Deuteronomy 6:4-9…

4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. (NLT)

We have written in the past that there will always be some rough spots in the road to the Good Way. With that in mind this week we’re going to look at a few things that will help us in our journey when we encounter some difficult times. We will take a look at some of the components that will make our journey a little easier. Gospel Knowledge, Gospel Logic, and that refers to a part of our study regimen that is very difficult for many of us… that is the theological framework of Christian salvation. Our opening scripture above begins with the word  “hear” the Jewish word would be Shema and it begins the most important prayer in Judaism buy most accounts. Like all the roads, we will travel in this life there will always be certain landmarks or signs that keep us on the right path going in the right direction. So one of the first signs that you will find necessary traveling on this road is Gospel Knowledge which is the understanding of Jesus Christ death and resurrection. We’ll find much of that anchored in the biblical narrative of creation, human rebellion, and redemption. This type of understanding can only be achieved by having a deeper, intimate relationship with God and we do that through spiritual study and prayer. We will increase our gospel knowledge by reading the Bible regularly, which is an essential for increasing our knowledge, attending Bible studies, Sunday school, listening to sermons, all of this helps to deepen our understanding, and we must have a reachable, teachable and submissive spirit. It is not our goal to simply gain knowledge, it is our goal to become more Christlike in our behavior and thoughts. We must have a spiritual growth that enhances our spiritual maturity. While it may be a bit hard for us to understand, the truth is, repeated instruction of the core truth of the gospel is frequently repeated in scripture. Our knowledge needs to be balanced with all scripture passages interpreted in the context of the whole, we must remember that the Lord’s teachings are consistent and consistency is crucial for building a solid foundation of knowledge. Again, while it may be a bit hard for us to understand, growing in knowledge is a process that involves a lifelong pattern of learning and applying those things which we have studied and learned, and sometimes they will take us beyond our comfort zones.

Gospel Logic… I struggled with this one simply because the Pew likes to keep things simple  and one of the more common explanations that you run across is that it refers to the theological framework of Christian salvation. To me the short form is best expressed by simply putting together scripture themes like faith repentance and baptism in an effort to try and understand God’s plan. God has a plan. It is a rational, biblically grounded, worldview that were seeking in order to understand the logic of God’s plan. The simplest way that I can probably sum it up would be to say that it’s simply a way of reasoning that assumes the Bible is the foundation for understanding reality. Thank you for being with us this week in the Pew and please come back next week and join us as we continue our journey on the Good Way. 

Life is Good

jk