My mind was pulling up memories of high school test-taking. My approach aimed at the best grade. This meant memorizing the facts presented by the teacher. Answering correctly. My wife recalls her method: “Lots of guessing.”
Our friend Timothy’s dilemma sparked our discussion. A middle school student, he had an upcoming science test. He approached it with thorough study of the subject, blended with his zeal to live out his Christian beliefs.
What the teacher would mark correct was at odds with his Bible. The question: “What is the most likely explanation for how the universe was created?”
Timothy is unabashed in believing the Bible: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” By His Word. In six days.
Timothy is intelligent, completely able to explain the atomic-level manifestation of random chance theory. He understands it. But for him, scientific theory pales next to God’s fact: “In the beginning God created....”
He answered the test question in alignment with God’s truth.
I asked Timothy, “What was your teacher’s response?” Nothing. She simply marked it as wrong.
2 Corinthians 3:2 says, “Your very lives are a letter that anyone can read by just looking at you.” Timothy’s God-as-Creator answer in essence wrote several sentences to his teacher. It may have sounded like this: “I am a Christian. I trust God. I study and believe the Bible.”
His test answer decision has put Timothy in the company of the Apostle Paul who wrote, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel…just as it is written: The righteous will live by faith.”
My distant high school tests mean little now. They serve as a reminder of when I was in the category of people, “Ashamed of the Gospel.” Unable…unwilling to live by faith.
Dear Timothy, “I love you.”
Our friend Timothy’s dilemma sparked our discussion. A middle school student, he had an upcoming science test. He approached it with thorough study of the subject, blended with his zeal to live out his Christian beliefs.
What the teacher would mark correct was at odds with his Bible. The question: “What is the most likely explanation for how the universe was created?”
Timothy is unabashed in believing the Bible: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” By His Word. In six days.
Timothy is intelligent, completely able to explain the atomic-level manifestation of random chance theory. He understands it. But for him, scientific theory pales next to God’s fact: “In the beginning God created....”
He answered the test question in alignment with God’s truth.
I asked Timothy, “What was your teacher’s response?” Nothing. She simply marked it as wrong.
2 Corinthians 3:2 says, “Your very lives are a letter that anyone can read by just looking at you.” Timothy’s God-as-Creator answer in essence wrote several sentences to his teacher. It may have sounded like this: “I am a Christian. I trust God. I study and believe the Bible.”
His test answer decision has put Timothy in the company of the Apostle Paul who wrote, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel…just as it is written: The righteous will live by faith.”
My distant high school tests mean little now. They serve as a reminder of when I was in the category of people, “Ashamed of the Gospel.” Unable…unwilling to live by faith.
Dear Timothy, “I love you.”
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