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Bible Teacher
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was the truth. His own thought, His character, His life experience,
were embodied in His teaching. So with His servants; those who
teach the word must make it their own by personal experience. They
must know what it is to have Christ made unto them wisdom and
righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Every minister of
Christ and every teacher should be able to say with the beloved John,
“The life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and
show unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was
manifested unto us.”
1 John 1:2
.
Often it will seem to the teacher that the word of God has little
effect on the minds and hearts of many students; but if his work
has been wrought in God, some lessons of divine truth will linger
in the memory of the most careless. The Holy Spirit will water the
seed sown, and it will spring up after many days and bear fruit to the
glory of God.
Simplicity in Teaching
Teachers may learn a lesson from the experience of the farmer
who placed the food for his sheep in a crib so high that the young
of the flock could not reach it. Some teachers present the truth to
their students in a similar manner. They place the crib so high that
those whom they teach cannot reach the food. They forget that the
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students have only a small part of the opportunity that they have had
to gain a knowledge of God. They are too high up on the ladder
to reach down a helping hand, warm with tenderness and love and
deep, earnest interest. Let them step down and by their manner say
to the students:
“I will no longer stand so far above you. Let us climb together,
and we will see what can be gained by a united study of the Scrip-
tures. Christ is the One who imparts all knowledge. Let us work
together in an earnest effort to learn from God how to understand
the truths of His word, and how to place these truths before others
in their beauty and simplicity.
“Let us study together. I have nothing that you cannot receive
if you open your mind to Christ’s teachings. The Bible is your
guidebook and my guidebook. By asking questions you may suggest
ideas that are new to me. Various ways of expressing the truth we