August 25, 2016
by Dr. Rick Boyd
The other day I was driving to the seminary on the first day of the new semester and I drove past an elementary school. I remembered back to my days at Stichter School in San Jose, California and thought about some of the things I learned there like my multiplication tables, reading, and how sugar cubes can crystalize and become an unbreakable rock if left in the pants pockets of an eight year old boy (I became diabetic when I was seven and had to keep sugar with me at all times in case of an insulin reaction).
As I passed the school and thought back to my Stichter days it occurred to me that my experience in grade school was unique, even though it was in the midst of hundreds of other kids who were all having unique experiences of some of the same things. I thought about how some of the issues that kids deal with today are quite different than fifty years ago and how education has had to address those issues.
The Lord then revealed something to me that got my attention and allowed me to properly focus on the day ahead. My grade school experience was the only grade school experience I will ever know. I can’t possibly know what it is like to be an eight year old boy today, and the eight year old boy today can’t know what it was like for me nearly fifty years ago. Our experiences are unique, personally and contextually.
The seminary classes that I teach are unique for each student, even if the particular courses are ones I have taught before. The Lord showed me that this is not just another semester of Old Testament Inductive Bible Study, focusing on the Pentateuch, or of first semester Greek. I have taught those classes before, but not with these students. This is the one seminary experience each of these students will have and it is up to us here at WBS to give our very best each and every class to make it all that the Lord wants it to be. He will make it possible and He will ultimately be the teacher if we, as faculty, take it seriously.
I want to make sure that each class meeting is precisely what the Lord wants to provide for each student in that class because this is their only OT 620, OT 620A, and NT 501 course. I pray the Lord will make our efforts here at WBS an efficacious time that will become a treasured memory in the years to come and bear fruit for the kingdom into eternity.