Mr. David Libby is an ordained elder with wonderful experience in missions. He wrote the the book; A Different World, God’s Sovereignty in the Face of Suffering. In its bio he said,
“For years I served in the church, first as a deacon and then as an elder. I have long been a self-taught student of theology and philosophy. I have learned all the correct answers to some of the most difficult questions and can hold my own as a Christian apologist and theologian. But when my family’s health fell apart, I discovered something that the books do not teach. That there is a sharp disconnect between an encyclopedia of head knowledge and an application of that knowledge in the muddy and bloody trenches.”
In many instances, people often struggle to put what they learn into practice. David emphasizes that learning is important.
“I think learning leads to transformation, or it should lead to transformation. But why is it so difficult to put into practice what we learn? I think theory is always easier than practice. It’s always easier to learn about something than to actually do it. And when we’re talking about things like theology, it kind of complicates the matter more because the thing that we’re putting into practice is such a high calling, such a difficult thing. There are a lot of things in scripture that are hard, hard sayings, like Matthew chapter 10 where the Lord told us to expect persecution and to be willing to take up our crosses and follow Him, which means be willing to follow Him to death. And it’s easy to learn about these things. It’s much harder to live them. But we serve a God who, if we are willing to live them, He will enable us. He will give us the strength that we need.”
On how relevant Theological Studies or Philosophy is to Strengthening Personal Faith, David thinks that theological studies are necessary for strengthening personal faith because faith is only as valuable as the object in which it is placed.
“You know, we can have faith on all kinds of very wrong things. Everybody has faith. The atheist has faith. So the object of our faith has to be the the true and living God, the God who really is. Faith has to lead to a relationship with Him. We can’t have a relationship with somebody we don’t know, somebody we know nothing about. I’m not saying everybody has to be a deep scholar, by any means, but we all need to know who this God is. We all need to read scripture. That’s what theology is. Theology is a big fancy word for reading the Bible and and learning what it teaches about God. So we all need that. We all need, in order to have a relationship with the true God, to know who He is as revealed in His Word.”
Rather than quit, illness and suffering in David’s home helped him see the truth about faith in practice.
https://www.buzzsprout.com/2572405.js?container_id=buzzsprout-large-player&player=large“I think one thing that would hinder people would be unbelief. We read about things in the Bible where people were facing difficult trials that seemed utterly impossible, like when Moses and Israelites in the Exodus were pinned down against the Red Sea with the Egyptian army behind them. Instead of turning to God in faith, they grumbled and complained. “He led us out here to kill us, and we can’t possibly defeat this Egyptian army.” They Complained. But the truth is, God led them to that place deliberately so that they could see his hand at work in delivering them. We need to know our God and trust in Him. That can be difficult, but if we look back at what He’s done in the past, in our lives and in Scripture, then we can see that He really is a God who is all-powerful, a God who will never leave us nor forsake us, and a God whose hand is not shortened that he can’t save using the language of Scripture.”
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