Jonathan Edwards Helps Us Grow Up in Truth

Jonathan Edwards (a great man of God, who had a great mind and ,well, great hair it would seem) gives us a few practical suggestions for making progress in our Christian knowledge....and I believe they are worth noting:

1. "Be assiduous in reading the Holy Scriptures." The fact that he uses one of my favorite words "assiduous" is beside the point. The point is - go after the Word with determination! Or as he puts it, "Therefore, let not this treasure lie by you neglected."

2. "Content not yourselves with only a cursory reading, without regarding the sense." Too many of us are way to content to simply read the Bible without ever really thinking,  much less thinking about what we're reading it in light of the rest of the Bible. This is a huge problem in the average American church. We are Biblicaly simple and naive. But a good dose of "regarding the sense" would go along way toward producing robust  (another one of my favorite words) theological Christians. Edwards reminds us again, "For the Scripture, by the harmony of its different parts, casts great light upon itself." I like how he councils those listening to preaching with this mindset, "When you have it explained in the preaching of the Word, take notice of it; and if at any time a scripture that you did not understand be cleared up to your satisfaction, mark it, lay it up, and if possible remember it." Mark it, lay it up and remember it. I like the ring of that!

3. "Procure, and diligently use, other books which may help you to grow in this knowledge." We have an overwhelming amount of rich biblical literature available to us and ease of access to it with our Ipads, Kindle Fires, Christians bookstores, online libraries, and more. So, there is no good excuse for not having a few good biblical commentaries, books and helps that might aid us in our advance in biblical knowledge. The real challenge is wading through the plethera of options and finding the most helpful tools. (In the future I will be posting some suggestions on getting started or pressing deeper in your biblical studies!)

4. "Improve conversation with others to this end." Talk to your Christian friends about more than football, coupons, ham sandwiches, Downtown Abbey,  Home Depot, garage sales, etc...Improve Christian conversation by talking about Christ, biblical truth, wisdom, what God is teaching you in His Word and how you're adjusting your life to follow Him. This is what small groups in a local church context are all about, or should be all about!

5."Seek not to grow in knowledge chiefly for the sake of applause, and to enable you to dispute with others; but seek it for the benefit of your souls, and in order to practice." Well said, and an appropriate warning for all maturing theologians!

6. Seek to God (pray), that he would direct you, and bless you, in this pursuit after knowledge." One of the best godly grooves you could get into would be to pray before reading your Bible and ask God to "Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law" (Psalm 119:18 NIV).

7. "Practice according to what knowledge you have." We are always in danger of learning much about God without loving and obeying God more in light of our deepening understanding. And so we must strive to follow God in the truth that we do understand. In this way God will be pleased to take us deeper in the ocean of his wisdom and wonder! And what a pleasure that will be...

Novice Fork User Fishes for Eggs & Growing Up in TRUTH

My son Silas, 1.45 years old, navigated a difficult transition this morning over his eggs and dry Life cereal. I wanted to eat my eggs while they were still hot so I figured he could at least stab eggs with a fork and get them into his mouth....after all, how hard can it be? Apparently, the skills I have acquired in scrambled egg eating over the past 35 years are more of an accomplishment than I realized. It was not a pretty thing, but Silas did manage to get a good bit of the eggs into his mouth. A fairly good portion, however, ended up where breakfast eggs go to die (once a baby is officially sitting on his food, I consider it dead).

 

The highlight of this morning moment was watching my son lay into his eggs with his fork like a coffeed-up construction worker with a jackhammer. Silas figured out that where his skill and finesse in egg stabbing failed him, his power and speed could make up for it. So he stabbed at his little innocent eggs like my wife plays Whac-A-Mole with the kids at Chuck E Cheese's. And it worked. After about ten rhythmic stabs he would come up with a little wad of egg.

I have termed this interesting way of eating eggs - egg fishing, since, like fishing, there is a measure of sport involved. You cast out your line in hopes of landing the hook as Silas casts down his fork in hopes of landing an egg. Even when the eggs are not biting, he comes back for more. It's not just about catching something. It's the anticipation of the next big egg mass that makes egg fishing so exhilarating!

As I watch my son making many transitions from baby to little boy I am thankful that he is transitioning at all. As much as I love his cute little baby-ishness now, I would not be happy about it at 16, or 11, or even at 3. As time passes he must continue to mature in all things. I will help him because I don't think an 11-year-old boy should still be egg fishing, or a 16-year-old eating only scrambled eggs and dry Life cereal for breakfast. At some point he needs to transition and join me for a gravy-soaked country fried steak at Cracker Barrel.