The Word of Truth Ministries
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A few days ago, I was talking with one of my married college students. She's married and has two children about the ages of 10 and 11 years old. Her husband recently completed his Masters degree, and she is working on her Bachelors degree. These are non-Christian people, as far as I know, but she vocalized a knowledge that far too few Christians seem to have. And that is tragic because Jesus is made unto us wisdom as well as sanctification. And how well I know that most Christians have not taken that sanctification or wisdom that he has been made unto us. Indeed, and needlessly, the children of darkness are wiser than the children of light. She talked about how her husband had commented on the more complete their marriage has become since she has learned more through school. She said that they enjoy each other more as individuals and not just as parents and partners in marriage; the range of their discussion and appreciation of each others is greater and deeper; they have more to talk about and enjoy their talk and discussions more. She also observed that their children do not have to be told that they will go to college, they look forward to it, as they see their parents study as the norm in their home. I commented on the beauty of their marriage and applauded her because she had found a beauty in learning that many have not and will never find. Brothers and sisters in the Lord, allow me to plainly speak to you as a teacher not just of the word of God, but as a professor--the profession I engage in as the source of my income. The late Dr. Carlin Sagan once wrote that to seek truth requires courage and the strength to challenge the norm, the established, the accepted tradition, the orthodoxy, the conventions of men, the supposed truth as it stands. Sagan was not one given to theology, but this truth he stated is undeniable. For King David of ancient Israel wrote that God's voice is throughout his creation; to attest that truth, we can see the wisdom and truth of God in Sagan's words above. As hedonistic people are instant to take pleasure wherever and whenever they can, because they are hedonistic, we must ready to snatch wisdom where it is found and measure it by the word of God for acceptance. But to find truth we must go beyond ourselves and the superficiality of most human endeavors and thought. We must do as Jesus said: we must hunger and thirst for righteousness; again, we must do as Jesus said: again, we must take the kingdom by force; and again, we must do as Job said: we must esteem his word more highly that our necessary food. The scripture is replete with teachings and examples of the extensive struggles employed by many to acquire the things of God and knowledge. But the unlearned and willingly ignorant, as Peter labels them, want all things simple and easy. But things of value are never gotten through simplicity and ease. Such an unrealistic notion parallels the American notion that one can have all things, yet both of these notions are venues that lead to absurdity and unrealistic expectations in and about life. My female student, in her late 30's, commented on the extreme nature and sacrifice of her husband's struggle to complete his Masters degree. And for a moment our spirits touched in sentiment and recognition of the cost of important things. Education is one of those important things: it is the acquisition of experiences and knowledge of the ages, it is the enlightenment of many men and women, it is the opening of one's understanding and eyes, it is seeing things differently. To acquire that, there is great cost! And to pay that cost is to see above and beyond the crowd's view. It was Alfred Lord Tenneyson's Ulysses, who said:
Education is an experience, and, indeed, all who experience learning will move through an arch and realize that there is so much more they need to learn; for then they will realize how little they know. If a person does not go at least to the threshold of that arch of learning, he/she will never know how little he knows and will only linger in the land of ignorance muttering foolishness and thinking it to be wisdom, even as the intoxicated person drinks his own bathwater thinking it is champagne. The tragedy of those who are willingly ignorant is that they assume others do not recognize their ignorance, and they tend to limit others by their short comings. A few years back, a young U.C. Berkeley student took my Critical Thinking class. On one point in open class discussion, he was so sure of himself that he limited other students' understanding by his own limitation and did recognize that he was limited and flawed in thought. He spoke dogmatically from his own limited perspective, and assured himself that since he saw no other solution to a particular quandary under discussion, there was no other. After altering that flawed thought process, he came back to me a year later and thanked me for intellectually shaking him into correct reasoning. There are many in the church who have gone far from godliness and sound reasoning, yet they will not be spiritually or intellectually shaken into sanity and godly reasoning. They are as the young boy in one of my group homes, whom I took out to dinner; when paying the check, he saw free toothpicks at the counter and decided to take just about all of them. All he understood was that they were free. He could never see that mature and intelligent people could readily see his wild and wooly parts--he was totally uncultured and much deprived. But we saved him from that embarrassment by telling him to put them back! These Christians are the willingly ignorant who are blind to their own ignorance and whose light is darkness. A dear sister asked that I pray with her for God to give her understanding and wisdom. That desire is laudable and smiled on by God. Was it not Solomon who asked God for wisdom and understanding that he could go in and out before God's people, when he could have asked