"Know the enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles, you will never be in peril." This famous quote from Sun Tzu's Art of War carries qualified application for the Christian disciple: there is value in knowing something about our enemy, Satan. Biblical authors speak of Satan's schemes and knowing something about how he operates so we are not left defenseless or unaware (e.g. 2 Cor 2:11; Eph 6:11). 

To be sure, this "knowing something about" must happen within a larger context of Christian theology. This larger context of Christian theology reveals that a spiritual world exists that interacts with our world, yet cannot always be seen. Christian theology affirms that Satan is a created being; God is greater than Satan. (And it's not nor ever will be even close.) In fact, Christ has already defeated Satan through His death and resurrection (e.g. Col 2:15; Heb 2:14; 1 John 3:8). While the war has been decided, battles rage on (see 1 Pet 5:8). 

In Ephesians 6:10-18, Paul clearly tells believers in Jesus Christ that we are to stand against Satan's schemes (v. 11). Knowing that Satan is real and his battle against God and His ways wages on, how does Satan try and come at us? What are his "schemes" that we're to stand against?

Here are four of Satan's schemes to stand against, in the power of the gospel.

This is the catch-all category. However he can do it, Satan wants to distract you from God and take you out of the game. Get you off mission. 1 Peter 5:8 says it powerfully: "​Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour."

Where is Satan trying to trip you up? Causing discouragement and self-doubt as he seeks to devour? Making you second-guess the truth of Christ, making you wonder if following Jesus is really worth it? Tempting you to throw in the towel, to give in and give up? Tempting you to throw in the towel, give in and give up?

Fall 2024 Theology Training begins late August! Woo hoo! 

This Theology Training is a great opportunity, and one that helps build & reinforce theological foundations for people in a way that will serve local churches. This page serves as sort of "collecting point" for info and promo regarding the upcoming class. (Follow the headings as you scroll.) You can also find out more at this Theology Training page, where you can also find registration links. 

Below, you'll find (1) a quick orientation to some of the features of this class, (2) a small series of short videos providing further explanation and excitement, and (3) a draft of the Fall 2024 syllabus. 

Got an any questions? Drop me an email at twiebe@brookside.net. 

I can't promise changes won't be made, but this'll give you a close glimpse of what to expect, how the class is laid out, and the intentionality you can expect. 

I.     Introduction

II.    Body

       A.  The realities of exile (Daniel 1:1-7)

       B.  The response in exile (Daniel 1:8-14)

            1. Conviction

            2. Character

       C. The triumph over exile (Daniel 1:15-21)

            1. Daniel and friends pass the test and grow in influence

            2. The presence of God "behind the scenes" (some form of "God gave..." in vv. 2, 9, 17)

            3. Nebuchadnezzars disappears. Daniel remains. (v. 21)

            4. Jesus' triumph over exile 

III.   Conclusion 

In January 2024, I published ​What Does It Mean to Follow Jesus? A Clear, Biblical Picture of Discipleship. A few people have asked for a bit more info on the book, so I'm creating this post as a sort of "landing page" for book info, any video(s) I create related to it, etc. Scroll through the headings below and check it out. (And help spread the word!) 

The best to find the book is on Amazon. It's available in print, Kindle, and Audible formats. Here's the direct link to the book on Amazon. 

Here's the blurb from the back of the book, followed by an image of the Table of Contents:

This is a great resource for Christians who want to know more about what it means to follow Jesus, and for Christians or church leaders who are in discipling relationships with others — whether that be in small groups or smaller discipleship relationships. 

This can also be a resource for those exploring Christianity, providing a fuller picture of what following Jesus involves. 

One of our core values at Brookside Church is Biblical Authority — looking to the Bible for truth, direction, and inspiration. On Sunday mornings we preach from the Bible. Our small groups (all ages) are tethered to God's Word. We have been encouraging personal Bible reading for YEARS through our 365 Bible Reading Plan. The bottom line? We believe the Bible is uniquely authoritative as God's Word, and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training for right living (see 2 Timothy 3:16-17). 

But we don't only care THAT people read God's Word. (Though of course we never want to minimize this either!) We also care HOW people read God's Word. Or stated another way, we want to help people get into the Bible in such a way that they get the most out of the Bible (in a way that is consistent with how the Bible itself wants to be read!).

