Autumn

            Autumn is my favorite season and October is my favorite fall month. Where I live in the Pacific Northwest our winters are windy, wet, and cold, our springs are wet and cool, our summers are pleasant, but our falls are delightful. Warm days, cool nights, just the right amount of dark for a good sleep, and just the right amount of daylight to get things done; these are the things I love about autumn.

            My daughter lives in the Northeast, in northern New England. Autumn is my favorite season there as well. She gets very cold winters, wet, buggy springs, and hot and humid summers, but fall there is beautiful. Fall where I live is brown, green, and yellow, but where my daughter lives, fall is a rainbow of warm.

            Elementary schools in the United States traditionally start in the fall and curriculum begins to drift toward harvest, Pilgrims, Native Americans, Plymouth Rock, and the first Thanksgiving. However, our history is not always spot-on accurate. For example, the Pilgrims in the Mayflower are often portrayed as Puritans. While Puritans did eventually come to America that first boatload were actually Separatists, which were a different group altogether.

            Separatists left the Church of England because they thought it was broken and unfixable, whereas the Puritans also thought the Church of England was broken, but they stuck around awhile and made an attempt to purify it. Thus they were given the moniker, Puritans.

            Admittedly, this is a small discrepancy and barely worthy of mention. It’s not the only one, though. Rather than write an entire blog post on this, I will instead refer you to “Of Plimouth Plantation” by William Bradford, the leader of the Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts.  It is his journal written over a period of some 20 years. I love original source material, and this is just about as good as one can find. Don’t look for it in print – however it is available for free in multiple digital formats at Project Gutenberg: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/24950

            If you are ever able to visit Plymouth Massachusetts, go in summer. You will be able to visit a very well done interpretive center of Plymouth colony and a Native American community of the same era. The site of the original colony is lost to time, but you can visit Plymouth Rock (nearly buried now in sand, but preserved), and the interpretive center a few miles south of Plymouth.

            Harvest is what I love most about fall. I love the Cornucopia, that beautiful horn-shaped basket overflowing with the produce of harvest. I love sampling the harvest, too. We always have a lot of fresh produce in my home. We grow tomatoes and green beans, raspberries and blueberries – lots of blueberries – grapes, plums, kiwi, and apples. We freeze things and can things and dry things. We even have a cider press that gets some use on the really prolific apple years.

            I know that the arrival of autumn means the passing of summer, and that can be sad. But autumn is unique and special in its own right. If summer is your favorite and you mourn its passing, take a fresh look at autumn. Wherever you live, at least in the northern hemisphere, fall has a lot to offer. In addition to all the other wonderful things about autumn that I have already mentioned, it is the only season with more than one name!

            As you plan your lessons for fall, look at the season with fresh eyes. Make some changes; add a few things to bring the sights, smells, and tastes of fall into your classroom. Investigate some primary sources and if you need to adjust what you teach so that your students have more authentic history, be courageous – go for it!

            But most of all, enjoy Fall.

The World

            The writers of the New Testament had a lot to say about “the world.” But what is the world, anyway? The Gospel of John says that God loved the world so much He sent His only begotten Son to save it (John 3:16-17). On the other hand, Jesus also said one could “gain the whole world” yet lose his soul. So which is it, something worth the Son of God dying to save, or something that can prevent one from being saved?

            The problem lies in thinking that there is only one aspect to “world” in the original languages of the Bible. The most common idea that we have about world is Creation. The earth is the world. In my opinion as one who is not trained in theology but who has read and studied the Bible for six decades, this is the meaning of world in the Gospel of John – it is all of Creation that Christ died to save and restore. We usually think of people in this passage, but all of Creation suffers under the curse of Adam’s sin, not just people.

            When Paul wrote, “your faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole world,” (Romans 1:8) he was talking about the populated regions, at least of the known world of the Roman Empire at that time. He is referring to all the people of the world as the world.

            When James writes about being double minded (James 1:8), he is talking about the world as a way of life that is contrary to the life of a follower of Jesus. Such a person may claim Christ as Savior, but not live as though He were Lord.

