Stockton Baptist Church

TEACH ME. John Brown was born in Scotland in 1722. He was orphaned as a boy. His dad, a dirt-poor, humble weaver, yet strong Christian, died when he was just 11. His mom died soon thereafter. He had very little formal education but did study Latin for one month during the relatively brief time he attended school. Providentially, after the death of his parents, the hand of God put John under the care and protection of John Ogilvie, a godly shepherd who also served as pastor of a small church. Amazingly, John Brown, a poor shepherd boy, driven by an intense desire to learn, taught himself some Greek. Knowing of his need for a Greek grammar to aid his learning, having scraped together enough money, he left his flock with a friend, and walked 24 miles to make the purchase. Upon arriving at the book store, it "just so happened" that a professor of Greek overheard John talking with the store owner. The professor then told John, "read this, and you shall have the book for nothing." He read the passage and gleefully retraced his 24-mile jaunt back home. He went on to teach himself not only Greek, but Latin and Hebrew, as well as acquainting himself with French, Italian, German, Arabic, Persian, Syriac, and Ethiopic. This orphaned, self-taught shepherd boy ended up spending 36 years serving as pastor of a small flock and later spent 20 years as being Professor of Divinity in addition to his pastoral work. In his "spare time" he also wrote many books including a history of the Christian Church and a Systematic Theology of the Bible. My point is that with the help of God and good, old-fashioned grit anyone can learn the Word of God. Another shepherd boy, David, begged God, saying, "Show me Your ways, O LORD; TEACH ME Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and TEACH ME, For You are the God of my salvation; On You I wait all the day (Psalm 25:4-5). With open Bible in hand, we all need to cry out to God, "TEACH ME!"