'You
will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.’
Jeremiah 29:13
Jeremiah 29:13
God is love, and wants to be found. He doesn’t conceal Himself
in an attempt to avoid us. Rather, He wants us to desire Him as He desires us.
Seeking and searching for Him is looking for His heart. When a person’s heart
seeks and searches for God’s heart, discovery is guaranteed.
“The heart is more deceitful than all else” (Jeremiah 17:9-10).
However, when the focus of the heart is the quest for God, then the heart
“leads” in the right direction.
“If God wants you to do
something, He’ll make it possible for you to do it, but the grace He provides
comes only with the task and cannot be stockpiled beforehand. We are dependent
on Him from hour to hour, and the greater our awareness of this fact, the less
likely we are to faint or fail in a crisis."
LET US LEARN TO LEAN ON HIM ALWAYS
ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE = TO SUCCESS IN LIFE
1.
Excellence connotes the quality of being
very good, distinguished and outstanding.
·
Good
performance, unique and special.
·
The
highest marks
2. Education is Life
I chro 28:9
3.
Education is the academic training
and building of Wisdom and character in the heart and life of
a learner / person.
4.
Knowledge is the facts and
data
5.
Understanding is the ability to
organize, to reason and to assimilate knowledge.
6.
Wisdom is effective
application in life of understood truth.
7.
Values are a set of
principles, standards, or qualities considered to be worthwhile or desirable.
8.
Presuppositions
are foundational beliefs assumed to be true.
THE
HIGHEST QUALITY IS GOD
i)
God
exists : Natural Law.
ii)
God
speaks : Bible, Revelation.
iii)
Created
universe : God`s Property
iv)
Created
man : Accountability to God.
Psalm
31:5
John 14:6
1.
God’s great design for man
WHAT IS MAN? PSALM 8:4
·
Man
is physical
·
Man
is mental
·
Man
is emotional
·
Man
is social
·
Man
is moral
·
Man
is spiritual
Ø If one is going to have an understanding of
man;
Ø Where he came from
Ø Why he is here
Ø Where is he going
Ø That person will be bound to
acknowledge another element that has been lost from the field of modern
education
Ø This incorporates the moral and
spiritual elements – The basis of character development.
Ø NOTE: YOU CANNOT HAVE ACCOUNTABILITY,
SELF- DISCIPLINE AND CHARACTER IN MAN WITHOUT RECOGNIZING HIS SPIRIT AND
ACKNOWLEDGING THAT HE IS BOTH MORAL AND SPIRITUAL.
Ø GOD’S GREAT DESIGN FOR MAN
-
God
has a special plan for our lives.
-
God
leads people to the RIGHT career and ministry according to your gifts, skills
and training.
1. MAN DESIGNED TO WORK
-
Why
should you discover what career or ministry God has for you?
-
God
wants your life to bring honour and glory to Him
-
God
worked for six days EXCODUS 20:9,10
-
God
designed man to work.
o
One
day to rest and focus on Him and His word
-
Man
is to work to earn a living
-
Work
is any effort put forth to accomplish a particular goal
GEN 3:19
IITHES 3:10
-
The
work that a person does is often referred to as
o
Vocation,
profession, trade occupation or business
o
Working
cooperatively with others is essential in any occupation
o
LUKE
10:7
2. Man designed to glorify God
ISAIAH 43:7
-
The
primary duty of man is to glorify God.
-
ICOR
10:31
-
For
what is God preparing me?
-
Finding
the Lord’s will for your life may seem difficult but God gives many helpful
signposts to guide you
-
It
is important to know God’s will to bring the most glory to H6im.
-
Salesman
- reporter
-
Mechanic
lawyer
-
Pastor. Pilot
3. MAN IS DESIGNED TO DEVELOP GIFTS
-
How
can you know God’s will for your life?
