It surprised a friend the other day that I taught Bible studies on a weekly basis, and have done so for about a year and a half, starting about December of 2017.
I was going to call this page “Teachings”, but I think this is a more accurate title.
I will share a few of the studies here if I find free time to write them up and post them.
My style is mostly object lessons (and if you have a better word for this, you can send to me, but I like to keep it simple).
Here are a few of the studies I prepared. I’m still trying to figure how to tie some to this page, and some to the main blog. (Things will shuffle, please bear with me as I figure all this out.)
God is a Helper
God is Light
I read about Jesus wandering around the country side and then he pulls out a white board, and writes three B’s on it, stack on top of each other, and he turns to the crowds and he says I’m going FYI tell you about Baptism, Barrabus, and Hmmmm Biblical principals today…..
No wait, that’s not what he did (although there is a place for this style of teaching and learning, that’s not my primary way when talking to new and young believers).
Jesus instead would use things in his vicinity. In Matthew 18:2-4 Jesus calls a little child to Him, then proceeded to tell the disciples how to enter the kingdom of heaven.
See that fig tree, see that grape vine, see this fish, this loaf, this cup, this bread.
Jesus took everyday, ordinary items to use for his parables and teachings, because as people went back to their lives, their home, they weren’t going to remember everything he said, but they might remember that he compares the kingdom to a treasure found in a field, and while spending the time plowing and tilling it, they may think, what if this rock I just uncovered was a treasure, what would I do with it if this was not my field. What was that new rabbi saying about the kingdom of God last week.
And Jesus gets a someone thinking.
I, too, try to seek to relate the lessons of God, to today’s world, because I don’t k ow about you, but I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a fig tree, I wouldn’t know it if I had one growing in my yard. I have planted grapes and have learned so much through that research that I can reflect back to what Christ said about the vine and being cut off, and pruning, and new growth.
Did you know, what grew in your grape vine last year, that produced grapes for your family and your kids to eat, will never bear fruit again? It turns woody, and brown and becomes apart of the support for the vine for next year, because more vine will grow from it, and that new growth will bear more good fruit.
We literally can not do a good work once, bear good fruit, and rest on that growth the rest of our life. The fruit was there, it was enjoyed, it was good, but we must keep growing and growing, bear more and more good fruit each season.
If we stop growing, and prune off the new growth, if we are content with our relationship we developed as a child, and never seek to grow past that one church camp, or that one step of faith, we essentially keep pruning the vine back so we shall never see fruit again.
How crazy would that be for a person to do with a fruit bearing vine? We can not rest on our old victories and laurels. They support us, and are something we can look back to for encouragement with how God works, but we have to keep growing, keep moving, keep learning, and keep stepping out in faith.
I only learned this because I bought a grape vine, and did research on it, and learned through the experience of growing it.
I can assume 2000 years ago, because of the content of the Bible, many people were already familiar with this kind of information, and much more, as I don’t even rely on it for my livelihood, for making drink, for feeding my family, I own one hobby bush.
Not only that, if you weren’t the rich person, we see stories about hose that would have been laborers, that would have seasonally been trained to work for vineyard owners. Pruning in the winter, helping the vine grow to its best potential, not to waste the plants energy on weak new growth, but to keep it trained on your primary shoots. There is so much to learn looking backwards.
But, I am a student of the Bible, I’m lookin backwards to try to understand and further my knowledge of Christ and his Kingdom here on earth, and what was used effectively to speak to those people.
I have the job of looking around me, at the things I have on hand and everyone else I talk to, so when they are watching that next block buster Marvel movie, or using their iPhone flashlight, or the new Star Wars movie is coming, they can have a little seed of Christ that just might prick their mind, and although they paid to go see The Avengers, they may be thinking about the disciples lonely ministry, or about how Jesus is the light, or about being warriors for Christ.
God is everywhere, He is always with us, we have to train to be able to see Him walking with us.
As a new Christian, we begin to learn to look behind us and see Jesus’s foot prints in the sand, beside our own. We learn how e has been walking with us, although we may not understand it during the walk. The maturing of Christians can look around us, and see where God IS working, and praise Him in the moment, with the hard times and the easy times, because we know He is there, guiding and directing for our good.
Praise the Lord He is a living god, that walks with us, and cares about us right now, right here, always with us.Take a moment and seek Him out if you don’t see Him walking with you.
Furoshiki Family 