WHEN WILL I EVER LEARN?

The older I get, the more frustrated I get with people, especially those who call themselves Christians! According to my understanding from the Bible on how the Body of Christ is to function, those who are older and gifted to teach are supposed to instruct the younger. But from my experience of forty plus years of being a child of God, nearly all born again believers think they already know everything. The least common characteristics found among Christians are humility and teachableness (if that is even a word)!

I am going to be seventy this September, if the Lord chooses to keep me here that long, and I have a wealth of knowledge to share from both life and from the Word of God. The problem is, there are few who desire to listen to what I have to say. Maybe one or two members of my family occasionally read my blog, but none seems to be effected enough to discuss it with me. In fact, I am not sure any of them actually read it. Maybe that is because I have lived a less-than-perfect life, and they have lost respect for me. To be honest, looking at my seventy years, I find little to respect in myself.

My pastor and I were just discussing how far beyond comprehension it is that God would waste His time saving such worthless folks like us. It is mind-boggling! And yet, when I look at those in the Bible that He used, I see something very strange. God chooses liars like Abraham, adulterers like David, harlots like Hagar, and murderers like Saul (Paul), to do great things for Him. He picks from the foolish and the weak, to confound the wise and the mighty (1 Cor. 1:26-27). He chose a small people, Israel, to reveal Himself to the great empires of Assyria, Egypt, Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome. For His Son, He chose the role of a Lamb being led to the slaughter, rather than that of a mighty, liberating King (which, by the way, He also has chosen for Him later, when the fullness of the times of the Gentiles has come - Lk. 21:24).

Perhaps there is another reason believers are generally unteachable. Our human nature is to only listen to someone with whom we are confident that he knows everything (that shows how ignorant we are; no one knows everything, or anywhere close to it). How many folks have you known who have left a church because their Pastor did not agree with them on every doctrine? Unfortunately, I have. Or better yet, how many Pastors have you seen "fired" because some powerful person in the congregation decided he was wrong about this or that? Instead of learning from God's man, every week, we often set ourselves up as judges of the suitability of the man to be our Pastor. God help him if he makes the mistake of saying "Noah" when he meant "Lot!"

I have been through Bible College, Seminary, and have served as Pastor, Sunday School Teacher, Nursing Home Chaplain, as Outreach Chairman, and I have worked in the prison ministry. I study God's Word for three or four hours each day, have raised three daughters (poorly, as I look back), and been married to the same poor woman for fifty years. I know stuff! And perhaps the things I know best are those things believers should not do! Someone once said, "A fool learns from his own mistakes; A wise man learns from the mistakes of others." I do not know everything, but what I do know, I want to share. One day, I will know it all (1 Jn. 3:2)! Come Lord Jesus!

A special thanks to the thirty-two folks who have chosen to be "followers" of my blog. Spread the Word!