I have two thoughts on waiting for Jesus to return: 

• I'll die, and see Jesus

• Or - I won't die, and I'll see Jesus

Meanwhile, the book of Titus talks about things that God's graces teaches us.

God’s grace has appeared to teach us how to live.  (Titus 2)

to say "No" to:
ungodliness and
worldly passions,

13 while we wait
for the blessed hope
the glorious appearing

Everything in these couple of verses falls under the verb "teach."  God's grace teaches us all sorts of things about how to live - but is summarized by two things.  God's grace shows us how to deny the things of the world, but also teaches us how to wait patiently for Jesus to come back.

It seems that too often the focus is on one while ignoring the other.  Either Bible studies focus exclusively on the end times, or exclusively on spiritual warfare (denying the flesh, satan, etc).  There's a balance - and God's grace teaches us both at the same time.

Thoughts?

Five gifts from God that no one wanted (Amos, Chapter 4)

There are gifts God gave the Israelites in the book of Amos – and only one thing wanted in return.  These are not normal gifts, nor easy to comprehend, but God is sovereign and his desires are often different from our desires.  The single thing God wanted in the book of Amos (but didn’t get) was the hearts of his people turned toward him.  Sadly, that did not happen, much like in the world today.

Gift #1 – Hunger

These gifts are all difficult to understand, but not in context of scripture.  God cares about one single thing – hearts turned toward him, glorifying him alone.  God took away much of the food in the Israelite cities, “yet you have not returned to me, declares the Lord.”  Hunger alone is not enough to turn hearts toward Christ (4:8).

Gift #2 – Thirst

God then shows his power over the weather by choosing some fields to have rain, and others to go barren.  “People staggered from town to town for water but did not get enough to drink, yet you have not returned to me, declares the Lord” (4:7-8)

Gift #3 – Fear of the Future

With very limited food and limited water not working, God takes away their future crops – thus creating fear and uncertainty of the immediate future.  Not only can they barely find enough to eat, but they also see next year’s crops dwindling away by the hand of God.

As if that was not enough, not just once but many times God sent blight and mildew, and locusts to eat off their trees.  This was not enough because, “you have not returned to me, declares the Lord.” (4:9)

Gift #4 – Plagues

God sent plagues, killed many of their young men, many of their horses, and the plagues smelled wretched all around them.  This was not enough to sway their hard hearts because, “you have not returned to me, declares the Lord.” (4:10)

Gift #5 – Destruction

God says that he has overthrown some of the Israelites as he overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah – a familiar story.  The key word is “as” because it is a metaphor – it refers to a very recent event.  Israel’s main captivity is often called the Babylonian captivity, but before that and during the time of Amos the Assyrians captured Israel.  This was a very recent event, and it probably provoked a lot of anger by saying God was behind their destruction!  “…yet you have not returned to me, declares the Lord.” (4:11)

What God wants – our hearts

The dominant theme throughout the Old Testament is that God jealously and intensely desires the hearts of his people turned toward him.  He cares about this so much He is willing to do whatever it takes – famine, thirst, curses, destruction – whatever it takes.

What will it take us to repent and turn toward the Lord with all our heart, all our soul, and all our strength?

^ESV  Amos 4:1 "Hear this word, you cows of Bashan, who are on the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to your husbands, 'Bring, that we may drink!'

 ² The Lord GOD has sworn by his holiness that, behold, the days are coming upon you, when they shall take you away with hooks, even the last of you with fishhooks.

 ³ And you shall go out through the breaches, each one straight ahead; and you shall be cast out into Harmon," declares the LORD.

 ⁴ "Come to Bethel, and transgress; to Gilgal, and multiply transgression; bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three days;

 ⁵ offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving of that which is leavened, and proclaim freewill offerings, publish them; for so you love to do, O people of Israel!" declares the Lord GOD.

 ⁶ "I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of bread in all your places, yet you did not return to me," declares the LORD.

 ⁷ "I also withheld the rain from you when there were yet three months to the harvest; I would send rain on one city, and send no rain on another city; one field would have rain, and the field on which it did not rain would wither;

 ⁸ so two or three cities would wander to another city to drink water, and would not be satisfied; yet you did not return to me," declares the LORD.

