Teaching Junior Bible Study

This is my first week at work at my new job (read my post on 7/2/2008), and it has been really busy for me. It's not that kind of hard labour, but it is mentally exhausting.

That was my reason (excuse) for not preparing for my bible study lesson.

I had considered skipping bible study this week and teach other things, but since I haven't prepared for anything else either, I decided that I would stick to bible study.

I had just come back from work this morning itself, and so was quite tired. Up to the time when I distributed the bibles, I had no idea what I should teach on. I thought I would just read some verses and explain a bit, and dismiss the class.

Then I thought, wait... I'm not going to settle for this kind of lazy attitude, because I am going to preach God's word. God's word must be preached with excitement everytime, all the time. I prayed to God, "Lord, please speak through me to these children."

I began to teach them, continuing where we left off the last time. At first it was just plain and ordinary, i constantly had to remind myself to put on a smile, but things came to life halfway through. God brought to my mind a particular experience that well illustrates my point. Praise God! This is the summary of what I taught today.

Solomon's Guide on How to Get Wisdom:

Text: Proverbs 1:8-19

1. Listen to your parents' advice. Learn from their experience.

Parents can give us some very good advice, if we will just slow down and listen

2. Don't listen to a bad advice.

a. Learn to recognize which is a good advice and which is a bad advice.

b. There will be someone who constantly think of how to do bad things or how to harm other people. Some of them will ask us to join them - Don't do it.

3. Choose your friends carefully.

a. There are some good friends, and there are some bad friends.

b. We may eventually follow what they are doing.

Illustration:

When I was still studying at 16 years old, I was mixing around with a group of friends. Since most of us had just gotten our motorcycle licence, we were very excited about riding our motorcycles outside the school. A few of us already owned a motorcycle and rode it to school. I was one of them.

It began with just some harmless riding around to and fro, until later when someone suggested that we have a race. The race was to see who can go to 100 km/hour when riding along a narrow stretch of road just outside school. What actually made the race difficult was that in the middle of that stretch there was a sharp 90-degree turn that no one could manage to make that turn without slowing down, and therefore no one could make it till 100 km/hour.

I was a new Christian then, being young and adventurous. I arrogantly told my peers that I would try to win that race, and the way I'm going to do it is by doing a grand-prix style cornering at that turn. So I got to my bike as they watched on.

So off I went... at the speed of 90 km/hour I was already nearing the sharp turning. I decided to pull of my stunt as planned, but the road was too narrow my bike began to swerve to the other side of the road, and went out of the road towards the grass at the side of the road.

I tried to pull my brakes to the max but the bike was just going too fast. I was heading towards a lamp post and there was nothing I could do. My mind went blackout for a moment as my bike hit the lamp post headlong with a small thump.

I was stunned for a while and looked around. The bike was okay. I remember I had hit straight on the lamp post. At the speed I was at there should be more serious damages than this.

I checked and I realize that at that particular lamp post there were some soil being piled up around the lamp post, as a result of some digging work being done nearby that area that particular day. That pile of soil had actually absorbed much of the impact.

After that day, I began to wonder what would happen if there weren't any soil being piled up at that lamp post. I began to realize that God had miraculously delivered me from a serious accident.

I began to think how my life would be different if I had lost a limb on that day. I could have even broken my neck. From then on, I ride my bike very slowly, because I value my life. (Even to this day I would not speed on my car.)

Moral of the Story:

Sometimes, we would do some stupid things that we won't normally do, but because we mix with the wrong group, we will tend to follow their ways. It is wise to choose your friends.

Conclusion:

Wisdom is - knowing which is the right decision, and the ability to make that right decision.