Category: Theology

Are You Hungry for God’s Word?

This week I received an email with a profound question: what does it mean to be hungry for God’s Word and how can I feel this way? Most of us would agree that a hunger for the Bible is a healthy hunger. But what does this actually mean and how do we develop a deeper appetite for the Word of God? 

What Does It Mean to Have a Hunger for God’s Word?

A hunger for the Word of God is all about sensing our need for God’s truth. It is a longing to know God’s truth more so that it changes us. A hunger for God’s Word means we want God and his truth to shape how we live on a daily basis.

We see a hunger and a longing for God and his Word in the Bible itself, especially in Psalm 119. I’d encourage you to read the whole Psalm (it’s long but worth the read). Here are a few snippets that reveal a healthy hunger for God’s truth.

“My soul is consumed with longing for your rules at all times.” (Psalm 119:20)

“Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day.” (Psalm 119:97)

“How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” (Psalm 119:103)

Notice how the author of the Psalm longs for God’s rules (his truth, his Word), he loves it and thinks about it all the time, and he finds God’s words “sweet”. They are good and nourishing to his soul. He knows and feels his need for God’s truth. He longs to know more of the goodness and delight found in God’s truth.

Ultimately, a hunger for God’s Word is a hunger for God. God has spoken to us through the Bible, his Word. It is the primary way we come to know him as followers of Jesus. Thus, a hunger for God’s Word should be a hunger to know and love God more by dwelling on his truth conveyed in the Bible. 

We want him. And we want to love him more. And we want to live his way. So, we come to the Bible and read it with open hands ready to receive whatever God might give us to satisfy our souls.

How Do We Grow in Our Hunger for God’s Word?

The reality of the Christian life is that we may not always feel a hunger for God’s Word. Developing an appetite for the Word can take time, and it may ebb and flow. Our hunger for God’s truth will have high points and low points. There is no magic strategy to make yourself feel this hunger. It comes to us from God himself and often grows or shrinks depending on our daily habits.

So here are four practices for growing your appetite for God’s Word.

1. Pray and Ask God for a Deeper Hunger

The first step to growing in a hunger for God is by praying and asking God for a deeper hunger for his Word. Ask God: Help me to long to read the Bible and find it sweet and good and lovely. Help me to love your Word and think about it all the time. Give me a deep yearning for you and your truth. 

Confess to God that you don’t often feel this way: God, I don’t hunger for you and your truth as I should. Help me to develop a fiercer craving to read and live out your Word.

2. Take Small Steps to Encounter God’s Word Every Day

Then, take small steps to encounter God’s Word every day. Set aside a time every day to read a small portion of the Bible. And small can be key. If you aren’t reading the Bible on a regular basis, start with just a few verses or a chapter. 

Turn off distractions (i.e., put your phone in another room) and spend a few minutes reading. As you read, ask yourself what this teaches you about God or how it might point you to who Jesus is. 

Make a start to developing a greater desire for the Word by reading the Word daily. Our habits shape our appetites, so make a habit of being in the Bible everyday.

3. Chew on What You Read

As you read God’s Word make sure you are “chewing on it”. That’s what “meditation” on God’s Word means. Meditation is concentration on God’s truth for the good of your soul, to satisfy your soul with God’s nourishing truth. It’s simply taking time to slowly think about what God’s Word means. 

Once again, asking good questions is critical. Chew on the Word by asking what it teaches you about God, how it might call you to change your actions, how it encourages you to trust in Jesus, how it leads you to confess sin, and so on.

4. Read God’s Word in Community

Finally, read God’s Word in community with other believers. Make every effort to be in church regularly to hear the teaching and preaching of God’s Word. Find friends who can hold you accountable in reading God’s Word. Ask a friend to ask you once a week: What was something God taught you through his Word this week? 

God designed us to read and hear his Word with others. Our hunger will grow as we seek God’s truth with other followers of Jesus.

These thoughts are just a start, but I hope they get you thinking about what you are hungry for. Are you hungry for God and his Word? Or are you trying to fill the emptiness of your soul with entertainment, relationships, money, or something else? Only God can satisfy your soul through his Son, Jesus Christ. Getting hungry for God’s Word starts with repenting of sin and trusting in Jesus Christ alone to save us and satisfy us. 

Are you hungry for God’s truth? Confess the idolatry of your appetites, trust in Christ alone, and get in the Bible to grow your appetite for the sweetness of God’s truth. 

Technology, AI, and the Christian Life

When I think about technology and AI, my mind often wanders to a scene from the end of the film “Avengers: Infinity War”. In this scene, the villain Thanos has just turned half of the universe to dust. In a kind of vision, he approaches his adopted daughter Gamora (who he had to sacrifice earlier in the film) as a young girl. She asks him, “What did it cost?” Thanos responds, “Everything.”

It is a chilling scene that makes me wonder if in our pursuit of AI we are a little like Thanos chasing infinite power and knowledge, and it will cost us everything. That may be a little too apocalyptic, but it raises the issue of whether we really do count the cost when pursuing the wild dreams of new technologies.

As Christians, we need to be rooted in a biblical worldview about technology. The Bible may not give us a practical guide to AI, but it does give us a general understanding of what technology is and how we should use it. That is where we must start in considering how we approach AI as Christians.

What Is Technology and How Should We Use It?

