I’m Jemima L Yeggs, a.k.a. Stinker. Pink Lady Apple Yeggs, my landlady and my auntie, wants to read about how younger people, especially couples respond to what the Bible says. And she wants to know how God is at work at Lily the Pink.
Dr. Ellie, Mary, Arabella, and I were in our “green room.”
Dr. Ellie was playing with Stormie and Joan. B.B. was feeding Ethan.
Arabella was fixing my hair, “Aunt Jemima, when you have your baby, what are you going to name it?”
I replied, “I don’t know, Belle. Do you know what the weather will be like that day?”
Belle sighed, “Which day?”
I protested, “Exactly.”
Arabella replied, “Why do you have to know what the weather is like?”
I snickered, “What is the name of our first child, Fireball?”
Arabella asked, “Do you think that I don’t know Stormie’s name?”
Stormie said, “I’m right here.”
Dr. Ellie said, “Stormie, you are supposed to say, ‘That’s my name. Don’t wear it out!’”
Stormie asked, “My name. Don’t wear out!”
Dr. Ellie laughed, “Close enough.”
Belle asked, “Why is everyone picking on me today?”
I said, “We are just answering your questions.”
Belle said, “Yeah, with other questions.”
I smiled, “I think Jesus did that a time or two.”
Dr. Ellie said, “I think Stinker’s hair is passable. At least it’s not a train wreck. Maybe we should get the class started.”
Belle bowed as she opened the door.
Rev. Joseph led us in prayer.
Emmett and the choir sang New Creation.
I said, “That was wonderful. We aren’t looking at the new creation because we are focusing on Jesus, but since we are here, we might as well. And this week, we are going to do something different. We will start with quotations, but there are only four that I want to look at. The rest of the verses that I gave you all have something in common. Many of you know that I am using a Study Guide by Marilyn Hickey. And in this book she had a list that I want to explore.”
Samuel asked, “As if I need to know, where are we searching for Jesus today, Aunt Jemima?”
I smiled, “We are looking at the book of 2 Corinthians. Arabella, do you need Mr. Dictionary?”
Arabella shook her head, “Nope, Aunt Jemima, I think it’s a second letter written to the same people that we read about last week.”
Easy, Mr. Dictionary huffed, “Belle, do not speak with such haste. There is a turn made between the 8th and 9th chapters. He talks about a ‘severe letter’, and then Paul’s tone gets harsh. Some people think that the last four chapters are the ‘severe letter,’ but if not, there is a third letter that was not included in the canon of Scripture. And since Paul speaks of the ‘severe letter’ being sent before this one, then it would be the third letter, but the second of the letters in the canon of Scripture.”
Belle smiled as she replied, “Thank you, Mr. Dictionary.”
Jochebed (2 Corinthians 4:13, Louis Segond) “Et, comme nous avons le même esprit de foi qui est exprimé dans cette parole de l’Écriture: J’ai cru, c’est pourquoi j’ai parlé! nous aussi nous croyons, et c’est pour cela que nous parlons,”
Clay said, “And now in English, ‘It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.” Since we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak,’ (2 Corinthians 4:13).”
Jochebed said, ”The quotes Psalm 116. ‘I trusted in the Lord when I said, “I am greatly afflicted”;’ (Psalm 116:10). This psalm is not attributed to anyone in particular, but it is speaking what Paul is trying to say. We believe. We have faith. We trust in God. And we walk our journey of faith, one step at a time. When Tyler Hill and I ran through the jungle, we were running away from terrorists who wished only to kill Christians. There could have been wild beasts along the trail, but we kept running. It was just a little over four years ago. I knew some English, but I was taught to act like I knew nothing. But Tyler expected me to know where the next village was, a village with transportation to the city. I had no idea where the next step of our journey would lead, but we trusted God and we kept running. That is what this is saying. We do not have to see. Belief is the trust in what we do not see. You just believe and act upon your belief.”
I nodded, “Thank you, Jochebed. You were the perfect person for this verse, but I think many of you can relate with a story of your own.”
Georges (2 Corinthians 6:16) “What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: ‘I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.’”