-
Each
gift is a God - given ability through which one can serve and glorify God
-
Gifts
from God help each of us bring important skills to the vocation to which God
calls us. ICOR 12:12-16
-
God
has created each one of us to be a UNIQUE part of the body of Christ
-
Finding
the unique RESPONSIBILITY that you are to fulfil in his body is the most
important part of choosing a career
4. MAN DESIGNED TO FULFIL GOD’S CALL.
-
Believers
can serve God while working in nearly every part of the work force.
-
No
matter where believers serve they are to be honest, MORAL, dependable workers
who will do an honest day’s pay
o
Christian
businessmen
o
An
asset to any community health nurses and doctors, automobile and airplane
mechanics ,writers and librarians
5. MAN DESIGNED TO FIND TRUE JOY.
-
What
is true joy?
-
True
joy and peace are experienced in being what God wants us to be in his perfect
timing
-
Special
calls pastors, missionaries, and evangelists, healthcare, military,
agriculture, financial business etc
-
Having
close relationship with the Lord and being what God wants us to be will produce
TRUE JOY AND PEACE.
A) GOD VIEW OF SUCCES
- The word “success” is a word very
much misunderstood in today’s world.
- We
need to know what God has to say :-
JOSHUA 1:8 “This book of the law
shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate there in day
and night that you may observe to do according to all that is written
there in, for then you shall make your way prosperous
and then you shall have good
success”
NOTE:-read the word daily
-meditate on it
Obey it
-
Does
a person have to be a pastor or a missionary to be a success in God’s eyes? NO
-
God
needs all professionals to be successful for him
-
His
design for you is to bring Him glory and to follow His will for your life
-
You
need to do your best and not the minimum score in order to please God
-
Are
you giving Him your best today?
-
Ecclesiastes
9:10
B) HOW CAN I HAVE GODLY SUCCESS?
i) Think
as God thinks
ii)
Learn
what He says in his word
iii)
You
will have God’s peace when you believe God’s word and act on it
Psalm 1:1-3
iv)
God’s
word and command bring success to man
v)
C) WORLD’S STANDARDS
a.
How
much money
b.
Your
possessions
c.
How
capable you are in your position?
D) GOD’S STANDARDS
is measured by your obedience to him in following
His word and faithfully serving Him
a.
Mathew
23:11
b.
The
greatest is the one who serves others.
THE
THREE DIMENSIONS OF LIFE AND EDUCATION.
Three dimensions of the learning process:-
-
Knowledge,
understanding and wisdom.
Prov. 2:6
“For the LORD gives
wisdom out of his mouth comes knowledge and understanding”.
What is Education?
It is life.
Life is knowledge,
understanding and wisdom.
(A)
KNOWLEDGE
-
Is
facts, it is data.
-
It
is what we program into the computer.
( B)
UNDERSTANDING
-
Understanding
is not knowledge.
-
Understanding
is relating those facts to each other, handling and processing the information
and coming to conclusions based upon the facts.
( C)
WISDOM
-
It
is the action that results from or the ability to respond to knowledge and
understanding.
-
Knowledge
is the raw material of culture and formal education.
* The importance of teachers or education.
Gal. 4:2
-
Natural
law is the basis for the reality of all truth, and society has naturally
organized all truth into an academic spiral.
Examples:
1.
Mathematics.
Simple = * recognition of number.
*Putting numbers together
*Big/ large
number
-multiplication, division.
Complex *Trigonometry &
calculation & engineering.
God
- creation of the universe
-
God
is the duet engineer
2.
Science
-Simple facts: Hot or cold, vegetable and
animals.
-Complex: Life science, Earth science,
natural science chemistry, physics and
medicine.
3.
Languages:
-Sounds and letters.
-Words and sentences
-Grammar, literature and communication.
-
We
learn that God speaks and through his word we learn His commands.
-
He
wants us to learn, reading, writing, speaking and communicating.
-
We
gain knowledge and understanding about Him and appropriating wisdom to live for
him.
-
Understanding
is an expansion of knowledge and requires the ability to organize, to reason,
to handle all the facts, to process them, to relate, to interrelate, to
discern, to see the implications and to draw conclusions.