Our goal is that our teaching models this and certain classes we offer facilitate this (think: Bible Basics). And we also want to point people toward helpful resources that contribute to this goal as well.

With that in mind, here are six resources I encourage others toward, when I hear they want help with understanding how to read the Bible on their own, or with interpreting certain kinds of Scripture, etc. I hope these help you get into God's Word, in such a way that God's Word gets into you! 

(Note: These are listed in no particular order. [Other than the Study Bibles at the beginning — start there if you don't have a study Bible yet.] Choose the one or two of these that you find more interesting, and dig in!)

Graduate-level theological training is coming to Omaha! This training is local and it’s live — so this about more than just consuming content. You can participate in a way that forms you, builds community, and serves others. 
​
Oh yeah — and you’ll see that this training is SO AFFORDABLE. (Which is of course always good!)
​
Below you'll find a few brief videos orienting you to what's coming: 

• an overview video introducing this training and the subsequent videos
• a tutorial video explaining the accredited, graduate-level certificates that are offered through Trinity Evangelical Divinity School 
• a video explaining the unaccredited track that's available, if for whatever reason the accredited option isn't a fit for you
• a video where I share my heart for this training, and the goals that I hope this serves

One more thing before you scroll to the videos: I've included the links here that I mention in the videos, so you have easy access to them: 

• The Theology Training page overview and FAQs
• The certificates page of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (the Systematic Theology classes that we'll teach live pair well with the Certificate of Christian Tradition or the Certificate of Theological Studies)
• A link to the registration page that we ask everyone who's participating to fill out — both accredited and unaccredited students. (And remember that accredited students also need to apply and be accepted into Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. You can access that application page here.) 

​Now, on to the videos: 

If you have questions, please reach out to Dr. Tim Wiebe at twiebe@brookside.net. 

I'm a big fan of discipleship pathways. It's good for churches to have intentional ways forward (e.g. programs, resources, etc.), helping people grow as disciples (and disciple-makers). I'm encouraged that I anecdotally hear more and more churches uses the language of "discipleship pathway." 

But I also want to paint the picture of a discipleship pathway as a four-lane road, rather than a one-lane bridge. Allow me to explain what I mean: 

A one-lane bridge is narrow and rigid. There's only one way forward, and it usually slows down traffic. There's only one way to get to your destination, whether you like bridges or not. When some people see a one-lane bridge, they do a U-turn and head the other direction. For "one-lane bridge" discipleship pathways, every next step along the path of discipleship (and every tool that's part of that next step) is planned out and mandated. I'm concerned that it can feel too rigid, and may even impede progress.

But gladly, there's another way. 

Instead of a one-lane bridge, think of a four-lane road. (Oh yeah — and imagine some toll booths, too. I'll get to that in a second.) On a four-lane road, you're all moving the same direction — but some people may go faster and some may need to go slower. (Which is OK.) Toll booths are common on many four lane roads. When you arrive at a toll, you can choose to take the "fast pass" lane and fly right through. Or ​you may slow down a bit because you pay by credit card or choose to pay by cash. Or maybe you want to avoid the tolls altogether, so you take a long way, ​but you are still moving in the direction of your destination. 

Sure, after the toll there's some merging going on as people shuffle into lanes again and it can feel a little discombobulated or messy. But that's OK. People are still moving in the same direction toward their destination, and they've been able to choose the lane / toll booth that fits what they need. 

"Four-lane roads with a toll booth" discipleship pathways still keep people going in the direction they need to be going. And that's the point of travel, after all (and ultimately, of discipleship pathways): The greater good is direction and destination, and the particular lane people choose to get there (or the toll booth option they select) is subordinate to the direction. To be sure, the lanes still matter — you can't drive on the shoulder or go off-roading — but there are a small number of good options, rather than a restrictive one as in the "one-lane bridge."

As churches construct discipleship pathways, then, a healthy approach is to think less in terms of "one-lane bridge" (i.e., everyone has to follow the exact same steps, etc.) and to think more in terms "four-lane road" — providing a small number of options (lane markers are still important! I'm not advocating for a crash derby...) that keeps traffic flowing and people making progress in the right direction: Christlikeness. 

And just to be abundantly clear: In this post I'm focusing on discipleship PATHWAYS and not discipleship itself. Discipleship itself is narrow — Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6). Narrow is the path that leads to eternal life (Matt 7:13-14). The point of this post is more practical: As people grow in Christlikeness and proceed in that direction as disciples, the practical tools and programs churches can use to facilitate that growth in Christlikeness should not be unnecessarily rigid or restrictive. 

