Once a week I go listen to Biblical Brain-ie-acks teach a passage for next Sunday's lesson.  They are very, very interesting to listen to.  Scripture that I have read a zillion times is opened, and I realize that I didn't know squat about it.  After they discuss it, I am amazed that I hadn't thought about that.

It's very humbling.  I've been teaching Bible classes for sixty one years.  You would think I would know a thing or two.  But no.  I am still learning.

The only thing I can claim as an excuse is that everyone in the class seems to know something nobody else has thought about.  And every now and then I have something to offer that nobody else knew.  It doesn't happen often, but it does happen.  Maybe once a year???

It is a privilege to sit in a class with these people.  They teach me things.

Some of them are historical encyclopedias.  Some of them are Jewish language majors.  Some are fluent in the geography of Israel.  I am none of those. 

I am an application teacher:  1. What does it say?  2. What does it mean?  3. What am I going to do about it?  And that is the method I have always used to teach a class.  Scripture ought to change your life.  It should convict you.

If it doesn't help me become a better person, I usually file it away in my head to think about later.  I am more interested in what a passage is saying to me personally.  And what do I need to do in light of what I've read.

I have found in my years of teaching, that people skip over what they don't want to apply to themselves.  "Maybe it doesn't really mean that?"  Or "I need to read that in another translation," seems to be a theme of denial. 

Facts are enlightening (and good) but I need to apply the facts I already know.