Why I Am A Bible Teacher

When I was 18 years old, God sent me to Liberty University.  It seemed that circumstances pushed me in that direction, but it turned out to be far more God’s decision than mine. 

I arrived on campus in August of 1993, 500 miles from home, having never been on my own, and there were no cell phones.  I had wanted to go to Malone College which was much smaller and closer to home, but the money did not come through.  At the end of the day, I went to Liberty because scholarships made it practically free.  God sometimes doesn’t tell us what to do, he makes it so there is only one thing we can do.  For me that was to go to Liberty. 

So there I was, a painfully shy, mother-dependent boy, flung out of the nest and hurtling to the ground.  But God was at work.  I quickly found myself in a group of temporary but very important friends.  They modeled Christ for me and forced me to look at my own relationship with Christ.  Suddenly, just trying to be good, wasn’t good enough.  I wanted more from Christ and I got it.

I started going to church when I was 10 days old, and I grew up in Sunday School.  There I learned all the Bible stories, and I was taught that I was to read my Bible, pray, and “be good.”  Like the Rich Young Ruler, I could say that I had done all these since I was a boy.  I actually gave my life to Christ when I was 5, but my church preached more “Do the right thing” than “Let the Holy Spirit change you.”  At least that’s the message as I understood it.  But the truth is that I was good because I was scared to get in trouble.  My parents were elementary school teachers and knew most of my teachers.  My dad said, “If you get in trouble at school, you get in trouble at home.”  The cost/benefit of getting in trouble just didn’t seem to make sense.  Being good was far more profitable. 

So back at Liberty, the freshmen arrived a week early to take a class called Freshman Seminar.  It taught things like what to expect from college, how to study and take notes, how to manage your time and make a schedule, etc.  The professor showed us the calendar of a sample student, and she had different books of the Old Testament on different days.  The professor said, “[This make-believe student] is apparently taking Old Testament Survey, so maybe she has to read the whole Old Testament.”  With no more understanding or encouragement than that, I quickly figured that I would have to read about 12 chapters a day to read the Old Testament from late August to early December.  Next, I figured if I did that, I could just as easily finish the whole Bible by the end of the year. 

The next week I went to class and found out that nobody expected me to read the whole Old Testament!

By that time, I was already finishing up Exodus, and I was loving it.  I had tried to read the Bible in a year before, but I had never made it without quitting.  This time I made it in 4 months (about 45 minutes a day).  I had plenty of time my freshman year because the nearest TV was a mile away in the student center and I didn’t have a car.  I totally fell in love with reading.

Another thing happened the first day of that Old Testament class.  Dr. Hartman gave us a quiz on the very first day (who does that!) just to see where we were in our understanding of the Old Testament.  He asked the question, “What nation destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel in 722 B.C.?”  I didn’t have a clue (it was Assyria), but something else about the question struck me.  A lightbulb appeared over my head.  The Bible stories could be dated.  I knew all the Bible stories, and I believed that they were true historical stories, not made-up myths. 

BUT I NEVER KNEW THAT WE COULD KNOW THE DATES WHEN THE STORIES TOOK PLACE. 

This gave the Bible a whole new place in my life.  I was fascinated by what I was learning.  I devoured the Bible over those four months.  I grew closer to Jesus than I had ever been.

The next semester I took Church Ministries with Dr. Elmer Towns.  (I thought I was going to be a business major, but Liberty required Old Testament, New Testament, and Church Ministries for all students).  Dr. Towns spent much of the class talking about how he and Jerry Falwell had built the church and the school in the 50s, 60, and 70s.  It was exciting.  My newfound love for the Scripture and the excitement of learning about these two great institutions coming to life tugged at my heart.  I no longer wanted to be a business major (I had no clue what I wanted to do with it anyway). 

I started thinking about going into ministry.  By April 1994, I decided that I was going to be a pastor.  I changed my major from business administration to pastoral ministry.  When I signed up to take Greek, my business advisor said, “Boy, you’re really jumping in with both feet.” 

After graduating with my undergraduate degree, I went home and they asked me to teach the adult Sunday School class for the summer.  My first reaction was panic!  I was a shy 22 year old who struggled through his homiletics (preaching) classes, but I thought, “I can’t say no.  This is what I studied for.”  I told them I would do it, and for the first few classes I was very nervous.  However, as I found my way forward, nervousness was replaced by excitement.  People started telling me that I was doing a good job.  By the time I left for seminary in the fall, I knew I was a Bible teacher.  That’s what God called me to do.  I ended up teaching Sunday School for the next 25 years before retiring to focus on other teaching ministries.

When I told people I was going into the ministry, they all said the same 4 words:  “But you don’t talk.”  God chose to take a shy young man and put him on stage as a Bible teacher.  Never rule out something that God is leading you do to because you do not think you are up to it.  God’s call is greater than anything you can do yourself.  “God does not call the equipped, he equips the called.”