Theology matters deeply. It summarizes and articulates what you believe about key topics that matter deeply. As Christians, the Bible must inform and invigorate our theology, as it is the final standard of authority for us — the primary means by which we discover who God is, what He's like and what He's doing, and what that invites us into. (You can find a bit more on the value of theology here, here, and here. It's something I plan on continuing to write about and advocate for.) 

But agreeing that theology is important doesn't end the conversation; rather, it opens up the conversation to other worthwhile topics — topics like "What does theology offer?", and "How should we define it?" 

Or another topic, "How do we do theology well?" There are so many things to factor into doing theology well: for example, (1) we do theology with the whole Bible as our final authority, (2) we do theology in a spirit of confidence and humility, (3) we do theology for the purpose of increasing communion with the Triune God and advancing His mission in the world. All of these (and more) are important and worth continued reflection. 

In this post I want to focus on the relationship between theology and the local church. Specifically, I want to make a brief and very introductory case that when thinking about theology and the local church, four prepositions should shape the relationship: we do theology for, in, by, and with the church. 

I'm not saying anything novel or surprising here, but it nevertheless deserves to be reinforced again and again (and again): theology is for the church. Theology is "for the church" in that it builds the church up, and guides the church along. Theology should serve the church. Five pictures regarding HOW theology can serve the church are included here. 

Full disclosure: I remain an advocate of formal theological training, and I understand (and believe in) the reality that institutions of higher education (like seminaries and Christian graduate schools) are valuable both for training pastors and teachers (and missionaries and many others), and for helping the church think well about Christian ideas — both their influence and their integration. AT THE SAME TIME AND IN THE SAME BREATH, we can't and shouldn't reserve a formalized approach to biblical and theological education to the institutional academy. The local church has a key role to play here, and there are so many ways for this to find expression. 

This value of theology happening IN the church is a driving force behind this site (if you want to dig in, I encourage you to explore the "catechesis," "teaching" or "theology" categories of this site, or spend some time looking through our "library"). Or if you want a single, book-length treatment of this, I'm a huge fan of J.T. English's recent book called Deep Discipleship: How the Church Can Make Whole Disciples of Jesus. My doctoral project on discipleship pathways in the local church also include thoughts on this, as part of a larger framework. 

When I talk about theology BY the church, here's what I have in mind: Those producing theology for the church, and those teaching theology in the church, should be deeply involved in the local church themselves. Those who teach and write theology FOR the church and IN the church, should themselves be shaped BY the church. The theologians aren't just contributing their thoughts (though of course they are doing that); they're also receiving from others. 

This doesn't mean that to teach theology for and in the church you have to be a pastor or in full time local church ministry. But I would recommend that those who teach theology for and in the church should themselves be involved and invested in a local church themselves.

So for those theology professors out there who make a vocation out of full time teaching: First, thank you! We need your service. And then second: Get (or stay) involved in a local church. Become a member. Join a small group. Receive from gathered worship. Volunteer in an area outside of your expertise. I believe this can make you a better theology teacher, and it will add layers and depth to both what and how you teach. 

Now for everyone else: We need you engaged in thinking theologically as well! We need you to teach a theology class, or bring theological wisdom into small group discussions, or help champion theological formation in other creative ways, etc. There are so many ways to apply theology done BY the church. 

I'll be quick here, but the final preposition "with" reminds us we're never alone — even as an individual local church — as we do theology for, in, and by the church. We need to benefit from the church around the globe and the church throughout history. Let's do theology with the "big C" church. 

Theology and the church aren't hermetically sealed off from each other. The church and theology go hand-in-hand. As we consider this vital, dynamic relationship between theology and the church, these four preposition provide a helpful way by which we can "live into" this dynamic today. Let's do theology "for, in, by, and with" the church. 

In Matthew 25:14-30, Jesus shares a parable often called "The Parable of the Talents" or "The Parable of the Bags of Gold." In this parable, the master of an estate entrusts three of his servants with bags of gold while he goes away on a journey. It is clear from this parable that this money is the master's, and as his servants these three men are to steward the money in a way that honors the master.

