Last Lessons #64 - GHANA

“Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last. But the word of God increased and multiplied.”  Acts 12:23-24

 When leaders of any country do not give God the glory for what he has done, they will be judged.  Maybe they will not all be eaten by worms, but they will surely die in failure.  We are witnessing political failure occurring in the USA today and it is sad.  But I want to tell you in this week’s blog about another country where God is working and where his Word will not fail – GHANA.

Ghana is a country of 21 million people.  Rafiki built a village there in 2001    where it works with several denominations – Presbyterians, Methodists, Anglicans, and Lutherans. 

I have mentioned that in my “retirement time”, I have been working on taking the Rafiki Bible Study lessons (all 66 books) and re-organizing some of them to fit within a Sunday school time-period of 45 minutes for use in churches.  These SS lessons are written for adults as well as for three levels of children.  So far, we have SS lessons for twelve books of the Bible, and the packet we produce contains the lessons on all levels as well as a Bible commentary by a notable theologian.  At this point, Rafiki has sent to African churches SS packets for Matthew and Acts including a commentary. 

What I want to tell you in this blog is so exciting!  In Ghana, the Methodists have 4,000 churches with 1 million members.  In Africa all Christians go to church!  The Methodists have recently asked Rafiki to send them our SS lessons on Romans.  They intend to teach the book of Romans in all their churches in 2022.  The Romans SS lessons are complete except for proofreading, but we do not have the needed 4,000 commentaries on hand.  But we will!  The funds to purchase these commentaries come through the ROSEMARY JENSEN BIBLE FOUNDATION and we are trusting that God will give us enough money to buy them right away so that we can send a container to Ghana with SS lessons and commentaries to arrive by January 1, 2022.  That’s a huge undertaking, but nothing is too hard for the Lord!

Can you imagine how wonderful it is to know that no matter how bad some things in the world look today, that in Ghana one million people will be studying the book of Romans every week for a whole year in their Sunday school classes? Their pastors will also be preaching Romans from their pulpits.  Would that more denominations as a whole, not only in Africa, but in the rest of the world would study the book of Romans.  That could bring the revival that we so desperately need today.

Personally, I have learned that there is nothing that gives me more joy than to be a small part of getting the Word of God out to the world.  What gives you the most joy?

Last Lessons #63 - EDUCATION

"Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.” James 3:1

I have learned that God sees to it that we are educated in the ways he wants to use us later in life.  Moses was educated in Egypt for a long time so that he could be used by God -- for a long time.  Paul was educated by Gamaliel for what he was to do later in his life.  God knows exactly how he wants to use each one of us, so he educates us accordingly.  And it takes a lifetime of learning.

There was no question that I would go to college.  My parents made sure that all six of their children would be educated.  We had no choice.  And indeed, all of us wanted college.  When I graduated from high school, by parents did not have money to send me to college (remember, I was the fourth child) but I was given a scholarship by the Business and Professional Women’s Club to go to Jacksonville Junior College (which later became the University of Jacksonville).  I wanted to become an English teacher.  Why? Maybe because my mother was a published poet and spoke correct English; but I believe it was mostly because my 12^th grade English teacher made me enjoy grammar and diagramming sentences and love literature. 

God was preparing me for what he wanted to use me for later in life.  I just didn’t know it.  All I knew was that I should become educated. What I was about to learn was that there are different ways of being educated besides going to college.  When I graduated from Jacksonville Junior College I wanted to go to the University of Florida and get a bachelor’s degree, but my parents had no money and neither did I.  So, still living at home, I got a job at the telephone company as a service representative.  I was driven back and forth to work by daddy who owned our only car.  I worked there for fifteen months and saved my money to go to the university. 

Working at the telephone company “educated” me in necessary ways.  I learned to obey directions, be on time, dress nicely, be polite no matter what customers said, think fast, and answer the phone after no more than three rings!  Plus, there was a supervisor who monitored everything that I did.  The working world really teaches a person a lot! 

After working for fifteen months, I thought I had enough money to go to the university, but I heard that the Education Department of the University of Florida gave scholarships to those who would agree to work as teachers in Florida upon graduation.  I applied for a scholarship and was awarded one, so off I went to the U. of F. living in a dormitory with a roommate.  Upon graduation, I was hired to teach 10^th to 12^th grade English in Apopka High School.  God provided me with a single PE teacher who had a car, and I rented a room in her little house.  I loved teaching and I am sure I learned more than my students did.

