| Author | Message | ||
| River Registered user Username: River Post Number: 7664 Registered: 9-2006  |
I see the point of former Adventist in being rather suspicious of ministers and lay ministers in general. Yet when we place those limitations on ourselves it can prevent us from learning. When I want information I don’t go out and find a teenager for advice. For example years ago when I came to Longview Wa., Which sits on the forks of the Columbia and Cowlitz rivers, I was a very young man. There were fishing boats and boat houses situated on the Cowlitz river and I observed the fisherman as they worked on their boats and mended their nets. I wanted more than anything to learn the fishing trade, so I sidled up to an old man as he mended his nets to talk to him. I ended up trading the old man an old air compressor for an old boat he had long ago abandoned on the banks of the river. He taught me to calk the cracks between the planking with cotton and came the day I was ready to put her in the water. The 27 foot boat was about 20 feet from the water. I pushed on the boat with my hand and it didn’t even shake. Very heavy! I said, “How am I ever going to get it in the water?” The old man said, “Get those two logs and drag them over here and put them in front of the boat.” I did as he asked and he taken a long two by four and pryed on the stern of the boat, the bow lifted and rolled onto the two logs, he began skillfully rolling the boat into the river where it promptly sank. “Oh no!” I said. He said, “Don’t worry, she will swell up, come back in a week.” I came back the next week and he took a pump and began pumping the water out of the boat and soon, there she sat on the water, my first fishing boat! He patiently taught me how to use a fid to deftly mend a net. To some he was just an old man, to me he was a fountain of wisdom. If I want to learn, I’ll find me an old preacher, not a kid fresh out of seminary. The older folks have a combination of bible knowledge honed by experience with life. You don’t have to agree with them on every theological point, but It’s not good to discount things they say too quickly either. There are many men and women who have laid down their lives for the sake of the gospel. We shouldn’t be afraid to listen to the wisdom of older men and women of God. Give me an older minister over the sprouts any time. I was lucky…or purposely blessed… I started out under older ministers who were dedicated men and women of God and they helped me build a firm foundation on Bible truths which have never let me down. River | ||
| Skeeter Registered user Username: Skeeter Post Number: 1793 Registered: 12-2007  |
Words of wisdom  |
