If you incline your ear to wisdom
and direct your heart to understanding,
if you truly call out for insight
and lift your voice to understanding,
if you seek it like silver
and search it out like hidden treasure,
then you will discern the fear of the LORD
and discover the reality of God.
-Proverbs 2:2-5
Teaching is my passion. I spent over 25 years as a personal trainer teaching people how to exercise and improve their quality of life. As a pastor-teacher, I've spent the past 20 years teaching people how to dig deep into Scripture to discover the reality of God. Teaching Scripture is like being a spiritual tour guide who leads people to the most glorious of destinations… Christ Jesus.
God’s creation is undoubtedly glorious and beautiful. Almost everyone can observe it. But when we learn about the impossibility of life from non-life, the complexity of cells, or about organisms, trees, animals, fungi, ecosystems, symbiosis, energy production, and homeostasis… our awe and wonder transcends the mere superficial physicality of "creation-appreciation,” and invites us into deep reverence and worship of our Creator, Christ Jesus.
The same holds true of Scripture. Many today are content to merely gaze upon Scripture like spiritual pornography with nothing more than a superficial appreciation, i.e. a “What’s in it for me?” mentality. Meanwhile, they miss the point and profundity of it as gloriously divine REVELATION inviting us into worship of our Creator, God, and King.
Anyone can look at aspects of the physical world and be struck with the awe of nature-lust. But when someone takes the time to study biology, chemistry, geology, ecology, zoology, oceanography, and botany… when they gaze upon God's creation, infinitely more is REVEALED. Some, by the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit, actually encounter The Almighty.
Anyone can look at a supermodel and be struck with a superficial sense of awe and lust. But when we actually invest relationally and get to know people beyond the superficial, when we serve them… that’s where beauty and ugliness are ultimately found. King Jesus didn't merely appreciate the depravity of humanity wallowing in our sin from afar. Instead, He condescended in the flesh and served us with His very life in the deepest dregs of our ugliness and sin. “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
Anyone can read Scripture like spiritual porn and mine it for blessings, promises, and selfish words of affirmation and personal comfort. But when we study ancient civilizations, world history, biblical theology, the Church Fathers, and early heresies… we have the ability to see infinitely more. God designed Scripture as divine REVELATION about God from God.
When we encounter Scripture as REVELATION, we become something more than better people, better servants, better slaves, and better members of Christ’s Body & Bride. We actually become holiness incarnate. We reveal ourselves approved as those King Jesus spoke of in Matthew 7:21, the one doing the will of the Father in heaven to honor the Son.
The excuse so many make: “I just don’t have time.” Yet somehow we always make time to shop, watch, play, relax, do the things, and build the lives we want. It’s never been an issue of time. It has always been, and will always be, a matter of priorities.
Here are just a few areas to consider digging into for that hidden treasure, to intentionally incline our ears to wisdom, and to resolutely direct our hearts to understanding to discover the knowledge of God.
1) Biblical Theology - the grand narrative of Scripture through images, symbols, types, and patterns.
Great book: What is Biblical Theology by James M. Hamilton Jr.
2) Biblical History - with a HUGE emphasis on the book of Genesis.
Great book: The Lost World of Genesis One by John H. Walton
3) Church History - from Luke/Acts to the present day.
Great books:
a) Turning Points by Mark A. Noll
b) The 100 Most Important Events in Christian History by Curtis, Lang, and Petersen
4) Christian Apologetics - with an emphasis on the Church Fathers and the heresies of the 1st - 3rd centuries.
Great books:
a) Heresies and How to Avoid Them by Ben Quash
b) The Big Book of Christian Apologetics by Norman L. Geisler
Blessings,
-Kevin M. Kelley
https://www.unstoppablekidsbooks.com/
Comments