            In the same vein, there are a great many people today who do not claim Christ at all, or may even outwardly reject Him. The former we may think of as a “worldly” Christian, the latter as simply “worldly.”  In these examples, the world means a way of life or of thought that is contrary to God’s will and His ways. The one group is wishy-washy, on the fence, leaning sometimes toward Christ, other times toward the “pleasures of this world,” which is the meaning of world that we think of in this context.

            In the West we have been influenced both by the Middle Eastern Hebrew thought, and by the Western Greek philosophies. In Hebrew thought, seeking to know God was good, while the reverse was not good. In Plato’s philosophy, things were inferior to the idea of things, sort of a “spirit is good, matter is bad” concept; for example, the concept of Art would be a high thing, however the actual works of art would be base. The work of art would redeem itself only by being an excellent representation of the “good” idea of Art.

            That mindset subtly infiltrated Christian thought through the centuries. It has created in us this false sense that some occupations are more “spiritual” than others. A minister or missionary, for example, would be a spiritual occupation, while a scientist or house builder would be worldly occupations. But as we can see in some of the examples that are in the narrative above, there are many aspects to the meaning of the word world.

            Clearly, the world as Creation is worthy of the shed blood of Christ, so it has immeasurable value. Certainly, there is a good connotation to Paul’s statement that the world would hear and care about the faith of the First Century Roman church. There is really nothing in these ideas that differentiate between occupations as above or below some standard of spirituality.

            All occupations serve genuine needs of people everywhere. What matters is how we do our work, not what work we do. There really is no reason to think of any work as either a spiritual or a worldly occupation because any division should only be about whether work is self-serving or done “as unto the Lord.” Throw out the notion that some work gives God glory and other work does not. All work done to His glory, gives Him glory.

            So, teachers, we have a duty to teach our students how to seek God in the way they do their school work, the way they play, the way they treat others, and the way they live. When we partner with parents, coaches, and other mentors to give a student a firm foundation in Christ and to developed strong moral character, that student will never need to learn how to make a living. That student will go out knowing how to live to give God glory. Whatever occupation he or she chooses will be done with excellence to serve others and to serve God.

Trinity

            A few posts back we explored the triune nature of each of us; we are body, soul, and spirit, three inseparable aspects of our personhood. Our personal trinity communicates between our three elements; our body has a language that tells our mind that is it time to eat or sleep, or otherwise meet the desires and needs of the body. Our mind may decide to wait or choose not to fulfill the body’s request, or deal with it in the moment. Our spirit has its own ways to communicate with our mind as well. Sometimes we refer to our conscience as one way our spirit gives us a feeling regarding our action or lack of action.

            The Trinity, or Triune God is a difficult idea to comprehend and can be a stumbling block between a seeker and faith in Christ. To help us, God has created us to operate within a world that is actually a trinity of trinities – three distinct elements of creation that each operate in three aspects. Just as in each example below, we have one name for the Trinity – God – but He is in three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, each always in communion with one-another as One.

            First, we have time. God created time and explained to us that He also created our world in a sequence of time. As the creator of time He is not subject to time, but everything He created in time is subject to the three aspects of time. All time is past, present, or future a three-in-one whole; Time is a trinity to help us comprehend the Triune God. We use one name – time – to describe the whole, but all time is in one of three aspects: then, now, or yet to come. God explains Himself in the elements of time; He is the same yesterday, today, and forever; He is within the trinity of time always the same.

            Next we have God’s creation of space. He created space and explains to us in many Bible texts that space is three dimensional. As Creator of space He is not subject to space, but everything He created in space is subject to the three dimensions of space. The dimensions of space are height, width, and depth; space is a three-in-one whole. Space is a trinity of dimension to help us comprehend the Triune God. We use one name – space – to describe the whole of space, but all space includes the three dimensions of space: height, width, and depth. There is no place high enough to hide from God, nor is there a depth of the sea deep enough. The breadth (or width) of God’s love is immeasurable.

            Finally, to further help us comprehend the Triune nature of God, He created matter. All matter exists on earth in three forms: solid, liquid, and gas. Other forms exist, but not naturally on earth, so in life experience for us, there are three. As creator of matter, God is not subject to matter, but everything He created on earth consists of matter and is subject to the laws of matter. Matter can exist in all three forms simultaneously. Water in a lake can have ice floating in it and fog drifting above it all in the same environment; matter in all three forms simultaneously. We use one name – matter – to describe the whole of matter, but all matter consists of the three forms of matter: solid, liquid, and gas.

