Heartbeats of Mine

I get to teach Sunday School to the Middle School students this upcoming Sunday and the following Sunday. Love it! Seriously...I should be a full time Old Testament Sunday School teacher or Bible Teacher...hey! maybe this is my life calling. And on the side, I can work in a coffee shop. Perfect!

This upcoming Sunday the topic is "Looking Ahead to the Messiah"...which basically means reviewing all the Old Testament prophesies concerning the Messiah. Easy cheesy....hah! Seriously? We are talking about 39 books and over 100 prophesies to be squeezed into 1 hour. Yay me! I have some major work to do on this still. I have done my research and now just need to find a way to put it all together in a way that will work with Middle schoolers and effectively teach the necessary points. I'm confident it will work out just fine.

Next week, I get to teach on Jewish Holidays and Jesus. This is the lesson I am excited about. My heart beats Jewish (even though I'm not Jewish)...which is another story for another day perhaps....Anyhow, a great book that I love, love, love, that totally addresses the Jewish and Christian holidays is Girl Meets God by Lauren Winner. Read it! I promise you'll find it interesting and challenging. So for this lesson, I'm going to talk about 8 Jewish holidays/celebrations and how Jesus can been seen or is a part of all of them. Oh my...I'm excited for this.

I love teaching the Old Testament. I think churches today focus much more on the New Testament and tend to validate that more than the Old Testament. After all, the New Testament is about Jesus, the church, missions, and Christian living. But the Old Testament has just as much to offer the Christian church. The Old Testament consistently points to Jesus throughout its entirety! I think that is why I love studying and teaching about it. It is rich of God's character, His heart for those who don't know Him, and the need for Salvation. Every book speaks to those things. If it didn't require another 3-4 years of school or if someone offered to pay for full-time schooling, I would seriously consider getting an Old Testament or Hebrew degree.

For now, I'll be content to teach Sunday School.