How To Find Delight in Doctrine
It's an honor and a joy to have the privilege of sharing with you, dear readers, the hope that I’ve found through Jesus, with the writing that I get to do on this blog. I love you and I pray for you often. Your time is precious, so it’s important to me that I offer you quality content that points to Jesus along with practical applications you can take away from here.
While thinking and praying about where God would direct me in his plans for this space in 2017, I began talking with a sweet friend of mine- and our plans began to converge. This friend is also a writer, a lady who has a deep love for Jesus and is a woman who delights in sharing the hope that she has found in God- as anyone who has met her or who reads her blog can attest to. Her name is Melanie Redd.
Though she’s from Tennessee and I’m a Pacific Northwest native, we’ve got a lot in common- such as the shared desire to teach equip, train, and encourage women in their relationship with God.
Melanie and I have decided, Lord willing, and offer a series of posts, each Wednesday, throughout 2017. Every week we will take turns hosting. This series will be called,
How to Find Delight in Doctrine: Learn What you Believe & Why it Matters
Our goal is to write about systematic theology in an accessible and fun way while answering the important question, “What does the whole Bible teach us today?” *
Why is it important to study doctrine?
I believe that doctrine is simply about getting to know God better. The more we know someone, the better equipped we are to love them.
Tim Challies said it this way,
“Your love for God is limited by your knowledge of him so that you can really only love him as far as you know him.”
My friend Melanie says this about the importance of studying doctrine,
“All of us have a grid of beliefs through which we look at life. This grid determines, impacts, and informs every single decision that we make. Ultimately, this grid is made up of our doctrines.”
• So, what does your belief grid look like?
• Do you know what your “doctrines” are?
• Do you understand why you believe as you do?
Join us as we take a clear and practical look at some of the most basic and essential tenants of the Christian life – the doctrines of the faith.
Each week, we will highlight and explain a core doctrine. Then, we will pose the question, “Why does this matter to you and me?”
For the purposes of the study, our main texts will be first, the Bible, of course, and Wayne Grudem’s classic, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine. (affiliate link)
It is our prayer that by the end of 2017, we will all find more delight in understanding what we believe and why we believe it.
“…You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” Luke 10:27 (ESV)
* This definition of systematic theology is taken from Professor John Frame, Westminster Seminary in Escondido, CA.
