Seminary, Five Classes In

A few years ago, a board member at my alma mater said to me, “Every Christian should go to seminary.”

I had long tossed the idea around of taking seminary classes, but life always seemed too full and too complicated. The older I got, the more reasons I found not to do it.

But after our conversation, I picked up the idea again. I tried it on and considered it. I talked to other women I knew who had gone to seminary to get their perspective. I went for a tour and asked lots of questions.

And then I made the leap.

I imagine there are others out there who have also considered taking seminary classes. Perhaps you’d like to understand your Bible better. Perhaps you love theology and know you will enjoy talking with other likeminded students. Perhaps you are like me and want to take classes to help you in your writing or teaching. Perhaps you desire a degree to equip you in your current work in ministry or to prepare you for future Kingdom work. For all these reasons and more, I wholeheartedly recommend it.

One thing I know to be true: There will never be a perfect time in life to pursue theological training. There are always going to be barriers and interruptions that make it difficult to add classes to an already full life. I’ve been taking classes in between writing projects (because to be honest, my middle age brain can only do so many things at once!) But that doesn’t mean that everything goes smoothly when I do take a class. This semester found me faced with multiple distractions, most of which were unexpected. Every time I planned to devote a day to studying, inevitably someone needed my help. A child got sick. An important errand needed attending to. An unexpected task needed my attention. Life simply got complicated.

So, yes, it is hard to add something like a class to the busyness of everyday life. But it’s also worth it. The classes I’ve taken have answered so many questions I’ve long had about the Bible and the Christian faith. They’ve given me words and categories to better express what I believe and why. They’ve helped enrich my faith, adding a beautiful depth and awestruck wonder to what I already knew. I’ve loved every class. Each one has taught me things I didn’t even realize I needed to know. Each one has drawn me closer to my Savior. And I think that’s why my friend believes every Christian should go to seminary, for it strengthens a believer’s walk with the Lord.

Everyone asks me if I am just auditing classes or pursuing a degree. I always respond that eventually— hopefully—I will earn a degree. I’m just on the ten to twelve year plan, taking one class at a time.

I am currently finishing up my fifth class with RTS (Hermeneutics). It’s the class my pastor told me would be the most important class I’d ever take in seminary. While I took Hermeneutics in undergrad, at the seminary level, it went much deeper than what I previously learned. I’ve finished the class with the realization that I have so much more to learn! This class has pushed me, challenged me, and fed me. It will be foundational to all the other classes I’ve yet to take.

If you’d like to try seminary on for size, many offer free online lectures to give you taste of what to expect. There are also many class options to fit your life and schedule, whether in-person classes or virtual. Some offer certificates in addition to degrees.

As Christians, we should seek to grow in our knowledge of God and his word. We should seek to be equipped to live as his ambassadors and emissaries in this world. And seminary is one way to do that.

What about you? Have you attended seminary or considered it?

Meditating on God's Word

“I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways” (Psalm 119:15).

Not too long out of college, I was working as a family counselor for a local non-for profit. During a staff meeting one week, my boss announced that one of the team members would lead us in a time of guided meditation. Though I had heard about the practice, I didn’t know what to expect. My co-worker began by instructing us to empty our minds. She continued on through various exercises to bring us to a place of relaxation so that we could encounter a place of peace in our minds. I soon found myself feeling uncomfortable with the exercise and instead spent the time in silent prayer. After the exercise was over, a few people shared their experiences—one shared how she had relived her birth into this world.

I share this story because sometimes when we come across a reference in Scripture about meditating on God’s word, as in the passage above, we might be confused, especially if we use the word “meditate” as other religions or philosophies might use it. The key difference is that biblical meditation isn’t about emptying the mind, but about focusing it on God and his word. It isn’t about seeking a higher form of consciousness in order to reach our inner divinity; rather, it is about communion with God through prayer and his word. It isn’t about seeking access to divine resources found within a person, but about accessing and feasting on the divine word of God—which is our very life (Deut. 32:47).

J.I. Packer once wrote in Knowing God, “Meditation is the activity of calling to mind, and thinking over, and dwelling on, and applying to oneself, the various things that one knows about the works and ways and purposes and promises of God. It is an activity of holy thought, consciously performed in the presence of God, under the eye of God, by the help of God, as a means of communication with God. Its purpose is to clear one’s mental and spiritual vision of God, and to let His truth make its full and proper impact on one’s mind and heart. It is a matter of talking to oneself about God and oneself; it is, indeed, often a matter of arguing with oneself, reasoning oneself out of moods of doubt and unbelief into a clear apprehension of God’s power and grace.” (p.23).