Technology is a product of human beings living as image-bearers of God. Genesis 1:26-28 teaches that God created humanity in his image and gave humanity the task of exercising dominion over the earth. One way we image God, the Creator, is by making new things from his creation. This includes technology. Technology involves creating useful tools from God’s creation that help us carry out the callings God has given us.1

Therefore, the Bible begins with a positive outlook on technology. It is part of living as image-bearers of God who order and shape creation into useful tools that promote human flourishing. The goal of technology is the glory of God and the good of others. We shape tools that help us do the work God has given us and to make things that are useful for others.

Technology finds its roots in creation before humanity’s rebellion against God. It involves discovering the patterns God has wired into creation. Every man-made technology ultimately goes back to God, the Creator. Just as Isaiah reminds us that the farmer gets understanding from God to know how to farm, the designers of new technologies are discovering ways God has made things to work (Isaiah 28:26, 29).2

However, since humanity’s rebellion against our Creator, all technology is affected by the brokenness of this world. We use technology to hurt and harm others (think: Cain and Abel in Genesis 4). We use technology to enable our idols (think: the Golden Calf in Exodus 32). All technologies fade, cause headaches when they break, and can shape us in negative ways.

No technology is simply a neutral tool. All technology shapes us in certain ways. For example, the invention of the alphabet and reading shaped past cultures so that they were no longer strictly oral cultures. Thus, we should be intentional, patient, and wise in how we use technology. We should ask questions like, “How is this technology shaping me? Is it helping or hindering me from loving God and loving others?”.

Scripture is clear that whatever we do, we should do for the praise and glory of God (1 Cor 10:31). All that we do should be done in love (1 Cor 16:14). We should use technology in ways that honor God and show love to others. Scripture also calls us to walk in wisdom and holiness. Before we adopt new technologies, we should count the cost. This means that we consider how a technology might shape us and how we relate to God and others. We should avoid all uses of technology that push us toward sin and away from holiness.

Today, we live in a time of unprecedented growth in technology. Most of what we think of as technology today is digital technology. Screens are everywhere, from our pockets to our walls, in our cars and on our refrigerators. Technology today changes so quickly it is hard to stay on top of. Of course, the biggest strides in technology today come in the arena of AI (artificial intelligence).

What Is AI?

According to NASA, “Artificial intelligence refers to computer systems that can perform complex tasks normally done by human-reasoning, decision making, creating, etc.”3 It generally works through exposing systems to large amounts of data and applying algorithms to identify patterns and perform certain tasks (this is called “Machine Learning”). Instead of merely following rules, it uses lots of data to “learn” rules and notice patterns. For example, this might look like showing a system thousands of images of dogs so it can learn what a dog looks like.

AI has been a field that has interested scientists since at least the term was coined in the 1950s. With the increased speed of computers today and the wealth of information available on the internet, artificial intelligence has taken vast leaps forward in the past 20 years. Today, we live with AI assistants like Alexa and Siri and can type any question or draft any idea in ChatGPT. We can describe an image, and AI will produce it. Scientists are designing AI robots that can run half-marathons and perform other physical tasks.

We should understand that like most technologies today, AI is mainly being designed by those with a materialistic, evolutionary worldview that denies God and reduces humans to biological processes. In this worldview, our intelligence is a result of organic, chemical processes, and it can be replicated, replaced, or supplemented by AI. Some proponents of AI consider it the next step in human evolution and theorize that it might allow us to transcend our bodies. Others like Sam Altman (CEO of OpenAI) propose that intelligence will become simply another utility (like water and electricity) that we will purchase from companies like his.4

We should note this worldview and be careful of ways it can influence us as Christians. We should be careful about how AI itself can shape us and how we think about ourselves and others. As Christians, we need to remember that human beings are much more than the sum of our intelligence or physical capabilities. We are not fundamentally what we know or what we do. We are created in God’s image, body and soul, with inherent dignity and worth that no computer created by man could supplant.

The capabilities of AI will continue to grow. It will take over certain jobs and fields of work. But it will not change what it means to be human or our basic calling as followers of Jesus. We should consider how to use it and approach it in ways that glorify God and show love to our neighbors.

How Should We Approach AI as Followers of Jesus?

If we are using digital technology, we are all using AI in some form (e.g., from recommended videos on YouTube to Google searches to using Alexa to control your smart thermostat). Yet, as with all technology, we want to be intentional about our use of AI. As followers of Jesus, we should approach AI with wisdom, love for others, and a concern to live holy lives for God’s glory.

We can frame these three concerns into three questions. First, what is the cost of AI in my life? Second, does my use of AI help or hinder my love for others? Third, does my use of AI help or hinder living in holiness?

Wisdom

Wisdom asks more of AI than simply “how will this benefit me?“. The benefits of new technologies like AI are easy to see: I can ask Gemini to create a tailored workout plan for me in just a few minutes. That’s cool and helpful! But the costs of using new technologies are usually more hidden and harder to assess. As Neil Postman argues, technological change is ecological.5 Introduce a new technology, and it changes the entire ecosystem of a culture and your life. Wisdom discerns hidden costs to our “ecosystem” (what we lose, not just what we gain) and adjusts our use of technology accordingly.

