Feedback from Seminar FIRE School of Ministry 2006

From F.I.R.E School of Ministry, Concord, North Carolina 2006

Bob Gladstone, F.I.R.E. School of Ministry

I listened to the 4th CD and am going back through them. You really do hit your stride in the last session! Wonderful material! Whole thing is excellent, relevant, revelatory, and critical for this hour. … I'm now reading your manual (bits at a time) and love that also. It's touching my life…

Scott Volk, Co-pastor, FIRE Church

After participating in David Harwood’s seminar that we hosted at our church, I left with a renewed passion for a deeper revelation of God’s love for me. The Love of God Seminar and The Love of God Manual are tools that should be made available to every church in America. Although the Bible implies that it is impossible to fully understand the love of Christ for us (Eph 3:19), it is foundational if we desire to be filled with God’s fullness and power. This course is taught in such a way that it will have a profound affect on the unbeliever, on those who are ‘seasoned veterans’ in the Lord and everyone in between.
... By the way, I ABSOLUTELY LOVE the manual!

Beth Wier, Academic Dean, F.I.R.E School of Ministry

Of course, I had attended the seminar the last time you taught it here, but I felt like I got as much, if not more, out of it the second time around! I was again really impressed by the teaching on agape. It's just amazing that we have such a misunderstanding of how that word is used in the text. I also found the handouts really helpful in terms of the way the material was presented and as a guide to follow along with during the seminar. I got a copy of the Love of God manual as well, and I'm looking forward to diving in even more into this rich material! :) Thanks so much!

Students from F.I.R.E. Seminar 2006

Student

It was great. I really appreciated that the seminar focused on our relationship with the Father and His heart towards us. Seen from my perspective, it had a healthy balance between God's holiness and His goodness, and I was reminded about the motivation God has for loving us.

Student

I always appreciate it when people come against the "mystical" definition of agape, since this view is so prevalent, destructive, and ridiculous.

Student

I really appreciated the emphasis on God as an emotional being. The idea of God as the great stoic is very common, and we can easily begin to relate to God in these terms. We oftentimes struggle with the idea that we are really created in God's image, and we try to distance God's nature from ours too much, out of an unnecessary fear of demeaning God.

Student

The idea of viewing the so called "bridal paradigm" from God's perspective was very enlightening. The emphasis in church circles I have been in has always been on the experience of the church as Christ's bride, and not on God's pursuit of mankind. Also, you didn't mention this directly, but one thing I have come to see as lacking in our understanding of being the "bride" of Christ is that the emphasis is almost entirely placed on the church being enraptured / ravished / captivated by God in the Song of Solomon type sense. But people seem to fail to remember that the main OT expression of an excellent wife is found not in Song of Solomon, but Proverbs 31. Here we find not only a captivated woman, but a very industrious, capable, hard working, faithful wife. And of course it is both types aspects, not one or the other. You hinted at the importance of this when you mentioned that God's love should not make us become lazy with holiness and service, as we just bask in God's presence and selfishly experience his "love" all day long, while the world is dying outside, and we could care less. This abuse of the love of God is all too common.