But my education was not yet finished.  God stepped in to provide me an opportunity to learn something new.  My sister Cecil told me that the US military was piloting a program to train occupational therapists in the Women’s Medical Specialist Corp.  They were selecting 23 college graduates to start their program.  Both of us applied and were selected.  Cecil decided to go to graduate school instead, so I went alone as a second lieutenant to the Medical Field Service School in San Antonio, Texas.  Wow, did I learn a lot there!  It was the first time I had lived outside Florida and, as it turned out, I would not live in Florida again until 2007.  In Texas I learned military discipline, the medical part of being an occupational therapist, and something that I would use extensively in later life – I learned craft making – woodworking, ceramics, jewelry making, copperware etc.  I already knew how to sew because my mother had taught me that when I was a child.  I loved what God was teaching me and I would use all of these things later in my work.

I am ashamed to say that I neglected my spiritual education during those years.  All I did was go to church on Sunday and read my Bible every day.  I forgot the verse that I had read: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.”   Proverbs 1:7 But God, in his mercy and grace, was not finished with me.  He would give me what I needed to serve him later in a most remarkable way.  That’s another story.

To this day, God is teaching me that education is important, but formal secular education is not enough.  Without spiritual wisdom and understanding, we are impotent in the hand of God.  That’s why I continue to study the Bible, read commentaries, and listen to preachers.  I hope I can continue to learn until the day I die. 

Dear Reader, why am I telling you all this in such detail?  Because I want to remind you what a great God we have.  He intends to use each life to glorify himself and he must educate us in the specific ways we need.  He educates us through formal education, he educates us through work experience, he opens our eyes to new places and new people.  God educates us in detail, and it takes time. 

I want to give you the best advice I can think of: if God opens an opportunity for you to get more education – take it!

Last Lessons #62 - TEENS

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”   John 3:16

The decisions we make in the teen years usually determine the rest of our lives.  Whether we go to college, whether we get married early, who we hang out with, what we give our lives to, are all things that will decide our future.  My teen years definitely determined my life.

1. Statistics show that most Christians come to faith as teenagers.  That was true for me.  As so many churches do, my Presbyterian church had youth camps in the summer.  For any of you who know Florida, I was at Camp Olena on the Suwannee River at a week-long youth camp when I was sixteen years old.  I had been in church and Sunday school as a child, but it was when my own pastor preached to us one night and said simply that Jesus Christ died for my sins and rose again so that I could have eternal life with him, that God touched me in a special way, and I knew I was born-again.  I felt different.  When I returned home, my mother said, “You seem different, Rosemary.”  I was different!  

“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”  Psalm 119:10

“The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple.”  Psalm 119:130

2. As a new person in Christ at sixteen, I wanted to know God, but for sure I was simple!  My church had made it clear that God reveals himself in the Bible, so, I decided to read the Bible through.  I set myself to read one chapter a day.  Now remember, I only had the King James Version in those days with all the “thee’s” and “thou’s”.  So, I started to read one chapter a day.  I got through Genesis and Exodus just fine, but Leviticus was another story.  It was so boring!  I didn’t understand much of what I read, but I had set my goal to read the whole Bible and so I ploughed through each day.  I was determined to do it, and it determined my life.  Do you know how long it takes to read through the Bible?  About three and a half years!  And I did it.  And when I finished, I was in the habit of reading the Bible every day and I wanted to keep it up.  I have done so all my life.  It has been the most influential activity in my life. 

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age.”  Matthew 28:19-20

3. At age seventeen, I attended a city-wide youth rally for Presbyterians.  The main speaker was a missionary who had served in Africa.  I listened to him with rapt attention.  We were all standing around in a large gym and the missionary closed his presentation by asking for those of us who wanted to become missionaries to step into the circle so he could pray for us.  I do not know what prompted me, but I stepped into the circle.  I knew I wanted to be a missionary and that was that!  I did become a missionary, but that’s another story.

Three huge decisions made in my teens determined the rest of my life.  What lessons did God want to teach me?

