a sound system, projectors, and re-did a TON of the electric in our old church building out of the kindness of his heart and on a shoe string budget.

It does not end there.

He is teaching about 15 guys to do the same thing. He knows it is important to use the gifts God gave him to help the church in its mission to spread the Gospel. It is not about us, but about Him and His glory.

What are you doing? Who are you investing in and training? Who are you working with?

Who is working with you?

While we all have something to give, we all have something to learn as well. What are you learning and from who?

-Don-

It’s OT Weekend!

I am getting a plan together.

This is becoming more and more exciting. As you may know, I am earning a “self made masters” in Old Testament studies. I have a lot of “classes” nailed down and I am still working on narrowing the list. After all, this is not an Masters of Divinity. Don’t think I want to go 90 hours at this point. I am trying to get it to around 60.  I have what I think will be the master list, so far. If you would like, please tell me what you think I should add or take away.

Here is the list thus far:

Term 1

1. Biblical Hermeneutics
2. Biblical Exegesis
3. OT and Ancient Near East Culture
4. Religions of the Ancient Near East
5. Apocalyptic Literature

Term 2

1. Biblical Theology
2. Old Testament Systematic Theology
3. Christology
4. The Doctrine of God (Yes, I am thinking Volume one of Frame for this!)
5. Doctrine of the holy Spirit

Term 3

1. Hebrew Language Tools

Term 4

1. The Pentateuch
2. OT Poetry and Proverbs
3. OT Prophets
4. OT Themes
5. OT Survey

Term 5

1. Israel’s History (Judges through Chronicles)
2. Jewish Law in the OT and NT (I want to study the difference as well as the sects that formed by the Birth of Christ)
3. The Exile
4. Doctrine of Salvation
5. Covenant Theology

Term 6

1. Basic to Intermediate Hebrew

That’s about 60-65 Credit hours, depending on the University.

Notice, I have not included some of the typical classes many universities require. For example, I do not have statistics, any denominational or movement history courses, and no writing or English courses. I hope that, if you have a Bachelors or even just a couple years of college behind you, that you do not need these. I want to focus on the OT. You will also see some “New Testament” classes like Christology and the Doctrine of Salvation. I think it is important to learn and study these as they are the over-arching theme of the entire Bible (you could argue the Doctrine of Salvation could be called the Doctrine of Redemption).

Also note, the order is not set in stone. I am trying to see if anything needs to precede other courses. For example, I think the first two classes almost NEED to be the first two.  We should learn good Hermeneutics and Exegesis, or at least have them tuned and polished before continuing.

An added requirement

I am hoping to read through the Old Testament during every term. If you are joining me on this, I would recommend this strongly, but I will not require it. Some people might start reading a particular book and be drawn to study it more. I do not want to promote just flying through the OT to get it done.

Other things.

Demian from Fallen and Flawed gave me a GREAT suggestion. He recommended more collaboration via Google Wave.  For those of you interested in taking these courses, I would like to set up a time to design this with you. Let me know if you are interested, if you need an invite to Google Wave, and what would be a good time to set up some collaborative time. We will be further discussing the syllabus, requirement, and the materials (books, talks, conferences, articles, and only God knows what else) during these sessions.

What do you think?

Have I missed any classes? Should I change some? I am still trying to think of a course schedule. How long should each class be? Should I do one at a time, or more? When should papers be due, etc.?

Let me know.

-Don-

The First Appearance of the Gospel

Before John 3:16, there was Genesis 3:15. The  Protoevangelium.

Just looking over Genesis chapter 3 one can see some very interesting points. I may be looking too far into what is in the text, but I would like to make some commentary on what I have read. First, let’s look at the order of chapter 3:

• Verses 1-7 – shows the temptation of Eve and Adam following her into sin.
• Verses 8-13 – tells us of God’s “discovery” of the sin after he finds Adam and Eve hiding from Him.
• Verse 14 – God curses the serpent (that is, Satan).
• Verse 15 – God announces victory over Satan through Eve’s offspring.
• Verse 16 – God announces the curse the woman must bear due to her sin.
• Verse 17-19 – God curses man and the entire earth because of Adam’s sin.
• Verses 20-24 – God sends man out of the Garden to work the ground.

Some interesting points, Adam sinned first. We tend to say “Eve bit the fruit first, so she sinned first.” This is not true, Adam sinned by standing around idly while his wife was lead into temptation.  This section of Scripture should really make us think a little more about our sins and our responsibilities.

What is more interesting to me is the order of the curses. Like I stated above, but I may be looking too deep into things.

God curses Satan (the serpent) first.

Despite the blame fest (Gen 3:12-13), God chooses to pronounce His curse first to the tempter. If we are to look into the order, this shows God understands we are tempted into sin. Before we get too happy, remember, we also share in the curse because we share in the responsibility for sin (this may help with an explanation of Calvinist free will). Before God tells us the effects of the curse on humanity, He announces a savior (Gen 3:15). I believe this shows us God had a plan to redeem us from the beginning.

Your Thoughts?

-Don-