AI technologies come with several hidden costs. Like many digital technologies, AI can play a role in eroding our ability to give something sustained thought. Why would we think through a problem, when we can ask ChatGPT? Why would we read a book when we can ask AI what we want to know? We become slowly reliant on our tools in a way that literally rewires our brains and erodes attention. For Christians, this matters because we are people of a book. We are called to read and meditate on God’s Word. AI might be able to give us quick answers to Bible questions, but it cannot give us the delight in God that arises from saturating our minds and hearts with his Word.

AI also forms us to value speed, efficiency, and ease. Yet, we forget that these things are not virtues. Gemini probably could have written this article better than I did. But that wouldn’t really help me in the long run (or you, either). It would be easier and faster, but I would lose the benefit of working through these issues myself. Life is about more than quick information and taking the easy road. Wisdom values knowledge that is bought by sweat and tears more than intelligence purchased for a small fee (or for nothing) from the AI “utility companies.” Patience and self-discipline are good in and of themselves. But AI changes the ecosystem of our lives in such a way that it can choke them out or hinder their growth.

Wisdom also recognizes how AI can lead us away from community and human connection and prioritize a self-centered experience. It may lead us away from asking others in our lives for help. We can simply ask our AI assistant. In the extreme, people have even developed disturbing intimate “relationships” with AI chatbots. But these kinds of connections are “artificial”. They lack the true connection that comes from a son asking his dad for help on a project. AI tempts us to just ask ChatGPT.

Love

Another question we must ask of our use of AI is whether it helps or hinders our love for God and others. In other words, is AI getting in the way of growing to be more like Jesus? The Bible is clear that our greatest calling in life is to love God with all that we are and all that we have and to love our neighbor as ourselves (Matthew 22:37-39).

In our use of AI, we must strive to love God above all. We must be careful that we do not allow AI tools to become idols that lead us away from spending time in prayer or other spiritual disciplines. Since the Fall, humanity has turned to worship creation rather than the Creator (Rom 1:25). If we consistently turn to AI for answers before we turn to God in prayer, we are guilty of idol worship. Will we turn first to the all-knowing God who loves us or a digital AI assistant who is a creation of man? As we approach AI, we must use it as those who love God above all and refuse to turn our creations into idols.

AI should also be used in ways marked by love for others. We should refuse to use it in ways that harm or ignore people. Positively, AI may allow us to save a little time in certain menial tasks so we can focus on people in our lives. It might help us create positive content that may help or encourage others. Doctors have already been using it to help read scans and other reports more accurately in ways that have saved lives. If we are going to use AI, we need to dwell on this question for ourselves: how will this help or hinder my love for others in my life? We must refuse to use AI in ways that lead us to dehumanize or harm others.

Holiness

We also should consider whether certain uses of AI help us live in holiness or whether they push us to live in worldliness. Remember: God’s will for you is your holiness (1 Thess 4:3). We must not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of our mind in God’s truth (Rom 12:2). Therefore, we need to consider whether AI is helping or hindering our holiness and the renewal of our mind.

Using AI to write a paper for you and passing it off as your own is clearly an unholy use of AI. But also letting our minds become unduly saturated with AI-driven social media news feeds may quietly push us into worldliness. Social media algorithms give us what they “think” we want to see. This feeds our self-centeredness, creates echo chambers, and even hardens us to sin. As David Wells writes, “Worldliness is what makes sin look normal in any age and righteousness seem odd.”6 How much passes before our eyes on our screens that tries to make sin look normal?

We can use AI in ways that are holy and honor God. Using it with wisdom and love is a good start. If we are going to use AI, we better do so for the glory of God. We should recognize the costs and mitigate them as much as we can. We should be intentional about using AI instead of being purely reactive or using it mindlessly just because everyone else is.

Four Starting Points for Using AI

As we approach AI through the lens of wisdom, love, and holiness, here are four simple starting points for considering how we use AI.

  1. In everything, work hard for God’s glory and the good of others. Don’t use AI to avoid all hard mental work. Using AI for menial, mindless tasks is fine. It becomes more complicated when we’re asking it to do all the heavy lifting for us. There is satisfaction in hard work (mental and physical). Sitting around and having a machine do everything is an empty way to live. Give your all for God’s glory and out of love for the people around you.
  2. Don’t delegate your learning to a machine. Use AI to go deeper in your learning, not as a replacement for learning. If we delegate our learning to AI, we will lose something valuable. God made us to explore and to learn. Before consulting AI, take time to think through a problem, question, or biblical text for yourself or ask someone you trust. Resist the urge to look everything up all the time. Use AI to explore and learn, but don’t make it the end of your learning.
  3. Commit to reading books, especially the Bible. Don’t let AI keep you from slowly reading the best books. There is a reason God revealed himself in a book that contains many genres of literature. Reading (whether silent reading on your own or listening to a book) is the preeminent medium God has given us for experiencing truth and beauty. When everything becomes a conversation with an AI chatbot, we are missing out on something deeper and more satisfying. Our God is a God of words. He speaks. Don’t settle for AI summaries. Read the Bible prayerfully for yourself.
  4. Stay tethered to real community and in-person connection. AI isn’t a replacement for human relationships. Many people today are turning to AI for more than answers and information. They are looking for connection with something outside themselves. Connection with AI is a weak substitute for in-person community. So talk and engage with your family and your friends in real life. Commit to being an active member of your local church. Relationships with other humans are messy, but connection with AI can’t truly compete with them.

