Thought's on St. Augustine

I was going through a bunch of books that Kellie brought home from work last night and came across one with complete works of St. Augustine. Some thoughts that I have been chewing on from my readings of his books "On Christian Doctrine"

_He say's that we need to view God as more than a being. He is life itself. To be disconnected with God, is to be disconnected from life.

_Augustine puts a huge push on love. He says that God uses us as we enjoy him. We are used to love one another and enjoy one another in Him.

_Right interpretations of Scripture should uplift love.


_The three things above are things that are strived for in our American evangelical churches today, but the thing that I have been wrestling with that goes against what we are taught in churches today is that Augustine believes that when a person is matter in Faith, Hope, and Love, they no longer need the Scriptures. Scripture teaches us how to love and loving God one another is the greatest commandment. Because my brain is so trained by beliefs from the church today, I have a hard time wrapping myself around this.

I grew up in a very legalistic church world were people would flaunt Bible knowledge and how much they read the Bible, almost like they wanted Jesus points or metals for it. The problem was that many of these people didn't even have an ounce of love in them.

These beliefs from Augustine were all the way from the third century when the common man didn't have a Bible. If the common man didn't have a Bible, according to standards today, they couldn't be a strong Christian. See Jesus came for common man. Those who didn't have a Bible to wake up to every morning, those who didn't have a Daily Bread with a cool little story and a verse in the margin to start the day off with, could be devoted to Jesus and the gospel of Jesus.

Maybe this is why Jesus says, "My yoke is easy and my burden is light."

Jesus came to bring purpose to a world of sinful chaos. The purpose is to join into the salvation through faith in Jesus. To join into the restoration of the world unto God, is the ultimate example of love. Jesus left heaven to live as and with common people, teach them about the Kingdom and die. All this was done by love so that all who turn to Jesus, receive salvation.

I am thankful for my Bible! I am thankful that since the time of Augustine, we have Bibles in the hands of anyone who wants one.

I just pray that as I thirst for Biblical knowledge that I am not thirsting for my own arrogance, because arrogance lacks love. I pray that I am thirsting to know more about the story of Jesus. I want to be thirsty to be a Kingdom bringer and a history maker, to help Jesus restore a fallen world back to the Father. I pray that I may be a person who leads people to Jesus for eternal life and that I don't waste my time on anything else. May I study the scriptures to empower me to lead through love!!!