More about learning (manthano)
When I wrote
to you yesterday about 'disciple', I ran out of time to say all I wanted, so I
desired to continue this morning, and further expound on this subject. I
did notice, after more simple research this morning, that
I erred when I said that disciple was not a verb. In fact, it can be a
verb, but a transitive one in the active voice. Mt 22:57, 13:52, 28:19
and Acts 14:21 are examples of someone "being' a disciple, making it a
transitive verb. As I never majored in, nor even liked, English in High
School and College, the transitive verb appeared just like a noun to me---that
is why I said what I did yesterday. Regardless, lets
continue our talk about manthano (to learn).
The
dictionary I am using talks about both male and female disicples.
In Acts 9:36, Tabitha is called a 'female disciple' as the Greek word there is mathetria. If any of you study other languages, you can quickly
pick out the endings of several nouns and distinguish between males and
females.
You have
heard (and more than likely, read) that with men it is impossible, but
with God everything is possible. Do you find it 'impossible' to
understand what you read in the Bible? I know I do most of the
time. But listening to some of our evangelists, and other mathetes and matheria, I learn a lot more. My wife
and I still listen to our Bible on CD (NIV) in the car on the way to work off
and on (a couple of the CDs made it through the fire)....and on occasion,
Socorro will ask me, what does something mean, which she heard on the
disk. Usually, I am unable to explain as I have no idea either. But
sometimes, we discuss it and we come up with what we THINK it means. Our
next step would logically be to study this out once we get the opportunity.
Well, that rarely happens, but on occasion, it does. We learn a little
bit from each other. I have emailed questions in the past to evangelists
and elders, and sometimes received responses to my
questions which helped me to understand some difficult passage or
concept.
I have a
question for all of you.....how actively are you attempting manthano more about your Bible? I know Tony is again reading
the entire Bible this year (well, not quite, as he started late, but at least
he is attempting to do it everyday, with the goal of learning more than he did
last year when we read the whole thing 'together'). I know that Toji reads a lot--it is evident in a conversation with
him. The same goes for my wife and Denise. I just sense biblical
knowledge in them when we talk about anything. I haven't heard from
Maurice in quite some time, and that really concerns me, as he was always into
his Bible, and we talked almost daily. You know, yesterday, I wrote about
liking what Les said last Sunday (which, by the way, he had a memory lapse and
doesn't remember anything about Sunday---oh Les, you promised on Sunday to give
me a hundred dollars :-)) about no one talking to him about what they were
learning in studying their Bibles. Well, you know, I have not heard from
elders, deacons or evangelists on THEIR daily learnings
either. The only time I hear from them is on a mid-week or Sunday service
when they preach a sermon or teach a lesson. Maybe it would be a good
idea if they were also to share during the week, THEIR learnings.
:-)
When the
Bible refers to 'learners', that is, disciples of
Christ, it appears to mean adherent learners, that is, imitators of their
teacher. It doesn't mean just to learn something and then have no
intention of following/doing what was learned. We need to ensure that
when we learn about how we should act, that we actually DO that, and not just
learn it and file it away. I have learned from the Bible that I need to
be in God's Word every day. Although I fail to follow this learned lesson
to the 'T', I try to get into my Bible somehow daily. How about
you? When is the last time you opened your Bible and read, but not only
read, but studied? I haven't seen any sharings
of your studies lately (except Toji, basically, and a
couple others very, very brief synopsis). Have you been sharing with
anyone else?
You know, a
while ago, our church became a "non-discipling"
one. Which, if you look at it, it is very true...we are a non-learning
church. We don't aid each other daily in anything. We don't confess
to one another hardly at all. As a group, we are
forgetting more than we are learning. We really need to change that if we
plan to imitate our Teacher.
This email
is a 'form of' "discipling". More in the realm of a rebuke. I do this not out of
spite or hatred or anger, but out of love for all of you, wanting all of us to
grow, to learn, to become better mathetes and matheria. Call me, email me, send me
letters....let me know what you are learning.
Ya'll's brother in Christ,
Mac