I had the privilege of watching as Caroline taught the memory verse for Thomas and Timothy’s preschool group in Vacation Bible School at their church for the past two summers. This was not her first Bible teaching experience. From a young age, she lined up her stuffed animals and dolls and taught them. She led her first Bible verse in front of a large group of kids at a YMCA summer camp when she was only thirteen. I best remember the night before the day she agreed to teach. I came into her room for our shared Bible reading and bedtime prayers to find her crying. My then shy girl was feeling afraid. “I can’t do it!” she sobbed. I sat next to her on the edge of her bed, held her in my arms and prayed for her. We practiced what she would say and I was her audience. The girl who stood up to lead the following afternoon was bold, not timid. God answered our prayers then and He is still answering them.
During VBS, she was provided verses with instructions from Group Publishing Inc. who coined the name, Sticky Scripture for the materials. She practiced her first lesson for Thomas and he thought she would practice again each evening before they headed to church. He paraded around the playroom saying to his brother, Timothy, “Time for Sticky Scripture! Time for Sticky Scripture!” Since then, Thomas has been copying one verse per week in his Sticky Scripture notebook. His mom does not wait for VBS to teach scripture to her sons. She has been teaching them God’s Word since Thomas was her only. Verses for each letter of the alphabet circle their playroom. She does not defer to kids’ church leaders to disciple her boys. She joins them each week in their classroom and then continues at home to add to what they learned in church. Her heart’s desire is that her boys will come to know God through His Word and that in the proper time, each of them will place His faith in Jesus and follow Him. Until then and beyond, she will steward the trust given to her by God.
I am blessed to have a front row seat to so many answered prayers. With John, I say, “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.”
3 John 1:4 NIV
https://bible.com/bible/111/3jn.1.4.NIV Nothing compares to the joy that comes from keeping in step with the Spirit. I can spend hours reading and studying scripture in context and in commentary and days or weeks meditating on a certain passage of scripture and in a single culminating moment, God’s Spirit can open my eyes to His Truth. Every time God downloads understanding of His Word, I am overcome by tears. Since I began blogging five years ago and even earlier when I began teaching Bible lessons, there has never been a doubt in my mind that God is guiding me by His Spirit just as Jesus promised. (John 16:13, 14:26) I only marvel with David, asking, “Why?”
“what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?”
Psalm 8:4 ESV
https://bible.com/bible/59/psa.8.4.ESV
“This is the covenant I will establish with the people of Israel after that time, declares the Lord.
I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts.
I will be their God, and they will be my people.
No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.”
Hebrews 8:10-11 NIV
https://bible.com/bible/111/heb.8.11.NIV
Since by His once-for-all-time substitutionary death and resurrection, Jesus is now and forever our great High Priest and we are being made into a kingdom of priests by His Holy Spirit.
“As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”
1 Peter 2:4-5, 9 NIV
https://bible.com/bible/111/1pe.2.9.NIV
Throughout scripture we see God speaking in various ways. Angelic messengers announced the birth of Isaac to Abraham and Sarah. Moses encountered God in a burning bush, on the mountain, and at the tent of meeting, speaking with God as a man speaks with a friend. Prophets, Psalmists, priests and Levites were charged with speaking on God’s behalf to His people. Some saw visions while others dreamed dreams. God spoke in a mighty rushing wind and in a still small voice, but in our time, He speaks by His Word and through the Spirit.
“Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets.
And now in these final days, he has spoken to us through his Son.
God promised everything to the Son as an inheritance, and through the Son he created the universe.
The Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God, and he sustains everything by the mighty power of his command.
When he had cleansed us from our sins, he sat down in the place of honor at the right hand of the majestic God in heaven.”
Hebrews 1:1-3 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/heb.1.1-3.NLT
We are indeed blessed to have more access to God’s Word and to study materials meant to make the Bible understandable than any generation before us. We must also be more discerning than any previous generation. We must not allow the word of any human, no matter how convincing, to hold the place reserved for God’s Word alone. If you only have time to read one book, it had better be your Bible.
