Spelling Bee

Acts 6-7
Do we BELIEVE what we KNOW is TRUE?

Today in class, we had a

Spelling Bee.

This was no ordinary Spelling Bee!

The students had to spell words such as dog, cat, and me!

And believe it or not... some of them failed... big time.

Hmmm... do we BELIEVE what we KNOW is TRUE?

But I'll tell you more about that later in the post.

After the Spelling Bee,

the students watched a little play put on by

2LD (Little Lego Dude) and the people of Barbieville.

2LD was crazy about spelling.

He just LOVED words and he really enjoyed spelling them.

But the people of Barbieville didn't believe in spelling words.

So... they bombarded 2LD with marshmallows.

Sad, I know.  he he he

But 2LD... he just kept right on spelling...

until...he was so covered in marshmallow goo that he disappeared.

Sound like a familiar story?  A bit like Stephen's story?

I asked the classes if anyone had every seen the movie

Akeelah and the Bee.  Excellent movie!!!

Akeelah spelled much bigger and more complicated

words than dog, cat, and me.

She was goooood.

She won the state competition with the word

P-U-L-C-H-R-I-T-U-D-E.

She knew everything about words...

how to spell them, where they originated (or came from,)

and even how to use them in a sentence!

I asked the students how they thought

Akeelah knew how to spell so many large words.

Someone said because she had the Holy Spirit within her

but we don't know that for sure.

God can do many great things through people

who don't even know who His Son is.

Then someone said... because she STUDIED.

Yes!  Akeelah studied ALOT.  

You can say she treated words like they were her FRIENDS.

And she SPENT TIME WITH HER FRIENDS.

How did Stephen know so much about

all those people from the Bible?

Those stories were at least 400 years old!

He studied.  And he did even more than that...

He spent time with HIS FRIEND, JESUS.

But the Jewish leaders studied God's Word also.

What was different?

The Jewish leaders did not SPEND TIME WITH JESUS.

They did not KNOW Jesus as their FRIEND.

Stephen KNEW HE WAS RIGHT because he KNEW Jesus.

Earlier, I shared with you a bit about our Spelling Bee.

Each time a student spelled a word correctly,

I threw a marshmallow at them, told them the answer was wrong,

and told them to sit down.

It only took two or three students having to sit down

before the other students tried to spell their words

incorrectly or backward or just plain goofy.

Do we BELIEVE what we KNOW to be TRUE?

I was somewhat surprised at how the students

began to think they had to "guess" at the spelling

 or spell it to "please" me.

They couldn't figure out why I would say

the correct spellings were wrong.

So they tried to change the spellings.

Stephen didn't change.

I'm sure he was frustrated with the Jewish leaders

for not believing the Truth of Jesus Chist

when HISTORY pointed directly to Jesus.

But he never changed his story

(like the students were changing their spellings.)

Stephen KNEW HE WAS RIGHT.

And he was willing to die for it.

At the end of the movie, "Akeelah and the Bee,"

Akeelah says, "You know that feeling where everything feels right;

where you don't have to worry about yesterday or tomorrow;

where you feel safe and you know you're doing the best you can?

There's a word for that feeling.

That word is LOVE.  L-O-V-E.

I know that word.  I know that feeling.

I know and believe in LOVE because I know Jesus

as my Savior, my King, and my FRIEND.

And I know Jesus loves me.

Stepen knew and believed in Jesus' love.

Stephen wanted the Jewish people to know that same Love.

What do YOU believe to be TRUE?

Do you KNOW what you BELIEVE is TRUE?

Do you KNOW Jesus and His love?

Have you trusted Him as your Savior today?

It is my prayer that each and every person who reads

this blog as well as every CBS student

will spend time getting to know Jesus better

so that they can be blessed to know and trust Him

or know and trust Him more.

"To me, living is Christ and

to die is gaining even more life with Him."

Phillipians 1:21