Daily Devotionals
Devotional: January 18th
The last two days have been fun and informative. I had the opportunity to spend Tuesday evening and all day Wednesday at Johnson Bible College near Knoxville, Tennessee. Though I graduated from Kentucky Christian College I also claim Johnson Bible College as my alma mater having spent two years there prior to my enrollment at K.C.C. Being back on campus brought back the proverbial "flood of memories."
I drove all the way through the campus up past and around "Old Main", the combination administration building and dormitory which formed the guts of the campus for so many years before modernization. Just across from Old Main I parked in front of the laundry area where, now noted speaker, then prankster, David Wheeler scared the living daylights out of Kenny Bergland with my help.
My walk down the hill to the Phillips-Welshimer Building brought me my best memory. I saw Dean Floyd Clark. Dean Clark was the acting President of the college when I enrolled in 1968, serving in that capacity following the death of President Robert Bell. Dean Clark also taught classes at the college. As a freshman, I got to have him as my professor for "Life of Christ."
When the time came for the first major test in that class, Dean Clark prefaced it in a rather curious manner. "The majority of you will fail this test," he said flatly. His explanation? Was the test that hard? Was he that tough at grading? No. Most of us would fail that test because we treated the "Life of Christ" as a class and not as our passion. Thanks to Dean Clark's generous curve I received a "C" for my 68 on the test. But I learned the most valuable lesson.
Every day there is a test given on the life of Christ. It is given by the world. The test? It is best summed up by the request of a group of Greeks to Philip of Bethsaida. "Sir, we wish to see Jesus." John 12:21 Dean Clark wanted us to be masters of the life of Christ so the world's daily challenge would be a matter of daily life for us. Since leaving J.B.C and over the years of preaching, almost 40% of my sermons are drawn from the life of Christ. I have studied His life more than any other passages in the Bible. You can't live what you don't know. Dean Clark, I may have gotten a 68, but I was paying attention.
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