At the Master's Academy in the Philippines we have been teaching classes at Greenhills Christian Fellowship in Manila for over a year now. We are currently teaching a new group of pastors principals for interpreting the bible and we have resumed Old Testament Survey classes with our first batch of students. I thought I would share a few comments from some of our students.One pastor told us that he has enjoyed what he has learned soo much that he is now teaching it at his church to his elders, leaders and church workers. They have basically taken our one semester course and turned it into a Sunday school class that will run throughout the year.
I was concerned about a woman who was attending our bible interpretation class. I was told that she was pastoring a local church in town. I hoped that she would not be offended by our position that a woman is not to teach or have authority over men. My prayer was that she would at least stay long enough to learn some solid principles on how to interpret the Bible. By the end of the course she said, "Don't call me pastora anymore." Praise the Lord that after learning how to interpret Scritpture, the Word of God did its work, convicted her heart, and caused her to see her biblical role in the church. Let's pray that she will grow in that role and take great joy in it. She is currently continuing in Old Testament Survey Class and will start New Testament Survey in January. She has been with us for about a year now.
Another student told me that ever since taking Biblical interpretataion with us, that they can't listen to sermons the same anymore. The student said that they are felling tension now that they realize that what their senior pastor preaches is often not what the author was trying to communicate in the Word. Pray that this and other students would lovingly and gently be good influences in their churches and among there brothers and sisters as they advote that the Word of God be accurately taught to God's people.
Many students keep thanking us for the MacArthur Study Bibles that God provided us to give to them. I am seeing the bibles in the churches that we work in more and more. One student of ours is an elder in a local church. During a bible study his wife told me how beautiful that Bible is and what a help is has been to the two of them. She says that they are constantly using it to understand the Word and to answer questions that they have.
