Life After Israel

10.09.2005

Liberal Arts

I know it's been awhile . . . sorry.

I've been thinking recently that I am woefully deficient in my knowledge. I Peter 3:15-16 says: "But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear; having a good conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed" (NKJV). Siona (the Resident Director of Hotchkiss, my dormitory) has really been focusing on this verse this semester. I keep reminding myself to become a more well-rounded person, a more well-rounded Christian. That's what the point of a liberal arts education is! Just because I don't "take" to a subject, or I'm not "naturally" good at something, doesn't mean I throw it out the window and ignore that particular discipline.


Another reason this has been on my mind is the fact that after I graduate, I very well may have a job in the secular workplace. Actually, I've been praying that that's where God would place me. However, that has burdened me with the knowledge that I've been protected all my life from the world. I haven't exposed myself to it, and I have rarely had to defend any of my beliefs. I don't know how unbelievers will argue or reason with me.

So, because this has been weighing a little heavy on my heart, I picked up J.P. Moreland's Love God With All Your Mind from the library to get a better understanding of nurturing my mind to the glory of Christ. I'm only sixty pages in, but I can already recommend reading this book. It documents the evangelical anti-intellectual slide that began in the early 19th century. I can see evidence of this slide here at The Master's College. We are so focused on grace, that we let too many things slide. Do we abuse our eternal security by pretending that this life on earth doesn't matter so much now that we have been saved from eternal hellfire? You might want to examine your own life and dwell on that. I have now read 35 books in 2005. I don't say that to boast of my achievement. I say that to challenge myself to read more books and to read a bigger variety of books. Fiction, non-fiction, history, science, politics, religion, philosophy, and so on. I leave you with this challenge:

“Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.” – Sir Richard Steele

Let's not be mentally fat. Work out!

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