Amy Gannett - Fix Your Eyes: How Our Study of God Shapes Our Worship of Him

You are a theologian. When we come to worship, we are assuming certain things about God and his works. So, is our worship in line with the truths that God teaches us about who he is and what he has accomplished? Along with her theological depth, Amy Gannetts knack at clear and beautiful prose puts this exploration at the top of any good reading list! Read, mark, and inwardly digest this book and youll never go to church the same way.

Michael Horton , professor of theology, Westminster Seminary California

Amy Gannetts new book Fix Your Eyes: How Our Study of God Shapes Our Worship of Him faithfully reminds us that our knowledge of God awakens a greater love for God, which fuels our worship of God. In a world that is often looking for a mystical feeling or an experience of God, Amy warmly and winsomely invites us to think deeply in our quest to know God more intimately. If youve ever felt intimidated by the study of theology, this book is a needed and welcome resource to add to your library.

Melissa Kruger , author and director of Womens Initiatives for The Gospel Coalition

Copyright 2021 by Amy Gannett

All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America

9781087730554

Published by B&H Publishing Group

Nashville, Tennessee

Dewey Decimal Classification: 248.84

Subject Heading: CHRISTIAN LIFE / SPIRITUAL LIFE / DISCIPLESHIP

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture is taken from the English Standard Version ( esv ). ESV Text Edition: 2016. Copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

Also used: Christian Standard Bible ( csb ), copyright 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible, and CSB are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers, all rights reserved.

Also used: New American Standard Bible ( nasb ), copyright 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved.

Also used: New International Version, ( niv) NIV Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Also used: New Living Translation ( nlt ), copyright 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Also used: New Revised Standard Version Bible ( nrsv ), copyright 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Also used: The Message ( msg ), copyright 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson.

It is the Publishers goal to minimize disruption caused by technical errors or invalid websites. While all links are active at the time of publication, because of the dynamic nature of the internet, some web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed and may no longer be valid. B&H Publishing Group bears no responsibility for the continuity or content of the external site, nor for that of subsequent links. Contact the external site for answers to questions regarding its content.

Cover design by Micah Kandros. Cover rays by Farferros/shutterstock. Author photo by Fontana Lane.

1 2 3 4 5 6 25 24 23 22 21

To my dad

For cultivating my love for theology over endless cups of coffee on the deck.

Acknowledgments

I signed the contract to write this book less than forty-eight hours after Austin and I brought our first child, Emerson, home from the hospital. That was March 2020, a year that would prove unpredictable, at its best; deafeningly difficult at its worst. As a blumbering new mom and new church planter bent on surviving 2020, it would only be suitable if this section of thanks was as long as the book itself.

Thank you to the exceptional team at B&Hespecially to Ashley Gorman for being a keen editor and for championing this message from beginning to end. Theres a certain joy that comes when your publishing partners, from editors to marketing team, can (and will) enthusiastically nerd-out about theology with you. This joy has been gratefully mine.

Thank you to my agent and friend, Austin Wilson, who sat in that first theology class with me at Moody Bible Institute all those years ago, and who helped this project become all that the Lord had for it to be.

There are not words of gratitude sufficient for my local prayer team. Tiffany Shepard, Susan McKnight, Dr. Joan Perry, and Anne Albritton: the Lord heard your prayers. He buoyed me up for the work of writing after sleepless nights with a newborn and granted me eagerness to see these truths distilled for the everyday believer. Thank you; you are my partners in the gospel. (Joan, you told pre-baby me that newborns sleep a lot. For this I forgive you.)

To the leaders at Grace Fellowship Church (our sending church) and Trinity Church Greenville (our church plant)thank you for enthusiastically granting me the space and attention for this work. Thank you, even more, for seeing it as a part of my ministry labor in the local church, and for being the community in which these truths find their feet in my own life.

Gospel-driven parents are a gift, and mine are an embarrassment of riches. Mom and Dad, you were the first to identify and nurture my love for theology. Thank you for giving me weird birthday gifts like books on dispensational theology, and for never backing down from a theological debate. Dada family friend once told me that you always wanted a son who shared your love for theology, but God gave you me and you never once considered it a diminished gift. Thank you. I feel that in my bones. Momyoure a theological powerhouse and the best editor a girl could ask for. To my in-laws, Glenn and Karla, and sister-in-law, Kamille, for their prayers and hours of childcare, I could not be more grateful.

To Emersonwho is the brightest spot in my day and the joy of my heartfor sharing me with this work, I am grateful. My most constant prayer is that you will one day know and love God who has upended my life with rescue and delight.

And finally to Austinmy husband, my friend, my co-church planter, my partner in the gospelthank you for believing in this work, verbally processing with me when it was highly inconvenient, and for piling my desk high with the best theological resources. Thank you for the way youve passed the gospel back and forth between us. You are Gods truest picture of the gospel to me each day.

Glory to the Word of God made flesh who gives our little, meager words meaning and substanceand who will one day see them through to redemption.

Introduction

The Necessary Marriage of Theology and Worship

As I often tell my students, theology is for doxology and devotionthat is, the praise of God and the practice of godliness.... Theology is at its healthiest when it is consciously under the eye of the God of whom it speaks, and when it is singing to his glory.

J. I. Packer

Y ou are a theologian, he spoke calmly into the silent classroom.

Something about the thin, round glasses hanging on the end of the professors nose and the bow tie neatly tucked beneath his white collar made him feel all the more believable, and made my eyes widen in surprise.

It was my first day of Bible school, and I was sitting in my very first class. While freshman year held a host of uncomfortable, nervous, and intimidating moments, this one will always be etched in my mind. His voice reverberated with age, experience, and authority, and his words struck my timid heart with surprise and self-doubt.

You are a theologian, he repeated.

I gulped. At just nineteen years old, I could name several theologians (most of them dead), and the fact that I could name them made me actually quite proud. Unlike my peers in my high school youth group, I had developed a young knack for reading theological texts. I spent my weekends immersed in systematic theologies, books on the end times, and C. S. Lewis classics. (I was so cool, I know.) I could name famous theologians throughout history and theologians alive today, but my own name never made the list.