My Journey of Faith Part 5
Christian service assignments were a very valuable part of our learning experience at Elohim Bible Institute. Outreach included places like the Rochester Mission, the Geneseo Jail, Migrant worker camps, various summer campsites in the area, the Batavia Nursing Home, etc. I doubt any students considered themselves professional ministers; nevertheless, we ministered to the surrounding communities for Jesus Christ weekly. In complete honesty, I pushed back from viewing myself as called to "ministry," as I felt such a view might lead me to sinful pride.
Discipleship that Changes Our Choices Reveals Truth about Ourselves
On one occasion, Jean and I drove to the Rochester Mission for Christian service. I spoke to the men about the repentant thief on the cross, and after fellowshipping with the director and his wife, graduates of Elohim, we went to our car that did not start. We figured out that the alternator was not working, and we would have to drive home an hour away without heat or lights, and only the battery was operational. When we left, it was late, dark, and cold, as it was mid-winter in Western New York, where people are required to survive the winter.
The fantastic part of our journey back to Castile, New York, was the layer of snow that covered everything and the shining full moon that lit up the ground all the way home. Whenever that story comes to mind, the same verses from 1 Corinthians 4:5-6 illuminate my thoughts. "For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, "Light shall shine out of darkness," is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ."
Discipleship that Changes Our Choices Reveals the Character of God
From 1977 to 1980, I learned many wonderful lessons in the classroom. The two classes that stick in my mind most are New Testament Living and The Names of God, taught by Donald Perkins. New Testament living was precisely what the title suggests. It was one of the most practical classes with lessons about Christian living I have ever attended. This class was not disconnected from behavior in any way. It raised the bar of God's standard for His people where it should be. There was little to no wiggle room for two reasons, the first being the teacher lived what he was proclaiming before our eyes and not in a phony way. The second was how completely Biblical his illustrations were from the Old and New Testaments.
The Names of God class had the most profound effect on my conscience, character, and behavior. You might ask why. From that study, I began to think of God in a fuller and more accurate way. Nothing can change man's heart but God. There is no mystery about how it takes place; God's word is clear. "But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit" 2 Corinthians 3:18. There can be no change of life choices apart from seeing Jesus that alone produces obedience to Him.
Discipleship that Changes Our Choices Believes in God's Promises
There are many names for God throughout the Bible. The first name mentioned, however, is found in Genesis 1:1, "In the beginning, God (Elohim) created the heavens and the earth. When spelled with a Capital "G" and a small "od," this name in the New American Standard or King James Version is Elohim. "El" means powerful, "oh" is from alah and means to keep a covenant or a promise, and "im" is a plural ending in Hebrew. Therefore, Elohim is the strong, faithful one, or ones (A trinity of three persons in one God). You can read the name God three thousand times in the Old Testament and know that it means The Strong, Faithful One. God keeps His promises, ALL of them.
Space does not allow me to speak of all God's names, those that express God's communicative attributes, such as El Elyon, the Possessor of Heaven and Earth, who is everywhere present at the same time; El Roi, the God who sees everything and knows everything; and El Shaddai, the God who is all-powerful beyond human comprehension. Then there is the Lord's capital "L" and small "ord," or Adonai, Our Masters in Hebrews, the Lord in a Master/slave relationship. There is Yehoah or the I AM THAT I AM who stood before Moses in a bush that burned with fire but was not consumed. God is the One who is eternal without the beginning of days or end of life, who also made time and stepped into it. Further, there are the complex names of God where the I AM THAT I AM is attached to specific attributes, as in Yehovah Raah or The LORD with all capitals and Raah, which is a shepherd or I AM your Shepherd. Yehovah Sabaoth is the LORD of hosts or the I AM of heavenly armies, over 269 times in the Old Testament, which gives a significant awareness of spiritual warfare to the saints of Israel—the LORD your Righteousness (Jehovah Tsidkenu), Righteousness, a straight and stiff justice.
There have been many lessons, and the Lord's Holy Scriptures have intensified them. Every sincere believer must know God's character because salvation is a calling to everyone who benefits from Christ's sufferings. We are all called through adoption to be sons and to participate in and experience sanctification or the transformation of our soul and character into the very likeness of One who adopts us into His Divine family. Only an intimate experience with God through the death and resurrection of His Son guarantees Discipleship that Changes Our Choices.
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