            God made Himself subject to all the laws of Time, Space, and Matter when He conceived His Son, Jesus, and came Himself into the earth. He became subject to time when He was in Mary for the normal gestation period, and lived in time for His entire life. He was subject to space when He reminded His disciples that they could not change their stature (height) by worry, and He was subject to matter by becoming a person and living on earth. He learned to fashion matter (wood) into useful objects as a carpenter.

             Our Triune God knew before He made us that we would have some difficulty comprehending His triune nature, so in His wisdom and love, He made us in His image as triune creatures, and He surrounded us in Creation with a trinity of trinities; Time, Space, and Matter. We do indeed serve a marvelous and wonderful God!

You’re not the Boss of Me!

            Anyone who has ever worked with children, even for a short time, has heard the cry, “You’re not the boss of me!” I certainly heard it as a kindergarten teacher, and once or twice with older elementary. At some point that declaration changes to an eye roll. Sometimes with older students it shows up as a set jaw and a silent glare. I even heard it while teaching adults, but in more subtle language; “You do you, I’ll do me,” comes to mind.

            It is all the same statement. It manifests in countless ways. It has been so since the third chapter of Genesis when Adam took a bite of that forbidden fruit. Today it manifests in ever more grievous and damaging ways. It is the Original Sin all over again, repeated over and over, from generation to generation and age to age.

            Every one of us has made the statement, “I am my own boss,” at some point in our lives; perhaps not in so many words, but certainly in our choices and behaviors. Even as a child of grace and follower of Jesus I have asserted myself and rejected His Lordship in one matter or another. But in recent times we have seen it show up in violent, self-damaging behaviors at ever younger ages.

             A biblical worldview reminds us that it is God who gives and sustains life, and the end of this earthly life comes also in God’s time and His way. We accept that length of life is in His hands. But nearly all of us have loved somebody, or known someone who loved somebody who took his own life. What is suicide if not a final means of asserting one’s own authority over oneself, and rejecting God’s Lordship?

            I do not mean to belittle the youth who by virtue of unfettered bullying was driven to suicide. That is indeed tragic. Nor do I demean the mentally ill, or those who attempt suicide because they are desperate to be seen. These are genuine concerns.

            The human condition though, bound by sin because we are bent toward rebellion, is the root cause for demanding that we are our own bosses. This, in my opinion, is the primary cause for self-destructive behavior. Today, in just the recent few years, we have seen a major rise in gender dysphoria. What more “in-Your-face,” way can you imagine for asserting ultimate disdain for God’s authority than declaring oneself a gender contrary to biological truth? Unfortunately, some have imagined a more grievous way – taking sex hormones, or ultimately, sex change surgery.

            So, what can we do? I suggest that as a follower of Jesus and a maker of disciples that we can do a great deal. We need to recognize the sin of Adam when we see it in ourselves or our students. When we see it, (and we will see it) we should deal with it in a developmentally appropriate manner, and we should expect to repeat the cycle of discover, correct, teach over and over, pretty much forever.

            Some of the things the Apostle Paul taught will be helpful: he said things like, “redeem the time,” and he said, “as long as it is called Today,” and a few other things. Fortunately, his teachings are not difficult to find. You don’t even need a Bible – just Google what you remember of a phrase, and up it comes, just like that!

            As always, before we can teach something to our students, we have to know it ourselves. Indeed, before we can recognize a sinful behavior in a student we absolutely must be able to recognize it in ourselves, and we must address it, or our words to our students will ring hollow.

            We must learn to hear and respond to the Holy Spirit. If indeed we run into an especially difficult situation, and we are really not sure what the Spirit has to say, we must rely on our community of like-minded followers of Christ. We were made to operate best in community, and the people around us in Christ will have a much broader experience and accumulated wisdom than we will have on our own.

Are You in the Right Place?

            This blog is named The Right Thing, the Right Place, and the Right Time because I began writing it directly to the staff of the school of which I had been a member for several years. I had helped found the school and had served as a trustee for a long time, but I had never considered teaching there. As much as I loved the school, I believed that I would not earn enough money if I left my current teaching position to work in the non-profit Christian school.