David wrote, “I have treasured Your word in my heart so that I may not sin against You.”
Psalms 119:11 HCSB
https://bible.com/bible/72/psa.119.11.HCSB
Spending time with Thomas during the birth of his newest brother Titus has given me opportunities to reinforce what his momma is teaching him. God’s Word is not just knowledge to be gained. Jesus said, “If you love Me, obey my commands.” (John 14:15) God’s Word changes us, empowers us, and makes us bold witnesses, ambassadors of Christ. We are His messengers. He is the living, active Word. The Bible is filled with examples of people who walked with God, including Enoch and Elijah who entered eternity without tasting death. Ezra, my third grandson’s namesake is another.
“Then the leaders of Judah and Benjamin, along with the priests and the Levites – all those whose mind God had stirred – got ready to go up in order to build the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem.”
Ezra 1:5 NET
https://bible.com/bible/107/ezr.1.5.NET
“This Ezra (directly descended from Aaron) is the one who came up from Babylon.
He was a scribe who was skilled in the law of Moses which the Lord God of Israel had given.
The king supplied him with everything he requested, for the hand of the Lord his God was on him.
Now Ezra had dedicated himself to the study of the law of the Lord, to its observance, and to teaching its statutes and judgments in Israel.”
Ezra 7:6, 10 NET
https://bible.com/bible/107/ezr.7.6-10.NET
After the returned exiles completed the walls around Jerusalem in spite of opposition, Ezra, called the priestly scribe, read aloud from “the Book of the Law of Moses which the Lord had given for Israel to obey.” (Nehemiah 8:1) As Ezra read aloud, the Levites instructed the people, “clearly explaining the meaning of what was being read, helping the people understand each passage.” (Nehemiah 8:8)
“Study and do your best to present yourself to God approved, a workman [tested by trial] who has no reason to be ashamed, accurately handling and skillfully teaching the word of truth.”
2 Timothy 2:15 AMP
https://bible.com/bible/1588/2ti.2.15.AMP
“In October, after the Israelites had settled in their towns, all the people assembled with a unified purpose at the square just inside the Water Gate.
They asked Ezra the scribe to bring out the Book of the Law of Moses, which the Lord had given for Israel to obey.
So on October 8, Ezra the priest brought the Book of the Law before the assembly, which included the men and women and all the children old enough to understand.
He faced the square just inside the Water Gate from early morning until noon and read aloud to everyone who could understand.
All the people listened closely to the Book of the Law.
They read from the Book of the Law of God and clearly explained the meaning of what was being read, helping the people understand each passage.
Then Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who were interpreting for the people said to them, “Don’t mourn or weep on such a day as this!
For today is a sacred day before the Lord your God.”
For the people had all been weeping as they listened to the words of the Law.
And Nehemiah continued, “Go and celebrate with a feast of rich foods and sweet drinks, and share gifts of food with people who have nothing prepared.
This is a sacred day before our Lord.
Don’t be dejected and sad, for the joy of the Lord is your strength!”
And the Levites, too, quieted the people, telling them, “Hush! Don’t weep! For this is a sacred day.”
So the people went away to eat and drink at a festive meal, to share gifts of food, and to celebrate with great joy because they had heard God’s words and understood them.”
Nehemiah 8:1-3, 8-12 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/neh.8.10.NLT
“‘Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.’”
Jeremiah 33:3 NIV
https://bible.com/bible/111/jer.33.3.NIV
“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”
Jeremiah 29:13 NIV
https://bible.com/bible/111/jer.29.13.NIV
“Show me your ways, Lord, teach me your paths.
Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.”
Psalms 25:4-5 NIV
https://bible.com/bible/111/psa.25.4-5.NIV
“You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water.
I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory.
Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you.
I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands.
I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you.
On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night.
Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings.”
Psalms 63:1-7 NIV
https://bible.com/bible/111/psa.63.1-2.NIV
Walk With Jesus ~Consumed By Fire https://youtu.be/6GPzrNxlyYo?is=BK7ieEl5VMCVn1oT