Conclusion

AI is here to stay. It isn’t going anywhere. We can be thankful for ways AI makes our lives easier or helps us streamline tedious tasks. But we must also count the cost. The ecosystem of our culture and our lives is changing in many ways. Yet our calling as followers of Jesus remains the same: we take up our cross and follow Jesus, we proclaim the good news of Jesus to the world, we love God and our neighbor, and we do all for the glory and praise of our Lord.

  1. Jason Thacker, The Age of AI: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humanity (Zondervan, 2020), Kindle, 20.↩︎
  2. I owe this observation to Tony Reinkie, who writes, “God taught us how to build rockets and planes like he taught the ancient farmer to grow crops. In every human discovery we find the Creator’s instruction. God is our tutor, and he ordains every link in the chain of technological revolution.” Tony Reinke, God, Technology, and the Christian Life (Crossway, 2022), Kindle, 102.↩︎
  3. “What Is Artificial Intelligence?,” NASA, October 4, 2024, https://www.nasa.gov/what-is-artificial-intelligence/↩︎
  4. Peco Gaskovski and Ruth Gaskovski, “The Sacred Triad: Where and Why to Resist,” School of the Unconformed (Substack), October 15, 2024, https://schooloftheunconformed.substack.com/p/the-sacred-triad-where-and-why-to.↩︎
  5. Neil Postman, “Five Things We Need to Know About Technological Change” (speech, Denver, CO, March 28, 1998), https://student.cs.uwaterloo.ca/~cs492/papers/neil-postman–five-things.html.↩︎
  6. David F. Wells, God in the Wasteland: The Reality of Truth in a World of Fading Dreams (Eerdmans, 1994), Kindle, 29.↩︎

Reformation Wisdom for Your Spiritual Formation: Thoughts on “A Heart Aflame for God” by Matthew Bingham

How do we grow in our walk with God? Plenty of books, articles, podcasts, and sermons try to help us answer that question from various angles. Some claim to offer ancient wisdom, while others suggest practical tips and tricks relevant to our day. Others seem to draw from several Christian traditions (no matter how much they contradict each other) to produce an eclectic approach to spirituality.

One recent book on the subject is Matthew Bingham’s A Heart Aflame for God: A Reformed Approach to Spiritual Formation. Bingham is especially concerned that an eclectic approach to spiritual formation is neither necessary nor useful. He takes us back to an approach rooted in the writings of early modern, Reformed authors.

A Heart Aflame for God presents a helpful summary of some of the best thinking on spiritual formation from a biblical perspective. Here are some of the main ideas that I found helpful.

Spiritual Formation and our Reformation Heritage

Throughout A Heart Aflame, Bingham shows that evangelicals have a rich inheritance and deep roots in Reformation Protestantism for spiritual formation (5). We don’t have to follow modern eclectic approaches or feel the need to shift to Roman Catholic or Orthodox traditions to find a richer approach. We already have a very rich, biblical tradition to draw from. Yet many of us have neglected it.

These deeper roots are found in sources like John Calvin and the Reformers, the Puritans, and other early modern Reformed believers (10-12). Bingham explores spiritual formation from their perspective to help believers as they seek to grow in Christ.

Following the Puritans, we can define spiritual formation broadly as keeping the heart (23-27). Spiritual formation is watching what is happening in our hearts in all areas of life. It includes fighting against sin and fighting for a deeper joy in God (24-25).

Bingham defines spiritual formation more specifically as “the conscious process by which we seek to heighten and satisfy our Spirit-given thirst for God (Ps. 42:1-2) through divinely appointed means and with a view toward “work[ing] out [our] own salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil. 2:12) and becoming “mature in Christ” (Col. 1:28),” (35). Spiritual formation is how we seek to grow up in Christ and grow closer to our God.

The Centrality of the Word and the Reformation Triangle

God’s Word is central to our spiritual formation. Bingham writes, “God’s people are most profoundly shaped and formed by God’s word,” (71). This was a major emphasis in early Reformed authors on the subject, and they derived this emphasis from the Bible itself (e.g., Psa 1:1-2; Psa 119:103-04; 2 Tim 3:16-17; Heb 4:12). As B. B. Warfield put it, “Life close to God’s Word is life close to God,” (72).

Bingham also draws from our Reformation heritage to argue that the way to our hearts is primarily through our minds (80). Spiritual growth isn’t the result of practicing the right rituals but is rooted in faithful, Spirit-filled interaction with God’s Word. We should avoid the anti-intellectual spirit all too common today and instead pursue the careful study of and meditation on God’s Word to shape our affections.

Near the end of the book, Bingham also interacts with authors such as James K. A. Smith who criticize a Word-centered approach to spiritual formation in favor of spiritual formation through embodied rituals and liturgies. Bingham agrees with Smith that we want to avoid a “brains-on-a-stick Christianity” (293). Christian spirituality is not merely about having good theology. At the same time, this doesn’t mean that we jettison the centrality of the Word in spiritual formation. There is little biblical or logical reason to accept an argument (like Smith’s) that “the way to the heart is through the body” (301).

Furthermore, Scripture isn’t merely one tool for spiritual formation. All of spiritual formation is connected to Scripture (92). This leads Bingham to present what he calls the “Reformation Triangle” of Scripture reading, meditation, and prayer. These three practices are interrelated and form the foundation of our spiritual formation: “we hear from God through his word, we reflect on what we’ve heard in meditation, and we then respond to God in prayer,” (94).

