Sunday School Answers

 I don’t ever write on Sunday. We are always involved in worship and preparing for worship. But a word has been stirring in my heart all weekend; then this morning I wake up to see grieving families standing at the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial and my brothers in Christ lined up along the beach ready to give up their lives for their faith. The gravity of these events has pressed my heart and the conviction God has been giving is even clearer to me now.

 

It was actually just a funny story that provoked a thought. On Friday I take guitar lessons. My instructor, Ernie is also a worship leader and he helps me develop the songs that I lead on Sunday. We got to laughing about the lyrics of an song. He said, “That reminds me of when I was a kid and all I knew was to give Sunday School answers.”

Any kid that grew up in church knows what Sunday School answers are. No matter what question the teacher is asking the answer is going to be one of a few options. Kind of like guessing on a multiple choice test, only instead of guessing “A”, “B” or “C” the answers are “The Bible”, “God”, or “Jesus”.

He said one Sunday when he was a little boy in Sunday School his teacher told the class, “I’m going to describe something and I want you to tell me what you think it is that I’m describing.” The teacher went on to ask, “What can run real fast, it’s covered in fur, it likes to eat nuts, it lives in a tree and has a big bushy tail.”

Ernie said, “It sounded like she was describing a squirrel! I wanted to say squirrel so bad, but since we were in Sunday School I raised my hand and answered, ‘JESUS!’”

I grew up listening to the Andrae Crouch song, “Jesus is the Answer”. My parents had it on 8-track and would rock out to it in our station wagon. We sang the song in church, and I grew up believing every word.

“Jesus is the answer for the world today, Above Him there’s no other. Jesus is the way.”

But deep down I wondered what it really means. How does singing about Jesus solve the big problems our world is facing today? The answer is, it doesn't. 

I have learned that my Sunday School answers aren’t enough anymore. I believe that Jesus is the answer, and it has to become more than a line in a song to me. These words have become my marching orders.

We go to the dark places. We live sacrificially. We obey though faith is required and we love the un loveable, because of Jesus. It’s not enough to just read about Him, and know who He is. He has called us to bear witness to His power with our life.

It’s what Paul was talking about in Ephesians 6:19-20 when he said, “Pray also for me, that the message may be given to me when I open my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the Gospel. For this I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I might be bold enough in Him to speak as I should.”

 I am going to begin praying for the same thing as Paul, that when I open my mouth to speak, that the mystery of the Gospel will be made known. As an ambassador of this message, I pray God will continue to send me out and give me the courage to speak and live as I should. To say and do the hard things, and to demonstrate with my life what my heart believes. The answer is Jesus!