The last couple of weeks, we have been talking about wisdom. The middle aged kids and I started with a look at 1 Corinthians chapter two, and the distinction between earthly wisdom and the wisdom that God gives us through the Holy Spirit. We discussed how we need to look to the Bible to know right from wrong, and that it should be our guide in life. We defined wisdom as "The knowledge that God gives us to live our lives, and the understanding of the mysteries in the Bible."
After looking at 1 Corinthians, we went to an example in the Old Testament... wait for it. Nothing too surprising, we looked at 1 Kings 3:5-12. This is the story of when Solomon asked God for wisdom. I think most know the story, if you don't, go ahead and read it. And then skip over to Proverbs 2:3-10. I explained to the kids that Solomon actually wrote most of the book of Proverbs, and then we read these verses together. Basically, it says, if you call out to God for wisdom, and seek it as if it is something really important and valuable to you, He will give it you. I asked the kids if they thought Solomon really believed that, and they all said yes. Why? Because that is exactly what happened with him. He asked God for wisdom and God gave it to him. In the same way, we can ask God for wisdom, and if we seek for it in His word, He will give it to us. For the next couple of days, we studied various verses in Proverbs.
Proverbs 3:5--"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding." I explained what the word lean means (you can never assume with these kids how much they understand). And we talked about how sometimes, we think we know better than God. For example, God says, "be pure," and we say, "well, but they love each other, and they will probably get married anyway." In this way, we are leaning on our own understanding, instead of on what God's word says. I finished by explaining that no matter how smart or logical something sounds, if it does not line up with Scripture, it is wrong.
Next we talked about Proverbs 18:1. In this verse we find that a man who isolates himself seeks his own desires and does not want to listen to any counsel. I explained to the kids that God has placed people with much experience in our lives to give us counsel and wisdom. Sometimes, when we are doing something we know is wrong, we will not talk to anybody about it, and it is because we do not want to hear them say that what we are doing is wrong.
The next day, we spoke on the following verse: Proverbs 18:2. A fool takes no pleasure in understanding but only in expressing his own opinion. In this passage we find that we must humble ourselves, and listen to others well. A study came out that said that most people when listening, are not truly listening, but are simply waiting for the other person to stop talking, so that they can speak. We are not called to live like that. We are to put others above our self, and this means listening to understand what they are saying. It means caring about what they have to say, because in doing so, you show that you care about them. I had planned on looking at Proverbs for a while longer, but decided to take a detour and focus on the aspect of God's wisdom that teaches us how to live, so we moved into Ephesians 4:25-30.
We began with discussing falsehood. I wanted the kids to understand that this was more than just lying. So many people are able to bend the truth and not feel the conviction that should come from such an act, because they justify or omit information. I wanted the kids to know that God calls us to be trustworthy. When we say something, we will do it. When we say something, we mean it. I used the example of one of them running an errand for me. "I give the money and allow you to leave school to go buy snack for the kindergarten, and then an hour later, you return with way less snack than you should have." I ask, "What took you so long?" and he says, "I went to get the snack." I reply, "Is this all you were able to get with the money I gave you?" He replies, "Yes." In this example, we have two types of lies, the first is the justifiable, omitting kind of lie. It should not take an hour to get snack, but since he did not want to do school, he walked slowly and took a long time at the store. This is not honest behavior, even though he had permission to be gone. The second lie is the kind that we are used to hearing. It was not at all true. The snack was less expensive, and he pocketed the money. This is not only lying but stealing. In either case, God wants us to be trustworthy and honest people. At the end of the example, I made the point that even by worldly standards this was not the way people should act. I said, would you trust this person to go and buy something for you? And all in agreement said, "no." So deep down, even the world knows that God's wisdom should be the standard.