 ⁹ "I struck you with blight and mildew; your many gardens and your vineyards, your fig trees and your olive trees the locust devoured; yet you did not return to me," declares the LORD.

 ¹⁰ "I sent among you a pestilence after the manner of Egypt; I killed your young men with the sword, and carried away your horses, and I made the stench of your camp go up into your nostrils; yet you did not return to me," declares the LORD.

 ¹¹ "I overthrew some of you, as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were as a brand plucked out of the burning; yet you did not return to me," declares the LORD.

 ¹² "Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel; because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel!"

 ¹³ For behold, he who forms the mountains and creates the wind, and declares to man what is his thought, who makes the morning darkness, and treads on the heights of the earth-- the LORD, the God of hosts, is his name!

 (Amo 4:1-13 ESV)

Ten Commandments – Third Time’s the Charm (Deut. 10.1-5)

Like the majority of Americans, if asked about the Ten Commandments, I would say something like… Moses was on a mountain, God spoke them, then Moses went down from the mountain.  After a closer reading of Deuteronomy though, I have recently come to realize that’s not the complete story.  It’s sort of like many Bible stories we’ve heard so many times – true, but often not the whole truth. 

First of the Ten
The first time the ten commandments were given, it was by the divine audible voice of the Lord, from a mountain “ablaze with fire” which is described in Deuteronomy 5.22-33.  The Israelites, out of fear, suggested Moses go up intermediate for them, and then they dared to say “Tell us whatever the Lord our God tells you.  We listen and obey” (Deuteronomy 5.26).  Of course, as usual, they talked about obedience more than actually obeying.

Second of the Ten

This time, the Ten Commandments were given to Moses on two stone tablets.  He went up to the mountain, and stayed 40 days and 40 nights.  These Ten Commandments were “inscribed by the finger of God” (Deuteronomy 9.10).  Then, God tells Moses to hurry down the mountain, because the Israelites are already breaking the one about having false gods.  In addition, in verse 12 God tells Moses that “your people” who “you” brought down out of Egypt have become corrupt.  The Israelites are God’s chosen people he delivered, but at the same time there’s a layer of frustration with God about how quickly they turn away from such a divine, miraculous deliverance with such obvious signs of God’s power and authority.  The Israelites have seen the true God firsthand, yet yearn in their hearts for visible representations of false gods.  The heart of the Ten Commandments is that God yearns for the hearts of his people above all else.

Moses was furious, and in his rage, he smashed to pieces the Ten Commandments.  Remember the significance - God himself wrote these with his finger.  Yet Moses illustrates passion for complete obedience is more important to him than even something written by God’s finger and handed to him.

Third Time’s the Charm

In the third time God gave the Ten Commandments, Moses has to put a little effort into it this time (Deuteronomy 10.1-5).  God speaks to him, and tells him he has to make the tablets this time around.  God isn’t going to just hand them to him as before.  In addition, he’s told to make a wooden chest to put the tablets in.  God still does the actual writing though!  “I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke.  Then you are to put them in the chest” (Deuteronomy 10.2).

Did you catch the emphasis here?  On first writing of the Ten Commandments, “which you broke,” emphasizes the reality here – God wrote them, Moses broke them.  It’s God not very subtly reminding Moses about the last time.  There’s no indication it was wrong of Moses to break them though.  This reminds me of Jesus in the New Testament asking which was the greatest law in the Old Testament, which is to love God with all your heart, soul, and strength.  Moses typifies a godly man who, despite having something written by the finger of God, put concern for the hearts of his people far above all else.

Think about this:  One of three times in the Old Testament God wrote something with his finger, and Moses smashed it because he was confronting Israelites in their sin.  (The first Ten Commandments, and the other was in Daniel, on a wall).  Scripture is vastly important, but scripture written with the finger of God on tablets God himself gave to Moses?  Here this emphasizes the heart of the Old Testament – scripture itself is not enough, but is only a shadow of greater truths.  The spirit of the Law is vastly more important than the letters of the law.

So, the third time, God re-writes the ten commandments with his finger, again!  He also directs Moses to keep them in a chest to preserve them for future generations.  And, at the time Deuteronomy was written, they were still there in that chest. 

Applications?  Definitely.

