Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Real and Practical Doctrine

I was reading through an old journal of mine and came across this quote from Jim Elliot about his father:
"My father's religion is of a sort which I have seen nowhere else. His theology is wholly undeveloped, but so real and practical a thing that it shatters every 'system' of doctrine I have seen. He cannot define theism, but he knows God."
High praise indeed. May we have hearts that are caught up in knowing God, and not in labeling what we know about Him. It reminds me of another quote about Bill Wallace, missionary to China. The author of his biography writes:
"The Chinese had heard sermons before, but in Bill Wallace they began to see one, and that made the difference."
Doctrine is good; don't get me wrong. But unless it is born out of a true knowledge of God for the purpose of displaying His glory, then it truly is empty and meaningless, a vanity.

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