For many Christians, this may seem obvious. We grow closer to God and more conformed to Christ’s likeness as we read and ponder God’s Word and pray. Yet, we may forget what this represents—communion with God (193). Herman Bavinck explained it eloquently: In Scripture “God daily comes to his people. In it he speaks to his people, not from afar but from nearby,” (91). In prayer, we respond to God and bring our needs before him. Prayer (thoughtful and tethered to biblical truth) is like breathing for believers—natural and life-sustaining (167).

Meditation on Scripture

When it comes to keeping the heart, meditating on God and his truth is also essential. Yet, meditation is often a missing element in our discussions of spiritual formation in the church (139). Meditation takes the Word that we read and seeks to bring it home to our hearts. Drawing from the Puritans, Bingham defines meditation as serious thinking about God’s truth that leads to renewed affections toward God and application of the truth (135-37).

He also draws from the Puritans to present several helpful metaphors for meditation. Meditation is like rekindling a flame from the coals of God’s Word as we seek to warm our hearts (137). It is tasting the sweetness of God’s Word and not only chewing on it but digesting the truth for spiritual nourishment (145-46). Reading God’s Word is like surveying a house from the outside. Meditation is exploring the rooms in the house (154). We find that Scripture is bigger and better than we could have imagined—there is always more to explore.

Meditation is not emptying our minds but filling them with serious thinking about God’s Word that aims for deeper joy in God and more faithful obedience to God. It’s not easy in our fast-paced age that pushes us toward shallow thinking. But it’s essential to a life of flourishing in God’s economy (Psa 1:1-2).

Other Helpful Practices for Spiritual Formation

In the final third of the book, Bingham unpacks several other practices for spiritual formation. These build on the Reformation Triangle rather than being stand alone practices. These include self-examination, reflecting on the natural world, and pursuing godly relationships.

As we meditate Scripture, we bring Scripture to bear on our lives in self-examination. We keep a watch on our hearts and lives by noticing and repenting of sin and finding encouragement in God’s work in our lives (210-12). The natural world also can aid our spiritual formation. Bingham points out how many believers in the past have spent much time in nature, walking the woods in prayer and communion with God (248). God’s creation teaches us God’s truth and helps us savor God’s beauty, even in the ordinary wonders of nature (240, 251-53).

Bingham also makes sure that we don’t reduce spiritual formation to a purely individualistic endeavor. We need godly relationships in the home and the church (258). If we want to grow in maturity, we need godly examples and serious, intentional godly conversation, which the Puritans called “conference” (264-66). We will certainly grow more with the help of godly friends (274).

Finally, Bingham reminds us that we will face many spiritual challenges in our spiritual formation. “Spiritual struggle is a normal part of the Christian life, and no one is exempt,” (307). The reasons for these struggles can include harboring sin (313), our natural temperament (315), worldliness (318), life circumstances (319-20), and the schemes of the devil (321). The major way we face these spiritual struggles is with the means of grace God has given us. There is no magic bullet to overcome these shadowy days in our souls. We simply press on in reading God’s Word, meditating on it, praying to our God, and remaining in godly community.

Final Thoughts

A Heart Aflame for God joins a list of other solid books on pursuing intentional spiritual growth. Other books, like Donald Whitney’s Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, are a little more practical. But A Heart Aflame for God is unique in its intentional focus on wisdom for spiritual formation from early-modern Reformed thinkers and writers.

Bingham focuses on building a foundation for a biblical, Reformed approach to spiritual formation more than presenting a list of disciplines or habits only. This approach also pushes back against other approaches that either promote more mystical practices (not rooted in Scripture) or approach spiritual formation as a buffet of practices we choose from based on what “works” for us.

A Heart Aflame for God reminds us that the simple practices of Scripture reading, meditation, and prayer are the core practices of our personal spiritual formation. When we pursue these for the sake of keeping our hearts, in the context of a community of believers, we will find our walk with God and our affections for God growing and deepening. Other practices might feel more novel and “fresh”, but communion with God in his Word and prayer must remain central in our pursuit of spiritual growth.

Reading Slowly in a Hasty Age

“When I get a little money, I buy books, and if I have any left over I buy food and clothes.” I have always resonated with this statement from 16th century Dutch scholar Desiderius Erasmus. I love books. Reading is one of the most valuable disciplines and joys in life. It is vital to feeding and clothing the mind and soul.

While I enjoy purchasing new books, I must also admit that I have many books on my shelves that I have not read—more books than I’ll be able to get through in the next several years. Many are for reference, some are beneficial for a quick read-through, and others need deeper thought and reflection. Add to this the hundreds of books I have digitally on Kindle or Bible software, and I have a wealth of books to feast on for many years to come.

With so many books to read and so little time, those of us who love to read can be sucked into valuing reading speed and reading quantity over reading quality. The goal can become to read a certain number of books a year, when it should be enjoying good books and being formed by the best books.

We can go so fast and pound our way through book after book, when we should be slowing down, reflecting, and chewing on what we’re reading. Especially as we read for learning and spiritual growth, we often need to slow down and read less, not necessarily more. We need to take time in our Bible reading to meditate on the text more than to meet a goal of reading the Bible in a year (as valuable as that is).