Obedience is more important than scripture

Coming from me, I value scripture incredibly highly; it is difficult to say that anything in this world is more important.  Yet, the giving of the Ten Commandments three times shows that the Word in our heart along with obedience is more important than the Word on the page.  Pages and Tablets of Stone can be broken, but God desired his people to follow the spirit of the law, even before the Word was written.

Obedience and soft heart, even before God speaks

Hard to believe, but think about the timeline here.  The scripture the Israelites had may have only consisted of the book of Genesis.  That book has the heart of the law, without the letters clearly spelled out like the ten commandments.

But even before Genesis was written, there were only mere glimpses of the law that showed the spirit of the law.  With only pieces of Genesis and oral tradition, people were still righteous or wicked in God’s sight.  How?  Because the spirit of the law was prevalent, and God demanded obedience and a heart turned toward him despite not having a whole lot of specific details.  Of course, there was no expectation they should believe in Jesus Christ, because the spirit of the law only vaguely pointed toward that direction.  Obedience to the spirit of the law matters more than obedience to the letter of the law.

Thoughts?

So, lately I've been going through Deuteronomy, which will probably take a long, long time.

The next post I have planned is in 2 Peter 1, and is a sermon I hope to preach some day at my local church.  It's about 7 things we should be continually be working on in our lives.  It starts with our faith in Christ, when we first become a Christian and ends with loving other believers, then the world around us with the love of Christ.  These 7 things take a lot of work though, so perhaps it will take more than one post.

Other than that, I'd like some feedback!  I know a few of my friends read this every so often, so I'm asking three things of anyone reading this.  1)  Tell me what you like 2)  Tell me what you want more of 3) Actually tell me!

(Facebook message, txt, whatever)

Spirital Food First (Deuteronomy 8.3-8.5)

Deuteronomy 8.3-8.5

Context: ² Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.)

 ³ He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.

 ⁴ Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years.

 ⁵ Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you.

 (Deu 8:1-5 NIV)

God humbled the Israelites

“Humbled”

Root: “ah-nah”) is a word seen all over the Old Testament.  This is an incredibly common word, but it’s variety of meanings come from the particular verb stem used – which would be clear in context.  In this context of Deuteronomy 8.3, it means to afflict with the purpose of discipline, with God as the divine orchestrator.  (Thus the disciple seen in verse 5)

“Causing you to hunger”

(Root: “Rah-Av”) here clearly conveys the idea of God is the one behind the scenes orchestrating the hunger of the Israelites.  He did this by bringing them out of Egypt, into a desert with no food (Not to talking about every famine, but here in Deuteronomy he did for a specific reason)

“Feeding you”

(Root: “uh-call”)  Here, this is the same sense of force seen in God making the Israelites be hungry!  The Above when he causes them to hunger, he divinely orchestrated their wandering around severely hungry.  Here, he divinely provides food from heaven, and with a strong sense of causation behind it.  Manna does not magically appear, but God divinely makes it appear and they are forced to eat it because God has a lesson to teach them.

[Man will live by] every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.

Wandering around in the desert, thirsty, hungry, and no food in sight – God has a purpose.  He intensely desires for the Israelites to know that merely eating food is not enough to live on.  Man was created by God to long for and be sustained by spiritual food first, physical food second.

(Side-ramble: “word” is not included here, but implied.  What came forth from the mouth of God?  Verbal words.  What was written on stone tablets?  Written words.  Thus, this supports the theological truth that every single word of scripture is inspired by God, and if inspired, useful for teaching, preaching, etc)

Spiritual Food First

God delivered the Israelites from slavery, then divinely orchestrated suffering in their lives to discipline them and teach them that spiritual food is vastly more important than physical food. 

I have low blood sugar, so I am often tempted to think quite carefully and worry abundantly about what I eat, when I eat, how much I eat, and it is very difficult at times.  However, I have noticed that when I seek first his kingdom and his righteousness (Matthew 6:33) that things go much better.  The kingdom of God is my focus, and food and blood sugar problems seem to resolve themselves almost on their own.  I find with the Lord as my focus, I have more wisdom about how to handle the things of this life. 

When we in this life, in addition to reading the book of Job, we should read Deuteronomy along with Hebrews 12.  While God and suffering is a vast topic with many, many books written about it, here specifically God has a specific purpose:

“Suffering had a purpose – to teach the Israelites spiritual food is more important than physical food, and spiritual clothes are more important than physical clothes.”

