I studied Theology at Pacific Union College but did not get a job as a pastor in my denomination (Seventh-day Adventist). I tried teaching but hated it. I worked as a mechanic in a bike shop, a projectionist in Beverly Hills, a Six Sigma Project and Quality Assurance Manager, and in the Army as a Cavalry Scout, Air Defense Officer and now as an Armor Officer.
About three years ago I started talking to God again after many years of estrangement. I still desired to study theology so I attended the Seventh-day Adventist Seminary in Berrien Springs, MI. I found the study a wonderful experience since this time I wasn't distracted by a full time job and much more life seasoned than college 16 years prior; but the most critical was that I felt much more in tune with God than ever before.
As I studied I found several key elements of theological insight. The greatest and perhaps most fundamental was revealed in a moment of utter perplexity. I was studying the Scripture but could not correlate how different message and themes worked together. I realized I was not smart enough to figure it out. It was then that I spoke to the Lord and just told Him I wasn't smart enough and that if He wanted me to understand He would need to show me. So I just gave up and left it to Him. Thinking that was the end of it I just sat there, in a state of transition . . . waiting for my mind to think of what to do next. The brain was not yet in gear to transition to another activity when all of a sudden the puzzle of thoughts, themes, messages came together as if pulled by gravity to interlock into an understandable whole. The experience was like none I have ever had. It was not my mind that thought this up (though some may call it subconscious reasoning), I believe it was the Lord.
If the Lord provides clarity, understanding and integration of His scripture then hermeneutics (methods of Bible study) and illumination have a whole different paradigm. It was not by my reasoning nor my knowledge that provided my insight but the opposite- the resignation of those faculties attributed the discovery to the work of the Spirit. It is this idea that prompted another . . . if resignation of the faculties of human reason allow the Word of God to be manifested then how may this apply to the relationship between God and Man? If I surrender my reason for the sake of revelation what happens when I surrender my heart? My hope? My very will? My understanding of the Gospel was about to be drastically changed!
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