by Pastor Patrick Cho

Grace Life is at about the midpoint of our Bible study for this year and so far it has been a great time of fellowship and study. Wanting to focus on fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith, this year was devoted to theology proper, the study of God. Each meeting, we have been looking at another attribute of God surveying the Scriptures to see what God has revealed about Himself. Since Grace Life is on an abbreviated schedule, meeting roughly every other week, we have covered seven different topics thus far including God’s glory, holiness, omniscience, and immutability.

Of course in an affinity group ministry like Grace Life, which is focused on the church’s married couples and parents, people are always clamoring for practical studies like building godly marriages, biblical parenting, and finances. While these focused practical studies are important and indeed helpful, we need to be careful that we start building our biblical understanding from the ground up. Practical studies are popular because the principles derived can be put into immediate practice, but this does not benefit an individual nearly as much if that person does not have a good biblical or theological framework to think from.

In other words, how do you know that what a certain author writes is helpful? If there isn’t a good understanding of biblical principles and theology to help filter ideas, people will come to conclusions based simply on what sounds right or feels good. This is a dangerous way of coming to conclusions. It is a much sounder approach to lay a good biblical and theological foundation before seeking to build practical structures on top of it. We say we want to live Christ-centered lives and build godly homes, but that is going to be very difficult if we don’t know what the Bible says about who Christ is or what God is like.

Besides all this, a study on theology proper is immensely practical. Let’s not forget that one of the purposes for which God has revealed Himself to us in Scripture is that we might reflect His glory and imitate His character. For example, the basis of our love for one another is His love for us. If we don’t have an accurate understanding of God’s love, we will unfortunately substitute it with a worldly or personal concept of love that falls infinitely short.

With all this said, I would continue to encourage our married couples and parents to come out to Grace Life for the remainder of our meetings. We hope to see you on Thursday evenings! The meeting schedule looks like this:

• February 27 – No Grace Life (Flocks)
• March 6 – No Grace Life (Shepherds’ Conference)
• March 13 – Lesson 9: The Sovereignty of God
• March 20 – Lesson 10: The Transcendence and Immanence of God
• March 27 – No Grace Life (Flocks)
• April 3 – Lesson 11: God Is Truth
• April 10 – Lesson 12: God Is Love
• April 17 – No Grace Life (Good Friday)
• April 24 – No Grace Life (Flocks)
• May 1 – Lesson 13: The Grace of God
• May 8 – No Grace Life (Break)
• May 15 – Lesson 14: The Patience of God
• May 22 – No Grace Life (Break)
• May 29 – No Grace Life (Flocks)
• June 5 – Lesson 15: The Goodness of God