Georges said, “This speaks of God walking among His people. This is found in Leviticus. ‘I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people.’ (Leviticus 26:12). Then in Ezekiel… ‘‘My dwelling place will be with them; I will be their God, and they will be my people.’ (Ezekiel 37:27).’ But when they went in to possess the Promised Land, this happened spiritually, but the people kept worshipping other gods. In the New Jerusalem, there will be no sun or moon, because God will be our light. He will live among us.”
Sarah, on her tablet (2 Corinthians 6:17) “Therefore, “Come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.””
Sarah’s tablet said, “This is the next verse after the other verse that was read. That verse talked about God walking among the people. This verse warns them to depart from any unclean thing. Paul quoted Isaiah and Jeremiah. ‘Depart, depart, go out from there! Touch no unclean thing! Come out from it and be pure, you who carry the articles of the Lord’s house.’ (Isaiah 52:11). Then in Jeremiah… ‘‘Come out of her, my people! Run for your lives! Run from the fierce anger of the Lord.’’ (Jeremiah 51:45). These two verses in 2 Corinthians ought to be a blueprint of how to live a blameless, righteous life. We are to be aware that God sees us even in the shadows, so we should keep our eyes on Jesus. And we should run away from temptations. Rather than what Jeremiah says about running away from God’s anger, we should run toward God before God gets mad at us.”
I smiled, “Is that what you came up with, Sarah.”
Sarah laughed and mouthed something into the tablet, “I had a little help, Aunt Jemima.”
Clay (2 Corinthians 13:1) ‘This will be my third visit to you. “Every matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.”’
Clay said, “Jesus talked about the two or three witnesses. ‘But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’’ (Matthew 18:16). And Jesus was quoting Deuteronomy: ‘One witness is not enough to convict anyone accused of any crime or offense they may have committed. A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ (Deuteronomy 19:15). I think someone said it last week. The reason why the Ninth Commandment is so important, to not give false testimony is that you can have someone put to death in biblical times with two or three witnesses. It was never a he said – she said thing. But having witnesses that told the truth was important.”
I nodded, “Thank you Clay. Georges and Jochebed are doing a great job. You and Sarah are doing a great job. I want everyone to know that all of you do a great job, but Sarah and Clay are our youngest couple. Now, I am going to flip what we are doing. Marilyn Hickey, in her study guide on Seeing Jesus, listed ten things that Jesus is for us that are in the book of 2 Corinthians. I gave you the ten verses in biblical order to read. And this is how we will introduce them to the class. I will mention what Jesus is to us, then, you need to scan over the verses until you find the right one. Please raise your hand, and I will call on you.”
Darrell said, “This is not going to be easy.”
I said, “There are only ten verses. If you read them enough to make a comment, it might not be hard at all. Out of this large class, someone will have the answer quickly. I will read these bullet points in alphabetical order. The first one is Jesus as our comfort.”
Dr. Ellie (2 Corinthians 1:5) “For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.”
Dr. Ellie said, “This is talking about how we might share in the suffering as Jesus suffered, but at the same time, Jesus is our comfort. The unbeliever might suffer, but without that comfort.”
I smiled, “That was what I was looking for, reading the verse, and then one or two sentences of explanation. Next, and this one won’t be the next verse on the list. Jesus is our gift from God.”
Margie (2 Corinthians 9:15) “Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!”
Margie said, “Jesus died on the cross to give us salvation, and salvation is a gift from God out of His Grace, a gift we did not deserve.”
I nodded, “Excellent! The next is a little tougher. Our Glory is in the Glory of Christ Jesus.” There was a pause.
Todd (2 Corinthians 4:6) “For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.”
Todd said, “Yeah, we will see the glory of God just in the face of Jesus.”
I giggled, “Yes, now for another one, Jesus is our Judge.”
Easy (2 Corinthians 5:10) “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.”
Easy said, “There will be two judgments at the End of Time. The Great White Throne judgment looks to see if you are in the Book of Life. But Jesus will sit on the Bema Seat and pass judgment for all those who have earned rewards. Our good works do not save us, but God will recognize our good works with rewards.”
I giggled, “Yes, Sweetie, Jesus is our Lord.”
Arabella (2 Corinthians 4:5) “For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.”
Belle said, “Paul is saying that Paul’s teammates are their servants, not a big leader. The Lord is Jesus. We owe all to Jesus.”