After a long time (v. 19) the master returns, and his servants report back to him. The first two servants are commended: "Well done, good and faithful servant." They're invited to share the master's happiness and will continue to contribute meaningfully (vv. 21, 23). The third servant, however, is both wicked and lazy (v. 26). He hasn't added to his master's wealth at all. It's likely that the "spending power" of the bag of gold with which he is entrusted is actually less, given that the master was gone "a long time" (v. 19) and the realities of inflating costs. The third servant did nothing with this money that would even add interest to it. This third servant, then, is then excluded from the master's joyful presence and assigned to a place of "darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth" (v. 30). 

There's obviously a lot that can be said about this parable. I want to focus our attention here on the clear point of the parable: we're to be faithful servants with what we've been given. (If you want to hear a full 40 minute sermon I've given on this passage, click here.) 

And that means the next right question is this: What drivers motivate my faithfulness? How can I anticipate with confidence hearing these words from Jesus someday, "Well done, good and faithful servant"? Here are four drivers — straight from this parable — that can help us anticipate hearing these words from Jesus ourselves. 

​​To see this point, let’s pause on the characters we meet in this parable. 

The owner or master in this parable represents Jesus — He’s the King who entrusts us with gifts and is one day coming back. It’s clear in the parable that the other characters in the story are servants and stewards. The money they’re entrusted with isn’t a gift; it’s a stewardship. If they would have approached the money as owners instead of knowing their identity as servants, it would have been sad for every one of them when the master returned.

And so when we start putting this together, Jesus is painting a picture of reality that shows us He is the ultimate “owner” (He is God, and we aren’t; He’s the Creator, and we’re the creature), and we are servants and stewards for Him. This smacks against so much in our culture that says we are our own authority. We shouldn’t belong to anyone but ourselves.

But in his book You Are Not Your Own: Belonging to God in an Inhuman World, Alan Noble shows us that this glorification of self isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. After all: If you are a sovereign self, how do you ever know if you’re right or wrong? What moral authority is there outside of yourself to help you know you're on the right track? What happens when you as the sovereign self messes up? How do you know that you’re not deceiving yourself? 

This puts tremendous pressure on ourselves that we’re not designed to carry.

So if we can’t fully trust ourselves and we can’t fully trust others (because they can be flawed and deceived just like me), who can I trust? 

Let's hear directly from Alan Noble now on this: “Where does this leave us? If we cannot trust ourselves to desire and pursue what is good for us, and we certainly cannot trust other humans to desire and pursue our good, what remains? To whom can we safely belong? To whom can we trust our existence without fear of abuse? / “We need to belong to someone who is perfectly able to desire our own good while desiring their own good, someone for whom there cannot be conflict between our good and their good (John 3:16; Romans 8:28; 2 Peter 3:9). We need to belong to Christ" (Noble, You Are Not Your Own, p. 126).

This is good news! Rather than seeing our identity as servants and stewards of God as negative, it’s actually positive. We belong to a good Master who is perfectly loving, generous and gracious, and desires what is best for us — even better than we can do for ourselves. 

​How can we be faithful with the resources and abilities and experiences God has given us? How do we hear “Well done, good and faithful servant?” It starts by seeing God as God, and ourselves as His stewards.

​​This point goes hand-in-hand with the last one. Since we are stewards, we don’t live for ourselves or only for our own pleasure. We don’t just gravitate to what’s most comfortable. We don’t live to please others. We live to please our King Jesus Christ. 

​​This is one of those “captain obvious” observations that stands out in the parable, as the servants multiply the owner’s resources in a way that grows the master’s estate. What’s good for the master turns out to be what’s best for the stewards! This isn’t a zero sum game. 

We steward our lives and our resources and everything about us in a way that honors Jesus. And as we live for God’s kingdom, we find joy, satisfaction, and meaning. it’s the way we’re designed to live! 

​​This instills purpose into everything we do. Your life has tremendous purpose! There are things that only you can do because of the abilities you have, the position you’re in, the relationships around you, the things you’ve experienced — things that I can’t do and the person sitting next to you can’t do — that help contribute to helping people find and follow Jesus. 

This driver is important because our view of God affects everything about us. 

