Matthew 7:6 “Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces.”

I can’t figure out what this verse means. I’m trying to look at it in the context of the passage, which is Jesus talking about not judging others.

Is Jesus saying that we shouldn’t give out time to sinners? I don’t think that’s what it’s saying, because that wouldn’t make much sense to me.

I could look at a commentary.. But I’d rather hear from all of you and your thoughts.

So… Calling all you seminarians. Or just people who want to chime in. What do you think?

I’m gonna start a new series. As you can see by the title, I’m naming it Theology 101.

I think a lot of Christians aren’t entirely sure what they believe in. We live in a culture where everything is just fed to us and we don’t feel a need to independently search out our thoughts and foundations. We end up just leaning on the people around us to know the right things.

I love theology. I love learning about it and reading about it and asking quesitons about it. It only becomes confusing because lots of academic people use huge words and complicated charts and graphs when talking about God. I find myself in an in between world. I’m minoring in religious studies, so I know a fair amount of those fancy words and charts. I also have no desire though to consider myself a true theologian who spends all of his time studying and writing articles. I want to be somewhere in the middle.

Having said that, there are a few things that I believe are fundamental to Christian belief and thought. There are often differing viewpoints on those beliefs and thoughts, and I’ll do my best to present multiple sides. The idea behind this series is to make theology accessible to everyone, and I’m very confident that can be done.

Are there particular questions or topics you would like to see discussed?

Saturday I partook in my first ever online Sabbath. I went offline. For a whole day.

It is much harder than it seems. For me at least, one of the first things I do in the morning is check my e-mail. When I have 1o or 15 minute breaks my default is to go online and do some Twittering. The last thing I do at night is check sportsillustrated.com for scores and big news – I cant even wait to see it in the paper.

I almost didn’t know what to do with myself on Saturday. I woke and just kind of froze. I went and got some coffee, I read for a while, cleaned my room, did some of my RA obligations. I was incredibly productive. It was so freeing.

It’s almost like the online world has me on a leash, and I need to go back to it every so often to check in. This is part of the downfall of living in an instant culture. We want everything immediately. The most popular person is often the one who has “inside knowledge” about something, or is up on the latest trend.

What if the most popular person was the one who loved and served the most? Weird concept, huh?

I do not want to be on a leash. I’m going to try out this internet sabbath thing for a while.

Maybe you should too.

Think about it.

P.S. I got the idea from Anne Jackson, who has a great post about boundaries and technology.

Notes from Immersion last night. Justin spoke a little bit about silence and then we did some Lectio Divina on Psalm 91.

• “God speaks in the silence.”
• 1 Kings 19 – God appeared to Elijah in a gentle whisper, not in the fire or earthquakes. Translation: God is not always the loudest voice around us. We have to pay attention.
• “We always say ‘I’m so busy!’ Guess what? Everyone is!“
• Two options: 1) You’re not actually busy, and just spending four hours a night watching your favorite TV show, 2) You actually are too busy, and you don’t think you need a break.
• “Our bodies are meant to rest.”
• “Busyness has become a badge of honor. We actually put value in it.” // KILLER line. That is SO true, especially on a college campus. People who win student awards and such are usually just those who are in the most activities. No offense to anyone who has won, I’m just sayin.
• “Jesus was not the energizer bunny and neither are you.” – He took quite a bit of time to rest and retreat. Even God rested after creation and made it holy in Genesis 2.

Biggest takeaway for me? We put value in being busy. I want to create more intentional times of rest. Remember, Jesus says loving God is the most important thing we can do. It is possible to serve too much and not take care of yourself and your body, and it can actually detract from your relationship with God.

What about for you?

Think about it.

P.S. I’ll have a post coming soon on my thoughts from our divine reading of Psalm 91.

Hello. It’s been a few weeks. Between Drake Relays and finals, I just have not had time to update. I’m also transitioning my blog back to this wordpress site, because the host for my personal website does not do blogging well.

That brings us here. This is the third redesign I’ve done to this page, and I promise it is going to stay like this. Mr. John Saddington, blogging king, has some great blogging tips over at Church Crunch and I’ve decided to roll with a couple of them.

I can easily become obsessed with making my blog look nice rather than delivering high quality content. I think that’s probably a problem for most budding techies like myself.

I would also like to be more focused in my conent, hence the tagline “The Tug of War Between Technology and Tradition”. I promise I will not be blogging about what I ate for lunch, and I have been pretty good about that this last school year.

Let me know what you think about my new banner, I just designed it this afternoon, and I think I like it. Please please please gimme your thoughts on the redesign and the move back to wordpress!

P.S. I’m going to get Wannabe Theologian on Twitter very soon. Any ideas for a good handle?

Hey all,

These changes have been in the works for a little while, so I hope you like!

I changed the theme because I think it’s more readable and user-friendly than the last one. That’s kinda the key to getting people to read.

I’ve added two permanent pages (the tabs on top), and plan to add a third in the next week or so.

It’s now also easer to subscribe to my blog – it’s on the right hand side. Yay! People have asked about that..

I’m also going to have a regular schedule. Monday’s I plan on doing some kind of book review, or books I’m reading post. Wednesdays I’ll do something I’m learning from either my daily devotions or sermons I’m listening to. Friday’s I plan on doing some kind of “Best of the Blogs” where I just have links to what I think are good posts from other great writers during the week. Sunday’s I hope to post Sermon Notes from church. This may not look perfect at first, but I hope it will soon! I may also have random entries here and there if I feel compelled to write.

PLEASE let me know what you think/any changes you’d like to see!!!! Thank you so much!!

I’ve started and quit many a blog in my short blogging career. My reason for that [I think?] is that I’ve ended up losing passion for what I’m writing about. I’ve had a couple sports blogs, but those fizzle after just a few weeks. I’ve had a general one about my life as a whole, but that was too broad and I didn’t think people would care about my daily endeavors. It is my sincere belief that this one will be a bit different. 

My true passion in life is God, and all that comes with Him. I love studying religion more than just about any other thing I spend my time on. My daily routine includes reading the Bible, reading other books about God [theology, secular perspectives, inspirational, etc.], listening to sermons and being in conversation about all of these. I say this not to put myself up on a pedestal, but merely to build some credibility among my readers as somebody who is truly passionate about this subject.

I am just as the name of this blog suggests, a wannabe theologian. I love studying religion, but I don’t claim to be anywhere near an expert. I’m merely someone who loves learning and being challenged in my own faith while being able to share that experience with people. It’s hard to tell people what I’m learning on a one-to-one basis, so I’m trying this out. Posting will be as regular as I can make it, which at this point will be at least a few times per week.

Thank you so much!  

P.S. I’ll also hopefully be giving resources on theology, God, religious inspiration, etc. I tend to do quite a bit of research that leads me to hard-to-find websites, books and other random stuff. I’ll share that with you guys as much as I can. First, I’ll share a link to Mars Hill Church in Seattle. The pastor, Mark Driscoll, is someone who inspires me to learn more and dig deeper into my faith that I ever even thought about doing. I’ll openly say I don’t agree with everything he teaches, but he challenges me and makes me think about why I believe the things I do on a very consistent basis.