Psalm 119 is known as a psalm entirely devoted to God’s word. In every verse, the psalmist refers to God’s word in some way. In several passages, he talks about meditating on God’s word, as listed below. The psalmist uses the Hebrew word siach which is translated as our English word, meditate. It means to muse, complain, talk (of).

“I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways” (Psalm 119:15).

“Even though princes sit plotting against me, your servant will meditate on your statutes” (Psalm 119:23).

“Make me understand the way of your precepts, and I will meditate on your wondrous works” (Psalm 119:27).

“I will lift up my hands toward your commandments, which I love, and I will meditate on your statutes” (Psalm 119:48).

“Let the insolent be put to shame, because they have wronged me with falsehood; as for me, I will meditate on your precepts” (Psalm 119:78).

“My eyes are awake before the watches of the night, that I may meditate on your promise” (Psalm 119:148).

One could say that Psalm 119 is one long meditation on the word of God. In these verses above, we see the psalmist dwelling on God’s word. We see that it involves communication with God, for the psalmist asks God to teach him about his precepts. He is worshipful as he does so, lifting up his hands toward the heavens. Such meditation is not a passive event, for the psalmist is fixing his eyes on God and his ways. Even when he faces obstacles or challenges from his enemies, the psalmist turns to what he knows is true about God. If you were to do a word study on this Hebrew word for meditate, you’d find other passages where the writer even complains and moans to himself about God.

There’s another word used for meditate in the Bible, hagah. It means to moan, growl, utter, speak, muse. We find it in passages like, “his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night” (Ps. 1:2) and “I remember the days of old; I meditate on all that you have done; I ponder the work of your hands” (Ps. 143:5). This form of meditation is more verbal, like thinking out loud—perhaps even like talking back to yourself.

For the Christian, meditation is an important spiritual practice. It is word centered and God exalting. It brings clarity to the confusion of life. It reorients our wandering hearts to the truth. It anchors us in chaos. Like the psalmist, may we ruminate, dwell, contemplate, ponder, muse, and talk to ourselves about God’s word “day and night.”

Communion with Our Lord

The Bible uses a number of metaphors, analogies, and images to describe spiritual concepts. It takes things we do know and understand and applies it to what is unknown and unseen. One such example is found in John 15 where the Lord describes our communion with him like that of a vine and its branches:

“Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.” (John 15:4-8)

Though I do not have a green thumb, I understand how a branch receives life from a vine. I look outside my window and see flowering plants, trees, and bushes. I know the essential factors that help them grow and thrive. I understand that a branch cannot grow unattached to the source of its life, nor can it bear fruit.

As a result, this passage helps me understand how I am united to Christ, that he is source of my life and strength. That he feeds me spiritually. That he provides what I need. That only through him, I bear fruit.

And to do so, I need to abide in him.

Sometimes, what gets disconcerting, or troublesome is how my communion with him can seem strong at times, and weak at others. There are times when I am thriving, and other times when I am weak. There are seasons in my life where I sense God’s presence and his work in my life more than at others. There are times when the Lord just seems distant.

One of my favorite little books is the Select Letters of John Newton. My copy is filled with underlining in various colored pens, asterisks marked off to the side, and even folded down pages. These letters were like a pastor’s blog of our day. Newton would pen responses to parishioner’s questions. Often these letters were passed around for the rest of the congregation to read (perhaps not unlike that “share” button on social media). I guess what I love about them is the pastoral tone, the gentleness with which he wrote. I appreciate his understanding of people’s struggles, their questions, and their doubts. Perhaps such compassion grew out of his own experiences of coming to faith—of knowing his desperate need for God’s grace. Like Jesus said of the woman who wiped his feet with her hair, “Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little” (Luke 7:47).

I especially appreciate his letters on the subject of communion with Christ.

In a letter to a parishioner regarding how we maintain our communion, Newton points out that apart from our sin nature, the temptations of the world, and the work of Satan, our communion with God would “be always lively, sensible, and fervent.”[1] We won’t experience that level of communion until heaven. It’s because of our sin and “spiritual pride, indolence, and undue attachment to worldly things, and irregular distempered passions” that the Lord will “increase, suspend, or renew” the feeling and sense of his love and grace.[2] “We grieve his Spirit, and he withdraws; but, by his secret power over our hearts, he makes us sensible of our folly and loss, teaches us to mourn after him, and to entreat his return.” [3]Often, these are lessons we have to learn again and again.