Let’s go back to what the third servant says when he stands before the owner who’s returned. Here’s Matthew 25:24-25: 24 “Then the man who had received one bag of gold came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25 So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’
 
So many things in this third servant’s perspective are just flat out wrong. The master had entrusted this third servant with over $1M dollars — that sounds a whole lot more like generosity and trust than him being a “hard man.” The third servant had misunderstood his identity as a steward, and therefore he misunderstood his relationship with the owner. He accuses the master of harvesting where he hadn’t sown and gathering where he hadn’t scattered seed. 
 
But the thing is, the steward is just passing blame and missing the point of his assignment. He’s scrambling to justify why he had nothing to show for himself while the master was away. My first real job at age 15 was bagging groceries at Hy-Vee. What the third servant does here would be like 15 year old Tim accusing the owner of Hy-Vee for not doing my work, while I sit by and do nothing. 
 
Everything about it is backwards and selfish and insubordinate. 
 
The third servant is entitled, accusatory, and afraid. It’s because He hasn’t seen the Master for who He is — generous and gracious. 
 
This is a question for all of us: How do you see God? 
 
A.W. Tozer rightfully asks us, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”
 
This parable shows us WHY what we think about God is so important — because your view of God shapes how you live. A wrong view of God will push us away from Him. But a right view of God invites us back when we’ve messed up, and we persevere with Him through the ups and downs of life. A right view of God draws us to Him more and more, and motivates us to live faithfully.
 
Let’s do some review: How can we hear “Well done, good and faithful servant”? For us to do this faithfully, we need to own our identity and our purpose as stewards, and we need to cultivate a right view of God.
 
There’s one more thing we can’t miss. 

​If we zoomed out of just this passage to the larger context of Matthew chapters 24 and 25, we’d see that this larger context is full of Jesus teaching about things that happen at the end of time as we know it. The Bible also teaches us there is a second coming of Jesus — which we’re to wait for watchfully and actively. That’s what these chapters are about. 
 
And so when the master comes back after his departure, that represents Jesus’ second coming at the end of time. And what we see in this parable gives us a picture of what will happen then. 
 
The two faithful stewards will receive a joyful welcome into eternity — “Well done, good and faithful servant.” This eternity is a place of joy and happiness, where Jesus’ followers continue to have responsibility and serve meaningfully. The master tells the faithful servants in this parable that “they will be in charge of many things.” (If your picture of heaven is one of playing harps on clouds and not really doing anything ever, forever — we need to see that that’s not a biblical picture!)
 
But then there’s the unfaithful servant, who is excluded from the joyful presence of the master and assigned to a place of darkness and isolation, full of personal regret (that’s what “weeping and gnashing of teeth” is getting at — intense regret). This is a hard, sobering truth we find in the Bible, as we encounter this presentation of the reality of an eternal hell. 
 
But don’t think the third servant is assigned here because his money didn’t produce a good enough ROI. This third servant is assigned to hell because he was never in right relationship to the owner in the first place.
 
These eternal realities should lead every one of us to reflect on whether we know God personally ourselves — are you in right relationship with Him? This offer of knowing God personally is available to you today Here’s how: You turn to God in faith — admitting that you’re a sinner who needs God, trusting in Jesus’ finished work on the cross alone for your salvation, and following Jesus as your Savior and Lord.
 
The good news of Christianity is that we are saved from our sins and brought into a right relationship with God entirely by grace through faith. And then it is this personal relationship and God’s transforming grace that changes our hearts and motivates us to live faithfully today — little by little, step by step.

How can we live faithfully? How can we anticipate hearing these words from Jesus, “Well done, good and faithful servant”? 
 
What we’ve seen from Matthew 25:14-30 helps us answer these questions with confidence.
 

1. We see ourselves as stewards, entrusted with abilities, resources, and experience. What have you been entrusted with? 
2. We find renewed purpose — in what small ways or big ways can you use your gifts (whatever you’ve been entrusted with) to serve God and honor Him? 
3. We cultivate a right view of who God is. The more we discover who God truly is — the relationship we can have with Him, His grace and generosity, His good authority — the more we’re drawn to Him. Is your view of God more like the first two servants, or the third servant? How can you grow in knowing God? 
4. We live with the end in mind. The question flowing out of this is simple, but eternally important: Are you doing that? Are you living with the end in mind? 

 
As we live this way — all of it grounded in and fueled by a right relationship with God through Jesus Christ — we find motivation to steward our gifts well in a way that pleases God, and we can look forward with confidence to the day we’ll hear “Well done, good and faithful servant.”