One of the classes that I am
teaching here at Maxwell is 7th and 8th grade Bible. For the last several weeks we have been
using the Sabbath school quarterly lessons and going through them each
week. In the last few weeks though
I had really been feeling like there had to be a better way to do Bible
class. I started looking into some
other options and trying to figure out what to do. I had the kids fill out surveys on what kinds of things they
felt like they knew a lot about, what they felt like they had a lot to learn
about, and what kinds of things that they had questions about.
Some
of the kids, as you would expect from 7th and 8th graders,
gave me some pretty ridiculous answers and treated the thing like it was a
joke. However, there were a lot of
sincere answers there as well and some of them really surprised me. There were a lot of questions about
where sin came from and there were a lot of questions about the end of times
and Jesus second coming. So, I
thought that going through the last several chapters of The Great Controversy might be a good idea. I started to read it for myself
starting in chapter 29.
Once I made the decision to go
through the book I was faced with a problem. Where am I going to get 17 copies of the book? Not really sure where to start I asked
Hadassah and she sent me up to the office to ask about it. On my walk up to the office I caught Roy
just was he was leaving. I asked
him, expecting to possibly be sent on some wild goose chase to track down
books, assuming that we even had that many copies readily available. When I asked him about the books he
says, “sure, no problem” and then leads me into the office and sitting there is
a whole box of The Great Hope (a
recent reprint of the book) which had
just been dropped off for the students here at Maxwell. I was so excited! It had proved to be so much simpler
than I was anticipating. Talk
about God knowing our needs before we need them.
Over the last week we did a little
bit of an introduction to the book and did a little research on who Ellen White
was and talked about why we would be reading her book. When we did get into some discussion
these kids ask so hard but good questions! I was amazed at some of the things that they brought up and
had a difficult time trying to figure out how to answer some of the
questions. It is all so exciting!
This week has also been Week of
Prayer and the theme was Glimpses of God.
Each of the speakers (which included all of the SMs and a few of the
students) had a topic about a different character or personality of God. Some of the topics included creator,
leader, warrior, ect…. My topic was God as a healer. So each talk was supposed to be fifteen to twenty
minutes. We decided on who was speaking
about what and when last week. I had my talk written out by this past
Sunday. It was pretty
straightforward. I had three
different stories of Jesus healing people in the New Testament that I was using
and I pulled the same two points out of each one.
Thursday morning comes around and
it was my turn to talk. I woke up
that morning and I knew that I would not be using what I had prepared. It was 6:00 at this time and I
was supposed to talk at 9:45. It
was strange that I was not worried about it at all. I had no idea what I was going to be saying in just a few
hours and I had no time really to think about it. I had classes to teach until
it was time to speak. I had a few
minutes after breakfast and I jotted down a few notes that ended up being no
use to me because I could not read my own writing.
I walked to the church still not
entirely sure what I was going to say, but surprisingly calm about the whole
thing. When asked what my
scripture reading was I laughed because I really had no idea. I told him to used Ezekiel 36:26. I got up there and I talked. I know that I touched on the story of
blind Bartemaeuos from Mark 10:46-53 and about the woman who had been bleeding
for 12 years from Mark 5:23-34. I
made the point that in both cases Jesus healed these people and that he also
spoke to their spiritual and emotional needs in the process.
In the story of the blind man, he
called out to Jesus – even after being told to be quiet. When Jesus stopped to talk to the man,
he asked him what he wanted. As if God needs us to tell Him. But I then quoted James 4:2 about how
we do not receive because we do not ask.
After this Jesus tells the man, “go your way; your faith has made you
well.”
Then I turned to the story about
the woman with the bleeding problem.
She was desperate. The
Bible tells us that she had spent all of her money on doctors and that they had
been no help to her. Jesus was her
only hope and she knew that. The woman had to recognize her need and then she
had to push through the crowd to get to Jesus. It could not have been easy. Ellen White tells us that, “in that touch was concentrated
the faith of her life.” Now as she
touches Jesus she is instantly healed!
End of story? No, Jesus does not let her just walk away. He turns and asks who touched him. She knew that she could not hide and
she came forward and fell at Jesus feet and told him about what had
happened. He then says to her, “Daughter,
your faith has make you well. Go
in peace and be healed of your affliction.” Jesus did not let the woman walk away half healed. Though
she first had to acknowledge what had been done for her – he acknowledged her
and called her daughter. He told her that she was healed and to go in peace.
Then I pointed out what I think is
the most important part of these two stories. Sitting at home and feeling sorry for themselves did not
heal these people. They first had
to recognize that they had a need.
Once they recognized that need they had to do something about it. The blind man called out to Jesus and
was told by the crowd to be quiet.
But he persisted in calling out to Jesus until Jesus turned to talk to
him. Then he had to ask for what
he wanted!
The sick woman had to fight her way
through a crowd. Now living in the
states I don’t think that we really comprehend what this crowd was probably
like. Americans are pretty big on
personal space. It is not like
that here in Africa. There is no
personal bubble. When you are in a
crowd, its like sardines. There is
no room for anything and I am truly amazed that anyone is able to get
anywhere. I like to imagine that
this crowd was more like that, and we see this sick woman pushing her way
through the crowd to get to Jesus.
She had to fight to get to Jesus!
I told the kids that the point I
was trying to make is that it was not enough to be in the crowd as Jesus walked
by. That was not how these people
got the healing that they desperately needed. They had to do something. They had to reach out and they faced opposition in the
process. It is not enough to go to
an Adventist school. It is not enough to go to church. God wants to make you whole! But you
have to reach out in order for Him to take hold of you.
