An Investment With Great Returns

In the Bible school we work with, the focus is upon enabling the students to study the Bible for themselves using the inductive method of Bible Study. We teach lectures in class, but the majority of their time is spent outside of class going through each book of the Bible studying it themselves. In the process they observe, then interpret, & then apply what the text says. Here is a sampling of an application of one of our students, Jeremiah, from the Congo. We have shared about him before and the passion he has and the anointing upon him. As I was grading his work, I read some of his application points and asked him if I could share some of the revelations He was receiving while studying the book of Genesis.

After studying the book, he gave the following overall application of one point that stood out to him. These are his own words (emphasis added):

"God created both man & women in His image… I grew up in a culture where women are taught to be lower than their husband. They can't do anything except giving birth to many children and do house works. They are being beaten, sexually abused because they can't stand for themselves and talk. This truth of equality and partnership of man and woman is not being applied.

What do I need to do to live out this change?
I think God has brought me here for this reason to learn and be equipped with the truth of His word and go teach it in my culture. How God value woman.

How will I do this?
I will start by honoring the women that God will bring in my life then my people will learn from me."

To some, this revelation may seem "simple", but to Jeremiah, this is life-changing! In many places in rural Africa women are treated as property and regularly beaten & abused. They are, as Jeremiah said, for bearing children and doing house work. For a young, single African man to see the value of woman and that both man and woman are made in God's image is HUGE! This will affect his relationships with family and friends, his future wife, their children and their children's children, and all who he shares this message with. He told me, "James, I can't wait to go home and share these truths with my people!" Again, this is coming from a man who until recently believed the way he could show love to his future wife was by not beating her. God's Word has the power to transform!

Another application that really humbled me considering his background of being a refugee from a war-torn region:
After observing & interpreting God's call to Noah to be fruitful & multiply, this is his application: "God has called His people to be fruitful. Does the world today apply this truth? If it was applied, killing the innocent blood in Africa would have stopped. War in Africa makes an African man unfruitful."

There are many other points I could share from him & others, but I was just so encouraged to see how this amazingly anointed man of God has grown in studying the Word of God on his own. Before coming to do the School of Biblical Studies he could preach with passion on any subject or verse even without knowing what it meant. Now God is giving him tools to study the Bible and understand and apply it, and as he leaves this school the tools he has are going to be so powerful. I am regularly overwhelmed as I sit down and talk with him of the privilege we have of investing our lives into men and women like him.

Thank you for making this possible.

James & Sarah Lunn
www.ToMakeHimKnown.com