What I have learned in seminary

What I have learned in seminary thus far:
1. I have poor sentence construction
2. I have a pastoring heart which leads me to believe the Bible as fact; this does not bode well for my scores in writing academic papers.
3. I now know what exegetical means, but no one cares.
4. Footnotes are just a way of killing trees and unless you’re a professor no one uses them.
5. No one in school is excited about school.
 6. You will not use half the books you buy.

Here is what I have learned (not in seminary) that is of value. I learned this from living daily what I believe.
1. Jesus is awesome, and no one learns that from good sentence structure, they learn that from experience and excitement.
2. Knowing the historical accuracies of the Old Testament will never convince a person like a heartfelt testimony. Be honest and share what God has done for you.
3. Discipleship and Mentoring is biblically the way to educate people, make sure you are plugged in where this is happening. A degree is just a piece of paper.
4. The only book you need is a Bible.
5. Love cannot be taught.
6. Grace does not require a student loan.

 Hope this helps someone.

Every person needs a creed.

Every person needs a creed or statement of beliefs to fall back on, here is mine and a worksheet to help you develop your own. 

Personal Creed: Statement of Beliefs

            I am a disciple of Jesus of Nazareth. I believe in God in three parts, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. I believe all that is good is created by God. I believe that Jesus is the Son of God. I believe that the Son was sent to be born of a virgin and to live and walk among us, in a sinless state. Jesus died on a cross, a sacrifice to the Father for our sins. I believe that after three days Jesus rose again and walked among us. That Jesus then ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the one who Jesus said the Father would send to comfort us, and so that we may do even greater things for the Father’s Kingdom. I believe that the Holy Spirit’s primary purpose is to create within the believer the boldness to testify about the Father and the Son. I believe that the greatest way that we will be known as a disciple of Jesus is that we share love on for another.

I will be an earthly representation of the Father to my children and community. I will represent the bride groom in my marriage. I seek to always be Jesus to all I come into contact with.

Denominations are a division created by man inside the church of Jesus, I believe in one congregation of the redeemed as the bride of Christ. I believe that it is the will of God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit that division inside the church be laid aside, for the discipleship of the nonbeliever.

I am a man of God placed upon the earth to be a servant for the Kingdom, to perform my tasks as instructed by the scripture and the Holy Spirit. This is so that the Father may be glorified through me his son, and that Jesus my Lord and Savior will be glorified and welcome in the family of God as a brother. As a servant of the Kingdom I will sacrifice selfish thoughts, desires, and beliefs and replace them with those of the spirit. As a servant of the Kingdom I will fight daily over the struggles of flesh until the time that Jesus greets me upon my death, giving me a heavenly body that will not have temptations of the flesh. I believe that the chief end of man is to glorify God. I believe my actions must daily prove that my heart’s desire is to glorify God through the loving attitude of a faithful servant!

Creed Development Worksheet

Who is God?
Who is God to me?
Who is Jesus?
Who is Jesus to me?
What beliefs will shape my daily actions?
Who does God want me to be to my family?
Who does God want me to be to my friends?
Who does God want me to be to my community?
What is my purpose here on earth?

1)      

Servant > Super Hero

Servant

Gods plan for all men begin and ends with creating and generating the heart of a servant. The problem for most of us is that we have been raised in a society that says look out for number one, and foolishly mislead us to believe that number one is “us”. It has been said that there is truth in every lie and that is what makes the lie believable. In this case the deceiver has used a truth, “look out for number one” and added that we are number one. When we buy in to that lie we commit the sin of self-idolatry, violating both the first and second commandments.

Exodus 20:3-4 (HCSB)

³ Do not have other gods besides Me.
⁴ Do not make an idol for yourself, whether in the shape of anything in the heavens above or on the earth below or in the waters under the earth.

I am a huge fan of historical heroes. People that know me know that I love Elvis, who we all know was the undisputed king of rock and roll. The expression used when quoting things he did or said is simple “good enough for the king, good enough for me”. This has never been truer when applied to our lives as Christians, Jesus our Lord and King came to us to serve and if it is good enough for my Savior it is good enough for me.

Mark 10:42-45 (HCSB)

⁴² Jesus called them over and said to them, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles dominate them, and their men of high positions exercise power over them. ⁴³ But it must not be like that among you. On the contrary, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, ⁴⁴ and whoever wants to be first among you must be a slave to all. ⁴⁵ For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life—a ransom for many.”

I would like to take you through the revelations that the Lord has shown me about the act of servant hood. The two things that the Lord has laid on my heart through this study is that he needs men to be the men that he intended for them to be, and that that we must understand that we can never be that without the heart of the servant and the hands of the servant. By this I mean to make clear that we develop and understand the mindset of the servant and then live the actions of the servant. This mindset is hard to follow sometimes because we have a misrepresentation of the servant. We think of Egor following around the doctor in the story of Frankenstein, or we think of the Gollum, the creepy guy that follows around Frodo, or perhaps we even think of Dobby from Harry Potter. Or let us face it we often think of slavery and we create a very distasteful picture of servitude.

            Let me paint a picture for you of another type of servant. I was fascinated by Batman when I was younger. If you are fans then you know that Alfred the butler had a servant role, he served faithfully, assisted the hero, and was a trusted companion. You also know if you follow the movies that he was also the one who inherited the wealth of Batman. If you have never heard of Batman then bear with me as I try to draw you back in. Remove from you heart all preconceived notions about what and who a servant is. No really, stop thinking you know already and don’t need to hear this, I believe that the time has come we understand God’s role for his servants.

3 things someone needs to hear

    This week 3 things have crossed my plate that I will share my thoughts on, take them for what they are worth. I share in the hopes that someone will realize what I have. Most of the things we have to complain about are of our own making. See below:

     I hear people say a lot of the time that we have taken God from schools. If we have then it is only because as parents we have not taught our kids about God. There is nothing that prevents your seven year old from saying the blessing before eating his meal. Perhaps the issue is that they don’t see that at home.

     I hear scholars and teachers talk about how pastors do not preach the name of Jesus and about the blood. They can’t believe that so many churches are in decline, it must be because they don’t preach Jesus. However that is how we train pastors. I just finished a paper where I was told to write about sin and atonement, but not from a Christological point of view. That’s right, seminary student, paper on sin and atonement, told to leave Jesus out because we are focusing on the Old Testament. The whole bible is about Jesus, it’s all about Jesus, if we taught that, then maybe churches would be full.

     People will say that the church needs to do this or that, but then complain when they try to raise funds. Statistics show that as an average people only tithe 4%. So here is my thought, before you bad mouth a church for a service they don’t provide that you think they should, first determine if you have given you tithe. Typical those that complain the loudest give the least, they have a spirit of entitlement.