Devotionals

BURSTING THROUGH THE THEOLOGICAL EGG

by Henry Jaegers
10/07/19
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BURSTING THROUGH THE THEOLOGICAL EGG

The Key to Spiritual Growth

By Henry Jaegers

Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and love unto all the saints Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, And what is the exceeding the greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power.

 (Ephesians 1: 15-19)

It's been five days since I started this message and because of many unavoidable distractions, I was not able to complete what I started. It all began as I was completing a study on the attributes of God through reading A.W. Tozer’s book on “The Knowledge of The Holy.” I have to confess, that at the first reading it was somewhat superficial but when I got to the last two chapters, the subject caught my attention. I was speaking specifically on the subject of the knowledge of God about “God's Sovereignty. As I thought about how the subject applies to my life, I begin to see beyond the theology and understand how practical each of these attributes is to our daily living and understanding of how God works and who he is.

First, I want to share one statement that Dr. Tozer said concerning our knowledge of God. He said, “no religion or nation can rise above what its concept of God is”. If you have a low understanding of who God is, that affects your living and your hindrance to spiritual growth. Through this study, I have had to examine my own heart regarding superficiality. What I mean by that, is receiving certain information as final, and never being able to progress beyond the depths of its true meaning. It means that we are content to stay where we are without any further investigation. If we are to grow in our Christian life, it is very important to realize that our understanding of God relates clearly to our spiritual development.

Dr. Tozer also gives a clear understanding of the word idolatry. He defines it as thinking thoughts of God that are not worthy of him. That means obtaining information from people of like mind who are content with the content of their education and never go beyond the depths of the external. That is why I referred in our title to breaking out of the theological egg. That's the egg is our superficial understanding of the person God. All of our human knowledge and understanding and education all have to do with the formulation of the shell of the egg. We can decorate and pretty up and make all kinds of outward adornments to the egg and never break it open and find the life-giving contents of what is inside.

This is a somewhat deep subject but let me share just a few practical ideas concerning just one attribute namely the “Sovereignty of God”. How does my understanding of this, affect:

The choices that we make

The praying that we pray

The answers we receive or do not receive

the guidance that we need and how God uses his sovereignty to direct us in making wise choices. You

what about the opportunities that he gives, and the people he brings into our lives?

Now, this is just the sovereignty of God but just think if we do the same thing with the attributes of God? We had just begun to explore the depths and the possibilities that lay before us. But I believe in my heart that there are only two ways in which this shell can be broken. The first way is through revival when the chicken breaks out of the egg without anything to do with any external assistance beyond the mother hen brooding over her eggs. That's what revival is all about it causes us to break out of the egg and see God in a real and meaningful way.

The second way I believe that we break out of the shell is through practicing meditating on the word of God. That is emphasized strongly throughout Scripture but I find it is something that is lacking in much of our study and preparation in share the word of God with people that God has given to us to nurture. And of course, with both of these effectual, fervent patient praying is absolutely essential. If we do not have time to think and to pray and we are too busy with activity, then we'll never be able to break the shell.

God wants us to get beyond the old wineskins and begin to enjoy the wine contained therein.