Start – Middle – End

This is my Bible

• Every word in it is true

• I am what it says I am

• I have what it says I have

• It has the power to change the livesof men

• Today I am open to receive from itspages wisdom, counsel, andinstruction from the only living andeverlasting God.

My Vacation Bible Study Story

• I went downstairs early with my Bible

• I sat down after breakfast at the hotel,said “What are You going to show metoday, Lord?”, and opened my Bible towherever

• I began to read, and meditate, and thinkon, and question, and reread

• I shared what I saw and learned with atotal stranger who in turn blessed mewith a gift

My Vacation Bible Study Story

Psalm 48, NASB

A Song; a Psalm of the sons of Korah.

Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised,In the city of our God, His holy mountain.Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth,Is Mount Zion in the far north, The city of the great King.God, in her palaces, Has made Himself known as a stronghold.For, lo, the kings assembled themselves,They passed by together.They saw it, then they were amazed;They were terrified, they fled in alarm.Panic seized them there, Anguish, as of a woman in childbirth.With the east windYou break the ships of Tarshish.As we have heard, so have we seenIn the city of the LORD of hosts, in the city of our God;

God will establish her forever. Selah.We have thought on Your lovingkindness, O God,In the midst of Your temple.As is Your name, O God,So is Your praise to the ends of the earth;Your right hand is full of righteousness.Let Mount Zion be glad,Let the daughters of Judah rejoiceBecause of Your judgments.Walk about Zion and go around her;Count her towers;Consider her ramparts;Go through her palaces,That you may tell it to the next generation.For such is God,Our God forever and ever;He will guide us until death.

A Question:

Why Psalms? Why write down praises?

Answer:

For the next and future generations

A Start

Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he is old he will not depart from it. – Proverbs 22.6 NASB

Tell • Show • Do • Review

- Training: What you tell them, they will believe

- Training: What you show them, they will do

- Training: What you let them do will become habit

- Training: What you let repeat or allow becomes nature

Good or Bad

The Middle

An overseer [bishop], then, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not addicted to wine or pugnacious, but gentle, peaceable, free from the love of money. He must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity (but if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of the church of God?)- 1 Timothy 3.2-5, NASB

Deacons must be husbands of only one wife, and good managers of their children and their own households.- 1 Timothy 3.12, NASB

You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.- 2 Timothy 3.14-17, NASB

The End

For the overseer must be above reproach as God’s steward, not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not addicted to wine, not pugnacious, notfond of sordid gain, but hospitable, loving what is good, sensible, just,devout, self-controlled, holding fast the faithful word which is inaccordance with the teaching, so that he will be able both to exhort insound doctrine and to refute those who contradict.- Titus 1.7-9, NASB

Do not neglect the spiritual gift within you, which was bestowed on youthrough prophetic utterance with the laying on of hands by thepresbytery. [elders]- 1 Timothy 4.14, NASB

Teach – Guard – Establish

Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile an account of the things accomplished among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word, it seemed fitting for me as well, having investigated everything carefully from the beginning, to write it out for you in consecutive order, most excellent Theophilus; so that you may know the exact truth about the things you have been taught.- Luke 1.1-4, NASB

• Search out the truth, investigate it• Know the truth, validate it• Teach the truth, just as it was taught

All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.- 2 Timothy 3.16-17, NASB

They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.- Acts 2.42, NASB

“This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.”- The Lord God, from Joshua 1.8, NASB

As a youth we learn the truth of God from our teachers and listen to our elders for verification of the truth.

As adults, we carry the truth and establish the truth in our children. We live out the truth in front of those around us. We are the only truth some may ever see.

As elders, we have lived the truth and established the truth in the next generation. We continually guard the truth to ensure it is carried properly from one generation to another.