A Time to Learn

Proverbs 18:2 ESV

A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion.

Proverbs 18:15 ESV

An intelligent heart acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge.

For the last several months, I, along with countless others, have been working to get the Perry County schools ready to reopen.

We emptied classrooms, moving all the books, furniture, and whatnot into the halls.

We cleaned from ceiling to floor.

Then we waxed all the floors.

We moved everything back into the classrooms, then we waxed the halls.

In the meantime, teachers have been preparing their lesson plans, figuring out a way to teach students who might not be in the classroom.

Every staff member, from the superintendent to the custodian, learned all the new policies for how to operate in the era of COVID19.

Which means that, after putting all that stuff back into the classrooms, we had to rearrange the classrooms to allow for social distancing.

We have been figuring out how to keep students safe and sanitize classrooms each time students leave a room.

Why have we been doing all this?

Because our children are worth all this investment!

Our education system may not be perfect, but I believe in the importance of teaching our children.

Proverbs 3:13–14 ESV

Blessed is the one who finds wisdom, and the one who gets understanding, for the gain from her is better than gain from silver and her profit better than gold.

Proverbs 9:9 ESV

Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser; teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning.

Moses

When God chose Moses to be His champion, he prepared Moses.

He caused Moses to be rescued by Pharaoh’s sister, who raised Moses as a member of the royal family.

Acts 7:22 ESV

And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was mighty in his words and deeds.

This means that Moses received the finest education.

Years later, when he returned to Egypt on God’s behalf, he understood all the royal protocols.

That education had to be a big help when Moses had to walk into Pharaoh’s throne room.

It gave him the understanding he needed to deal with Pharaoh.

But it also had to help that he was recognized as someone who was properly educated, rather than “one of the ignorant slaves.”

Samuel

In 1 Samuel, we read about how Samuel’s mother pleaded with God to end her barrenness. When God gave her a son, she gave that son back to God.

As soon as Samuel was old enough, his parents took him to the temple and gave him to the priest Eli to be taught and raised as a priest.

God empowered Samuel to be a prophet as well as a priest.

God used Samuel to anoint Israel’s first two kings and be advisor to them.

Paul

In Philippians 3, Paul describes himself as

Philippians 3:5 ESV

circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee;

As a Pharisee, Paul was highly instructed in the Jewish laws and traditions.

According to Acts 22:28, Paul was also a natural born citizen of the Roman empire.

This means that he came from a wealthy family who would have given him a good education.

Paul spoke Hebrew, Aramaic, Roman, and Greek.

He also understood the Greek philosophies and religions.

In Acts 17, Paul speaks to the Greeks in Athens, directly addressing their philosophies and religions in terms that the Greed understood.

Love the Lord With All Your Mind

Over the last few weeks, I have stressed a life worth living, and we have based this teaching on scriptures like Mark 12:30

Mark 12:30 ESV

And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’

I believe that loving the Lord with all our mind means that He expects us to seek him intelligently.

He wants us to keep learning and growing.

And while I am obviously talking about spiritual learning right now, I am also talking about our education of math, arts, language, history, and so forth.

If we want to make a difference in our world, we have to understand our world.

If we want to impact the people around us, we need to become students of those people.

Learning who they are and what they value.

On Wednesday, Perry County schools are starting back up.

Our children will be put in their hands to be educated.

And that education is important in helping our children rise up to become responsible men and women who will contribute to society.

But we want our children to be more than just good contributors.

We want them to change the world for Jesus!

I believe that most of those teachers have our kids’ best interests at heart.

But not all of them are believers.

Even so, God has put them in these positions to educate our children.

So we need to be praying

Praying for our schools. (Present list of school staff)

Administrators

Educators

Cafeteria staff

Bus drivers

Custodians and maintenance

Praying for our children.

That they will have wisdom when they receive teaching that contradicts the Bible.

That they will have wisdom to appreciate the opportunity to learn and use that knowledge to impact God’s kingdom.

Proverbs 4:13 ESV

Keep hold of instruction; do not let go; guard her, for she is your life.

Praying for ourselves as learners.

If we want our children to appreciate learning, we need to model good learning practices in our lives.

And if we really want to be effective in God’s service, we need to study, prepare.

Prayer time

Lay out pages on the altar. Pray for staff

Invite people to take pages home to continue praying.

Invite them to email and write a note to their people.

Bring kids up to pray for them.