BTLN Recap

Well as you can see the new shirts are here. Make sure you bring your form and money next week so you can get yours.

This week Ryan did our bible study on Leading Courageously. We read the story of Jonathan and his armour bearer in 1 Samuel 14. We saw how to be a good leader we need to have certain attitudes and qualities such as: courage, honesty, humility, faith. We also need to trust God and the truth in his word. Jonathan knew that God wanted to help them but he wasn't sure exactly how. He came up with a plan to trust God and also to let God guide them in their action. If the Philistines told them to stay put that would be God's sign to not attack, if they told them to come up to them that would be God's sign for them to attack. Jonathan trusted the truth that God would help them and direct them, he also had faith that God would give them a sign as to what to do. He wasn't trusting his own abilities or plan of attack. In his words; "Perhaps the Lord will act on our behalf. Nothing can hinder the Lord from saving, whether by many or by few." Jonathan also knew that to do what God wanted them to do they would need to act without telling Saul or the rest of the army. Saul's leadership was not centered on God's will as much as it was on Saul's own will and plans. Jonathan must have suspected that they wouldn't be allowed to leave if they consulted with their superiors.

We talked about how when we lead according to God's will and word that we will often experience others telling us that we are foolish or opposing what we know is right. It takes perseverance, courage, and strength to lead and make decisions in accordance with God's word. Even in Jonathan's case the Israelites who should have know better weren't following God's will.

We talked about Adam again and about how he was the leader in the Garden of Eden but when the serpent came Adam didn't do what he should have as a leader. He was convinced by Eve and the serpent that he would be better off to eat the fruit than to follow God's instruction. Ryan shared a quote from a guy named Robert Lewis that says "The courage to lead with truth rather than surrender to feelings always separates the men from the boys." At Battalion we are all men and have to learn about how to be better godly men. One thing we can work on is leading according to God's truth, not trusting in our emotion or other ideas, trusting God and his truth. We know that will require trust in God, faith that he will help us, humility to know that we don't do it by our own strength, and courage to do things that others might give us a hard time about but we know are right.

The memory verses for this week are four verses from 1 Timothy 4. All of us could read that whole chapter this week. There are some good principles for leading there. I picked out four that I think bring out the main things for our memory verses. The verses are 7, 12, 15-16.

Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives tales; rather, train yourself to be godly. Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity. Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.

We started the night out with Handball this week. Phil and Ryan's team had a couple cherry pickers which allowed the other team to out number them down low and dominate the play. We played a couple rounds of Bulldog after that.

Next week Phil is wrapping up our studies on godly manhood.