Knowledge or Arrogance

Many Christians wish they knew a little bit of Greek or Hebrew. When the Scriptures are read in their original languages a deeper meaning comes through. In May I begin my studies of Greek and let me tell you I am excited. I started doing some work to get ready and I bought a book by William Mounce called "Greek for the Rest of Us". In the book Mounce teaches the very basics of Greek so that someone can then use many of the tools available to bring greater depth to their studies. Some of these tools include lexicons, dictionaries, interliner New Testaments, and commentaries. I have just started the book but in the preface he says some very interesting things.

"There are of course, many dangers in relying on tools rather than actually knowing Greek. My fear is that people will think they actually know Greek even though they only know how to use the tools. Alexander Pope once said, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. I saw that it is a little bit of arrogance that is dangerous."

I don't think I will ever be a Greek scholar, but I pray that God will keep me humble as I study.

"Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves." Philippians 2:3

First Grade Sunday School

I had the chance to teach first grade Sunday School today. What a challenge for me. I have spent most of my adult life teaching adolescents, teen-agers, and adults, but it was great to see the enthusiasm of first graders. I was teaching the first week of our annual "First Bible" class. We present Bibles to the first graders and we spend some time with them walking them through how to use them and highlighting some of the big stories (literally, think 15 first graders with yellow highlighters, ooohhh the potential for danger) . The highlight (no pun intended) of the class came when I was showing the students a Hebrew Bible when one of them said, "That looks like Spanish!" Oh the joy of youth! It made my day. I told him I though it looked a bit like Chinese to me and he agreed. We also spent some time learning what the big and little numbers are for and how to find the passages. It was a fantastic morning.

I think it is great to get the Word into the hands of our children. We have to expose them to its life giving message at an early age and lead them through how to use it. I am grateful to Bethany Lutheran Church for this program. If you know of anyone who does not have a Bible, I would encourage you to go out and buy one and show them how to use it. Let me know if you need any help.