文学学士; 青年部， 2009年，澳门新葡京网站
文学硕士 《澳门新葡京网站》教学， 2010，澳门新葡京网站
Middle School Bible Teacher, Calvary Christian School
乔治亚州哥伦布市
Today I was handed an opportunity I didn’t deserve. 高中科学老师, 谁在我们学校领导教堂, talked about honesty and secret sins and had five of the cheerleaders share some of their struggles.
然后, 这是上帝的旨意, the DVD I was going to show my eighth graders wouldn’t load and I was getting frustrated.
What happened next was only an act of His grace.
I prayed and then asked all the students to think of that sin they had thought of during chapel. Being a big sinner myself, I know what conviction feels like. So I talked to them about the fear of being found out, what it feels like to know you can’t conquer that one sin. 我谈到罪仍然带来死亡, 罪还是会毁了一切, 罪最终是对神的悖逆.
然后他们读约翰一书1:5-10. After they read it once, I told them to read it again and again. 几分钟后，我大声读了出来.
I then wrote some of my cherished sins on the board.
骄傲
自我憎恨
缺乏诚信
自以为是
“I could fill up this board,” I said, “and not with big letters either – little tiny ones.”
I then challenged them to be honest about their sin – to step into the light like they had been asked to do in chapel. I opened the board to them, and told them that if they felt led, they could come write theirs.
I spoke the words of Hebrews – “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your heart.”
And I leaned on my desk and looked at my Bible as student after student, 许多人泪流满面, 上来写下他们的罪.
说谎
作弊
我怕没有人会爱我
虚伪
切割
自我形象
不尊重
I pretend things are alright when I know they’re not
流言蜚语
仇恨
我觉得自己很丑
自杀
我说刻薄的话
我伤害了别人
And one by one their sins filled the board – as my eyes filled with tears. I cried with them, and they all sat in silence.
I watched as one of the sweetest girls got up, her whole body shaking. It was clear she was fighting for this – fighting to be honest – fighting to finally face her sin.
她来到董事会, and standing all alone in front of 20 other eighth graders, she wrote one word on the board with a slight sob.
欲望
然后 she turned around, went back to her seat, and buried her head in her arms, crying.
I looked at them and asked them all to look at the board, to see their sins. I told them that even if they hadn’t written their sins, they probably were up there.
然后我读到.
My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. 但若有人犯罪, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense — Jesus Christ, 公义者. 他是我们的赎罪祭, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.
我一边读一边擦掉. I then wrote in big bold letters Colossians 3:12 – 神圣而深爱的. 我引用弥迦书7:18-19
谁是像你这样的神, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy. You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.
And I looked these students in their eyes and I told them that in spite of their sin, 因为他把一切都拿走了, Christ was not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters.
As I cried and cried and cried, I looked through my tears and said this beautiful truth – 你不是你的罪. And they, some of them for the first time, heard grace. They wept for their sin and wept because of mercy.
正如我告诉他们的， the great beauty of Christianity is not that you have to have your act together – but that it’s OK that you don’t. That seeing our sin causes us to see Jesus all the more clearly, and that His love is tremendous.
Oh, how my heart longs for this truth to stick with them – that even as the emotions fade, the enormity of the gospel would begin to be planted in their hearts.