EDUCATION 01 – My learning
Why we know anything at all
- God wants to be known … therefore he reveals himself.
- God wants to be sought … therefore makes himself findable.
- God wants to be understood … therefore he explains.
- The Bible = 1000 page proof that God wants us to know
The God of knowledge
- God is truth. God is the God of knowledge. God is the Lord of understan-ding, clarity and communication
- We are made in the image of this God:
- > we are made with inquiring minds (Prv 25:1)
- > we are told to seek! Ask! Knock! (Luk 11:9-10)
- > childlike curiosity is a godly attribute
- Do you love learning? Are you interested in everything?
Philosophical Questions
- Can we know? > we can know truly, but not exhaustively
- What can we know? > information, meaning and truth
- How can we know? > through the five senses
> through logic and reason
> through revelation
Essential attitude for learning
1 Chr 28:9-10 David to Solomon: ‘Know the Lord of your father, and serve him, with single mind & willing heart…If you seek him, he will be found by you.’
Jhn 8:31-32 Jesus to his followers: ‘If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.’
Deu 8:3 ‘He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.’
- What essential attitude does it take to really learn?
- > humility to acknowledge my ignorance, my need
- > willingness of the mind to allow new thoughts
- > willingness of the heart to submit and obey
- > desire, pursuit, commitment
- > child-likeness
Teaching yourself Joshua 1:7-8
- Be careful > to meditate on the Word, to act according to the Word
- Command to self-educate
> you are your own main educator!
> nobody can educate an unwilling person
God teaching Deuteronomy 4:1a
“So now, Israel, give heed to the statutes and ordinances that I am teaching you to observe, so that you may live to enter and occupy the land …”
- the goal of learning is to obey
- learning is conditional to obeying, which is conditional to life and inheritance
- God teaches in the law: if … then … cause & effect
- The whole Bible is God teaching, explaining reality and the fruit of choices to us
Remember Deuteronomy 4:9
“Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely, so as to neither forget the things which your eyes have seen nor let them slip from your mind all the days of your life … make them known to your children and your children’s children”
- remember history, what God has done.
- unless I actively remind myself, I will forget.
- pass them on to the next generation or generations.
National Education Deuteronomy 31:10-12
‘At the end of every 7 years … all Israel is come to appear before the Lord … you shall read this law before … men, and women, and children, and your stranger … that they may hear, … learn and fear the LORD your God, and observe all.’
- Need and command for regular national education about the law, the basic values and principles on which the nations is built
Sequence Ezra 7:10
“For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach it in Israel”
- to study … learn diligently yourself
- to do … put into practice / daily live
- to teach … pass on to others
- In Hebrew thinking and language:
- > to know = to do = to have relationship = to love
- > no division into “theory” and “practice”
Command to the renew the mind Romans 12:2
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God – what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
- My mind is my responsibility. Practice ‘Mind-hygiene’: throwing out wrong thinking and accepting truth. It’s ‘Garbage in, garbage out’. Rather feed yourself on truth.
Summary
- God is the great Educator of the universe. Christianity is an Education.
- Wherever the gospel went, schools sprung up.
- God is committed to educate us in all areas beyond our imagination
- In order to know we depend on God ’s revelation, the five senses, the mind and ability to reason he has given us
- Only who practices and loves really knows
- Trust God with what you don’t know. Be inquisitive and curious. Love learning!
- Example: Peter. He starts our as a mildly educated fishemen. By following Christ he turns into a leader and writer influencing nations and centuries.