Bible study a success

A young man from the church asked me to help him study the bible.  He wanted to learn two things, one of which was to rightly divide the word and the second was how to prepare a sermon.  Actually, he is a young man to people my age but he is in his mid thirties and has a learning disability.  Actually he only made it through the ninth grade and is rather dull but still he is a good person and I was more than willing to help.  After all, I discovered early in life the one of the best ways to learn is to teach. 

I really didn't know the extent of his abilities or lack thereof until after we got started and I realized that learning was going to be difficult for him.  It took some doing but I finally got him to understand that rightly dividing the word is just another way of understanding exactly what the scripture says,  not only in terms of the meaning of individual words, sentences and phrases but in relationship to the paragraph chapter book and all the scriptures taken together as well as the intent of the bible as a whole. 

Where some people get confused is they think it is the language that makes learning difficult but it isn't.  Sometimes one needs to refer back to the original language to understand the intent of what a word really means, sometimes we need to understand the culture and customs of the writer or the people to whom the scripture was written to or about.  There are some scriptures that one cannot take to mean what they seem to mean.  Two come to mind quickly.  One says "Does not nature teach that it is a shame for a man to have long hair?"  and the other is "A bishop must be the husband of one wife."

At first reading it seems clear that the bible is teaching us that it is shameful for a man to have long hair.  What you don't see in that sentence is there is no guidelines to determine when hair has reached the length of being too long.  Also what some overlook is the fact that the sentence is a question and not a statement.  The answer can be no as well as yes.  If one reads on one discovers the final sentence on the matter states that "the church has no such custom." 

The conclusion of the discussion is that while it may be better for a man to wear his hair (or dress or whatever) in what is the style or custom that is more commonly accepted as normal the important thing is the mans soul.

As for the second scripture, the literally interpretation of which has done plenty of harm.  Some have gone so far as to deny a man access to the pulpit if he was not married and most have denied a man the right to be a minister if they have been married before.  It seems contrary to logic to think God wanted a man to dedicate his life to preaching only to deny him that privilege if his wife died.  Paul said it was better for a man not to marry so the Catholics do not allow their priest to marry, a decision that seems to stand in direct opposition to what Paul says here.  Did Paul get confused? 

Other people think that if a man was married and lost his wife (for any reason) and remarried that he cannot be a minister because he now has two wives.  Yet even Jesus said that if a man put away his wife for adultery then he was free.  That means no longer married.  If he isn't married he has no wife.  If a mans wife dies, whether by illness or accident, he no longer has a wife and is now free. 

Some will claim that once a man marries it is for all eternity and even if she is no longer alive the marriage is still valid in the spiritual world but I would like to point out to those people that the scriptures say that in heaven there is no marriages.  

The whole point of the qualification of "must be the husband of one wife" is to  inform us that before a man becomes a minister he needs to be a stable person,  If he divorced his wife because he desired another or couldn't make the marriage work because of his own shortcomings maybe he just isn't the right type of person to be a spiritually leader.  I just cannot accept the fact that God makes mistakes when men are truly called. 

The second part of our bible study centered on building a sermon.  The process is simple.  First one selects the text (the bible verse of group of verses that serve as the foundation or platform for the message).  Then one has to decide on the object of the message.  There are many lessons one can learn from just a small group of verses.  After one decides on the text and the point of the message, one then must develop the points in a logical manner so that the points can be delivered in    an interesting and convincing manner.  The end of the message is a call to action in response to the message. 

My student had a great deal of difficulty in even deciding what one should learn from a scripture of group of verses.  He was amazed that I seemed to be able to do it without mush effort but he was really disappointed to learn that it was a skill that not everyone would be good at. 

I asked him to hold up a finger.  "Now compare that finger to your head.  Can you smell with that finger?"  "No" he replied.  "Can you stick it around the corner and see what is on the other side?"  "No." 

"Can you hold up your finger and hear what others are saying?"  Again the answer was no. 

"Well then clearly the finger isn't as important as the head.  In fact in comparison to the head the finger seems rather useless so maybe it isn't needed.  Call I just cut it off?" 

The answer was no.  An emphatic no.

"Pick up that coffee cup" I instructed him.  He did. 

"Now I noticed that you didn't use your head but you did use your hand.  So that finger does have a purpose and is able to do things which even the head can't do.  Do not ever think that just because I can do things that you cannot do that you are unimportant.  There are things that you can do that I cannot.  There are certain people you can reach that I cannot reach.  You are just as  important and vital as anyone else because you can do things that others aren't able to..