Josh’s Thoughts

I returned to school as a psychology major in February 2006. Since I was going to a Christian university I had to take a lot of theology electives. As many of my friends know, I fell in love with my theology courses and formally switched from psychology to theology this summer.

The upshot of this is that I have been taking theology courses (or courses closely related to theology) non-stop since February 2006. I love the courses, but sometimes it’s easy to fall so in love with the different philosophies and concepts that we fall out of love with the One Who we are studying for.

I have done school for 14 months straight (except for a brief break around Christmas time) and I must say that I have loved my classes. One thing that I have not loved, though, is how much my classes have cut into my personal devotion time. Sure, my classes are teaching me about God, but I’ve never yet seen a debate on Calvinism versus Arminianism help a person when they’re hurting. This isn’t to say that theology is bad–there’s a place for all of that stuff–I’m just saying that theology is worthless if it’s not practical.

As this semester was winding down I was thinking about all of this, and I decided that this summer I want to take some time to get to better know the God behind all the theology. I was trying to think of a good way to do this when I happened to glance out my bedroom door and noticed a poster I have hanging in my hallway. It is called, “And He Shall Be Called…”, and it lists some of the Names and titles of Christ. And that gave me a great idea: Why not get to know Christ by studying His Names and titles?

There are hundreds of Names and titles of Christ spread throughout Scripture, and they were placed there so that we can get to know the God that we serve. (It might disturb some that I use the terms “God” and “Christ” interchangeably, but the author of Hebrews wrote that Jesus is “the exact representation of [God's] nature” (Heb. 1:3). In other words, if you want to get to know God, then get to know Jesus).

So throughout the rest of the summer I’m going to spend some time blogging about the Names and titles of Christ. I won’t blog every day, and I won’t blog about every single one, but as I find something interesting I’m going to try to take the time to share it.

The name that I am studying right now is simply “Amen,” and it is a name that Jesus called Himself in Rev. 3:14. I’m going to blog about that soon. For now, you might want to read up on it yourself, for it is a beautiful Scripture.

(Rev 3:14 CEV)
This is what you must write to the angel of the church in Laodicea: I am the one called Amen! I am the faithful and true witness and the source of God’s creation. Listen to what I say.

Also, here’s a link to 177 Names and Titles of Christ that I found on the Internet today. If you take the time to read through it then you might find out that God is more poetic than most people give Him credit for

God bless!