One of the things that has been amazing in our journey here in India is seeing how God works. We once thought that teaching doctrine to uneducated pastors and church leaders was a daunting task. We knew that first we needed to lay a solid understanding of who God is and of the need for faith in Him. We decided to do this through chronological Bible story telling. The amazing thing is that through what we thought was foundation laying, we’ve seen God teach people deep theological truth.
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| Pastor Charles Kujur |
Recently, Charles, a pastor we’ve been training, said, “Joseph passed by
many temptations and he did not even commit sin against God. He abides in the
Word of God. God blesses us in our lives abundantly, and His blessings are a
light which is lifted up that others can glorify God and have respect for God’s
people.” It’s amazing that through Bible storytelling, which we
sometimes call oral inductive Bible study, Charles understands the preeminence of
God and His glory. He understands that
God’s blessings are given so that we might glorify Him. This is an example of
the kind of observations many church leaders are now making.
We go chronologically through 49
Bible stories to help them clearly see God’s redemptive story. We use an interactive method where we go
through the story 3 times. Then we dig into the story to find the spiritual truths.
Finally, we make practical and personal application from the story and the
spiritual truths.
The results in the last few
months are that many of the participants are digging deeper into God’s word. They
understand deep concepts like the sovereignty of God, His faithfulness, the way
He plans and accomplishes His plans, His mercy, and the way He foreshadows or
gives examples of things to come. One
student observed that just as there was only one door onto Noah’s ark by which
men could be saved from destruction, there is also only one way to be saved
from the penalty of our sins – entering into God’s salvation through Jesus
Christ. Another realized that the tar
that covered the inside and outside of the ark provided covering and
protection. In the same way Christ’s
blood provides us protection and covering.
These aren’t lessons we taught them.
We simply taught them how to meditate on scripture and ask the right
questions and they came to know the truth by meditation and revelation of the
Spirit of God. This is exciting to us,
because they are learning to feed themselves, a necessary step towards being
able to teach others to do the same.
Just as Charles said, God blesses
as people abide in His Word. The result is that the church is built up. God is building His church. Through the people who are His church God is
exalting Himself. We praise God for the
opportunity to be a part of this. We also thank Him for all who are
participating in making this possible.
