Editor’s Note: This article was reprinted with permission from Dan Miller’s book Spiritual Reflections. It appears here verbatim. On January 26, 2001, a killer earthquake rocked the state of Gujarat in northwestern India. Tens of thousands of people lost their lives. Others lay buried for days. Whole villages were left without a single inhabitable building. Cold weather left suddenly homeless people huddled around makeshift fires night after bitter night.
The quake struck on Republic Day, the foremost Indian holiday on which the country celebrates her independence. In a moment of time, national celebration turned to panic and then to mourning. The soul of India groaned in deep anguish.
The eyewitness reports and visual images transmitted around the world were difficult to process. In one village 700 flag-waving school children were marching in parade formation down the main street. One moment they proudly celebrated Republic Day. The next moment each of those 700 children was buried alive under rubble from buildings that had only moments earlier lined the street on which they marched.
Gujarat was instantly plunged into an ordeal that tried her soul. Lives were snuffed out. Others were forever changed. Loved ones, homes, and precious possessions were lost forever. Countless numbers of injured people suffered in physical agony as they awaited medical attention without adequate food, water or shelter. read more»
When I applied for admission to seminary, part of the application process involved a physical examination. As I talked with the physician about going to seminary, he commented, “Most doctors are highly trained but poorly educated.” The distinction was not one that I had heard before, and it puzzled me. When I asked what he meant, he said that members of his profession were taught to perform tasks rather than to respond to ideas. From that physician’s comment I learned an important distinction: education is not the same thing as training.
Years later, I heard an erstwhile seminary dean declare, “I want to teach students how to think, not what to think.” In principle I agreed with what he said, or at least I thought that I did. The more he talked, however, the more I got the impression that what he really wanted was to induce students to agree with his opinions in opposition to the views of most of the rest of the world. In this context, “how to think” actually meant “how I think.” From that conversation, I learned another important distinction: education is not the same thing as indoctrination.
So what do we mean by being “able to think,” and what sort of education inculcates this ability? What we call the “ability to think” consists in the development of general intellectual capacities such as the understanding, reason, or judgment. These are different than the skills that serve a particular vocation or profession (how to draw blood or write a codicil). They are also different from other mental operations such as perception, recollection, or emotion. The sort of education that seeks to develop these general skills of the mind—the skills that constitute thought—has been traditionally called liberal education. read more»
“Realize that you are indeed dead unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 6:11). The Holy Spirit does not exalt Himself. He honors the Father and the Son. Jesus emphasized the importance of the coming of the Holy Spirit in explaining: “Nevertheless I tell you the truth: It is expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you, but if I depart, I will send Him unto you” (John 16:7). “When He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth, for He shall not speak of Himself, but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak, and He will show you things to come. He shall glorify Me, for He shall receive of Mine and shall show it unto you” (John 16:13-14).
It is thus not surprising that through the book of Acts, as some of His greatest works are taking place, the special work of the Holy Spirit is assumed, but is not the center of attention. He would come and immerse believers in a special way at Pentecost. Historically it happened. Later references in the epistles explain this special Spirit immersion. What is recorded in Acts 2, however, is not the invisible uniting of believers in the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, but the filling of the Spirit (which was not radically different from His work of filling in the Old Testament) and the resulting clear evidence of the work of the Holy Spirit among believers. read more»
On January 26, 2001, a killer earthquake rocked the state of Gujarat in northwestern India. Tens of thousands of people lost their lives. Others lay buried for days. Whole villages were left without a single inhabitable building. Cold weather left suddenly homeless people huddled around makeshift fires night after bitter night.
The Holy Spirit does not exalt Himself. He honors the Father and the Son. Jesus emphasized the importance of the coming of the Holy Spirit in explaining: “Nevertheless I tell you the truth: It is expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you, but if I depart, I will send Him unto you” (John 16:7). “When He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth, for He shall not speak of Himself, but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak, and He will show you things to come. He shall glorify Me, for He shall receive of Mine and shall show it unto you” (John 16:13-14).