“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.” Psalm 19:14
Until my mid-thirties, I was a completely secular non-believer. At the urging of friends, I found myself at a retreat. During that retreat, I was overcome by an urge to read the Bible—clearly from God as I had never had any interest in, and was completely unfamiliar with, the Bible. Shortly thereafter, I was invited by friends to attend a Men’s Bible Study Fellowship (BSF) class in Edina, Minnesota. After 2 1/2 years, I was asked to pray about becoming a Discussion Leader. Even though this required more time than I wanted to commit to God, I agreed. At the same time, my wife Linda had rejoined BSF, after her self-described “rebellious years,” and was a discussion leader in a Women’s BSF class.
After a couple of years, we were invited by our Area Advisors, to consider becoming Teaching Leaders (TL) for a Young Adult (YA) Class. I am reasonably sure the invitation was because of Linda, who was more qualified and suitable for the position. This was the last thing I wanted or needed. Nevertheless, we agreed we would begin the process “until there was a closed door.”
Not experiencing any closed doors, we arrived at HQ for the week of training. On the last day of training before the day of departure, Rosemary’s (the then Director of BSF) challenge was that we needed to be absolutely certain we were being called by God to be TL’s. She warned us that the job would be difficult and that one needed to be sure God was in it. Here was the closed door I had been looking for as I was not at all certain of God’s call.
The next day we were to have our personal interview with Rosemary. I asked Linda for the verse saying that teachers will be judged more severely. She wasn’t sure so I thumbed through my Bible. I came upon 1 Timothy 4:11-13: “Command and teach these things. Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity. Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of scripture, to preaching and to teaching.” Nothing could be clearer; this was a direct and confirming word from God. Even though woefully inadequate in Bible knowledge and Christian maturity, we went ahead with the door unmistakably wide open. By the grace of God, we taught a capacity YA class for 11 years. After we decided to retire Rosemary invited us to become Area Advisors to YA classes across the country.
In 1996 while we were still Area Advisors, we moved to a 55+ golf community outside Scottsdale, AZ. Linda immediately started a small Bible study which she taught for almost 20 years, with numbers into the 80’s. I began a small (3 of us) study around 2001, reluctantly again (slow learner). I am still teaching a weekly Bible study with about 25-30 attending. I use the BSF format centered around questions on the passage for the week from the particular book we are studying. The questions are emailed weekly in advance. We meet to discuss the passage, using the questions as a beginning point, followed by a short wrap-up. We have a Community Church in our community which graciously allows us to use its facilities and announces our meetings in its weekly bulletin. The pastor is very supportive. So, despite being over 80, I am still teaching because Rosemary, as the woman who taught me how to teach the Bible, told me this is “what I am supposed to do for the rest of my life.” I continue to be blessed by God in serving Him as a teacher and being in His word daily.—Ed
P.S. from Rosemary: Linda went to be with the Lord in 2021, but Ed and a Bible-loving friend of his, Michael, have agreed to encourage older men to start Rafiki Bible Study groups in as many senior living facilities as they can. How great is that!
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