“The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple” (
Within this single verse lies a proleptic power that can transform generations of human beings, birth new cultures, bring about monumental works of art and music, build transcendent edifices of worship and populate urban and rural areas with fair trading centers of bustling commerce, quaint chapels, places of healing, colleges and universities, and fields of agricultural marvel. However, the unfolding of the Word of God, supremely given in the Person of the crucified, resurrected and living Lord Jesus Christ begins with one, then another. My own journey of following the risen One is no different. His Word, once unfolded, mercifully began to saturate and bring life to every area of my being. Death and sin had to be—has to be (for the sanctifying process continues)—mortified even as His Word is vivified.
That Word first came to me as an orphan in rural South Louisiana. My Aunt Eva was 65 and widowed with no children when I was placed in her arms at 9 months old. She gave me not only a love of the Word of God, but a love of learning. She instilled within me a truth that God’s Word brings forth light that not only has eternal benefits, but temporal blessings and, thus, responsibilities to share with others who don’t have that Word.
I began a program of study that led from completing my undergraduate degree at a Christian college to three years of seminary and five years of doctoral study at the University of Wales, Trinity St. David’s. The gospel transformed my life specifically through a commitment to education and to establishing and serving institutions of Christian education.
I see the ministry of Christian education, particularly higher education, as providing a confessional framework of gospel truth from which the learner may possess a license to learn. The truth of Scripture after all is the very beginning—not the end!—to a new world of insight, applicable in the theater as much as astrophysics, and as inspiring to the poet as to the architect. Truly, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight” (
The unfolding of God’s Word brings light to all of life. For me, letting that light shine on every area of human endeavor is the glorious goal of Christian education and a personal quest in my own discipleship. In this, I trust I am still a follower of the light, still discovering new places where the Light may lead. Thus, Christian education in its best expression must be released from the errant notion of robotic indoctrination of only future church workers to the biblically faithful frameworks for engaging the deepest existential questions of humanity that unleashes Christologically enlightened daughters and sons to “speak what God has revealed…see visions…dream dreams” (
Michael A. Milton is a contributing editor to Preaching; contributor to Preaching.com; president of Faith for Living Inc.; senior fellow, D. James Kennedy Institute for Christianity and Culture; teaching pastor, Truth that Transforms; was the fourth president/chancellor, Reformed Theological Seminary; and former senior pastor, First Presbyterian Church, Chattanooga, Tennessee.