Context of the passage?  Obedience.

8.1 –       “Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today…”

8.2-5      –              “Your suffering had a purpose”

8.6 –       “Observe the commands of the Lord your God…”

Actions and Heart conditions (Deuteronomy 7.23-26)

Deuteronomy 7.23-26

Actions and Heart conditions

The Lord, who faithfully bought the Israelites out of Egypt, is about to give them the Promised Land.  There are other nations, kings and armies living there – but God has promised that land to the Israelites. 

²⁵ The images of their gods you are to burn in the fire. Do not covet the silver and gold on them, and do not take it for yourselves, or you will be ensnared by it, for it is detestable to the LORD your God.

 ²⁶ Do not bring a detestable thing into your house or you, like it, will be set apart for destruction. Utterly abhor and detest it, for it is set apart for destruction.

 (Deu 7:25-26 NIV)

There is a pattern in these verses that shows actions and heart conditions quite clearly.  Moses is clearly concerned about both, because actions and heart conditions are intertwined.

·         ²⁵ The images of their gods you are to burn in the fire.

§  Do not covet the silver and gold on them,

·         and do not take it for yourselves,

§  or you will be ensnared by it

·          ²⁶ Do not bring a detestable thing into your                 house

§  Utterly abhor and detest it, for it is set apart for destruction.

As they enter the Promised Land, there are other nations with other gods, and false idols representing their gods.  The true God has demanded they be utterly destroyed.

Action:  Burn the idols. 

Heart Condition:  Temptation to not burn everything.

The first action and heart condition is the Israelites are to burn these false idols in fire.  While they are burning, or perhaps as they are carrying these idols to burn them, they will be tempted to sin.  They will be tempted to want to take the silver, as well as the shiny gold all over these false idols that are in their hands on the way toward destruction. 

Action:  Secretly taking gold and silver off the idols

Heart Condition:  It will ensnare you

The second major action prohibited is moving past temptation to merely not destroy the idols.  The temptation was to not burn everything, but now it has moved toward keeping the extraordinarily expensive silver, gold, etc.  The outer action has an inner heart condition that will result – the Israelites will be ensnared by their sin.  One necklace, one solid gold ring, and nobody notices.  Two, three, a stash, digging a hole to store more and more – this will never be enough, and will be a death-trap of sin for the Israelites.

Action:  Do not bring a detestable thing into your house       

Heart Condition:  Secretive about sin

The action is not to bring anything you have taken (already a sin) into your house (deeper sin).  It is bringing sin directly into the household where Israelites live, eat, and secretly keep the silver and gold they were supposed to burn in fire.  A divided heart comes when we sin then keep it secret in the closet, holding on to it tightly.  They brought it into their house because they need more control over their sin.  Having a physical representation in a closet somewhere of the idol God told them to completely burn, means that when they worship the true God they will have a divided heart. 

What should believers do with sins they have brought into their household?  “Utterly abhor and detest it, for it is set apart for destruction” means it might be a good idea to stop controlling rebellion against God, and do what He said in the first place.   Actions reflect heart conditions.  Heart conditions lead to actions.

God's prosperity (Deuteronomy 7.22)

Deuteronomy 7.22

Prosperity, Little by Little

The Lord, who faithfully bought the Israelites out of Egypt, is about to give them the Promised Land.  There are other nations, kings and armies living there – but God has promised that land to the Israelites. 

²² The LORD your God will drive out those nations before you, little by little. You will not be allowed to eliminate them all at once, or the wild animals will multiply around you. (Deu 7:22 NIV)

“Little by little” here is so easily overlooked, yet so significant to the text and ultimately to our lives today.  God, in his infinite wisdom, did not merely give Israel nuclear warheads and tell them to go conquer easily, quickly, and effortlessly.  He could have, or something similar to immediately give endless blessings to his people.

Rather, God chose to give the promised land “little by little” emphasizing a greater purpose than merely possessing God’s promises.  The part about wild animals multiplying around them means if it was all at once, they would not have the ability to wisely use the Promise Land and be fruitful in it. 