            I asked our Head-of-school for a letter of recommendation because I was considering going back to teach elementary after nearly two decades in higher education. She wisely told me she would gladly give me a letter, but asked if I would consider teaching in the school I had helped establish.

            I took a leap of faith and joined our school as faculty teaching a fourth/fifth grade split class. Shortly I learned a couple of things: I had missed teaching elementary and found it a perfect fit, and my belief that I would not earn enough was a “heart” issue rather than a financial issue. You see, God stepped into my finances and met our financial needs miraculously. I was indeed earning less on paper, but somehow God was meeting all our needs with money to spare!

            God invented math; I guess He can do with it whatever He pleases.

            So, are you in the right place? If you are a dedicated, believing follower of Jesus, and you are given liberty to speak about Him into your students’ lives, then you probably are indeed in the right place. However, if you do not have such liberty, I suggest to you that there are schools in or near your community that will provide you the opportunity.

            As a follower of Jesus, you have the same commission we all have – to make disciples. You are surrounded by potential disciples every day. Are you able to speak to them of the gospel, and of the love of God for them? Are you permitted to remind them that they are saved by grace through faith in Christ? Are you willing to make some sacrifice to have that opportunity?

            If you are content where you are, and you think that you are in the right place, doing the right thing at the right time, then you should not change. But if this is not true for you and you do not believe that you are in the right place, then what will you do about it?

            For many years I believed that there was spiritual work, like being a pastor or missionary, and there was secular work, like being a plumber or a mill worker. The truth is that all work done to glorify God is good work. I did my work to glorify God when in the public schools and when teaching higher education. It was spiritual work because of my godly attitude toward educating my students whether I could speak directly into their lives or not.

            I did not need to teach in a Christian school to be doing “spiritual” work. I just found it more fulfilling when I could share Christ with my students. I came to realize it fulfilled me because I was participating in the Great Commission. I became a part of a community of dedicated followers of Jesus whose small sacrifices were rewarded by God with big dividends. In my case, He miraculously blessed me financially as well as through great personal fulfillment. His blessings to you may be different because you are different and your needs and desires are different, but He will bless you!

            Take stock of where you are. If the Holy Spirit is whispering to you that you need to move, listen. Look around and check out your options. In the current political and social climate, the Christian school movement is growing prolifically. There is surely someplace nearby that would be blessed by your joining them, but God may be calling you elsewhere, too. Be open to His calling.

             Teaching is the right thing. Today is the right time. Are you in the right place?

Which Yoke?

            Every word I write is intended for teachers. My intent is to encourage you and exhort you to apply good practice and good doctrine while working with your students. With that established, it is evident that not every teacher who reads this blog is in a position to overtly speak into the lives of their students as I encourage them to do. With that in mind, I have decided that a will write occasionally for the personal growth of the reader and not necessarily suggest that my audience apply their learning to their teaching.

            With that established I will remind my readers that every aspect of life that affects us as adults affects also our youth and children. If you, as a teacher, are able to overtly disciple your students, I pray my thoughts will assist you in your ministry to them. If you are not in a situation that allows this liberty, I offer you my thoughts for your own growth and pray that you will be able to help your students as well in perhaps creatively covert ways.

            Sin places an enormous burden upon us. Until we come to Christ we are utterly and absolutely bound to Sin and we are yoked to Sin from cradle to grave. It is a hard, rough yoke and we are unevenly matched; Sin is much stronger than we, and it drags us around whichever way it chooses until we are dead – as simple as that!

            But then Jesus came along and He coaxes us to take His burden instead. His yoke is easy and light. It fits us, and we are no longer unevenly yoked to a tyrant, but to a living, loving God, from Whom we know Truth and are made free at last.

            That is the gospel – the good news. I could stop right here and will have given you a great thing, but I can’t; there is a caveat.

            We come to Christ and we are saved. We call Him Lord and Savior; both are true, but also not completely true because we are slow to give Him everything. We always hold on to something. There is always a lie or two that remain hidden away that we are notoriously slow to bring to Jesus. With very few exceptions everyone I meet has held on to something; old or young, newly with Jesus or a follower for decades, we are all still haunted by something: false shame, perceived imperfection, fear of missing out, or any of dozens of half-truths or outright lies that we still believe.

