As I wrote in yesterday’s blog, I may live 1 more day, I don’t know what God’s plan is for my life, but I will plan my life out as if I will live at least 20 more years, and that I have my wits about me. When I write “plans”, I am zeroing in on ministry, what I will do that will impact others in their relationship to Jesus Christ, their following Him and growing to be like Him in character. I mentioned my writing as an area that I am going to pursue and develop, and yesterday I wrote about training and mentoring others to be Pastors and how I would that as an additional ministry emphasis.

The last area that I will pursue diligently is a continuation of the ministry emphasis that I have had for the last 43 years, preaching and teaching the Bible. Counting classes, seminars, worship services at JBC, and traveling to other churches and countries to teach, I have probably spoken publicly close to 10,000 times. The cool part of that is that much of what I have taught has been recorded and replays on the radio daily and is available on the internet, and like my writing, will be around a long time after I die. A key life verse for me is 1 Timothy 4:16

Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things, for as you do this you will ensure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you.

So nothing guarantees that my teaching accomplishes anything worthwhile in anyone else’s life unless God works through it, and He will if I meet certain conditions. My goal is to learn and grow so that God speaks through me more and more, and the influence that I have in the lives of others continues to grow. This next year I am teaching 4 “Leadership Classes”, a class on “Theology and Doctrines” at 10:15 on Sunday morning, and I am teaching through the New Testament book of Philippians during our Wednesday night service. I am also teaching a 2 day seminar at our church for Pastors in January, and I am traveling to Ecuador in July to teach a group of missionaries.

The key to bearing much fruit in my teaching is to grow in my skill of teaching, it doesn’t make much sense to teach truth but to do it in a way that doesn’t hold people’s attention. Also I will study diligently the Bible and the content of my teaching so I know what I am talking about and I will organize the content so that it is clear and understandable. And the most important thing is I believe without a doubt that God’s anointing on my teaching is paramount and that prayer is the key, so I will pray much for myself and those I will be teaching asking God to anoint me and to lead those hearing me into all truth.

I don’t expect that I will come close to the pace I have kept in the last 40 years, so I will try and make every teaching event twice as impactful as before.