Daily Bible Nugget #905, 1 Corinthians 13:7

One Response to Daily Bible Nugget #905, 1 Corinthians 13:7

1. Jerry says:

   January 23, 2025 at 5:10 pm

   I shared the link to this post in an ongoing conversation elsewhere on Facebook. In answer to a sincere question about how this post was relevant to that conversation, I shared the following comment:

   Robert Ash, I wish I had the technical knowledge that you have.

   I started out in the electrical curriculum at Cass Technical High School. I became a power room operator for the Michigan Bell Telephone Company. Working for “Ma Bell” was how I earned enough money to attend and graduate from Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina.

   I was never popular on campus, there or anywhere else. But I did gain the valuable experience of participating on championship debate teams, both at BJU and at Cass Technical High School.

   While at BJU I took a minor in Greek. I am still studying Greek these many years later (I began my studies in Greek at BJU in 1958).

   So yes, I lived through the 1950s. I remember the 1940s very well.

   When, many years later, I was teaching world history and American history at Southeastern High School in Detroit, I experienced reverse discrimination from the students daily. Not my students, but unruly students who spent their time “hall walking” instead of attending their classes.

   Because of my success at raising the reading level of the entire high school, I was made a reading specialist.

   The first day as a reading specialist, my students asked me, “Mr. Smith, is this a class for dummies?”

   I said, “Absolutely not. If you follow my directions and advice I will turn you into geniuses.”

   The students in that class were placed there because their academic skills were way below their grade level (eleventh and twelfth grade). When I tested them they read on the third or fourth grade level of reading comprehension according to the standardized tests I used.

   One very snowy, wintry day my Detroit Board of Education Supervisor came to visit my class and rate me as a teacher. That class met first hour, at 8 am. When the supervisor entered my room, he stopped to ask nearly every student what they were doing in my class, that is, what was the assignment they were working on, and what was the assignment’s purpose. My students all knew exactly what they were doing and why. When I received a written report, my evaluation, the supervisor, Mr. Sterling Jones, spoke very highly of my students and my class. He was amazed at all the teaching materials I had prepared for my students. He was most amazed at the perfect attendance of my class on that very wintry day.

   Nearly all those students, all African American students, successfully entered and graduated from college at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan.

   Taken in the light of 1 Corinthians 13:7,

   1Co 13:7  Love never gives up on people. It never stops trusting, never loses hope, and never quits. 

   this represents how each of us in the place where God has placed us, can have a great impact on the lives of those in our sphere of influence.

   Unfortunately, I was shot at point blank range by an assailant wielding a nine millimeter handgun at 7:15 am on a Thursday on March 13, 1986. That ended my teaching at Southeastern High School.

   The students jeered and cheered in a most disrespectful manner as I was carried by the Athletic Department head and a science teacher to the awaiting ambulance. The science teacher, who taught physics, resigned two weeks later because of how he saw I was treated by the students. Those were not my students. My students loved me, and when I returned to teaching nearly five years later to teach at Denby High School in Detroit, said “Mr. Smith, we love you.” They also said, “Mr. Smith, you’re black.”

   I tutored the athletes at Denby High School so they could pass the ACT or the SAT tests with high enough scores to qualify for athletic scholarships to college. Coach Stuckey brought me a hand-written list of the record he kept of 21 students who received a full athletic scholarship to college as a result of me successfully tutoring them.

   Many of my students became pastors and workers in Christian ministries. My former student, Pastor Emery Moss, Jr., is on WLQV Faithtalk Radio 1500 AM in Detroit every weekday evening from 6 to 7. His program is called “Bible Talk.” His ministry is called “Strictly Biblical Bible Teaching Ministries.” He reaches the whole southeastern region of Michigan and much further on the Internet. He has even had me on his program from time to time.

   My point is, we should let our light shine wherever we are. God will multiply our influence in His own way. And that is one means by which He changes for the better what is going on in the world.

   1Co 13:7  Love never gives up on people. It never stops trusting, never loses hope, and never quits. (ERV, Easy to Read Version)

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