I guess I have trouble seeing where the two are mutually exclusive. What you know, you are required to act upon, and in so doing, you usually gain more knowledge than you ever could in a classroom environment. Protestantism has been largely defined by individual practices of holiness: reading your Bible, prayer, "quiet times", and moral behavior. Unfortunately, these practices have led to a myopic view of faith, and have resulted in a selfish attitude toward service.
But isn't knowing God more defined by a life that is generous with its knowledge of God? How can we know God and be miserly with the riches of His goodness? How in the world can the knowledge of God be a completely individual discipline? It seems to me that if we wanted to know God more, we'd practice serving as many people as we could. That, after all, is what the crucifixion - God's ultimate act of service - was all about.
One of my classes (Life Together) pleasantly surprised me the other night when they decided to forego their normal class lecture for a group act of service. They each brought shoe boxes to class and filled them with all sorts of loving gifts and treats. They spent their entire class time decorating these boxes and filling them with a couple of size 12 doses of love. Their goal was to help with the Operation Christmas Child project, which gave 7.6 million shoe boxes to children in 95 different countries last year. Instead of clamoring for another lecture, this class decided to put all those lectures into practice by spending their valuable class time serving those who have nothing. If that's not knowledge of the divine, I don't know what is!
Thanks, Life Together, for modeling what it means to be knowledgeable Christians. You're winning the war one act of service at a time!
1 comment:
Two things come to mind. First, faith without works is dead. Second, the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever... not "get what we need from Him forever."
The whole thing, the whole story and every little thing part in it, is all about Him. HE is the Hero of every story. It's not about if we're getting ours from God. It's not about what He's doing for me or, worse yet, what the pastor's not doing well enough for me or the rest of any congregation.
I wonder if it ever crossed the minds of those listed in Hebrews 13 that they weren't getting enough out of their quiet times and if they would have had the ingratitude before God to complain about it. In the wealthiest nation of the world, with 35 different Bibles in five different langauges on a bookstore shelf in the church's atrium, with every known Christian classic from Anselm to Zwingli (and other assorted 'less than classic' titles) as well as in the less Christianized nations where the annual personal income still averages around $1 a day, where Christian bookstores were, literally, non-exisitant six years ago and most people don't know the difference between a piece of bread and the Bread from Heaven, in every place on earth... He is worthy to receive our praise, our worship, our gratitude and our petitions for His mercy, forgiveness and the gift of repentance. "Our" praise, meaning everyones, everywhere, all the time. Man alive... Jesus Christ gave us EVERYTHING HE HAS. How can we fail to give Him ANYTHING at all that He asks of us? Service? It's a freaking miracle that He can use a lot like us to accomplish anything GOOD at all. Knowledge? For what purpose? So we can sit back and use it as a Lazyboy for our minds, as a pacifier for our infantile desires? Or so we can glorify and enjoy Him?
When will we... WILL we ever get our love off of ourselves and get it back to the One it belongs to? SEEK HIS KINGDOM FIRST... the things that follow are not the end, the purpose, the goal of seeking His kingdom. At best, they're great by-products which He is happy to gift to us. You're a good example, Steve, of those who put their life where their mouth is. Good on ya, Mate. The truest thing I've ever heard came out of your mouth: He is worthy.
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