I smiled, “Yes, now for another one, Jesus is our – everyone is into this, they have their fingers in three or four places – drumroll please. Jesus is our … Master.”
Dr. James (2 Corinthians 10:7) “You are judging by appearances. If anyone is confident that they belong to Christ, they should consider again that we belong to Christ just as much as they do.”
Dr. James said, “That was tricky, Stinker. You must use inference. Both Paul and his crew and the Corinthians ‘belong’ to Jesus. This implies a state of servitude, or even slavery. Paul does use that term about himself, a slave to Christ. And in biblical discussion of slavery, the owner is the master.”
I giggled, “Marilyn Hickey used ‘master’. I was thinking of changing it to ‘owner’, but I did not want to creep anyone out. Jesus owns us, but who would anyone have that was better than Jesus? Okay, the next is this. Jesus is our Reconciliation.”
Belle muttered, “How do you even spell it?” Michael snickered and said, “Arrr! Arrr!”
Emmett (2 Corinthians 5:19) “that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.”
Emmett said, “We were slavea to sin. We were separated from God’s glory as a result. Jesus bought us and reconciled us before God the Father. And Belle, we don’t have but three verses left. You don’t need that many fingers marking that many verses.”
I giggled, “I just love it that brother and sister can work together in harmony. The next one is this. Jesus is our strength.”
Mike Lothrop Kildare (2 Corinthians 12:9) “But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”
Mike said, “This talks about power. That might be strength in other translations. And now that I have read one verse, I’ll give you a drum roll for the last two, Aunt Jemima.”
I giggled, “Thank you Todd. The next one is this.” Drum roll. “Jesus is our Substitute.”
Otto (2 Corinthians 5:21) “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
Otto said, “Kind of like what Dr. Kildare said about master. Substitute isn’t a word in the verse, but that is what it means. Besides, I was keeping up with the verses you had not used yet.”
I giggled, “You know, Otto, when you play a friendly game of cards, nobody likes the person who counts cards, but a good inference on your part. Now for the last one – drum roll. Jesus is our Triumph.”
Cassie (2 Corinthians 2:14) “But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere.”
Cassie said, “I want to thank my husband who was probably like Otto and keeping track of which verses are left. But Jesus is not just our triumph, but Jesus will lead us in a triumphal procession. Back to our Palm Sunday lesson. Jesus made a triumphal procession into Jerusalem and when the Romans did that, they brought with them defeated enemies that they took as slaves. Instead of that, Jesus owns us by paying the price for our sins, but he makes us brothers and sisters in Christ. We walk in triumph with Him rather than being His spoils of war.”
I smiled, “Thank you for that historical perspective. And now Grannie Fannie has a new benediction, one that she picked out.”
Grannie Fannie (Deuteronomy 33:27-28) “The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. He will drive out your enemies before you, saying, ‘Destroy them!’ So Israel will live in safety; Jacob will dwell secure in a land of grain and new wine, where the heavens drop dew.”
Then Grannie Fannie added, “And then all God’s children said, ‘Amen.’”
Lauren ran up to Grannie Fannie and hugged her. “It’s bus time, Grannie Fannie! I love you.”
Olympia came over and joined in the hug, “She’s my grandmama.”
Grannie Fannie hugged Olympia back. “Yes, some day soon, Olympia.
Brooke said, “Stormie, church time!”
Stormie said, “Aunt Brooke, we like to go to church!” Joan yelled, “Yeah!” And Ellie Rain and Olympia joined in.
Credits
When I am using quoted verses in the New Testament, I got those verses (different translations) from Seeing Jesus – Bible Encounter Study Guide by Marilyn Hickey. The concept of doing this in a Sunday school setting is based on her book. When the youngster gives the other verse, Aunt Jemima had sent the comparison verse from the Hickey book, but occasionally, a verse is added (easily found in the cross references). The rest is from internet searches, a variety of commentaries and study Bibles, and personal knowledge.
And my wife was infamous in counting cards. I was infamous in not counting cards. We only played cards together when there was a large enough crowd to balance out my wife’s and my irritating card playing habits. If it was just the two of us, I would lose and it would not be close.
Here is New Creation from Doorpost Kids Worship.
Soli Deo Gloria. Only to God be the Glory.
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