Much like our lives today, God does not give us endless bountiful blessings, because often we show too clearly we can’t be trusted with what we already have, much less ten times as much.  Unlike prosperity theology that demands much instantly, God’s prosperity gives blessings as we grow and can handle them.  Indeed, it is a difficult thing to turn away from prosperity we long for, and be satisfied with what God has already provided.  Rather than spending our time seeking what we do not have, we should probably focus on getting wisdom to be faithful with what we already have.   It should be noted that God doesn’t condemn the Israelites for this.  Rather, it is a warning/explanation that God is less concerned with endlessly giving us things we don’t need and can’t handle, and more concerned with wisdom and taking care of his blessings He has given. 

What do holy people do?

What do holy people do?

This is my first of (hopefully) many Deuteronomy posts.  My goal is to read through the entire book of Deuteronomy in Hebrew by the end of the summer.  I’ve been reading a little less than half a chapter a day, give or take.

Deuteronomy 7.5 is where I left off yesterday.  It gives a response God’s people are expected to do, then gives a good reason why God demands such a strong action.  The context is Moses standing on the edge of the promised land, repeating all the torah God had given to him and the Israelites during their wanderings.  He emphasizes over and over, and over and over, the Israelites are to obey the commands God has put before them when they go into the promised land.  However, he also realizes they won’t entirely do this, even though they nod their heads in agreement.

Here, in 7.5 there is a command to drive out all the nations in the promised land they are about to cross over into.  They are to not make any treaties, and they are to show no mercy (2).  They are not to intermarry, because that will turn their sons away from the Lord, and God will quickly destroy them.

What they are to do, though, is pretty clear in verse 5.  They are commanded to smash down altars to false gods, smash sacred stones, cut down their poles carrying images of the goddess asherah, and they are to burn their idols with fire.

Why?  Because they are a holy people to the Lord, who God chose because he wanted to. 

God expects holy people to not do unholy things. 

God’s people are called to follow him and his commands faithfully.  Israelites had a tendency of justifying their actions, of serving both the true God and false gods at the same time, of keeping around idols up in the mountains to be able to go to every so often.  They knew God commanded destruction of those things, yet they were so appealing.  It was a visible sign of something to cling to, and the holiness of the invisible God was not enough for them.

God expects holy people to follow his commands

If they did intermarried beautiful, attractive women in the land despite being clearly told not to, God was also clear that the Lord’s anger would burn against them.

Having the Almighty God, Creator of the Universe angry at you sounds quite unappealing.  But the phrasing here, of “burn with anger” intensifies it even more so.  Being an unmarried single man, I have not yet fully experienced a wife burning with anger, but can only imagine that God himself burning with anger against me would be a wretched anger unlike any other.  Here, Moses is saying God will be intensely angry with the Israelites he chose, called, redeemed, delivered from Egypt, and uses to declare his glory –if they are so foolish as to spit in his face and adamantly turn against him.

The next passage, 7.7-11, has quite a bit of theological underlyings, of God’s faithfulness regardless of our faithfulness, and of his redemption, and the covenantal love of God.  I’ll try to get a post up on that fairly soon. 

Prayer in the book of Colossians

Prayer in the book of Colossians

There are numerous themes and concepts throughout Colossians, though the theme of prayer is often a neglected aspect of studying this book.   The theme of prayer in Colossians is dominant throughout, forming the foundation for countless sermons on how, why, and even what to pray for. 

The book of Colossians begins and ends with greetings to fellow believers.  After the introduction, Paul begins by describing his prayers for the Colossians – they always include thanksgiving to God when Paul and Timothy pray for them (1:3). 

Toward the end of the book in chapter 4, Paul clearly describes how the Colossians should pray, as well as what for (4:2).  Two things should be dominant in the way they pray – they should be watchful, and they should be thankful.  Additionally, Paul gives them specific things to pray for.  He requests they pray for him and Timothy so that wide doors would be open for proclaiming the gospel, and that Paul is faithful to preach clearly.  After listing his prayer requests, Paul strongly encourages the Colossians to have wisdom in the way they talk with those outside the Church (4:5-6).