-
All
this the natural intellectual ability of man.
FIVE MAJOR SKILLS
-
Understanding
includes five major skills
*The abilities to
listen
*The abilities to
read
*The abilities to
speak
*The abilities to
write
*The abilities to
reason
-
These
are communication skills are unique only to man – image of God
-
Children
do not possess these but have the ability to gain develop as they grow.
WISDOM
What is wisdom?
-
Wisdom
is found in the Bible 234 times.
-
The
word “wise” is found 247 times.
-
The
book of Proverbs is called the book of wisdom written by king Solomon
-
The
present generation is suffering from a famine of true wisdom.
-
Wisdom
is observable Biblical character in
action and it observable Biblical principles in action.
-
Character
and principles are the action of wisdom.
-
-
What are the by-products
of wisdom?
-Riches, honour, long
life and peace.
-
If
one has wisdom, if our children, leaders have wisdom then riches, honour, long
life and peace will be in our culture and will become the values of the next generation.
What is the source of wisdom?
-
It
is the person of God.
-
It
emanates from the personality mentality, character and essence of what God is.
Example: The switch and the electricity.
-
God
is the source of all wisdom.
-
Wisdom
is the expression of the person of God in our lives.
-
It
is the character of God.
-
Wisdom
is neither IQ nor human intellect.
-
Wisdom
is spiritual. It is the essence of the heart of God.
James. 3:17 source is God.
-
Wisdom
is the highest quality of Biblical and moral action observable in a life.
Dent. 4:6 Prov. 2:7
Dent. 6:7-9 Prov.3:13
Prov. 29:15 Prov.9:10
Prov. 14:33
Prov. 29:3
Prov. 11:2
-
Wisdom
requires action or performance. It is not intellectual. It is not emotional.
-
It is from the heart
-
It
is the reflection and very person and character of God in action.
-
When
a believer walks in God`s ways, wisdom will be evident in the way he thinks,
reasons, speaks and conducts himself.
-
Skilful
in mind, word and act.
Walk = behaviour or living.
NOTE: To walk in wisdom, then is to maintain a
quality of life parallel to the life of
JESUS
Christ.
-
Wisdom is walking as
God would walk.
-
As
we instil this foundation of wisdom, values, principles and character in the
mind and hearts and lives of children, we are training the next generation to
walk in God`s ways.
-
That
is wisdom and that is education in its truest.
IDEAL CHARACTER TRAITS
PRINCIPLES
OF LIFE
What is character?
Character qualities
-
Character
is observable in the response of the heart and mind of an individual.
-
The
source of ideal character trait is the person and character of Jesus Christ.
-
Wisdom
from above is identified by scripture and grasped by faith.
-
That
will come only from God`s word through reading and memorizing (knowledge),
studying and meditating (understand) and personalizing (wisdom) scripture.
DEVELOPING WISDOM
Steps
1.
Read
for knowledge
Read the Bible
Prov.1:3, I Tim 4:13
2.
Memorize
scripture
Psalm 119:11
You
acquire God`s thinking and actions.
Memorization
of scripture deposits words of wisdom in our memory bank.
3.
Study
for understanding
Understanding requires repetitive reading and
memorizing in order to acqure information and knowledge
II Tim 2:15
Studying builds the skill of understanding
the principles of the Bible.
4.
Meditation
on scripture.
What is read, memorized and studied should be
meditated also.
*Psalm 1:2, Joshua 1:8
5.
Personalize
for A application
§ We read for knowledge
§ We memorize for
retention
§ We study for
understanding
§ We meditate for
enlightenment
§ We personalize for
applying truths of scripture to one`s life.
*Psalm 90:12
DEVELOPMENT OF WISDOM
§ Read, memorize, study
meditate and personalize
§ We read and memorize
for KNOWLEDGE
§ We study and meditate
for UNDERSTANDING
§ We personalize for
WISDOM (Application)
Psalm 1:1 -3
- Assignment Mark16:15
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