SBS: Malachi
Teacher: Jeremy Rottier
Date: 2011-06-24
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We are counting down to School of Biblical Studies Graduation. Our students have studied the whole bible, verse by verse, reading it through 5 times. They’ve been writing observations, interpretations, and applications. In other words: What does the text say? What did it mean to the original reader? What does it mean to me?It has been quite the journey. A few years ago we did this as students, this year we have been their staff. Each book of the bible has a lecture (to help with historical background) and we have taught some of these. We also read their work every week, grading it and making notes to help them learn and grow. There are also many logistics like housing, meals, tuition, hospitality for guest speakers, prelecturing other staff, going to meetings etc. etc. etc. But it has all been worth it! When we invest our lives into others, they in turn will impact even more people and we will make a bigger difference.
Thank you to all for your support and prayers over this past year. We couldn’t do it without the team that sends us. We don’t get paid by our students, which helps keep the tuition low enough for them to afford it. Thank you for those who really are the ones sponsoring their learning by sending people like us. This morning we had debriefing for the staff (picture on side), and this Thursday the students will graduate. It has been a privilege!
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I know that unless it is your own baby, this is kind of lame… but I couldn’t resist.
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What kinds of questions are you asking?Here is the short list on different question types and what they yield:
Analytical Questions
These examine causes and not just symptoms.
Why has this problem happened?
Why did it do that?Clarifying Questions
These result in further descriptions and explanations.
Are you saying that … ?
Could you explain more about the situation?Fresh Questions
These challenge basic assumptions.
Must it be that way?
Has this ever been tried?Questions that Create Connections
These give a systems perspective.
What might be the consequences of these actions?Explorative Questions
These open up new avenues and insights and lead to new explorations.
Have you thought of … ?
Would … have anything to help with that?Probing Questions
These cause the person to go into more depth.
Why is this happening?
What did the situation trigger in you?Reflective Questions
These encourage more elaboration.
Can you help me understand what is going on in you?
What did you mean when you said that?Affective Questions
These invite people to share feelings about an issue.
How did you feel about your presentation?
What was your initial reaction?Open Questions
These give a high degree of freedom in how to respond.
What kind of things do you enjoy doing?
What comes easily to you?Closed Questions
These can be answered with yes, no or a number.
How many people will be affected?
Do you agree with this decision?Leading Questions
These encourage or force the person to respond in a way intended by the questioner.
Don’t you think that you should have … ?
You thought I wouldn’t notice, didn’t you? -
“Tell the students to give up their small ambitions and come eastward to preach the gospel of Christ.” – Francis Xavier
“Answering a student’s question, ‘Will the heathen who have not heard the Gospel be saved?’ thus, ‘It is more a question with me whether we who have the Gospel and fail to give it to those who have not, can be saved.’” – C.H. Spurgeon.
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I post this on Canada day. I love Canada day, I love celebrating my country. I am among the world’s top 1%! Wow!Yet I still find it so easy to compare my life with those around me. Nicer homes in newer neighbourhoods, people who vacation to wonderful hotspots, folks that win the lottery… None of those things are bad. But sometimes I feel unsatisfied with my life when I think about them – and that is wrong.
So sometimes I need to remind myself that I am not called to compare my life with others. I am called to love others. Below is probably one of the most challenging quotes I’ve ever heard. And no matter what people think of me, I definitely don’t live up to it.
“Not called!” did you say? “Not heard the call,” I think you should say. Put your ear down to the Bible, and hear him bid you go and pull sinners out of the fire of sin. Put your ear down to the burdened, agonized heart of humanity, and listen to its pitiful wail for help. Go stand by the gates of hell, and hear the damned entreat you to go to their father’s house and bid their brothers and sisters, and servants and masters not to come there. And then look Christ in the face, whose mercy you have professed to obey, and tell him whether you will join heart and soul and body and circumstances in the march to publish his mercy to the world.” – William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army
So this Canada Day, join me in celebrating our great homeland and reminding ourselves and others how good we have it.
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“Do not think me mad. It is not to make money that I believe a Christian should live. The noblest thing a man can do is, just humbly to receive, and then go amongst others and give.” – David Livingstone
“Today Christians spend more money on dog food then missions” – Leonard Ravenhill
“Why do we insist on building the largest and most impressive structures in our city when people on the other side of town are hungry, jobless and worshipping in storefronts?” – K.P. Yohannan
What went wrong?
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“I used to think that prayer should have the first place and teaching the second. I now feel it would be truer to give prayer the first, second and third places and teaching the fourth.”
James O. Fraser
