Cornerstone Curriculum, Official Certification Edition - Mentor's Guide

M E N T O R N O T E S / 7 7

Please notice again in the objectives that these truths are clearly stated. As usual, your responsibility as Mentor is to emphasize these concepts throughout the lesson, especially during the discussions and interaction with the students. The more you can highlight the objectives throughout the class period, the better the chances are that they will understand and grasp the magnitude of these objectives. This devotion focuses on the kind of heart preparation necessary to take full advantage of a critical approach to the Word of God. The Scriptures are in fact a book of literature, but it is unlike any other book in that it can transform the soul of the student who approaches it in such a way as to make its study an encounter with God through Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit . The goal of Bible study is not to settle curiosities or to find fuel for debate and argument; the Word for Ezra was life-shaping and life-transforming power that would allow him to relate to God in such a way as to become his vessel and instrument. Paul Karleen has spoken eloquently of this life transforming dimension of the Word of God which in fact must impact the personal preparation and readiness of any serious student of the Bible: One of the most serious errors students of the Bible can make is to think that their labors alone determine what they will gain from Scripture. The divine Author of the Book is its ultimate Interpreter. The believer can count on the truth of 1 Cor. 2.12: “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things freely given to us by God” (NASB). Those who know Jesus Christ as Savior have the same Holy Spirit within them to illumine Scripture. Being regenerated is the first requisite to making sense of the Bible. Further, since God speaks to us through his Word, we should regard every occasion of reading or studying that Word as an encounter with God himself. The more you expect God to open divine truth to you, the more you must be willing to lay your spiritual state bare before God as

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