skip to main |
skip to sidebar
I’ve really been enjoying teaching the middle school class. I guess because for the last I don’t know how many years I’ve been teaching only adults.
I had it in my mind along with the class material to teach them other things… like how to greet people and how to be sociable.
In our day and time kids are intimidated by adults and don’t interact very well. A big reason for that is parents don’t encourage that concept or even discourage it by letting their kids CARRY CELL PHONES AND OTHER HANDHELD ELECTRONIC DEVICES that discourage interaction.
How fortunate then that we had a visitor in class this morning. I took the time to shake hands, introduce myself ask a few engaging questions, etc. Then I asked my students if they noticed what I had just done. Then we went on to reading a scripture and I commented to my students that they had been rude to our guest because no one had offered him a Bible. Then we read out of the lesson book and I commented… failed again! No one had offered him a lesson book or to share a lesson book. We proceeded on and Weston (on his own) passed the visitor a pencil. Boom!!!
I also told them that frequently I see them pass by me at church and not even look at me or say a word. I told them that makes me feel like I don’t even exist that I am invisible and am meaningless in their sight. One of them said they don’t like being the first one to say hello. Jeremy (my assistant teacher) said… someone has to be first!
When I took over the class no one was bringing their Bibles so I made a rule that everyone had to bring their own Bible. Last week I told them that even though they were not adults yet they were going to start acting like adults in my class and bring their Bibles and have their lessons done.
Today I mentioned that in the scriptures Christians are compared to Roman soldiers and I asked them what the sword represented. They didn’t know but I told them the sword is the Word of God (the Bible) and it was an offensive and defensive weapon. We made the point that our sword was our best friend and we keep our best friend with us all the time… we don’t leave it laying around or losing it. We don’t come to Bible class expecting to use some of the swords that are left scattered lying around the room and we don’t borrow a sword. We have our own swords and we cherish them and become intimately familiar with them. Everyone had their sword today.
Today I gave them four points about rules for interpreting the Bible and told them I was going to test them on it. Then I wrote it on the board to not only exercise their ears but also their eyes. Then I pointed out that even though I said I was going to test them on it… no one had written it down. They wasted no time scribbling them down.
Part of my class is to also to challenge their parents. I asked them what they did on the way home from church. Several said they listened to music. So now they have questions to ask their parents on the way home (no more music) like what does hypocrite mean and what is the Latin derivation of the word and can they (their parents) think of any other words that start with “hypo-“
They are also supposed to quiz their parents about rules for interpreting the Bible.
I also used the young visitor as a foil. I told them he could have asked his parents… Where are we going to church tomorrow? His Dad would respond… Parkway. The student could say… I wonder what they are going to be studying in class because I want to be prepared… Dad can you call and find out?
Any way you can see I like to challenge (mess with) them and get the parents more involved. Thanks for entrusting their care with me. I wish you good luck.
The peak period for cattle drives from South Texas to the rail heads in Kansas was in the 1870s. The Vaquero/Cowboys of South Texas would chase down and rope wild cattle in the brush to build a herd. Usually they had to tie off those wild cattle to Mesquite trees and then let them choke down a little until they could be managed.
One of their tools was to take domesticated oxen… steers that had been trained to pull wagons, etc. frequently weighing 2500 pounds or so. The vaqueros would hobble their oxen to those wild steers and turn them loose. Eventually the ox would pull the steer home because they were used to being fed grain corn twice a day… and really liked it
That concept reminds me of this verse…
“In the same way you wives must submit yourselves to your husbands, so that if any of them do not believe God's word, your conduct will win them over to believe. It will not be necessary for you to say a word” (1 Peter 3:1).
Now I’m not saying that a wife is an Ox or that a husband is a wild Steer but what I am saying is that sometimes husbands have certain notions that they need to be trained out of and it doesn’t do any good at all for a wife to continually harp on those notions. The text says that a godly woman can change her husband not by words but by behavior.
By definition that means it’s going to be a time consuming process that requires “patience in well doing”.
You can imagine that 2500 pound Ox hobbled to a 1000 pound steer slowly pulling that beast back to the ranch house where the steer finds out that a diet of corn is actually tastier than just eating grass and mesquite beans.
All I’ve got to say to you wives is keep pulling… you have the advantage because God is on your side and that wild untamed husband of yours will thank you one day (unless you ship him to the railheads in Kansas to be slaughtered… lol).
Mark 4, records in just one paragraph a story of Jesus and his disciples in a boat when a storm whips up. The disciples wake Jesus exclaiming “Teacher do you not care that we are about to perish?” at which time Jesus spoke the winds and rough seas into silence.
Jesus didn’t include this story in the Gospel narrative because he was short on miracles or needed to fill a little space.
Jesus had just taught on the shore of this very sea some stories about the coming Kingdom. He taught about sowing seed and the productivity of faith planted in a faithful heart. He also taught about the mystery of how a seed is transformed into a plant and the coming harvest. Lastly he taught that the kingdom was like a planted mustard seed and how such a small seed could turn into a big plant.
And then at the culmination of this teaching about the Kingdom he gets into a boat and crosses the sea and the winds blow, the sea is churned up and the disciples fear that they are going to drown. Like they expected the headlines of the Jerusalem newspaper the next morning would read... "Jesus and Disciples Drown During Freak Storm on the Sea of Galilee".
It’s like they haven’t been listening… nothing can stop the coming of the Kingdom and their role in it… not stormy seas, not earthquakes, nothing can stop the Kingdom!
Jesus included this story at the culmination of his teaching to test their understanding and their faith and they came up a little short in the faith department. But… that’s okay because the building of faith is a process and Jesus was patient with his disciples just as God is patient with us.
There may be some stormy seas ahead of us too but just remember… Jesus can calm the stormiest of seas. Have a little faith in him because he has a plan for us.