Thomas Brooks, a pastor in the 17th century, put it well:

“Remember, it is not hasty reading, but serious meditating upon holy and heavenly truths, that make them prove sweet and profitable to the soul. It is not the bees touching of the flower that gathers honey, but her abiding for a time upon the flower that draws out the sweet. It is not he that reads most, but he that meditates most, that will prove the choicest, sweetest, wisest and strongest Christian.”

If hasty reading was a problem for the Puritans, it is more so today, especially in our digital context. Our digital age conditions us for passive consumption more than active learning. It forms us to prize quick skimming and synthesis over deep thinking and serious meditation. The increasing ubiquity of AI may lead some to think that sitting down and reading a book for information and learning is an antiquated pursuit. We live in an age of speed and efficiency, where slowing down can seem impossible. But slow down we must, if we want to be formed through reading and not just gulp down books.

One way to slow down is to read physical copies of books and read minimally from a device. Purchase the print version before the digital version. For your Bible intake, grab a printed copy of Scripture instead of pulling out your phone. I own and use (and enjoy) reading on a Kindle, but for serious meditation and deep reading, holding a print copy usually forces me to slow down. I remember more of what I read. I can get a better sense of the whole book with a print copy and review it more thoroughly.

Reading a print copy also allows for better note-taking in the book itself. Digital note-taking is doable and some may prefer it. There are benefits to reading a digital copy and saving highlights easily. But once again, faster and easier are not necessarily always better for long term learning and growth. Physically underlining a sentence or writing a short note requires you to slow down and be more intentional instead of highlighting every interesting passage. It makes you pause, reflect, and think, not just consume passively.

There are certainly many times we should read quickly. If you skimmed this article, I don’t blame you. You still probably got the gist and maybe received some food for thought. At other times, we might read too slowly and too sleepily or sporadically that we gain little from it. Or we may read inferior books too slowly and miss out on better books. But when we read good books for growth, we all could benefit from slowing down a little. Especially when we read the Book God has given us, his perfect and inerrant Word, we must prize serious mediation over hasty reading.

To sum it up in the words of Mortimer J. Adler, “In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through you—how many you can make your own. A few friends are better than a thousand acquaintances.”

Online Corinthians

Read the letters of 1-2 Corinthians, and you’ll quickly see that the Corinthians had problems. Lots of them. There were divisions in the church. They were letting gross sin slide. They were leaving their poorer brothers and sisters in Christ out of the Lord’s Supper. They forgot that the way of disciples of Jesus is the way of the cross.

One of these issues in the Corinthian church had to do with divisions in the church surrounding different leaders. Factions arose that claimed certain leaders, including Apollos, Peter, and Paul himself, as their figureheads (1 Cor 1:12). A related issue was the Corinthian’s attitude toward Paul and his ministry. The Corinthians apparently didn’t think Paul’s oratory skills were up to par and saw his suffering as discrediting his ministry.

The Corinthians formed tribes around their preferred leaders. They looked for power in personality and worldly show instead of the gospel. They didn’t expect their leaders to be clay jars, ordinary and prone to suffering and brokenness.

Sound familiar? These issues are not unique to the church in Corinth in the AD 50s. In fact, perhaps the internet and social media have only acted as gasoline added to the blaze in our day. In a real sense, you could say that we all tend to be Corinthians online.

We form tribes around our preferred leaders. With the advent of the internet, social media, YouTube, podcasts, etc., we can easily devote ourselves to a leader who fits our preferred style. We come not only to be shaped by their teaching, but to defend their honor online, ignore any weaknesses, and bash other leaders who don’t match our vision of what a real Christian leader, pastor, or author should look like.

We look for power in personality and worldly show instead of the gospel. The online world prizes personality and a certain kind of show. What gets the most attention online is often what is most entertaining, loud, or extreme. And what gets the most attention holds more power. We tend to look for power in personality, charisma, show, and clips that can go viral instead of the gospel.

We forget that we and our leaders and influencers are ordinary clay pots. Our leaders are ordinary people too. They’re broken, just like us. They go through hardship just like us. Yet, we can unduly exalt them (they could never be wrong!) or cancel them for disagreeing with us (how could they be so wrong!). Celebrity culture and cancel culture prevail online, and we forget that while godly leaders are a gift from God, they too are jars of clay, men of dust. The power is in the ministry of the gospel, not in any man or woman.

We need the lessons Paul taught the Corinthian church. Our pastors and leaders, if faithful, are servants of Christ. They are servants of Christ who proclaim not themselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord (2 Cor 4:5). The source of power in any ministry is the gospel. God certainly gifts some leaders more than others. But at the end of the day, even the most gifted preachers and leaders cannot truly convert one soul to Christ on their own.

Even the most gifted preachers, even the most creative Christian content creators online, even the most persuasive communicators are clay jars. What matters is what is inside their ministry. What truly has power to transform lives is the word of the cross, the gospel.

Is Technology an Intruder in God’s World?

Technology intrudes on my life. It keeps me from being present. Compared to nature, it can feel impure and imposing. Technology invades my home and takes over my walls, my pocket, my wrist. Technology can feel like an intruder in the pure world God created. We’ve probably all felt this way. Technology can feel like something outside the pure world of nature invading and taking over the earth like a bunch of Daleks from Dr. Who.

Our smartphones, smart TVs, smartwatches, and smart-everything-elses can genuinely feel like intruders, but we need to step back and ask: where do they really come from? Tech critic Neil Postman articulated one view that we may resonate with at times:

“The best way to view technology is as a strange intruder, to remember that technology is not part of God’s plan but a product of human creativity and hubris.”

