I will begin teaching a group of women in a recovery center about the legal system tomorrow morning, once weekly for several weeks. We are going to cover the system well enough, but the root of the series will be about authority and power, who you answer to and who will be the ultimate authority to whom you are accountable. Tomorrow's lesson will be an overview, but I am going to spend the first portion of the first class discussing the idea of authority and covering the fact that all authority in heaven and earth belongs to Jesus Christ. We will plant that stake in the ground, then discuss the power of the State, and we will over time cover the specifics of criminal justice, drug laws and drug courts, and even get into child custody and parental rights issues for a day. At the end, I will (and may throughout as I plan further lessons) put down a challenge for them to recognize the authority of Jesus now and to trust Him and be saved.
This is a Christian recovery center, too, by the way.
I've been itching for a long time to get to teach, and while this scratches that some, this is not about me. I am asking you to pray for the scales of wretched pasts, addiction, codependency, sexual promiscuity and so many other problems to be lifted from their eyes and for them to see Jesus clearly and for their hearts to be softened and to turn to Him for salvation.
Pray for group of women
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dolfan
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Pray for group of women
Human government bears the same relation to hell as the church bears to heaven. (David Lipscomb, On Civil Government, 72).
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dolfan
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"Who's in charge of everything?"
"God!" That was a loud shout from about 5 women in the room, and a quieter chorus from a handful of others to boot.
That was when I realized that today was special. I had 23 or so recovering drug addict women seated in a makeshift classroom (used to be a living room) around me. Some on chairs, a sofa, a hearth and about half of them sitting in the floor. The youngest was 19. The oldest was in her mid-50's. Some of them were wearing uniforms for their fast-food jobs. Almost -- not all, but nearly all -- were smiling. It was a very interesting moment looking at the faces in the room, polling them in a way, when I talked about the most important decision they'd ever make being whether to follow the authority of Jesus. They sat silently, and as I said not all were smiling but many did, as we looked at Philippians 2:9-11. I was telling them that each one of us would, sooner or later, say out loud that Jesus is the authority, and that they didn't want to wait until they were forced to say it because then it would be too late.
We bridged over into a discussion of the power of the law, and how law "happens". We covered the three branches of government in a very cursory way. The 19 year old volunteered to name them.
She actually came up to me afterward and asked for career advice on becoming a juvenile probation officer. We talked at some length; very nice kid.
When the time was up, I'd covered all of my 16 pages of notes almost perfectly on time and had taken questions and answers, too.
About 5-6 of them came up to me and said, "I appreciate this. No one does this for us." Wow. Just, wow.
"God!" That was a loud shout from about 5 women in the room, and a quieter chorus from a handful of others to boot.
That was when I realized that today was special. I had 23 or so recovering drug addict women seated in a makeshift classroom (used to be a living room) around me. Some on chairs, a sofa, a hearth and about half of them sitting in the floor. The youngest was 19. The oldest was in her mid-50's. Some of them were wearing uniforms for their fast-food jobs. Almost -- not all, but nearly all -- were smiling. It was a very interesting moment looking at the faces in the room, polling them in a way, when I talked about the most important decision they'd ever make being whether to follow the authority of Jesus. They sat silently, and as I said not all were smiling but many did, as we looked at Philippians 2:9-11. I was telling them that each one of us would, sooner or later, say out loud that Jesus is the authority, and that they didn't want to wait until they were forced to say it because then it would be too late.
We bridged over into a discussion of the power of the law, and how law "happens". We covered the three branches of government in a very cursory way. The 19 year old volunteered to name them.
She actually came up to me afterward and asked for career advice on becoming a juvenile probation officer. We talked at some length; very nice kid.
When the time was up, I'd covered all of my 16 pages of notes almost perfectly on time and had taken questions and answers, too.
About 5-6 of them came up to me and said, "I appreciate this. No one does this for us." Wow. Just, wow.
Human government bears the same relation to hell as the church bears to heaven. (David Lipscomb, On Civil Government, 72).
You're sweet, though.Return to “Jude 2 General Discussion Forum”
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