An Introduction or First Things First...

I’ll be the first to admit that writing a blog that purports to offer advice or even a hint of hard scrabbled wisdom seems, at first glance, to be presumptuous.  After all, I have no credentials as a pastor or a psychologist.  I have no lofty scholarly perch that would afford me instant credibility.  What I do have is eleven years of experience as a professional educator, several years working in children’s ministry at my local church and a couple of years of experience working abroad as a missionary.  More importantly, I have God’s word and the infinite wisdom which it offers.  All of that is to say that in writing this blog, it is my utmost desire to help others apply God’s Word to their life.  However, I do so with great trepidation and humility.  I want to accomplish the purpose of Ephesians 4:15: to “…speak the truth in love,” so that believers will grow “…in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church.”  Indeed, I want to “think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works (Hebrews 10:24).”

This leads inexorably to a question: What topics will be the particular subject matter of this blog?  As the title of this blog would suggest, I want to leave the subject matter open ended so as to allow for addressing any topic that might arise.  Also, the title of this blog is taken from 2 Corinthians 10:4-5, which says: “for the weapons of our warfare are not human weapons, but are made powerful by God for tearing down strongholds. We tear down arguments and every arrogant obstacle that is raised up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to make it obey Christ.”  Thus, I simply want to acknowledge that culture is the ocean in which we all swim and just as a fish cannot help but be wet, so too, we as Christians are often saturated by the malign influences and arguments of our overwhelmingly secular culture.  Knowing that I too fall prey to these influences just as we all do from time to time, this blog is simply a humble attempt to speak the truth in love so that believers may be edified and encouraged and live in accordance with the wisdom and authority of God’s word.