First day of class

So today was my first day of class, and I am excited about being a part of this! I have 8 students and 1 who is auditing. They are mostly senior pastors with a college chaplain and associate pastor in the mix. They are enthusiastic and ready to share!

Tomorrow I will show them part of "Unleashing the Word" by Max Mclean. Check it out if you've never seen it. He also does incredible dramatic readings of Mark and other parts of the Bible.

One of the key challenges from class today was 1 Peter 4:10-11.

As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
(1 Peter 4:10-11 ESV)

The varied grace of God includes both words and actions. The words should be the words of God, and the actions should be in the strength of God. It is a sobering thought that those who speak are to speak the words of God. Of course, if someone stands to preach in a church, they had better be the words of God! In other words, our message had better be the message of the Bible, or else we shouldn't be standing where we do. But it is a mind boggling thought to be God's mouthpiece. If that doesn't put the fear into us, I'm not sure what will! And yet, by the grace of God, we can actually speak His words. He can speak through us.

We are to deliver God's grace to people. He could do it directly, but He chooses to use people. So as you have opportunity, speak the words of God to people, encouraging and challenging them in His grace. And as you have opportunity, serve people using His strength.

Here in the Philippines, apparently pastors normally preach between 45 and 90 minutes ... that's quite a sermon! Needless to say, I won't let them preach that long in class. Actually, I'm going to give them 20 minutes. If they can say what they need to say in 20, then I'll let them expand upon it in their own settings.

By the way, here's the street where I am living. It is a very nice place.

By the way, I'm told that the mall I showed you pictures of is not the biggest mall in Manila. And I went again today (a Monday) to discover that lots of people are there even on a weekday during the day! I am told that people here really enjoy shopping!