Near the very end of the book, Paul gives a clear example of someone who is watchful in prayer, as he suggested above to the Colossians.  Epaphras (4:12) is a servant of Christ who is described as always wrestling in prayer.  His prayers center around the Colossians, that they would stand firm in the will of God.  He diligently wrestles in prayer that they will be mature and fully assured (4:12).  Paul develops the personal character of Epaphras in the next verse.  It shows he is not some endless prayer warrior spending 20 hours a day weeping before an altar, but rather, in addition to wrestling in prayer he is working hard for the Colossians as well as two other churches.  (4:13).  Paul is ambiguous as to what “working hard” means, but leaves no doubt that Epaphras typifies what many churches so desperately need.

Random Thoughts and Applications

Colossians gives simple mandates and then examples of how, why, and what to pray for.  In any Bible study or sermon on prayer, if it is merely and intellectual call toward more theoretical prayer, our teaching or preaching has failed.  We must not merely tell people they need to pray more, because everyone already knows that.  Instead, we must urge believers to be like Epaphras, to be a diligent wrestling prayer warrior who also works hard.  Prayer must not center around our individual church, but incorporate other churches as Epaphras did. 

It seems that most Americans already have a prayer list, so teaching should not focus on what to pray for at first.  Rather, it should focus on who we pray to, and how to pray.  If we pray with thankful hearts as we are watchful, what we pray for will be shaped out of how we pray.  With a thankful heart, there is no need to pray for more stacks of money, video games, etc., because a thankful heart is a content heart.  With a thankful heart there’s no need to pray for the things of this world, because God has already provided more than enough.

A watchful heart is aware that in church others are watching.  A devoted heart that is watchful knows that only a few things ultimately matter in this life.  When God calls to pray, they stop what they are doing and they pray.  When God is silent and not calling to pray, they still pray.   A watchful devoted prayerful heart knows the enemy is out there, but is more concerned about the Lord than the already-defeated enemy.

                                                                                                                                                                                    i

                                                                                                                                                                                   

Pastors and scripture

God is in heaven and does whatever he desires.  I read that in Psalms a while back.

Lately (by which I mean the past 10 years) I've been wrestling with biblical authority, preaching, and pastors who don't know what they are talking about.

I hold to the deepest, most specific view of inspiration - that all scripture is inspired by God, or God-breathed (Timothy passage).  I take that to mean that if God takes the time to breathe scripture, he is also going to take time to do it exactly as he desires, meaning pick the ideas, concepts, phrases, and words he wants to use.  He uses human hands, but ultimately it is his eternal Word and even the smallest letter will disappear from it.

When pastors preach, they proclaim the Word of God.  They study God's Word (scripture) and they hear God's Word (his voice, leading, etc) by praying and listening.

What about pastors who preach, but say things that aren't true?

 Sure, that's a wide spectrum for wrong versus right, with lots of grey and room for debate.  When I say wrong, I have a specific situation in mind:

A pastor was teaching through the book of Job, and was talking about suffering.  He made a comment that he did not believe God curses people for any reason, because God isn't like that.

Apparently this pastor has not read much at all of the Old Testament because it is such a vastly dominant theme that I knew about blessings and cursings years before I even went to seminary. Well, I was there, and I was going through a large number of serious issues all within the same week, so I suppose I was suffering in a sense.

What I heard was "Basically, I don't know anything at all about the Old Testament, so I will make something up that's not true.  Now let's talk about how I studied this book here in Job."  So I left, because my heart was torn, and I was not willing to listen to poor teaching particularly when it was relevant to me, but not taught faithfully to scripture. If the pastor was wrong about that, who knows what else he could be wrong about?

Afterwards I came back in, mentioned my life was falling apart, and he prayed for me.  Not just a mere prayer to get me to leave him alone, but truely prayed for me.  Seminary has taught me there are two kinds of knowledge - head knowledge and heart knowledge.  He had clearly studied, but just didn't know what he didn't know about scripture.  He deeply cared though, and deeply showed the love of Christ.

So, to all those pastors out there who long to be faithful to scripture, and preach from the depths of its riches and proclaim the vastness of the glory of God....  You need both, though generally people will care more about heart-knowledge.  They care more that you pray and listen to God's voice than that you studied for 20 hours and know everything there is to know.

But don't neglect the Word, because heart-knowledge flows out of knowing who Christ is, how vast the depths of sin we were in, and how glorious the redemption through God himself paying the price of our sin.