First Steps to Finding a Seminary
1. Pray - Seminary is a big decision. So much of what you learn at seminary will greatly impact your ministry down the road (whether vocation or not). With so much riding on this season of your life it is only proper to being your search in humble prayer before your loving Father God. Place your life and decisions into his hands and commit the whole process to his glory. From first to last, keep prayer a central theme in your journey to find a seminary....
4. Pray - In case you already forgot… pray.
I'm sure he didn't know I existed, although he will now that I have linked to him, so I know it wasn't my post that did anything. But, let it be known to all: I was too hasty! [I know you are all shocked that I would be hasty in anything :)] And I ask for forgiveness for a wrong conclusion based on a limited dataset.
So, even though I didn't cite the site in the original post, I want to now so that all can see a good model in how to decide if and where one should go to seminary, with special emphasis on points 1 & 4. Now that I think about it, points 1 & $ would be a good set of guidelines for anything in life...
2 comments:
James, I am a little troubled by some things you say in your "Believe, Part One" post.
You say:
"What I mean is this; did these people seek the will of God in this situation before they defaulted to medical science for the answer? If so, great, I firmly believe God can use medical science. If not, then that is idolatry, stealing God’s glory and giving it to man. I know that God still heals today."
That story about George Mueller is one of my favorites. And I understand why he didn't want the ship's captain sending up an "empty" prayer just for the sake of sending something into the air. I wouldn't want someone standing next to me spewing prayer for show, and pouring unbelief into my ear anymore than Mueller did.
But what if those who are praying amiss are doing so from the "measure of faith they have", and in ignorance? You know as well as I do there is some terrible teaching out there on every topic including prayer. For years I heard such prayers being sent up by God fearing, believing, faithful, born again people with evidence of God's presence in their lives. Always the plea went something like this, "God give the doctors wisdom and guide them..." The prayers were sent up in ignorance. I've sent a few of those heavenward in the past. I don't anymore, because a pastor taught me better. Sure there are people who send up "now I lay me down to sleep prayers", about everything. They are as fake as 3 dollar bills. And I wouldn't let such pray for me if I had a hang nail. But I would let a real blood bought saint pray for me even in ignorance.
I'd very much like to know your thoughts. And I do hope that you know I respect, and believe I owe you respect as my elder brother, and as a leader in the body of Christ. I mean no disrespect or dishonor in any way.
In His Love,
Lonnie
Yeah... the link gave you away. No worries and no hard feelings.
In specific regards to the survey, "pray" would have actually been a strange answer. The question was, "what is the most important factor in deciding on a seminary?" The question was more about content as opposed to process (make sense?).
I think if the question was worded "what is the most important factor to help you decide on a seminary?" then certainly prayer would be on the list... though, I concur with your observation that it would probably not win the poll (sad).
The Two Cent Tuesday Polls are always interesting.
Also, we have a lot of seminarians coming through the site, so feel free to comment and link back to Eisenbrauns (fulfilling the goal which started your discouraging trudge through the seminary blog-o-sphere). Or, better yet, Eisenbrauns could become a site sponsor!
Cheers!
_Just a Guy, Going to Seminary
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