Those who have followed The Mint over the past several years are familiar with an annual assignment which we take very seriously. The assignment is to open the Bible as if we have never seen it before for the first 10 weeks of the year. The assignment is given each year by Bettie Mitchell, the Founder of Good Samaritan Ministries in Beaverton, where the classes are held.
Over the past four years, we have been fortunate to explore Hosea, Matthew, Isaiah, and John. This past February 19th and 26th we were privileged to assist in teaching the book of Deuteronomy, a book of staggering importance.
Below is a clip from the class on the 19th:
You can see the entire teaching at the following link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRM2WHXNyCA
If you are interested in teaching on Deuteronomy, you can access our notes, with the introduction and conclusion from James Michener’s The Source, at the following link:
You can also download them in here: Deuteronomy Class Notes 2-16-2014
You can access the Powerpoint slides here: Deuteronomy Slides
You will quickly notice two things if you take time to watch the video of the teaching and look over the slides. First, you will notice that there are only three slides for what will be four hours of teaching. Second, the pace of speaking may seem slow.
We assure you that you are not imagining things. There are indeed very few slides and our pace is purposefully slow. On the internet, where one is accustomed to information coming at a rapid fire rate, it will feel slow.
The reason is the following: If one is to allow the Word of the Living God to teach them, it must come out of one’s mouth, travel around the room, and be heard back into one’s own ear to assure that it has been heard and understood by all. Only then, when it has been heard and understood by all, can it bring the people in the room together, as they were some 3,500 years ago at Kadesh Barnea, listening to Moses give his bittersweet farewell address to a people who were about to become a nation for the very first time.
It is a nation that has withstood the test of time and distance ever since that moment, and has spread from the Promised Land throughout the world, and yet remains one: Israel.
Regardless of one’s faith or ancestry, Deuteronomy is important, for it holds the key to a number of mysteries. As Bettie Mitchell put it:
In the cities there is confusion, in the wilderness, there is something different, something to be learned. In the wilderness, the question is not about human relationships, it is about God
Deuteronomy takes mankind to the wilderness.