for anything? God commented on his choice with delight and gave his wisdom and so much more! Today, far too many in the church world seem to have gone after the same things the world has gone after. And many are merely following the leadership of carnal preachers. And that is money. This is particularly peculiar to American Christians. For as we Americans have become lazy and filled with unreasonable assumptions about privileges we should have, many preachers have unreasonable expectations about wealth, money, and freebies that they should have from the people of God! This is gross ignorance that is nurtured by flawed reasoning and misinterpretations of God's word to their enlargement and the people of God's diminution. They have even concocted a Gospel of Wealth, which they erroneously claim that the Bible supports. Much of the church world is dying because of the ignorance of foolish men who have not been called or taught of God. And those men are seeking wealth and the things of this world, as worldly and ungodly men also seek, but without paying the cost of them--this sort of fraud is running rampant through many churches. They want the wealth, the respectability, the degrees, and the letters behind their names, but without the enlightenment those degrees and letters signify. Tragically, without paying the real cost, many get non-accredited degrees, and do not have enough understanding to know that they are valueless. Brothers and sisters, there is a cost to anything that is of worth, and if it has no great cost, it is valueless to possess. But because carnality has possessed many in leadership, they are unwilling to do as Solomon said they had to do--weary the flesh--to be educated and have their eyes open. Education enhances a Christian's walk with God, enhances his marriage, enhances his understanding of life, it enhances his introduction into polite society. And it makes the brutish man civilized. And educated person need not act educated; he is educated and need only be himself. Education is knowing the truth, and Jesus said that the truth will make you free. But there are too many Christians that are bound up in ignorance, thinking that ignorance is godliness. It is not; it's anathema to God. Ignorance hinders the Christian: it will never allow him or her to exercise the bold faith of God that is intended for his sons! It will hinder his sons from seeing the invisible things of God. A father delights in the wisdom and understanding of his sons, but a fool is a disgrace to his father. Why disgrace our God when he had made Jesus Christ wisdom as well as sanctification? Ignorance is a property propagated by insecure and carnal men upon God's people. Brothers and sisters, I encourage you to get all the education you can. God's people should be the most learned and the most educated of all people. But there is a cost. It is a weariness to the flesh. But sons of God are supposed to be masters of their flesh, not carnal men given to the pleasures of the flesh. Dr. Sagan was right: to want truth, one must challenge many things, even our own flesh that fights against intelligence and education because ignorance is comfortable; it is the state we were born into, and if we stay in that state, be do not grow at all. Saints of God cannot be so foolish as to think that merely asking God for wisdom is the secret. Ask God, yes, and then weary your flesh to acquire it. That is the cost. Those who have gone beyond the mere rhetoric of learning to know the truth will always have a spiritual merge in sentiment and recognition of the cost of important things. When you have spent many days and nights bending the mind beyond the tradition of ignorance and appreciated the intellectual force of will needed to see above the crowd, you can appreciate and respect those who by sheer strength of personality and will have extended themselves to another level to see another horizon. Sometime ago, a brother and I debated of visions and truth. I assured him that while I travel with many Christians, I see many things differently and am willing to challenge the standard orthodoxy of ignorance, by God's word. The general church-talk that is full of words that mean nothing is not where God wants us to stand; such meaningless church-talk diminishes our power and standing with God. Many Christians have used words as if words were action, for when it is time to act, many claim sanctification in doing nothing more than praying. We can pray and do at the same time! My teenage son was always making promises that went nowhere until I shocked him into a sense to truth. I refused to hear his empty words, exclaiming, "I am full of words. I want actions!" He was shaken into godliness and into a bold faith in God. We had him to understand that words are meaningless if they are not backed by actions. The reason many Christians are uneducated is because many leaders have instilled in the congregants the idea that somehow education will lead a person away from God. If education leads one away from God, that person needs more education or more God. Learning truth, which is one of the attributes of education, opens human understanding and makes bold sons of God. Sophocles, the Greek philosopher and writer, argues that the mind is God's crowning gift to man (Oedipus Rex). Yet that gift of God is often not appreciated, and God has said, because his people have rejected knowledge God has rejected them. We cannot throw away the gifts and callings of God and be blameless. We are obligated to use them, and he that knows to do good and does it not, to him it is sin! Education of the mind--God's crowning gift to man--is the enlightenment of God, and one who rejects that is willing ignorance, when God has made Jesus wisdom and sanctification. Let no one keep you ignorant. To do that is to keep you bound and enslaved. Finally, Paul said, I would not that you be ignorant. He spoke the will and words of God. []
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P.O. Box 6573
Oakland, CA 094603