I wrote last time about worshiping God with both head and heart. I think I may have left some people high and dry, namely the academically minded ones. The question becomes, “how do I apply what I have learned?”

Glad you asked…I don’t really know.

I tried to think about this last night and this morning.  Not nearly enough time to make a complete solution. However, I decided to de-construct the steps that brought me to my current place.  I was hoping by going backward, I could go a little forward. Here is a brief ordered list of my spiritual life over the past decade:

• God saved me. The experience was emotional.
• I served God physically and emotionally.
• I discovered books.
• God developed my intellectual foundation.
• I have built on it ever since.
• I have lost a primary connection with my heart.
• I am teetering on Pharisee-like behavior.
• God gracefully has shown me this.

Learning for learnings sake.

I had to ask myself, why do I want to learn theology? What is it that makes me NEED to know more about God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit?  Why does studying doctrine make my heart leap? Why do I love the Old Testament and feel the need to engross myself in a two year study of it?

Once again, I have a list of possible answers:

• I need to feel significant.
• I need to keep pace with my peers.
• I may be worshiping the god of knowledge.
• I am afraid to know God personally because He may call me out on my sin.
• I have been handed a gift of curiosity by God almighty.
• I am in love with our savior and want to know more about Him.
• Learning is easy for me to grasp.
• Quiet time is easier when regimented.
• Learning about biblical guys strikes something inside me that resonates and inspires me.
• I love reading and studying so I might as well read / study something that is beneficial.

I could go on, but I think you can see my mind and how it sometimes argues with itself.

What I really need to know is, the answer to the first question.

How do I apply what I have learned? How do I take all the great books and lectures I have stored in my mind and make them useful? I fear some have answered this with prideful debate and belittling of others. Others have withheld their knowledge selfishly and failed to share it. Some who have shared it will only share what they have learned with others they feel are on par with them. Others still feel they need to learn to be closer to God (I believe this to be true to a certain degree).

We must go back to Jesus.

No matter how much we learn, it means nothing if we have not love. 1 Corinthians 13 makes this point abundantly clear. My friend told me he was worried all he would be is a “clanging gong” instead of a disciple. As a seminary student, he has found it hard to achieve balance, especially since he has a very regimented life. I agree. While talking with him, I told him my biggest fear was Christ saying to me upon my demise, “away from me, I don’t know you.”  All the degrees, books, and knowledge in the world cannot save me. The only thing that saves us is Jesus.

How do we “know” Jesus?

The Bible is filled with ways in which we demonstrate our love. John 14:23 tells us if we love Him, we will obey His commandments. The strange cycle is, the primary commandment is to love God with our entire being. The second is to love others as we love ourselves.

I leave you with this:

How do we use our knowledge of God, our academically tuned minds, to love others? How do we put into action all the things we have learned? Finally, how do we make sure we are learning things which are beneficial to us as Christians?

-Don-

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-

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-

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-

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-

I started reading through the Old Testament (OT) as a part of the Bible in 90 days plan (so far, I have failed on the plan and I am stuck near the end of Deuteronomy, in case you were wondering how it was going). Between that and reading According to Plan: The Unfolding Revelation of God in the Bible for a class at my church, I have seen some very interesting things I never noticed in the Bible. The OT seems to lay out the same patterns we see in the New Testament (NT) Here they are:

• God called / elected some people to live under grace like Noah, Abraham, Issac, Jacob, Moses, and the people of Israel.
• Those who lived under God’s grace had nothing to do with the reception of grace. God picked an idol maker (Abraham), a murderer (Moses), and a liar (Jacob) among others.
• God  called / elected some to live outside of His grace (and some under His wrath); those who perished in the flood, Ishmael, Esau,Pharaoh  and those who were driven from the land of Canaan.
• Atonement was limited to those who were part of the people of Israel…
• God required that people submitted all aspects of life to Him.
• Some of the Law was severely distorted by the time Jesus was born.
• God wanted a relationship with His people, and wanted His people in a community.
• God wanted His people to care for the poor and marginalized as well as the foreigner.

How does this make you feel?

I know many who have problems with things like election and limited atonement. My question is, and not to sound all snarky, what makes it different between the OT and the NT?  Why would it be OK for God to elect certain people and a nation in the OT, but not the New Testament? Does it show our depravity and our selfishness when we think we are “above” being elected?

-Don-

I love me some Old Testament (OT). Whenever I had a chance to take an elective during college, I would aim for some OT classes. I studied Ancient Near East History, Job, OT survey, OT history, and a few others I can’t think of off the top of my head. I was blessed to fall under some great instruction during that time.

