Ah, mid-terms... everyone loves midterms...

Ok so most of us don't actually like mid-terms, but they are a great way to show your progress. Sometimes we may not want that, but I like seeing ways that I can improve myself and tests are an extremely honest way to do that. The thing about it is that we only have mid-terms when we are in school; there is no "Christianity Mid-term" to let us see how we are progressing in our spiritual walk. So how do we measure how we are doing spiritually? The answer is simpler than some of us would like, that is compare ourselves to the standard of the Bible. There is the obvious comparison of, "are we displaying the fruits of the spirit?" But is there more beyond that? Because I have known some very obviously non-Christians who display the fruits better than some “Christians” that I know. Well to see how we are doing spiritually we can look at some examples in the Bible of people who were educated more correctly in the gospel and see how and why they grew.

We can look at Acts 18:24-28 where we see a man named Apollos who was educated in the scriptures, who eloquently and accurately taught about the things concerning Jesus. But he only knew the baptism of John the Baptist, so Pricilla and Aquila took him aside and taught him more accurately the ways of the gospel. After witch his was a great asset to the early church.

We can also look at Acts 19:1-7, here Paul encounters some disciples of John the Baptist. When he asks them about if they had the Holy Spirit, they told him that they did not know about the Holy Spirit. On top of that they also had only knowledge of the baptism of John. Thus Paul taught them about Jesus, His death and resurrection. When they learned the truth, they were immediately baptized, and after Paul laid his hand on them they were given the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

There are many other examples of people finding out that they were educated wrong, and after being properly educated, fixing whatever was wrong. They were willing to do this because nothing was more important to them than getting to heaven! That is a great lesson to us today; are we willing to put our pride behind us, and honestly look at our lives to see if we truly match what the Bible says a Christian should be? Are we willing to look at our Christian walk and see if there are traditions of men that we have been taught all of our lives that don’t match up with the Bible? And if we do find those unscriptural traditions of men, are we willing to get rid of them and follow the Bible?

If you are then congratulations, you are what is called a truth seeker! That is a person who wants to know the truth, and is willing to do what it takes to learn the truth. But if you are not willing to leave the unscriptural traditions of man, then you need to ask yourself what is more important in your life; heaven, or your pride? Because let’s face it, if you are unwilling to change because; “This is the way I’ve always done it” or “if I change then that means that all the people before me were wrong” or worse yet “I’m older than you so there is no way I will admit you know better than me.” If one of these is your mindset, can you really say that you are seeking fist the kingdom of God (Matthew 6:33)? This is your Christian mid-term; will you pass and follow the example of the Bible, or will you fail and follow the traditions of the world?

Report January 2010!

Wow - I can't believe how quickly this quarter is going... and the last one has disappeared altogether!

Several factors are making this second quarter even better than the last. Namely, that I am a little more able to keep up with the bookwork and housekeeping since I backed down on the school work-load. I have definitely been learning a lot about myself - it was a difficult pill to swallow that I wouldn't be able to stay up with everything in the day-time classes, but somehow a household must be taken care of. My number one priority is taking care of my husband, being his support in every way. It was kind of working out the other way last quarter, and that just isn't what this experience is for - this is for his learning academically and for both our learning spiritually. If I don't walk away with a degree, I have come to grips with the fact that I am no less of a hard-working person - my focus is just on other priorities.

Having said all of that, the classes I am taking are still phenomenal, the information well-put-together and biblical, and the instructors ever concerned about our success. This is an unbelievable school. I especially appreciate their emphasis on family - the motto is that a student who receives all A's in school but has not met the spiritual, physical, and emotional needs of his family has failed in the end. The program is intense, but the essential part of life at this point is to learn to be a good preacher while remembering that the family God has given us is the responsibility here and now. It's all about balance. It's all about knowing that God has provided for every need - now our job is to use what we've been given to further the kingdom, starting at home. God bless the men who are working so hard to provide this rich learning environment.

On a final note, and more on this in the future: yes, it is official. David and I are going to Malawi in the summer. We will leave the last week in June and be there for most of July. One of our instructors, Wayne Burger, goes to Malawi, Africa every July to teach as part of a program intended to raise the biblical knowledge of the everyday Christian in that area. They are an extremely evangelistic people: churches that collectively had between 200-300 brethren converted over 3,000 people - LAST YEAR. This is incredible: this is what the gospel does in places where materialism has not blinded people to their need for spiritual riches. But the general knowledge has needed strengthening, so for 6 months out of the year these people have the opportunity to attend 6 different classes taught by a different man each month. Students who attend every class and finish the work receive at the end of the four year program a book form of each instructors notes on their material. 400 BRETHREN are receiving the final additions to their personal starter-libraries this year. THAT is dedication. And we are going to be there when they finish Wayne's class, the last of their program: hermaneutics. More on our work there later...

Please pray for our preparations, and please spread the word. It will cost $3,000 each for us to make the trip, and we are asking our brethren to consider assisting us in this - while we have already made progress toward this goal, there is a long way to go and only 5 1/2 months to get there. Thank you for your encouragement and thanks be to our God who has richly supplied our every need - so that we in turn may give to other children of the kingdom. Amen.