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Questions Week 1 Day 2

by David Joynt on May 01, 2017


DAY 2

Genesis 1:28

Proverbs 1:1-7, 8:1-21

  

I am convinced that God wants us to use our intellect to explore our faith for several reasons. First, the Bible seems to encourage us to use our reason and insists that seeking wisdom and knowledge of all kinds is a divine mandate and a form of service to God. Adam and Eve are told to “explore and subdue” the earth; that is to say to discover its character and delve into its mysteries and its order. The Hebrew Bible has a whole section of material called the Wisdom Literature, including Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. These books connect  Reason and Revelation in a startling confidence that the God who created our curiosity wants to engage our minds and blesses our pursuit of understanding. Wisdom itself seems to be a term that combines knowledge and religious conviction, and it is personified as a supreme lover who will guide us in ways of peace and truth, bestowing gifts that exceed any other kinds of wealth.

 

Are you an engaged learner?  If not, why not?

 

FAMILY TIME—

Plan a family experience that emphasizes learning.

Thank God together for the gift of understanding.

 

 

Tags: faith, learning

About the Author
David Joynt

Dave Joynt began his service as a pastor at Valley Presbyterian Church in Paradise Valley, Arizona in September 2014. This meant a move away from the Northeast, where he has a long history, growing up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and then serving congregations in Delaware and New Jersey for a total of 23 years.

Dave was nurtured in a great church in Bethlehem where his parents, Anne and Carey, served as elders. He graduated in classics from Lehigh University where his Father taught, and then from Oxford, where he met his wife Julia. Ordained in 1988, he completed a Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1993.

He and Julia have a son, Tristan, and a daughter, Madeleine.

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