At one point, I told my wife I wanted to be an OT scholar.

I thought I would go on to get my masters and doctorate in some kind of OT emphasis. Since my bachelors cost more than a decent sized Volkswagen (but not as much as a sweet Dodge Challenger), I have had to put my plans on hold. Oh, there is also that full time job and raising two kids with a third on the way thing. But more than anything, the cost is too high right now.

So I will torture you guys instead.

I am pulling a Farnworth and earning a self-made masters (until I can afford the time and money for a real one). I am going to spend more time, intentionally, studying the OT. I was recently sparked to look back into it while reading According to Plan: The Unfolding Revelation of God in the Bible, by Graeme Goldsworthy. I was reminded of the overarching story of the Bible. It reminded me how amazing God is and how He has not changed.

What do I hope to gain from this?

I want to learn about…

• the impact of the Gospel from Adam to Malachi. How does Jesus relate to the Old Testament. How is the story line important. We call this Bible Theology.
• the prophecies related to Jesus and His first and second coming.
• the unchanging nature of God through all history.
• the importance of the OT for the present day.
• ways to increase OT literacy amongst ‘New Testament’ Christians.

How am I going to do this?

There are many great resources available today which are much cheaper than going to a university. First and foremost, there is Monergism. Their MP3 library is filled with great teachings on the OT. For the most part, these MP3’s will serve as my teachers. I will be mapping out a “teaching path” over the next couple of weeks. My goal is to get in at least 36 60 hours of teaching (typical for a M.A. in theology).

Books.

Are you really surprised? I will be spending time learning from reading books. I am going to look into a making a book buying plan. The good news is, I will be buying (and commandeering if need be) my books with purpose (Rick Warren would be so proud). On the other hand, I have limited funds right now, so the process may go a little slower than I want it too (if you would like to rectify this, you can click the ‘donate’ button over on the right hand side…). I will also be using articles and commentaries from Monergism to fill in the gaps.

Tests and projects

If I was attending a university, I would be tested on my knowledge. I really do not have a way to test myself, however, I will be trying to write at least one OT paper / week and posting it here on my blog. I hope to have am “exam” schedule posted soon (after I get my reading tract put together). I am not sure how I will do my self-made thesis yet. I am open to ideas as this will probably be a couple years away.

Anyone want to join me?

You can help a brotha out in two ways:

1. Give me your insights into good books, talks, articles, literature and “assignments” I can do. In layman’s terms, help me develop this. Leave it in the comments.
2. Join me. We can be fake seminary buddies and do this together. You know you want to.

Give me your feedback.

Leave all your questions and comments in the comments.

-Don-

Next week I want to write a little about Lent and some other subjects. However, I am making it my goal to get at least one of my two e-books done. You may notice shorter posts as I aim to accomplish this. Believe it or not, I still don’t have a theme picked out for the site, so I may do my time looking for one of those, too. I hate looking for themes.

I am ending this week by thinking “warm” thoughts.

I feel like a 10-year-old boy. I want to go outside and play baseball. I want to go hiking or mountain climbing. Play football in the yard with the boys. Help plant the garden with my wife. Put up the fence out back so the neighbors dog won’t be able to poop in my yard.

When the warm weather hits, we will have little Abigail Ryan to play with too.

-Don-

If you stand your ground for anything, people will try and make you move.

Most people have an agenda, it is to do whatever is best for themselves. Some people will simply go the rout of hedonism and exploit anything they can for their favor. Why do you think obesity and internet pornography is so prevalent? Others will try and go the  rout of obeying cultural norms. If someone tells them saving the earth by being “green” is what is best for them, thats what they will do. This is how groups like PETA and Green Peace survive. I would argue that sticking to cultural norms is the loudest persuader of all. When people hear a message they like, they flock to it, usually without asking any hard questions. Part of this is because we, in America, live in a culture of excess.

When was the last time we gave much thought to our actions?

Many of us cannot  even watch a commercial for a Pillsbury product without going to the store to buy some brownies.  And why not? Culture tells us we should get what we want, when we want it, and most of us have the $3 to spend.  Steve Jobs has told the world they need a new iPad, and we believe him. We are constant chasers of the American dream because we are told we deserve it. In truth, we deserve nothing.

I will invoke Godwin’s Law right now. Not all things culture tells you to do are healthy and good for humanity, just ask Germany.

Think it through.

