csibiblestudy

On Friday of each week, my classes have a memory verse quiz. Some weeks the quiz is one verse and some weeks it is a quiz of the unit of verses we are going over. I used to have students learn 70 verses in a year, going up to a 100 at times. But I noticed that students have this great way of taking the quiz that in their mind would produce a good grade. They would come in, start looking over the verse or verses and repeat it. They had even looked over it earlier if a teacher would let them, and what teacher in a Christian school is going to discourage students memorizing the Bible. The students would take out a sheet of paper or get the quiz I prepared as quickly as possible and write out the verse or fill in the blanks before they forget the verse. Five minutes later, they couldn’t quote the verse. What a waste. Not every student was like that, but I didn’t want the students to focus on taking a quiz on a verse and not even the verse itself, but the God the verse revealed. So I rethought what I did and decided that I would prefer for students to learn 9 to 11 verses a year so they would be able to say it 20 years from now. Still, I have students who come in, look over the verse, and are so focused on the verse that they are thinking of anything else. Because of this, I will remind my students to write their name on the quiz or paper. So this Friday, I did the same. Today while grading the papers, I made an amazing discovery. “Bible” took a quiz. I have taught Bible classes for almost 35 years but I have never taught “Bible”. Yet, this past Friday, someone in my class, put in the blank beside “Name” the word “Bible”. In that moment of laughter, God reminded me that although I was teaching a Bible as a class, I was teaching students. Students in the classes of 7th graders to 11th graders who God wants to love through me. Students, real live people, who He is seeking a relationship with based on the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I have this unique honor of sharing a real live person, God, with people who are real people, some spiritually alive and some spiritually dead. I am called by my Creator to share Him with people. Pray for spiritual eyes to be open and hearts to have a hunger for the living and true God. As we have seen this past weekend, life is uncertain. Whether an unexpected terrorist attack, a home invasion in which a person is shot, a tragic car accident, or disease and illness, we live on this earth for a short time but we will exist for eternity either alive in the presence of God or suffering in the darkness and flames of hell. If in heaven, I will have a great time talking with my students about goofy things I have done in class, crazy stories that I told, or convicting lessons I have shared. We will laugh an rejoice in the fact that our God was glorified in it all. But if in hell, my students will remember verses and lessons, testimonies and prayers, and the truth about God that they ignored and rejected. The memories will haunt them and their misery and despair will overwhelm them as their suffering mentally will match their suffering physically. But they have no hope because they turned away for the Truth that would have set them free. PLEASE PRAY FOR GOD TO BRING REVIVAL IN MY CLASSES!