I had the blessing of attending my Commencement Ceremony from Fuller Theological Seminary last Saturday. It was pretty cool because we had already planned our trip to Disney and it happened to fall on the weekend of graduation. Dr. Richard J. Mouw, the President at Fuller, delivered a charge to the graduates. In his message he talked about all of the things we had been taught at Seminary: exegesis, systematic theology, contextualization, globalization, worldviews, anthropology, and the list went on. Then he said that he was glad that we wrestled with all of those important issues, but… there is only one thing that really matters as we leave the confines of academia and enter into our ministry. Make sure that it is all about Jesus! If our ministry is preaching, then preach Jesus. If our ministry is inner city work, then emulate Jesus. If our ministry is administrative, then honor Jesus. If our ministry is (fill in the blank), then Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. He said that he believes all that we studied was necessary as long as we make it all about Jesus.
He said that he realizes that this sounds very simple, and it does so because it is. But it is not naïve simplicity. His charge was that it is because of our efforts in digging through the scriptures and studying theology that we can truly appreciate the simplicity of Jesus. If you just take our God and say He is simple, then you are missing out. It’s only after you struggle, and pray, and go after Him that you can truly understand the simplicity.
I think that’s why we hear a message at church or go through a Bible study and if the end result is about reading your Bible, or spending time with God in prayer, or obedience then we get frustrated. We say we want something fresh, but we always seem to get the same answers. We think it’s too simplistic. And it is too simple, if we haven’t taken the time to struggle with our faith. It’s the times that we go through trials and lean on our relationship with Him that we figure out that it was the time in the word, the nights of crying out to God in prayer, and the small acts of obedience that kept us going.
He said that he realizes that this sounds very simple, and it does so because it is. But it is not naïve simplicity. His charge was that it is because of our efforts in digging through the scriptures and studying theology that we can truly appreciate the simplicity of Jesus. If you just take our God and say He is simple, then you are missing out. It’s only after you struggle, and pray, and go after Him that you can truly understand the simplicity.
I think that’s why we hear a message at church or go through a Bible study and if the end result is about reading your Bible, or spending time with God in prayer, or obedience then we get frustrated. We say we want something fresh, but we always seem to get the same answers. We think it’s too simplistic. And it is too simple, if we haven’t taken the time to struggle with our faith. It’s the times that we go through trials and lean on our relationship with Him that we figure out that it was the time in the word, the nights of crying out to God in prayer, and the small acts of obedience that kept us going.
3 comments:
I shall now be a faithful reader of the Faith+Life blog!
Yes, I shall.
Yes, indeed!
Very cool you are now blogging.
PD of DL
Never looked better sweetheart!
Great article, depth - what a blessing. Thank you
Love you
Word! Got to let a brotha know when you start blogging soes we can read it
Post a Comment