The common reaction to anyone who disagrees with us is to attack them. On the internet we see this more often due to anonymity.  While I do not condone it, I do see how this should be common among opposites. An Atheist has elevated himself to a position of god. (S)he will attack a Christian because they worship God, and God is not the Atheist. This causes some friction against the Atheists pride resulting in a (sometimes) grueling onslaught of insults. For the record, Christians play the same card the same way. We attack with grueling insults instead of articulate debates.

What I understand less is the way Christians attack each other.

Not to sound all “woe is me”

Those in the reformed camp will take more hits than many other Christians.  The current cultural norm for Christians is to reject anything that would make a Christian look like his parents. This means we reject hymns, the King James bible, liturgy, church discipline, and adhering to sound doctrine. Most of the Christians today would look at anyone who was conservative in their theology as “stupid.” Many will read books by those who tickle their ears and say what they want to hear (2 Timothy 4:3). People will complain we talk too much about the Gospel, the Bible, sin, and Christ’s role in redemption of His people. We will be called stupid and old fashioned. Take the case of Wheaton College. They elected a new president of their (pretty liberal) university this past weekend. He has been crucified by those calling themselves Christians as being a “woman-hating reformer” (see the comments on this article for more).

We have more degrees than many, yet are still considered barbarians.

Many refuse to acknowledge the intellect of those in the reformed camp. Guys like Dr. Don Carson, Dr. John Piper and Dr. Wayne Grudem receive little respect outside of Calvinistic churches. Instead of reading books by guys like Edwards, Spurgeon, Piper, Frame, and Lovelace, we read books by people who have elected to interpret the Bible to mean you can go to heaven without Jesus.

I only ask you think through your consistency in argument.

As Christians, before you levy an attack on another brother or sister, I ask you think through this, especially those of you who are liberal Christians. Does your entire doctrine make sense or are points of it self-defeating? Conservative Christians, are you dying on the right hills? Or are you arguing non-sense religion? Are you arguing respectfully? Or are you hurling insults?

I open the floor for questions.

I have found many have questions about what more conservative Christians believe, especially Calvinists. I would like to allow you to leave a comment with any questions you have. I will answer as many as I can, and I am sure my brothers who are more intelligent than I (I’m looking at you Jon, Justin, Demian, and Daniel) will be happy to step in and answer them as well. Just be aware, act like a jackass and I will delete your comment.

-Don-

I know, I know. You look over at the archives and you only see a years worth of posts. What you may not know is, I had two years wiped out thanks to the crappiest web-hosting ever, Go Daddy.  I mean, not to name names or anything…but I just did.

Sorry. I will let it go…when they stop advertising smut.

I just wanted to take a little time to share what I have learned over the last couple years, and I would invite some of you more seasoned bloggers to share what you have learned in the comments. I would appreciate it, and so might some of the newer bloggers out there. Before I get too far, I want to make sure you understand, I blog as a Christian. 99.9% of my content is about Jesus Christ. Seriously. This makes my blog a bit different in the grand scheme of things. What I have learned reflects this. This is not to say “secular” bloggers cannot learn something from this, just keep in mind. 

Here is what I have learned, in a nice bulleted list:

• SEO, Page ranks, and all that jazz have nothing on a well written article. I received more hits when I wrote my “John Piper Ruined Twitter” post than any other time in my blogging history.
• Christian bloggers have it harder than others, except mommy bloggers. We take more criticism than almost anyone, most of it from other Christians.
• Blogging is a great way to find out your friends often disagree with you.
• Your mom probably does not read your blog. But your awesome sister does!
• Twitter is a great way to carry on the conversation. 
• Maintaining ONE good blog is a lot of work. But it sure beats maintaining several mediocre blogs.
• Three years does not make you a “big” blogger by default. I am still what you would consider “small.”
• No matter how sound you feel your argument is, someone will give you a very thought provoking comment that will make you go back and research your theology. 
• Daniel C Wilson is a better blogger than me. And you. 
• If you don’t blog, you should still check out Reddit.
• Wordpress rules everything.
• You need to do it for the glory of God, not to make money.
• When you don’t know what to write about, just write about life. When it’s permeated with the Gospel, it’s powerful.
• Guest posting can be more fun than writing for your own blog.
• Denita may be the best commenter. In the world (don’t worry Eric, we love you too!)
• I have met some of my best friends through this blog, even though I probably won’t meet them in person until Heaven. 

I really don’t know how helpful this post was, but hey, it’s my blog. What about you? Are you a new blogger with questions? Insight? How about you more experienced bloggers? What can you share with us little guys?  

-Don-