Teaching for Transfer

As a winter sports instructor, I embraced the mindset, go where you are needed. Like superman changing outfits in the phone booth, I too regularly changed out of my comfy snowboard boots in to plastic ski boots on request. It would be noble for me to admit my motivation arose out of service to my employer and client. Truthfully, my efforts originated from greed. The more flexible I allowed myself to be the more money I made.   I appreciate how God uses every part of our redeemed story for His glory. Today the flexibility I once used for my own gain is now used in service to my maker.   The Apostle Paul said,  

I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. – 1 Corinthians 9:22b

  As I speak to my preschool age children about Jesus and God’s plan for their lives, I invoke imagery they can relate to and touch and experience in everyday life[1]. Our backyard garden is the place we see the glory of God revealed.   Sunday school and Vacation Bible School enhance what they learn throughout the week at home. My two little girls are spiritual infants maturing from seed planted in soft soil, to sprout, to blossoming plant, to a harvest of fruit, to spreading seeds on a continual cycle heading in the same direction – heavenward.   It turns out most people I encounter at the coffee shop, the grocery store, the hairdresser and at church continue as spiritual infants beyond preschool age. I was one of them. For far too long I struggled to embrace God’s plan to rescue and restore all of creation in to a right relationship with Him through His son Jesus.   I wandered aiming at things less than God’s plan and purpose for my life. Now that I have tasted and seen for myself that the Lord is good[2], I make magnifying the glory of God my chief aim.  

Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. – 1 Corinthians 9:19

  As parents we must be compelled to grow in grace so that we may be equipped to transfer the grace we have encountered from Jesus with our children,[3] our spouse and with those that the Spirit moves to place in our sphere of influence.   As each of us live in close communion with Jesus, we collectively transfer to others what God is revealing individually to us through His Word. And like a monsoon we join God to rain down a deluge of His goodness over a dry and weary land.   How can you remain C-L-O-S-E to Jesus today?  

C – Choose life.

Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

L – Leave the old wandering life behind. Press on heavenward.

2 Corinthians 5:17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here.

O – Open your heart (mind) and soul (appetite, passions, emotions) to the Spirit of God.

John 16:13a But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth.

S – Seek the presence of God and Search for all knowledge and wisdom of Him.

Deuteronomy 4:29 But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.

E – Expect to experience Him.

John 10:27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.