Has the Lord ever asked you to do something difficult? Right now I am in a difficult assignment. As I attended the Texas Baptist Media Forum last January, Mark Knox, editor of the Baptist Standard, asked me a question.
"Mike, would you consider writing the Bible Study Lessons for our website." Wow. Stop. I am not a scholared theologian and fill inadequate to be writing commentary on God's Word to help other Bible Study teachers. If it were not for my personal editor, my wife Marianne, a high school English teacher, I would have never had graduated from seminary because of all the writing assignments.
I failed Dr. Jack McGorman's class on the book of Romans while in Seminary at Southwestern. How can you fail a class in a book that is so rich about God's grace? I did not study enough. It was not Dr. McGorman's teaching. He was one of the best Bible professors I had. The reason why is that he shared from his heart in class what the Word of God meant and how it applied to his personal relationship with Jesus. He shared his struggles and his triumphs.
I told Marv, "I have never done this type of writing before." His encouraging words to me, "You can do it, just keep it under 900 words." Speaking like an editor.
I have just completed the third lesson assignment. God knows what he is doing! The lessons are in the book of Nehemiah. Nehemiah met opposition and discouragement as he obeyed God's call. How did he overcome this? By depending on the Lord, talking with the Lord in prayer, remembering that God called him to do the task of rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem.
The task of writing the Bible Lessons is difficult. That is good because I am depending on the Holy Spirit to direct me. And I am remembering how Dr. McGorman taught the book of Romans, with passion for His Savior, Jesus Christ. I believe the call that God has placed on my life is to relate to others about how personal He is and how He works in our lives today.
Check out the lessons at www.baptiststandard.com. Click on "Departments" on the bar under the masthead. Then look to the top right of your screen, and click on "Bible Study Lessons."
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Last Post January 24
Why do I have a blog? The last time I posted was on January 24th. I have the blog because I like to express my opinion in written form from time to time. This blog will be about my opinion on a few things.
1. Bail Out Packages- Why give the money to big corporations? Why not give the money to the American taxpayer. Give each person who filed an income tax return a lump sum of money, guess what, economy stimulated.
2. Auto industry- Let them go under. What would happen? The current GM employees could form there own company, buy the assembly line plants at great prices. Start making a few models and go from there. I believe the American car buyer would support this because the underdog is trying to make it work.
3. Church attendance- How can a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ not attend church? They are missing out and missing blessings from the Lord. Great book to read, "Who Stole My Church?" It is a fiction book about a church and its leadership discussing the trends in church life. The book is very good.
4. Big Salaries for CEO's- I read that the CEO of an oil service company made 15 million dollars last year even though his company was going to post losses this quarter. Do these guys need to make so much money? Why? What skills do they have that I don't have?
5. Local Newspapers- The digital age is taking away advertising dollars from local newspapers. The 20-30 year olds don't like to read a printed newspaper. They would rather view news on TV, the internet or PDA. The question that is being asked today is will the printed newspaper be around in 10 years? I say yes .
I agree with the publisher of the Longview News Journal. He stated in a column that the local newspaper will never die if it makes it a priority to cover local news. People who live in Marshall, Texas can only get in-depth Marshall news from reading the Marshall News Messenger.
KMHT radio in Marshall is thriving as a radio station because it is a local radio station, with local news and sports.
Enought said for today.
1. Bail Out Packages- Why give the money to big corporations? Why not give the money to the American taxpayer. Give each person who filed an income tax return a lump sum of money, guess what, economy stimulated.
2. Auto industry- Let them go under. What would happen? The current GM employees could form there own company, buy the assembly line plants at great prices. Start making a few models and go from there. I believe the American car buyer would support this because the underdog is trying to make it work.
3. Church attendance- How can a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ not attend church? They are missing out and missing blessings from the Lord. Great book to read, "Who Stole My Church?" It is a fiction book about a church and its leadership discussing the trends in church life. The book is very good.
4. Big Salaries for CEO's- I read that the CEO of an oil service company made 15 million dollars last year even though his company was going to post losses this quarter. Do these guys need to make so much money? Why? What skills do they have that I don't have?
5. Local Newspapers- The digital age is taking away advertising dollars from local newspapers. The 20-30 year olds don't like to read a printed newspaper. They would rather view news on TV, the internet or PDA. The question that is being asked today is will the printed newspaper be around in 10 years? I say yes .
I agree with the publisher of the Longview News Journal. He stated in a column that the local newspaper will never die if it makes it a priority to cover local news. People who live in Marshall, Texas can only get in-depth Marshall news from reading the Marshall News Messenger.
KMHT radio in Marshall is thriving as a radio station because it is a local radio station, with local news and sports.
Enought said for today.
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