LAST LESSONS #191 — LAST LESSONS — LIGONIER

“Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance.”  Proverbs 1:5

I have found that if I want to learn the Bible and what is important in life, I can go to Ligonier. Ligonier Ministries is a Christian resource ministry, started by RC Sproul and now headed by Chris Larson. It is located next to Saint Andrews Chapel in Sanford, Florida. If you go there you will find a campus with a beautiful church, the Reformation Bible College and the Ligonier Ministry all laid out attractively on seven acres of tree-studded land.

The Ligonier building is a converted home of the family who first owned the property, and it is lovely. But the most important thing about the building is that it contains the offices of Chris Larson and his staff.

You can get from Ligonier: Bibles, Christian books, tapes, videos, and the opportunity of going to many conferences. The main conference is Ligonier’s National Conference held in Orlando, Florida each year. This conference called THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE has just finished. You can get the whole thing on YouTube now. Next year on April 10-12, 2025, the conference will be called I WILL BUILD MY CHURCH. I hope you will try to go to this conference. It will mean a great deal to you.

I am telling you all about Ligonier because the ROSEMARY JENSEN BIBLE FOUNDATION partners with Ligonier in getting Bibles and Bible commentaries out to African pastors, teachers, and school children. I love Ligonier for many reasons, and I hope you get to know them too. Just check out their website. It’s amazing!

LAST LESSONS #190 — LAST LESSONS — ATTRIBUTES OF GOD

“Young men and maidens together, old men and children! Let them praise the name of the Lord, for his name alone is exalted, his majesty is above earth and heaven.” 2 Corinthians 9:8

Do you want to know what makes me shed tears of joy? I received a message from a friend with the following:

He said that he and his wife buy “Praying the Attributes of God” by the dozens at a time, and they give them to people all the time. Any time they go to a new dentist, doctor, have a trades person do something, they give them a copy.

At one point they gave a whole case of the books to their dentist, and their dentist gave them all out to his staff and others. Later (a few years later) they went to another dentist’s office and started to give an Attributes book to the receptionist. She said, “Oh that’s the book Dr. so and so gave me a few years ago!”. And this receptionist went on, in tears, to relate that when her father, a non-Christian, was dying and in hospice care, she brought her Attributes book and read it to him every day. The father became a Christian before he died just from hearing the scripture in that book. He said there were many stories he had about how the Attributes book had blessed people.

See why I shed tears of joy?

If you don’t know anything about “Praying the Attributes of God,” I will tell you that years ago, I thought of 31 attributes of God and then I went through my Bible and color-coded the attributes. I made a notebook that included the verses, one for each day of the month, added a section of thanksgiving for each attribute and a place for praying for personal requests.

Around the year 2001 a BSF leader asked if she could have a copy which she shared with other leaders. That resulted in my giving an Attributes notebook to all the Area Advisors. Then one of the leaders asked if she could approach Kregel Publishing to see if they would publish it in book form. I said that would be OK with me. They did publish it in 2003 and it is still in print. They even asked me if they could print it in Spanish! Of course, I was happy about that. So that’s the story of “Praying the Attributes of God.” It can be purchased from Amazon and other places—and at a discount from Rafiki.

God is gracious to let me see this while I am still alive and when I think that others are blessed with my little book, I shed tears of joy!

LAST LESSONS #189 — LAST LESSONS — VOLUNTEER

“And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.” 2 Corinthians 9:8

Volunteering means working without remuneration. It is one of the most satisfying activities you can do. I know a lot about volunteering because not only have I volunteered, but I have helped hundreds of others to volunteer both in BSF and in Rafiki. They tell me that they love it! And, of course, it is helpful to other people.

I remember volunteers coming to BSF when I was executive director there, but I not only remember but appreciate the volunteers that come to Rafiki Home Office now. The people that they help most are the poor widows in Africa who have made products that need to be sorted, tagged, and arranged for sale. Men help in the printing press area as well.

But the BIG volunteer activity is going on a short-term mission to one of our Rafiki Villages in Africa. Rafiki could not do without these volunteers. God uses them in a myriad of ways. Just check with Rafiki at www.rafikifoundation.org.

I do everything I can to encourage people to volunteer for a couple of weeks in Africa because I know how it will affect them for the rest of their lives. All my children and grandchildren have been to Africa and now I am working on getting my great-grandchildren to go as soon as they finish high school.

The point of this blog is to get all of us to serve God by serving others somehow and for some time without being paid for it. Volunteering helps others and gives us joy. What could be better than that?

LAST LESSONS #188 — LAST LESSONS — GRADUATION

“Learn to do good; seek justice; correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.” Isaiah 1:17

Well, it’s graduation time and I am proud to say that I have a granddaughter graduating from law school and a great granddaughter graduating from college and high school.

The question is always, “What to give them for graduation?” They are always happy with money! But, along with the money, I want to give them something that will last a little longer. That’s why I choose books. They may not appreciate the books I choose for them at this time in their lives, but even if it sits on their shelves for years, they may pick it up someday and be enriched by it.

One of the books I chose for a high school graduate is Between Compromise and Courage by Jim Denison. Our new lawyer is receiving The End of Everything by Victor Davis Hanson.

Sometimes we can help our new adult children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren by opening doors for them to meet and be enriched by older adults. They can be helped to further their education, get jobs, and travel throughout the world. Of course, I am especially interested in seeing that my graduates get a chance to spend more time in Africa!

I’m sure you want to encourage the graduates in your family as I do mine. We all know that the greatest encouragement we can give is a godly example and a listening ear.

LAST LESSONS #187 — LAST LESSONS — QUESTIONS 1

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” (Matthew 7:7)

I like it when some of you ask questions because then I write what you really want to hear from me. Recently a friend of mine asked me why Rafiki no longer takes orphans into our Villages. Let me give you a bit of Rafiki history.

In 1987 when Rafiki was legally constituted as a 501(c)3 organization, we did not have orphans in mind. We were aware of the AIDS situation that left many children without parents, but it was not until 1992 when Janet Museveni (First Lady of Uganda) asked Rafiki if we could help her take care of the one and a half million orphans in Uganda that we prayed about what Rafiki should do.

Rafiki had no money to build an orphanage! But we prayed as a board, knowing that God would answer our prayer somehow.

In 2000 BSF gave me a going-away present. When they asked me what I wanted, I said, “AN ORPHANAGE!” So, they gave me enough money to build the first orphanage—not in Uganda, but in Ghana. That was because we found 50 acres of land in Ghana on which to build.

During the next ten years, Rafiki built ten orphanages in ten countries in Africa and began taking in orphans. Some of those orphans are now finished with university, married, and have children.

As the AIDS situation improved, the orphan population declined and the “third world countries” decided that they no longer wanted to institutionalize their orphans. Instead, they wanted to place orphans with relatives. That was a great decision!

In the meantime, Rafiki had hundreds of children. We decided that we would keep the children until they were able to finish college or become independent. In the meantime, we would use the vacated cottages as schoolrooms for the many day students needing education.

The question is a good one and the answer is one that brings great glory to God. Look what he did! He brought a cure for AIDS, he gave orphans homes to live in, and he gave schoolchildren a place to be educated—and especially to study the Bible!