The next verse describes how we handle anger. I love to ask people new to the Bible whether it is ok to be angry, and then follow up with, "Was Jesus ever angry... was God ever angry?" Undoubtedly, someone always says, "No Jesus was never angry." And then you show them the passage when he drives the people out of the temple with a whip, and turns over the tables, and they say... "Ok. Jesus has been angry." I like to teach this passage of scripture with Matthew 18:15--"If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother." Anger is an emotion that comes when someone has wronged us in some way. We learn in Ephesians that we can be angry without sinning. I told the kids that when we are angry, most of the time we sin. I am angry with Karona, and so I call him stupid or hit him. In this way, I was angry and sinned. However, there is another type of anger that comes. It is more dangerous in my opinion, and it is the one when someone has wronged you, and they don't seem to notice. This is the type of anger, that can be without sin, but then turn into hatred and murderous thoughts. In Ephesians we find that we should not let the sun go down on our anger. Meaning, we need to follow Jesus' advice to go to our brother and tell him how he has wronged us. Most of the time, when this is done, the person says, "I am so sorry, I didn't mean to make you feel that way." And we have restoration and the anger passes away with forgiveness. Paul goes on to write that if we do not go to our brother before the son goes down, we leave room for the enemy to come into our minds and lie to us. When we lay down to sleep is when our thoughts really begin to run. The Enemy is a liar and he works through deceiving us in our minds. He will come in and say, "That person hurt you so bad. They don't deserve to be forgiven, because they will probably just do it again. You know what? They have always been that way. I hate them." And in this way, we leave room for the enemy, when we ignore God's command to go to our brother and talk to him. God is in the business of reconciliation. It is ok to be angry, but do not let it become sin.
The next day, we discussed verse twenty-eight, which says, "Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need." I found that with this topic, much like with the lying, the kids wanted to make it all about "do not steal." I decided to focus more on the latter half of the verse. Here we have a reason for working honestly with our hands. I explained to the kids that if we are seeking God's kingdom and righteousness, He will provide for our needs (we have talked about this before while studying Matthew 6). Sometimes, we are blessed with extra. Most people (including myself) take that as an opportunity to go and buy that new toy we have been wanting. In this verse we find that our purpose in working hard is to have "extra," so that we are able to share with those who need it. In life, we are both in excesses and in need, at various points. I wanted the BYKOTA Kids to understand that this excess can be used to bless others. That we can be the hands and feet of God by helping those who need it. We, as God's people, should not be lazy, but rather quick to work with our hands. For what purpose? So that we can provide for our family and have extra to help others in need.
The section that we covered today was about our words. I heard a sermon on this topic just a couple weeks ago, and he said that our words can be a gift, if we choose to make them one. I liked that idea. I focused on two words in this Bible study: corrupt and build-up. Our words can do two things, they can break someone down or pollute their mind, or they can build someone up and encourage them towards holiness. It is difficult sometimes with the language barrier to monitor how the children speak to each other, so I like to talk about our words a lot. Rhonda taught a small group lesson on this a couple months ago and used the analogy THINK. Think, "Is what I am about to say Truthful, Helpful, Inspiring, Necessary, or Kind?" In this way, we do not need to say everything that pops into our head. We choose to only say things that will build each other up. I showed the kids all the places in Proverbs that talk about controlling your words, and we discussed how our words matter.
We will continue to study in Proverbs, after we finish up this portion in Ephesians. We recently finished studying the Roman Road and Ephesians 2:8-10, in my attempt to give them a strong foundation in the Gospel. I thought that this study would help them get to know what God's word says about how we as followers of Christ should live.
I will post about what the older boys and I have been studying on a later date. I hope that this has encouraged you, and I also ask for your prayer that Christ would help me as I make disciples here in Cambodia.
Just in case you were wondering, I have nine kids in my middle school class: two girls and seven boys. One boy is nine, the rest are about twelve, and the girls are eleven and twelve.
Their names, if you would like to pray for them by name are:
Bee
David
Gene
Heng
Hiang
Karona
Ratanak
Timothy
Varee
BecauseHeLives,
Micah.
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