Thank you so much Jason and Amber…you both challenged me in ways tonight that I needed.
You bring life to my bones
And a spring to my step
And a heart that knows what it means
To wait before You…
And when the shadow of sorrow comes
I will fall on the only One I know
Is the Rock that won’t be shaken…
It is good for me
To lay it down at Your feet
It is good for me to lay the good and bad
In Your hand, my God…
~ Watermark, Good For Me
I finally made it to Bible Study again. I’ve missed 4 times this semester and I always feel like I miss out on so much. The topic tonight was on “Being a Word-filled Teacher.” As Christians, we are in one of three stages: 1.) Hearing & Doing, 2.) Doing & Teaching, or 3.) Teaching & Overseeing. A baby Christian will be in the hearing and doing stage for quite sometime…learning more about the faith. Doing and teaching will come next after a considerable amount of time has been spent in the former. Teaching and overseeing is more of a pastoral level…and obviously one would have to have learned the first two stages. We discussed these stages for quite sometime and I was quite discouraged to realize that after being saved for 17 years…I’m just in the Hearing & Doing stage. 17 years. I’m not sure that I could truly disciple another person spiritually because I’m still struggling with so much myself.
Side note: During our bible study, there is a Manners class for children that is taught by my former Pastor’s wife. Their class ended early and they snuck in the back of the room where we were to wait for us to finish. Taylor ran through the room and jumped in my mom’s lap and in his “quiet voice” (which can be heard three miles away I’m sure) said, “Hey! What are ya’ll doing?” It was so cute. I tried to pay attention but I kept glancing over at him and he’d give me the cutest little smile.
How oft in the conflict, when pressed by the foe,
I have fled to my Refuge and breathed out my woe;
How often, when trials like sea billows roll,
Have I hidden in Thee, O Thou Rock of my soul.
– William O. Cushing
Turning to the young Robert Robinson, the bleary-eyed gipsy fortune-teller pointed a quivering finger and said, “And you, young man, you will live to see your children and your grandchildren.” Robert Robinson suddenly paled and said, “You’re right. She’s too drunk to know what she’s saying. Leave her alone. Let’s go.” But her words haunted him the rest of the day. “If I’m going to live to see my children and grandchildren,” he thought, “I’ll have to change my way of living.” That very night, half in fun and half seriously, he took his gang to an open-air revival service nearby where the famous evangelist, George Whitfield, was preaching. “We’ll go down and laugh at the poor deluded Methodist,” he explained. Two years and seven months after hearing that sermon, twenty-year-old Robert Robinson made his peace with God, and “found full and free forgiveness through the precious blood of Jesus Christ.”
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it;
Seal it for Thy courts above.
Jesus, bright as the morning star
Jesus, how can I tell you how beautiful you are to me
Jesus, song that the angel sings
Jesus, dearer to my heart than anything
Sweeter than spring time
Purer than sunshine
Ever my song will be
Jesus, you’re beautiful to me
Oh Lord you are so beautiful
So beautiful, so beautiful, so beautiful
Jesus you’re beautiful to me
Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful
Jesus you’re beautiful to me
Wonderful, heavenly, beautiful
Jesus you’re beautiful to me
Morning star, Lord you are, beautiful
Jesus you’re beautiful to me
Sweeter than spring time
Purer than sunshine
Ever my song will be
Jesus, you’re beautiful