1. That God saved me before the foundation of the world, but he made it real to me in history when I understood what Jesus Christ had done for me.  My salvation needed to be personal.  To be born again means to have a personal relationship with Jesus.  When a person is born of the Spirit you know it.  The Holy Spirit takes up residence in you and changes your life.  You become a new creation.  I pray that you are a new creation in Christ.  Ephesians 2:10
2. That God reveals himself in the Bible.  You can learn a lot about God from sermons, from other books, from nature, and from others telling you about him, but you can only really know God through the Scriptures.  In the Scriptures we learn what God does, what he wants from us, what he promises.  We learn his attributes – what he is like.  I hope you have a plan for reading through the Bible – at least once!  For your interest I put together some verses that describe the attributes of God and Kregel published it in 2003.  It is called Praying the Attributes of God.  and is available through Kregel, Rafiki, and Amazon.
3. That God has a plan for each person’s life.  It is true that his will is different in different phases of our lives, but you can trust that God knows what he is doing with every person.  That is so amazing to me.  How can God work out every detail for every life so that it ends in his glory?  But he does.  Not every person is meant to be a missionary, but every person does have a part to play in God’s plan for history.  That gives great comfort to me.  I hope it does to you too. 

Last Lessons #61 - CHILDHOOD

“Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.”   Proverbs 22:6

When I was a child, my family was financially poor.  Remember, I was born in 1929 – the year of the great depression.  Nobody had much money.  My father worked hard five and a half days a week (that was then!) at a job and my mother took care of us six children.  We had one car.  Our family had very little money, but we were rich in many other ways.  My parents were honest, hard-working, loving parents who made sure that we children knew who God was, who told us repeatedly that we were put on this earth not to make money or to make ourselves happy, but to make the world a better place.  Making the world better might not make money for us, but it would make us happy.  As far as I am concerned, that was true. 

So, what life lessons did God teach me as a child?

1. He taught me to share.  With six children, and not too much to go around, we learned to share.  There were never any leftovers.  We lived on the St. Johns River where we fished, shrimped, and gathered oysters.  We also had a citrus grove with oranges, tangerines, grapefruit, lemons, kumquats, and limequats.  Furthermore, we had chickens and a cow, so we never went hungry, but neither did we waste food! I feel sorry for only children today because they are not forced to share. 
2. He taught me right from wrong.  Because growing up we did not have cell phones or TV, my parents spent more time with us children teaching us right from wrong.  Most importantly they taught us that we don’t hit, we don’t steal, and we don’t lie.  I will never forget the time I took something (I can’t even remember what it was now) and all of us children were asked who took it.  No one admitted to the theft, but it wasn’t long before my conscience was pricked to the point that I went into the room where daddy was alone and admitted that I had lied.  He was so like my heavenly Father because he took me on his lap and said, “I just don’t want my little girl to lie.”  I needed no punishment.  Displeasing my father was worse than any punishment.  That has never left me.  I’m sure I have lied many times in my life since, but never without a sense of guilt of displeasing my Father and with a desire to confess. I feel sorry for children who do not have parents who teach them right from wrong. 
3. He taught me to be creative.  Having little money, we had few toys.  When we wanted something to do our parents would say, “Go out and play!”  So, we would go out and climb trees, or swim in the river, or make a treehouse, or make a bow and arrow.  Yes, I was a tomboy, so I would cut a piece of bamboo and get some string to make a bow and cut a stick for an arrow.  Having to visualize something I wanted to make taught me how to visualize things (even organizations!) I would make later in life. I feel sorry for children who have everything and who have parents who plan everything they do.  They never have to create their own play.  They never have to imagine, visualize, and think about how to find enjoyment without pre-planned outside entertainment.

LIFE LESSONS

1. Learn to share and teach your children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren to share.  Give something to someone every day – money, things, advice, and most importantly the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
2. Learn right from wrong and teach your children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren right and wrong.  There is only one place where you can learn right and wrong and that is in the Bible.  Make sure you are in a Bible-teaching church.  Go to a Bible study group.  Sadly, many of our schools and colleges today do not teach right and wrong.  Many of our political leaders don’t even know the difference between right and wrong.  They lie and steal with impunity.  But you can know right and wrong by paying close attention to what the Bible says. 
3. Learn to think and teach your children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren to think.  Thinking makes you creative.  Think about what you need, what others need, and what the world needs.  Then go out and figure out a way to do something about meeting those needs.

Then the world will be a better place because of you!