Meet John and Christie Eisner

John is a Jewish believer in Jesus who introduced Christie to his heritage, and together they explore the fulfillment of both faiths.

They have a strong marriage, children, and grandchildren.

You can purchase the book John wrote on Ephesians, and Christie’s two books on the Jewish Feasts on Amazon.

You can also find them on Ruth’s Road on Facebook!

John and Christie encourage others to think beyond their own theological paradigm, and they inspired this post.

I was listening to John draw a contrast between our theology and our experience of God.

He suggested that much of our theology is intellectual in nature.

That we have adopted a Greek mindset and develop our understanding of God mostly through intellectual pursuit.

He described us as people who are weaving together thoughts, concepts, and ideas to shape our theology.

But life, he said, is not found in understanding Him. It is found in experiencing Him.

The word “weaving” triggered a thought. My mind went to the book of Exodus.

You know the story.

Jochebed made a little ‘ark’ to hide baby Moses. She wove some reeds tightly and daubed it with pitch on every seam to keep the water out.

Perhaps even a masterpiece of engineering.

But the basket was only a container.

In our Christian walk, we can spend a lot of time building our own “arks.”

We carefully construct intellectual arguments and systematic doctrines.

Our theology is important, but it is the “Moses” inside that is of greatest consequence.

Even the most expertly woven ark is made of the reeds of this earth.

Just as we are.

That distinction between structure and life shows up again at the very beginning.

In Genesis, God created Adam from dust. In that moment, Adam was a perfect form, a complete structure, a masterpiece of design.

But it was God’s breath that crowned Adam with life.

Form alone was never the point. Man was a vessel to be filled with His life.

That thought brings to mind the phrase “vessel of honour.”

I imagine most of us would like to be one. But what does that actually look like?

Is a vessel of honour defined by its appearance or who uses it?

Is it a gold-plated goblet encrusted with diamonds reserved for kings and princes?

Genesis 3:19
“For dust you are, and to dust you shall return.”

No matter the wealth or weight of the vessel, no one escapes that valuation.

And yet, I am comforted by Psalm 103:14
“For He knows how we are formed; He remembers that we are dust.”

Can you hear the compassion in that line? I can.

God is not surprised by your inability to fully apprehend Him or live a life worthy.

We struggle to accept our limitations and struggle even more to forgive them in others.

But God.

God has always factored frailty into the equation. Just look at the characters in the Bible.

Still, we often despise our defects. As Paul said:

Romans 7:19
“For the good I want to do, I do not do.”

But look at the radical solidarity of Jesus in Hebrews 2:11
“Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters.”

God did not remain distant. He is close by.

His desire for us led Him to humble Himself so much as to take on our form.

The Bible tells us this is by design. The ‘treasure’ is placed in jars of clay so that the power is clearly from God and not from us.

We can hold our woven arks very tightly.

We clutch and defend our intellectual bulrushes.

We can become so enmeshed with our theological “ark” that we can no longer separate the container from the life within it.

We make the mistake of thinking they are one and the same.

But no matter how strong, beautiful, or well-constructed, no basket can contain God.

Paul wrote of pressing on to “apprehend that for which he was apprehended.” Philippians 3:12

His theology comes across as alive and unfolding. He himself did not declare it complete.

And what does it mean to be apprehended? To be won over. To be conquered.

It reminds me of Song of Solomon 4:9
“You have captured my heart, my sister, my spouse; you have captured my heart with one glance of your eyes, with one chain of your neck.”

Christie reminds others frequently of the wedding theme in God’s word. It is such a pleasure to hear her talk about how God describes His own heart as captured by His bride.

Apply that to yourself.

You have won His heart.

But have you allowed Him to capture yours?

Your theology, your ideas about God, are something you can hold.

But has God gotten hold of you?

Do not stop at examining your “dust” for flaws. Look beyond them to the Lamb who humbled Himself to dwell in flesh just like yours.

He is not ashamed of you.

He died for you.

Next week, we celebrate Passover.

In Exodus 12, each household was instructed to take its own lamb.

It was their own—not an unfamiliar animal from a distant flock in another village.

The lamb was brought into the home to be regularly scrutinized for blemish from the 10th to the 14th day of the month.

I imagine a time of bonding. Children pulling the lamb close and feeling the warmth of its wool. Perhaps they even named it.

By the time the sacrifice came, it was not just any lamb. It was their lamb.

Theology is easy when it remains abstract.

But what about when it becomes personal? When it costs something? When the thought of sacrificing it breaks your heart?

They were told to paint their doorposts with the blood of the very lamb they had lived with.

John said of Jesus before His baptism:

John 1:29
“Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”

Jesus, our Passover Lamb, came into this lowly world to dwell among us.

He was examined for four days just like the Passover lamb. Between John 18 and 19, it was repeated three times:
“I find no fault in Him.”

So. Is there a concept or rule you have woven into your theology that God might want you to let go of?

For example:

• “I really messed up this week. I am not worthy to come to Him.”
• “I prayed and I declared with faith and confidence, but God did not do it. He does not love me.”

Some lies are more obvious than others.

Sometimes we think we know what a verse means, only to discover we put our faith in something erroneous.

Some matters are weightier than others. Some easy, some difficult to let go.

Truth is able to stand up to examination.

I invite you to hold your theology gently and allow the Spirit to refine and enlarge it.

Test everything and hold fast to that which is good.

A song by Graham Kendrick comes to mind:

“All I once held dear, built my life upon.
All this world reveres, and wars to own.
All I once thought gain I have counted loss.
Knowing You, Jesus, knowing You,
there is no greater thing.”

There is no prize at the end for building the best ‘boat.’

He is the truly great reward. So press on to know Him.

No dull ride is that.

All the love, my friends.