            King David reminded us that we are “fearfully and wonderfully made,” and yet we want to change something that is literally impossible to change. We wear lifts and high heels because we perceive that we are too short, or we walked stoop shouldered because we perceive ourselves too tall. We take Botox injections. We have bariatric surgery, breast implants, liposuction, or take sex change hormones or even surgery.

            Further, we are disquieted when someone on social media responds negatively to our posts. We compete with one another to best others in every imaginable way. We base our perception of self-worth on our own self-talk, on the opinions of others, or on our perception of our status with other people. We have never actually cast off Sin’s yoke, and we have never willingly let Jesus become our yoke mate.

            The reality is that none of that matters. If we love Jesus (and I am assuming that if you are still reading, you do), then let Him place His easy yoke on you. Believe Him when He says you are worth His sacrifice, His suffering, and His shed blood. What other people think or say about you is completely irrelevant! Your negative self-talk is based on lies that you still believe! If He made you short or tall, thin or heavy, male or female, embrace that as His plan for you – His PERFECT plan for you. Your shame is false – a lie that you are not made clean in Christ. Your genetic code is not a mistake – a lie that evolution got it wrong in your case, or worse, the lie that God made a mistake!

            How can I make a disciple of anyone if I am not fully convinced that Jesus is truly the Way, the Truth, and the Life? Only by walking with Him, wearing His yoke, hearing His voice day-by-day, moment-by-moment, will I be able to open every door to Him; only by opening every door to Him will I be able to rid myself of the half-truths and outright lies that haunt the dark corners of my soul. Only by hearing and believing what He says about me, and believing who He says that I am, will I be able to fully rid myself of the yoke and burden of Sin.

            Truth says that we are made clean by the completed work of Christ on the Cross. Truth says that we are who we are because God made us exactly as we are for His purpose, rather than for our purposes. Truth says that we are joint heirs with Jesus! How cool is that? Truth says that I will reign with Jesus – are you getting all of this?         

            In this life we have the task of letting Jesus transform us so that we become more like Him. It takes a lifetime; it’s simple, but it isn’t easy. It requires that we allow the Holy Spirit to speak into our lives, to teach us, to admonish us when necessary. Let us take Jesus’ yoke and cast away those little half-truths that are keeping us from believing who we really are – the very children of God.

Hearing God

            I have been thinking about silence. For several weeks, it has been hard to find. The Morris family summers tend to be just a little on the noisy side, with what amounts to continuous cousins’ summer camp from about late June through about mid-August.

            The neighborhood in which we live is rural and unusually quiet under normal circumstances. In fact my wife and I have been camping a couple of times this summer and found our “get-away” in the woods much noisier than our own neighborhood, what with campgrounds overflowing with children, nearby airports, rivers, highways, and loud radios.

            The fact is, we live in a world awash with noise, almost all of which is manmade. Very many of us are actually uncomfortable with too much quiet. I have pondered this phenomenon long and hard and have formulated some ideas about it.

            Silence, first and foremost, exposes us to ourselves. We do not really want to be with ourselves, at least not alone in the quiet. When we are alone and quiet we face our perceived inadequacies and we are confronted by our shortcomings. We hear our self-doubts. No one wants to spend time there.

            The Apostle Paul in his epistle to the Romans tells us that, “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” But what do we hear? I have heard some claim that he meant we are to read aloud from the Bible. I think that explanation is absurd. I think rather we read His word in silence, and in so doing we hear the Holy Spirit within speaking to us through the Word, exhorting us to greater faith.

            Rather than avoiding quiet in order to avoid our own inner voice reminding us that we fall short, perhaps we should embrace that we fall short. It is in falling short that we receive grace, and in receiving grace, we are embraced by God. Perhaps we should seek a quiet place so that we can hear what the Spirit is whispering to us. He is reminding us that we are His, however short we fall.

            Silence is worth seeking. We do not need to give up listening to worship music, time spent with friends, or recreation, but it wouldn’t hurt to turn off the television and stop streaming Spotify, get away from friends, family, and work, and set aside some time to be quiet with God. Let the Spirit of God speak to you about who you are in His eyes, and remind you that doubting ourselves is denying what God says about us.

