Why the Blog?

The internet contains many different worlds, and in these worlds there are many opportunities that people may use to interact. People interact by selling, buying, talking, or reading but my chief goal in the use of the internet and more specifically, this blog is for the glories of the cross. This blog also exists to inform others of posts I do that are related to the Gospel. So my hope in maintaining this personal blog is for you, the reader, to enjoy the Gospel and the beauties of it, hence the name, Gospel-Centered Musings. May you learn more of the Gospel, and fall in love with it more deeply everyday. Enjoy!

Who Am I?

My name is Michael Marion Dewalt and I was born in Norwalk, Ohio on May 19th, 1984. A little over a year later after I was born, my father walked away from my mother and me. Within a year, my mother and father were divorced and by the time I was five in 1989, the process of my adoption had begun. At the age of six, by God’s wonderful grace, my grandparents (on my mother’s side) adopted me and together with my mother (Ardie Dewalt),  raised me. While raising me, my mother saw that it was very important for her child to attend church. I still do not know why my family pushed for me to attend church but I most certainly know that in June of 1989, I heard the Gospel for the first time in my life. I was young, and had never heard it before, but yet I saw my sin, my shame, and my need for repentance. I there saw that I needed Christ as my Savior over sin. As a little boy sitting outside of that church on the front steps, I knew that I wanted to follow Jesus. For the next 6 to 7 years I continued to grow and follow the Lord in obedience showing fruit, which flowed from my love for Christ and from constantly learning the Gospel.

Later, during my Junior High years, I became troubled and fell deep into sin, which continued throughout my High-school years. During this time I struggled with constant conviction, but just wanted to live for myself in not following the commands given in the Scriptures. It was later in my life, during my first year of college in New York at Word of Life (WOLBI), that I began to come back to the wisdom of the Scriptures and then walk with Christ once again. From there, I transferred to Baptist Bible College (BBC) in Clark’s Summit, Pennsylvania, and majored in Bible and Camping Ministries. I began to study God’s word more intensely, learning, seeing, and savoring the Gospel deeper and greater than I had ever before. I came to know a true assurance of my faith and that I was to serve Christ in the knowledge of what the Gospel had saved me from, namely, sin. After I graduated with a Bachelor of Science (B. S.) in Biblical Studies from BBC, I moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan to attend Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary (PRTS) and begin my graduate studies working towards a Master of Arts (M. A. R.) in Theological Studies from January 2007 to May 2009. Most recently I have graduated with my M.A.R. and now working towards my Master of Theology (Th. M.) focusing on Biblical Theology and working on my thesis titled, “Gospel Abandonment: A Biblical Theology of Apostasy.” I plan to graduate May, 2010.

What Am I Doing?

I am a seminary student at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, MI, where I am in the Master of Theology Program (Th.M.), majoring in Biblical Theology, while studying under Dr. Jerry Bilkes. As far as employment, I work for PRTS and Reformation Heritage Books (RHB) in Public Relations. In my work for RHB, I attend conferences on their behalf to sell Reformed and Puritan literature, as well as help to maintain the RHB Book Talk blog, a blog that informs others about upcoming publications, releases, and author interviews and book reviews. For PRTS, I blog and help maintain their website. I plan to further my studies after my Th.M. and will be applying for Ph.D. programs. At this point many people ask me, “What do you want to do with all that schooling?” I answer, “What else do you do with 12 years of schooling but teach?”

For the next year I will be working on my Th.M. degree at PRTS under the advisement of Dr. Bilkes. Thesis: “Gospel Abandonment: A Biblical Theology of Apostasy.”