Technology, in this view, is man’s invention that we impose upon God’s pure creation. Postman goes on to argue that technology gives the impression that it is inevitable and has always been there. Technologies and inventions like the alphabet, books, and smartphones can come to a place where we see them as “gifts of nature, not as artifacts produced in a specific political and historical context.” In other words, technology becomes “mythic”.

Postman definitely makes an important point. Technologies are human inventions, and often behind them is the pride of man. No technology is merely neutral. All are formed in a context with certain priorities and tend to shape us in certain ways. However, can we say that technology isn’t part of God’s plan? Is technology merely a product of human pride? These questions get at this important issue: where does technology come from?

I think we must reject from the outset Postman’s statement that technology is not part of God’s plan. Such a statement betrays a kind of deism, not a biblical understanding God’s relation to the world. God did not create the world, hand the keys to humanity, and step out of the picture. The unified testimony of Scripture is clear: God in his providence remains involved in the world. Not even a bird can die apart from his will, and he knows and cares about the most mundane details of our lives (Matt 10:29-30). All technology must fit into his will in some way.

This raises the question: If technology fits into God’s plan, how does that actually work out? Tony Reinke in his book God, Technology, and the Christian Life points out two key biblical texts in Isaiah that help us wrestle with the question about the origin of technology and God’s relationship to it. A quick look at each of these texts will help us begin to drive at an answer to this important question.

The Farmer and His Tech: Isaiah 28:23-29

In Isaiah 28:23-29, Isaiah uses an illustration from the world of agriculture and farming as a parable about God’s judgment on Jerusalem. The main point is that though God is judging his people, the process is similar to how a farmer works his fields: his plowing and threshing isn’t forever, and it’s purpose is achieving the best crop possible.

Notice what God says about farmers and their techniques and technologies in verses 26 and 29:

The farmer knows just what to do, for God has given him understanding. . . . The LORD of Heaven’s Armies is a wonderful teacher, and he gives the farmer great wisdom. (Isaiah 28:26, 29, NLT)

The main point here within the metaphor Isaiah uses is that the farmer learns how to farm from God. The technology and methods he uses are taught to him by God. How? Through patterns in creation. The farmer discovers (through trial and error) how God has wired the world to work. He uses the patterns and elements of God’s creation to create techniques and technologies to produce better crops.

The farmer’s tech isn’t merely a human product outside of God’s plan. No, God teaches the farmer through how he has created the world. The Lord gives the farmer wisdom to make tech to further his goals. He is the Creator of this world, and he has wired it to work in a certain way with certain elements and within certain limits. The farmer makes tech to further his crop only according to the possibilities and patterns God has wired in his creation.

This applies to all forms of technology. All technology is simply discovering how the world works and using what God has already made to make something useful. Nobody makes anything out of nothing in a lab. They can only use what God has already made and shape it into something. Nothing is completely manmade. Everything goes back to God who made everything in creation.

This world was created by God, loaded with potential for technology. Technology is not an intruder on God’s creation; it arises from creation! Reinke writes,

“God taught us how to build rockets and planes like he taught the ancient farmer to grow crops. In every human discovery we find the Creator’s instruction. God is our tutor, and he ordains every link in the chain of technological revolution.” (102)

But what about technologies that are used for evil? Can we say that God teaches us how to build technologies that are used to destroy? That brings us to another text in Isaiah.

The Makers and Wielders of Weapons: Isaiah 54:16-17

In Isaiah 54, the Lord speaks of the future for his people, a future without fear, a future of peace and righteousness. Near the end of the chapter, the Lord declares that his people will not need to fear the makers and wielders of weapons who may rise against them:

“Behold, I have created the smith who blows the fire of coals and produces a weapon for its purpose. I have also created the ravager to destroy; no weapon that is fashioned against you shall succeed, and you shall refute every tongue that rises against you in judgment. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD and their vindication from me, declares the LORD.” (Isaiah 54:16-17)

The Lord is encouraging his people here: I’ve made both the blacksmith and the ravager, the one who fashions weapons and the one who wields weapons. They are under my control, God says, and they cannot hurt you apart from my will. The point is that God has power over those who make and use weapons, and, by extension, to all who make and use technology.

God has created both the makers of technology and those who use them. And this applies even to technologies that are used for evil, like weapons for unjust warfare. No technology is outside his control or his will. He created the makers and users. He is sovereign over them. No technology can thwart God’s purposes for his people.

As Reinke puts it in his book:

“In any discussion of technology, many Christians get hung up on the most powerful technologists in the world who are inventing the most threatening innovations on earth—nuclear power, killing weapons, space rockets, modified genetics—and assume that these men and women fall outside God’s governance. They don’t. Isaiah 54:16–17 shows us how God creates and governs the most powerful technologists.” (53)

Technology is no mere intruder. It not only stems from patterns and resources in God’s world, God also has a place for even the most destructive technologies in his perfect will. How that all works out is not ours to fully understand. But we know that God’s sovereignty over technology is ultimately for his glory and the good of his people. No innovation in tech will wipe out God’s people.

No technology is merely manmade or outside of God’s plan and purpose for history. Sure, some technologies can feel like “intruders” into our lives since they are subject to the curse of sin. Not all tech should be allowed a place in our lives! Often tech is not used for good. Yet, at the same time, no innovation is outside of God’s plan or will.