            Think about it for just a moment; If I think poorly about myself or my performance, or about my standing with God, but God says that I am righteous and set aside for a holy purpose, and I am a citizen of heaven with Kingdom work to do, who do you suppose is right?

            Furthermore, how do I teach my students or my own children that they are who God says they are if I am not allowing the Holy Spirit to speak into my life because I live in the noise of the world?

            Get quiet with God. Find a way, a place, a time, and make it happen. Let His Spirit speak into your life, and get into the habit of hearing Him daily, and throughout your day. Let a little quiet energize you, and you will find that you are far more prepared for the noise than you ever thought you could be.

Making Disciples

            I want to have a biblical worldview and I want to cultivate a biblical worldview in my students. Isn’t this the essence of disciple making? In fact, I want to prepare my students so well that they are inured against the subtle half-truths and outright deception of the world into which I must eventually send them.

            Perhaps the first aspect of discipleship is understanding our salvation. We know as the Bible clearly tells us that we are “saved by grace through faith in Christ.” But then James tells us to “work out” our salvation, and both Peter and Paul exhort us to match our behavior to certain high standards. These various passages can be quite confusing, and can be used by deceived individuals to spread doubt among young followers of Jesus as to the nature and certainty of their status regarding salvation.

            In order to properly understand our salvation, and appropriately teach the young, we must have the ability to think beyond the concrete. Keep this in mind if you are responsible for young children. Know the development level of your young disciple and approach these things at developmentally appropriate times and in ways they can comprehend based on their abilities to think in the abstract.

            But remember this; Truth is not intellectually known, but spiritually discerned. You might be surprised by what the very young can grasp. My own son asked pointed questions about the rebellion of Adam and Eve when he heard about it in Sunday school when he was three and a half years old. On that very day he prayed the sinner’s prayer and today at the age of 45 is still walking with Jesus. Clearly he understood something in his spirit that transcended his cognitive developmental age.

            Was James mistaken when he wrote that we had to work out our salvation? Isn’t that in conflict with salvation by grace? Not if you understand the triune nature of God and that He created us in His image; doesn’t that make us de facto triune beings also? I will argue that it does, and I will explain my reasoning.

            When we are saved by grace through faith we are sealed with the Holy Spirit. Biblical doctrine teaches us that His Spirit indwells us, taking up residence with our own spirit. Thus we are established as having a spirit and being a spiritual being. This indwelling is also referred to as an earnest, as in when one makes an offer on a house and pays earnest money to assure the seller that one is serious about the transaction. This application of the Holy Spirit uniting our spirit to God is what cleanses us of sin and marks us as belonging to Him.

             Once that moment occurs in which we are saved by grace, a new struggle begins between spirit and flesh. The spirit is newly made clean, the flesh is still in full rebellion. This is where the new disciple begins to exercise mind and will to choose to follow Jesus; this is the time of life when the making of disciples takes place. This is where we who already follow Jesus step in to encourage, exhort, admonish, or whatever is necessary to teach the new follower to make choices toward Christ and away from the flesh.

            Thus we discover the second aspect of our triune existence. The writing of Paul is rife with this teaching; we are to pursue Christ and eschew the flesh even as the two struggle against one another for dominance. This pursuit is conducted by our mind and will as instructed and encouraged by the Holy Spirit in us. If you are uncertain about this, see the seventh chapter of Romans. In fact, the teaching in this entire blog can be found in Romans.

            So for convenience and because I think scripture teaches this, I will refer to this second aspect of our triune existence as soul; thus we have “spirit” saved by grace through faith, and we work out our salvation by means of our “soul.” All that means really is that once we are “saved” we become “disciples” by choosing to follow Him by learning and applying his word to our lives; we work towards the goal of becoming like Christ for the duration of our lives.

            All this while, from the moment we receive grace until the moment we pass from here to hereafter, we must deal with the flesh which remains in rebellion. If you have not yet reached the epiphany, the third aspect of our created being is our flesh – our physical body. We struggle against the flesh to become more like Jesus for as long as we are in this life. This is where hope in the resurrection plays its role; on the last day, our bodies will be resurrected and united once again with spirit and soul.

