“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 The Amplified Bible)
God’s dialogue this past Sunday was crystal clear. It weaved its way through Sunday School and the morning’ sermon, the sent word. There was more than one thread that weaved through the day, but one strand of God’s spool of wisdom had to do with maps.
Dr. Gloria King, the assigned Adult Sunday School Class teacher for the day, opened the eyes of those in attendance with a well-prepared lesson on Paul’s greeting to Titus, as she started with a map of Crete during New Testament times. The map itself could have been a lesson alone. Here were some of the takeaways from her icebreaker technique: (1) Although we were all asked to look at Crete and the implications of its location, only a couple of students actually did that assignment. The point: Be prepared! Just like school days, do your homework for Sunday School. (2) Most had to admit or agree that we need to refer to those maps in the back of our bibles more often as we study the word of God. (3) Crete was located near many of the cities where Paul wrote letters to in order to address the situations at each location. Cities such as Galatia, Colossae, Ephesus, and Corinth. Dr. King elaborated on the happenings threatening the early church in those locations close in proximity to Crete. (4) The happenings threatening the faith of believers in those cities posed a threat to the city of Create with people coming and going with wrong messages, false teachings, incorrect theology, a mixture of mythology, and other inaccurate information. That would be something that the church in Crete would have to be on guard for as they were new to the faith. (5) The Apostle Paul, the author of the letter, inspired by God, did not just establish the church in Create, but he continued to ensure, even after he had departed the city, that the truth would be received. It should be noted that Christianity, some 2000 years from when Paul wrote this letter, it is still thriving in Crete. There was more from our lesson with the map, but the takeaway for me was that we, believers, need the true word of God as we travel along our sanctification journey, and that once we introduce new believers in the ministry, regardless of their age or assignment as determined by God, we need to take actions to keep them going in the right direction. This will perpetuate the faith until Jesus comes back for His bride, the church. Sunday School is a great, grand ministry and I am grateful for those all who teach God’s word. After all, His word is our map. We are map blessed.
When Pastor M.R. King, preached (A lot of King’s working for the Lord, right?); when He preached from Lamentations, one of his analogies had to do with the use of MapQuest. He had just come back from a visit to another state, and he admitted that if he did not have that app, he would have been lost. I love the transparency. He pointed to the fact that he would not have known if he was making progress toward his destination or if he was seeing the same cornfields over and over and over again without a map. He explained that if he wanted to get it right, admitted that he had to depend up on the map in the app. Pastor held up his bible and clearly stated with his powerful voice, “This is our map! We need to use it!” Do you see this thread that weaved through Sunday School and the Morning Worship Service? I’m sure you did, but if not, just keep in mind we are map blessed!
Being map blessed, and desiring to get things right, let us do two things, at a minimum: (1) Look for lessons from the colorful maps in the back of your Bible. (2) Depend on our map, the Bible, that which we have been blessed with, to let the Lord lead us to the right direction and land at the right place in all areas of our living. Again we are map blessed! Have a great Tuesday! Be blessed!
P.S. Remember to go to the Mark Writes blog site for the meditations on July 10th through July 14th. Love you!
“All Scripture is God-breathed [given by divine inspiration] and is profitable for instruction, for conviction [of sin], for correction [of error and restoration to obedience], for training in righteousness [learning to live in conformity to God’s will, both publicly and privately—behaving honorably with personal integrity and moral courage]; so that the man of God may be complete and proficient, outfitted and thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17 The Amplified Bible)
Committed to the climb,
Mark L. King