In another letter to a parishioner, Newton advises how to keep close to the Lord, how to abide in him. He offers several ways:

Prayer: Prayer is how we communicate with God. It’s how we respond to what we’ve read in his word. It’s a significant means by which the Lord carries out his will in our lives. Newton suggested praying for humility, calling it “both the guard of all other graces, and the soil in which they grow.” [4]

Scripture: Secondly, Newton points to the importance of reading God’s word. He especially highlights studying the gospel: who Jesus is, what he taught, and what he has done for us in his life, death, and resurrection. Such study “is appointed to form our souls to a spiritual and divine taste; and so far as this prevails and grows in us, the trifles that would draw us from the Lord, will lose their influence, and appear, divested of the glare with which they strike the senses, mere vanity and nothing.”[5]

Consideration: Newton’s last recommendation is to pay close attention to the temptations to which we are both exposed and drawn. He suggests looking ahead in our day to what situations and circumstances we might encounter before us, being watchful for things that might pull us away from our Lord.

While communing and abiding in Christ is something we need to strive and fight for each day, we are not left to our own devices. We have a Savior who not only gives us life in him, he keeps us united to him. As Newton noted, “I trust the Lord, who has given you a desire to live to him, will be your guard and your teacher.”[6]

Lord Jesus, keep us in the vine today.

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[1] p. 24

[2] P. 25

[3] Ibid.

[4] P. 202.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Ibid.

3 Reasons to Read Through Your Bible This Year

With the start of a new year, we often make plans and set goals for what we hope to accomplish over the next twelve months. After all the holiday parties, certainly getting back on track with our diet is top of the list. Maybe next is trying out that new gym around the corner. Perhaps we also want to try a new hobby, read more books, or take a class.

For Christians, we often add to that list of goals something related to reading our Bibles. We know how essential Bible reading is to our faith and we want to be more consistent. Perhaps we received a new devotional or book or bible study for Christmas which we hope will aid us in reaching that goal.

Consistency is hard for all of us. We are fallen people and our hearts are easily distracted and pulled away by lesser things. We should all have a goal to read God’s word each day. It ought to be our goal for every year.

In fact, Bible reading was a goal of mine about a dozen years ago now. While I had read and studied my entire Bible in college (mostly for various classes), I hadn’t read through it since then. I decided that new year I would start in Genesis and read a couple of chapters each day and work my way through the Bible, one book at a time. When December rolled around again, I still had two more books left to read, so I kept on reading until I finished. It took more than a year, but I loved the experience and have been reading through my Bible each year ever since. (Though I now use the M’Cheyne reading schedule.)

Why read through the Bible?

1. You read books of the Bible you might not ordinarily read: Every word in Scripture is inspired and breathed out by God. Every word is useful for “teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16). But we tend to stick with certain books of the Bible. When was the last time you read Leviticus or Obadiah? Whether it’s because they are familiar or easy to understand or for some other preference, we tend to return to the books of the Bible we know, like the gospels or the Psalms. When we do so, we miss out on important teaching from other books. For example, when we skip a book like Leviticus, we miss out on the ways it opens our eyes to see our great need for Jesus.

2. You see how all the books fit together: While there are many different writers of the books in the Bible, there is one author behind them all: God. “For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:20). As you read through the Bible year after year, you begin to see common threads and themes. You’ll see stories and patterns repeated. From one page to the next, you’ll see just how sinful and broken and desperate we really are. You’ll see God intercede in story after story with his amazing grace. Time and time again, you’ll witness his faithfulness to the faithless. And you’ll marvel at how God pushed forward his plan of redemption, despite the actions of evil kings, wayward idolaters, and dark spiritual forces.

3. You’ll grow to love all of God’s word: We all have favorite verses and passages in Scripture. Those go-to pages that are worn and dog-eared more than others. Those treasures we hide in our heart and repeat to ourselves to bring light to the dark corners of our lives. The more that you read through the Bible, the more you’ll come to love the entirety of it. God’s word will become so familiar to you, you’ll find your own words infused with it. Your thoughts will be shaped by it. And as the Spirit works through those words, your very self will be transformed into the image of the Word, Jesus Christ.

This new year, consider reading through the whole Bible. It’s one goal you’ll want to set on repeat.