First Day Rebuke
At the age of 20, I left home from Nova Scotia to attend the Brown Trail School of Preaching. I was a Christian for about 8 months before I started to attend the training school. At Brown Trail, the term “rebuke” was thrown around a lot. And I certainly received numerous rebukes while at the school. A loud mouth, and a lack of Christian maturity, and a ignorance of some of the unwritten rules of the church added to this common practice. On the first day of school, I was rebuked by Johnny Ramsey (Johnny was a great guy though). Let me continue with the story. Johnny asked the class to produce a list of reasons why we love the Lord Jesus Christ. I, in my wisdom of 20, with 8 months of maturity behind me, reasoned that I only needed one reason, which was that Jesus died for my sins. Good enough for me. Johnny asked me to share one of the reasons that I produced, which I did. Johnny then processed to go around the class with this same intention in mind. After everyone had a turn, Johnny came back to me and asked how many reasons I produced, I told him “one reason, because to have to have more would be prideful.” This made Johnny very upset, because he thought I was saying the assignment produced pride. Needless to say, I received a stern rebuke. After a few weeks, Johnny did realize that I certainly was not trying to question his authority or thought the assignment was prideful. He ended up taking me out to lunch and said he was sorry for the rebuke. He did not know my background or how immature I was in the faith. If he knew, he would never have handled the situation in the way he did. In the end, Johnny was a huge encouragement to me. Not to say, I never received another rebuke from him, I will share this one later in the week. But I really loved the man and he loved me. By the way, Johnny also has a great grandson, and his son-in-law was super to me. In fact, I miss Johnny Ramsey, and in a way I wish he could rebuke me one more time for old time sake.
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Thanks for the comments, they caused me to come over and discover your blog. Go Vols, Go Predators.
Predators are done for the year, now my mind turns toward the VOlS
A mark of maturity is to learn from our rebukes. I received my share when I was a young preacher but most of them were intended to help and I learned from them. As to the vols here is hoping the Tide strongly “rebukes” them this fall.
Leon, that is good advice for every minister. Those who rebuke us are sometimes those who love us the most. As for the Tide, you, sonny, and bobby need a rebuking for choosing the wrong team. The Saban Nation will be a fired nation soon.
i remember this day very vividly. i remember being embarassed for you–not that you did anything wrong, but that he did.
but you’re right. even though to this very day, i strongly disagree with his methods, tone, and candor, what i wouldn’t give just to sit in class and hear him go through Mark again. not because he was some great, deep expositor or clever or such. but, in his teaching, he had a knack for saying more things that cut right down to the center of my heart than just about anyone else i’ve ever heard.
Thank you Guy, and I agree, that Mark class made my heart burn inside. Some days I wish I could hear teaching or preaching like that again.
I was enjoying reading your blog comments and then I saw this stern rebuke from you. First you didn’t start my name with a capital (S) and then you slammed my team. Boy, that hurt. One day like you I will talk about how I wish you could hurt me just one more time. This will come right after we whup you vols and run you to the hills.
Matthew did you know that we are the only team to have a coach that they named an animal after him:-)
What is it “S”onny, a furry, cute, hamster? That is the type of defense that those Bama’s play. Looking forward to the 3rd Saturday in October. On a serious note, good to see you leave a comment again, I have missed you.