Why you should read church history

I have been reading some church history lately and read about Athanasius. He served as a bishop in Alexandria in the early years of the church. One of his contributions to the church was that he stood opposed to Arianism ( the belief that Jesus was not really God). So, the Nicene Creed was composed to assert emphatically that Jesus was "of the same substance" of the Father. What struck me about his life was this... here's a direct quote from the book...

" His strong quality was in his close ties to the people among whom he lived, and in living out his faith without the subtleties of the Arians or the pomp of so many other bishops of important churches. His monastic discipline, his roots among the people, his fiery spirit, and his profound and unshakable convictions made him invincible."
Earlier on the book said that Athanasius was not admired for his subtlety of logical argument, nor elegance of style...nor even in his political perspicacity. ( In all these areas, he could be bested by his opponents)
Basically... He walked with God and loved people.

This encouraged me today.

schedule

I have been thinking about our schedules lately. I realize that alot of people say they are "busy." Obviously, we have some level of responsibility and having a full schedule is not necessarily sin. However, do we control our schedule or does the schedule control us ?

I read this in " The Life you always wanted" by John Ortberg :


" The father of one of my friends has been involved in evangelical ministry for nearly fifty years. His dad recently told him ' Well, son, we'll have to get together soon, as soon as I can get my schedule under control.' His son's comment to me: " For all 39 years of my life my dad has talked about what we are going to do as soon as he gets his schedule under control. He actually seems to believe that someday his schedule will somehow come under control. What is worse, he refuses to talk about or even acknowledge to himself the real reason his schedule is out of control." ( page 114 )

After I read this, I just thought: " am I doing this to my kids ?" Pretty soon, I won't be able to throw them around anymore and I don't want to look back and regret the fact that we did not spend more time wrestling on the bed together.

ear piercings ?

The Bible talks about getting your ear pierced. Exodus 21 :6 says that a slave who wanted to dedicate his life to his master would : "go to the doorpost...and his master shall pierce his ear with an awl...and he shall serve him permanently."

There's a phrase used in greek : "doulos"...and it means bondservant. Paul applies that term to himself in Romans 1. It gives the idea of total allegiance not just isolated acts of service ( worship). I like that idea, but I am reluctant to go to the doorpost sometimes. Do I really want to give my total allegiance ? Have I really thought through how that will effect my money, time, "free time" ? What if I don't go to the doorpost ? Am I leaving myself a way out of total allegiance ?