So, while we should have a healthy caution and intentionality about new (and some old) technologies, we can’t write them off as manmade products of human pride, as some inherently evil Babel enterprise. Even the Tower of Babel was within the sovereign will of God, and God used that situation to jumpstart the development of languages and cultures. No technology is simply neutral, yet all technologies, whether used for good or ill ultimately come from God and he is sovereign over them.

Technology may truly intrude into our lives at times. But technology is not alien to earth. All tech is earth-grown, derived from patterns in creation, and within the will of God. We must use it with wisdom for God’s glory and the good of those around us.

An Introduction to the Trinity

As Christians, we confess that God is the Trinity. We believe that the one God exists in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But what does this really mean? Is this a biblical belief or something that a bunch of dudes made up at a church council? I’ll be honest, whenever I speak or teach about the Trinity I feel like there are pitfalls on every side. There are heresies, errors, and bad analogies everywhere. I recently picked up The Trinity: An Introduction by Scott Swain to help me as I continue to reflect on what it means that the One God exists as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We can always use deeper thinking on the Trinity, and this book provides just that.

In The Trinity: An Introduction, Scott Swain seeks to set forth a biblical view of the Trinity and help us better understand the Bible’s basic “Trinitarian grammar.” Swain shows throughout the book that “Christians praise the triune God because that is how God presents himself to us in Holy Scripture: as one God in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,” (20). The theme of praise plays a major role throughout the book. Praise is our response to this doctrine and the goal of studying it. We don’t study the Trinity merely to be able to explain it, but stand in awe of who our Triune God is and embrace his revelation of himself in Scripture (63).

The Trinity is a biblical teaching. It is not something church leaders made up in the fourth century at a church council. The later creeds and confessions don’t improve what’s in the Bible. They are attempts to dig deeply into the Bible’s revelation of God as Triune (26-27). Swain highlights the baptismal formula in Matthew 28:19 as a prime example and summary of the Bible’s “Trinitarian grammar.” Christians are baptized in the one Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: God is one, and the Father, Son, and Spirit are each identified fully with the one God.

The doctrine of Divine simplicity helps us maintain the unity of God as we confess the Trinity. God is not made up of parts. What he is he is (55). So, the divine persons cannot be parts of God or instances within the category of God (59-60). Yet, while God’s works are indivisible that doesn’t mean his life is incommunicable: “The simple God is the eternal life of communication and communion that is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the blessed Trinity,” (62).

Swain notes that “the Bible’s Trinitarian discourse consistently distinguishes the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit by their mutual relations, which are ‘relations of origin’” (32). In other words, the distinctions between the three persons of the Trinity are their relations to each other, not to us. These relations are the personal properties of paternity, filiation, and spiration: “the Father eternally begets the Son (paternity), the Son is eternally begotten of the Father (filiation), and the Father and the Son eternally breathe forth the Spirit (spiration),” (68).

Swain spends a chapter on each of these distinctions. He also addresses the three errors of modalism, subordinationism, and eternal relations of authority and submission (ERAS). God’s external works are inseparable, but there remains a general shape to these external works as “God’s external actions proceed from the Father, through the Son, in the Spirit,” (110). Thus, certain external works are appropriated to Father, Son, and Spirit, as they proceed “from the Father through the Son in the Spirit” (111).

The end-goal of the Triune God’s work in the world is himself. He is our supreme good (124). Through the means of grace (the preaching of the Word and the sacraments) the Father calls us to receive the Son by faith through the working of the Spirit in us. We were made to know, love, and praise the one God who is the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Throughout the book, Swain captures historic Christian Trinitarian theology. The book is definitely a more technical and academic read than other books on the Trinity like Michael Reeves’ Delighting in the Trinity, but that is part of the purpose of the book. It belongs to a series of short studies in systematic theology, not a popular-level introduction to the Christian faith.

That being said, Swain emphasizes throughout the book that the reason we study the Trinity is not to dissect the doctrine somehow but to stand in awe before God as we see him revealed in Scripture. Even if a book like this takes more work to read, the work is for end of the praise and worship and love of our God and that is a worthy endeavor.

The book also devotes a whole chapter to divine simplicity, a doctrine that is neglected in many Christian circles and churches today. This neglect leads to problems. We can tend to view God as simply the balance of his attributes or think that one attribute in God somehow dominates another instead of viewing him as the God who is who he is and isn’t made up of parts. He isn’t the sum of his attributes or divided in any way. This is a key doctrine for understanding the unity of the Trinity and the unity in all that God does.

Swain also focuses on the mutual relations of the Father, Son, and Spirit as what distinguishes the persons of the Trinity. The distinctions between the persons are not primarily located in their relationship to us—the Father is not the Father because he is our Father, but because he is the eternal Father of the eternal Son. This distinction is crucial for orthodox (biblical) Trinitarian theology. Distinguishing the persons of the Trinity by their relationship to us quickly leads to errors like modalism (the persons are simply different expressions or modes in which God acts towards us).

Those who are looking to strengthen their understanding of the Trinity and grow in their worship of our Triune God will benefit from reading this book. It’s a short, but meaty book that demands a slow, careful reading. My understanding of the Trinity has been strengthened and, I pray, my worship of God deepened.