            So, just to clarify and summarize, all the passages about working out our salvation and about living in such manner that we are credible witnesses are consistent with salvation by grace through faith. We have been saved by grace; we are being saved as we pursue Jesus even as we struggle against our flesh; our flesh will be resurrected new and clean, no longer in rebellion. Spirit, soul, and body – three in one.

            Be like the Bereans who searched the scriptures daily to see if what Paul taught was true. Everything I have written can be found in the writings of the New Testament. Start with Romans, but verify with the Gospels and epistles.

            Whether you agree with my reasoning or not, we who are followers of Christ are subject to His Great Commission to make disciples. If we work with children or youth, our calling remains – we are to make disciples – and our students are part of that. Anticipate that your students will soon move on and eventually another person will try to make them disciples of someone or something other than Christ.

            Learn His word and teach your students in such a manner that they will have already examined the evidence and come to their own conclusion that the Word is accurate and true, and that whatever appearance of conflict there may be in it is indeed no conflict at all.

Thoughts for Summer

            School is out (or will be soon) and there are things that you wanted to do and did not get done. It is the same for all teachers. We seem to forget from time to time that we live in a world with built in limits, especially limits on our time.

            Perhaps as you begin a time away from school and students it is appropriate to think like a gardener. There may be weeds to pull; there may be pruning that needs to be done; there may be water and fertilizer that needs to be applied.

            Look over the garden of your recently concluded year. Were there things that you devoted time to that might have been better served doing other things? This is like pulling weeds. Plan today how you can get rid of those wasted moments next year. Fill the time with other things that you believe will be more valuable.

            Were there worthwhile things that became unwieldy or simply took up too much time? This is akin to pruning your garden. Change up your activity; plan today to prune away some of those elements that consumed time, but produced little, so that next year your yield is increased. There are many worthwhile plants in a garden, but if not pruned a little, they become much less productive. Pruning can be painful, but will increase your yield and fruitfulness next year.

            Spend a little time thinking through the year you have just completed. What activities should you have watered more? Which needed a fresh application of creativity (fertilizer)? Which can you prune back a little next year? This sort of mindfulness may help you get to some of those things you wanted to do this year but ran out of time.

            We must approach every school year as a fresh opportunity. I taught for 43 years, and I had 43 years of experience. Other teachers of my acquaintance taught the same year over and over and never refreshed their approach except when they were required to due to new curriculum or a grade level change. Make each year new!

            Having said all this, make sure you also spend some time thinking about other things besides teaching! We all need rest and fellowship. Be good to yourself so that you can indeed return fresh and rested for your next adventure in teaching.

Knowing the Word

            I have written a number of times about the importance of knowing God’s Word. I know that the Apostle John started his Gospel by explaining that Jesus is The Word, and knowing Him is an essential aspect of our faith, but I am talking about the written text of God’s Word, the Bible.

            In my post Immersion I wrote about the importance of being fully immersed in the text of the Bible, and I gave some ideas regarding ways to do that. You can find it here. In my half century of walking with Jesus I have noticed that far too many people who say they are His followers do not even read the Bible, let alone study it or memorize from it. I hope to encourage you to change that if you are lax in accessing the Bible as part of your walk with Christ.

            My good friend Ron Frost is a very big proponent of reading the Bible just as you might any other book, and doing so on a regular basis. Ron is Professor Emeritus at Multnomah Bible College in Portland, Oregon. He has many published works to his credit, but the freshest and most current is his blog. In his most recent post, he revised and republished something from one of his books that I think shows a really great way to engage in God’s Word. He demonstrates how accessible the Bible really is, and how easily one can engage regularly with it.

            I will link you to his blog and you can read it for yourself. His blog is A Spreading Goodness and the post I am referencing is Make This the Year! The title is the link. (Just as an aside, when you follow the link you will see a post called Bible Read Throughs,  but when you follow the link to A Spreading Goodness the same post is called Make This the Year! Technology, right?)

            Be sure to follow my blog Right Thing, Right Place, Right Time so that you will receive notifications when I post new materials. Until now I have posted every week, but as summer exerts itself I may find myself occupied with things that interfere with my writing. And follow Ron’s A Spreading Goodness to read his insights.

            Read and grow!