You can go to seminary too...for free

Calling all christian leaders, church members, youths and anyone interested (or those curious). If I were to make this call specifically, to all Mirians to be precise! I have been going through this website, "Biblical Training", and it is simply a breath of relief. Why so?

One of the problems we have in churches all around Miri is the lack of biblical literacy and knowledge, and this is never ever a good thing. I'm not saying that we need to be scholars. What we do need is to be at least informed. It is a pity in this day and age with all the biblical knowledge at the mercy of our finger tips (and some are even free!) Christians simply shrug off being knowledgeable of their faith. I have heard of people saying, "Theology are for pastors, not the people in the pew. All we need are straight to the point sermons with application. We want something relevant to real life." To me, hearing statements like this makes me sad.

Another problem that I see is on Christian teaching. There are many teachers of the bible but not all are biblical in their presentations and teachings. If people sitting in the pews simply gulping all the teaching that they hear because they simply trust that whosoever is standing at the pulpit is teaching 100% accurate word of God without discernment or 'some proper biblical knowledge', I can say that 90% of the time people are going to subscribe any form of biblical teaching.

My plea here is not to say that if we have some form of biblical study we will get things right all of the time but a plea that we become people who know enough to help us grow as well as discern what is good. Take this verse for example

Acts 17:11 Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.

One of the things we cal see here is that these Bereans, although taking Paul's teachings with great delight they were weighing Paul the Apostle's teaching whether it was in line with scripture! If people during the days when the apostles were still alive did this, should this responsibility not be on us as well?

Anyway rants on the side, visit Biblical Training and sign in for free, as well as learn from seasoned scholars for free as well (such as Craig Blomberg, Bill Mounce, John Piper, Thomas Schreiner, Robert Stein and many more).

Paul for Everyone

I got this from the N.T. Wright Page. It's a talk he did entitled "Paul for Everyone". Just follow this link to hear it.He covers the letter to Philemon, some parts of Galatians and 1 Corinthians. Let me just say that anything by this scholar will always captivate our imagination on Christian faith and scripture. Below are some quotes that I think I got right. I only managed to get the ones which he covered on the letter to Philemon because it aroused my interest to the short letter. Warning, you will have a sudden knack to read Philemon after hearing Wright (even Galatians and 1 Corinthians!).

"…If the only document we had from early Christianity was this letter…we could deduce a very great deal about what Christianity was from this letter alone…"

This is a bold statement made by Wright. According to him, here is Paul at his best, dealing with a theological issue in a pastoral/practical manner. Some thought this letter had not theological contribution but they would have to think again based on what we can learn from Paul. This clearly makes a case that theology is important, not just for the mind but how theology will eventually shape our actions. Quoting from another source on this by Wright "But no parts of the New Testament more clearly demonstrates integrated Christian thinking and living. It offers a blend, utterly characteristic of Paul, of love, wisdom, humour, gentleness, tact and above all Christian and human maturity." (p.170. Wright, N. T. TNTC; Colossians and Philemon. Inter-Varsity 1986, 1999, 2000, 2004)

"…Paul wanted to make positions clear to people; theological positions, moral positions. But he wanted to do them in such a way that it became embedded in their character and not something super imposed from outside… If you give someone a straight command you get them to do what you want in this particular incident but if you teach a man to think christianly you will enable them to grow as human beings and to figure out for themselves on what God wants them to do…"

I think this is something that pastors should struggle to emulate and do. The quest for christian maturity.

"…He(Paul) has modeled the message which he has preached, the message of the reconciling love of God in Christ, with arms outstretched on the cross to Jew and gentile, black and white, male and female, slave and free…"

This is powerful! Proclaiming a message is only part of the story. The completion of the story, that of Jesus is how the message of Jesus restructures our Christian living. When we proclaim that Jesus loved the sinner but yet have hate towards a certain brother or sister then the message that we are proclaiming is simply nothing. Reconciliation is a powerful message as well as a powerful practice.

(v17-18) "…here is Paul daring in this pastoral situation to be in the middle in the way that Jesus was in the middle..."

Here is Paul emulating Jesus (Philemon 1:17-18 "...If he has done you any wrong or owes you anything, charge it to me.") It is sort of like the picture of Jesus taking our place and dies for our sins.

(I did some editing the verse above was originally posted as Philippians 1:17-18 but it was supposed to be Philemon 1::17-18, as you can see I changed it already. Sorry for the mistake.)