As a teacher, I naturally want my students to know the why behind everything we do in the classroom.
Hence, upon drilling the Bible lesson's memory verse during children's church one Sunday, I asked my young pupils to explain why we memorize Scripture. Although these children had already memorized much Scripture and had been doing so since they learned to speak, all I received in response to my question was a blank stare. Since no one was giving me an answer, I proceeded to explain that because Scripture is God's Word it can be used to guide us in every situation; that we can use the Scripture we memorize and its wisdom to God's glory, and it will, in essence, make us more like Christ.
In hindsight, I felt I could have explained the answer better if I had used Scripture to justify it. I had long ago memorized a key Scripture passage that would have fit the situation, yet it did not come to my mind until later: "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work" (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
I came to the realization that I had failed to use the Scripture in the very way in which I was trying to teach my students to do.
If I had been better prepared for the lesson spiritually and mentally, perhaps I would not have lost this teachable moment. As teachers of the Word, our work is eternal, and our time with our students is fleeting; we must constantly be prepared to teach using the changing power of the Word. We must "practice what we preach" in order to be effective.
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I think that goes right along with what we discussed last week. Effective Bible teaching is "simple" but that does not mean "easy." In John 15:5, Jesus said, ""I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." Abiding in Christ is being in Word (reading/studying/memorizing) and walking according to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. When a teachable moment presents itself, we will be prepared.
ReplyDeleteThe example you give here about memorizing scripture reminds me of a lesson we did once in children's church when we studied the temptation of Jesus in Luke 4. For each "scenario," we set up a dramatic recreation, and I had one child be "satan" and one child be Jesus. I had three Bibles in my hand. As we read through the scriptures when we got to how Jesus responded, I stopped them and asked, "What did Jesus do?" As they answered I took one of the Bibles and smacked (lightly) the child playing the role of Satan. Each time we discussed how Jesus did not say, "I think in here somewhere it says something like..." and I hit (lightly) "Satan" again. After doing it three times, it began to "hit" home. :-) It really drove home in tangible, tactile way the importance of scripture memory. It is a lesson, I keep in my back pocket at all times to be used on short notice.
Excellent way to drive a point home in a lesson!
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