Greetings,

Week 24 of the lockdown 😞.

COVID cases at Dixon, 3 staff 0 inmates, at 3 staff 0 inmates. A drop-off one for staff. Still at zero for inmates is a blessing. It looks like both facilities continue to do a good job of containing COVID-19.

Tomorrow will be the last day of quarantine for Michelle and me after our trip to my mom’s memorial. Thus far all is well. Pryers of praise. We both are still being cautious in where we go and do. We may be over cautious but for now, it gives us a better peace

This week’s midweek message Become a Better Bible Teacher – Joe Thorn, was timely for me as I’ve been doing prep for the kickoff of SOCPM on ZOOM, more on that below. If you lead a community group or other type of group in a devotional or Bible study, you may find it helpful. It could even be helpful for a personal study in giving tips perhaps on journaling your studies.

Praise God I did finally connect with Jay of Voddie Bauchman Ministries and was told I can use Voddie’s teachings. I’ll be busy next week burning the many Voddie Bauchman messages to DVD. Jay, besides, being my contact with VBM, is involved with the ministry Wrath and Grace. The ministry has several areas of ministry, one is music. In our phone call, Jay and I tossed around the idea of providing some Christian Hip Hop videos for broadcasted at Sheridan. I sent a feeler to Chaplain Leon at Sheridan. Stay tuned!

SOPCM on ZOOM happens Tuesday, September 1. I’m all set for the first three weeks. I want to make sure I’m ahead of each week’s teachings. One of Pastor Joe Thorn’s tips in 'Become a Better Bible Teacher.' The first week’s session will be a simple introduction to each other, guidelines, etc. The following week, September 8, will begin the actual study. The primary source for the study on 2 Timothy will be a study by John Stott ’2 Timothy - Standing Firm in Truth.’

I’ve been making some long-overdue updates to the Soldiers of Christ Prison Ministries web site. The major change thus far is the ‘About’ pages. ‘What We Believe' and 'What We Do.’ SOPCM, being a ministry of my church Redeemer Fellowship, I adopted their, what we believe statements for SOCPM's. The beliefs are not all that much different then what they were but definitely worded better than what I had. The updated 'What We Do.’ page gives greater detail of all various offerings SOCPM has inside the classroom. The other website changes are under the ‘Course and Special Programs Library.’ The three links detail the material SOPCM teaches and or offers in Discipleship, Christian Living and the new are of Special Programs. I plan on making updates to the pages under Partnerships (Churches, Ministries), but the format I want to do requires skills beyond my skillset. I’ve reached out to my web guy. There may be more website changes, but I’m not marketing guy either, so just what content to include or improve upon will have to come from another source, hopefully, a volunteer.

I haven’t received any feedback on my 3-minutes message to the inmates at Dixon.

I’m starting to take a look at SOPCM’s newsletter and the possible changes I can make. The first is to make the name more reflective of the overall content by dropping the current ‘Student Prayer Request’ (the content of Student Prayers is not being dropped). I most likely won’t go with the name of the original newsletter, ‘The Barbed Wire.' The Barbed Wire's masthead does not match the SOPCM website banner and the current 'Student Prayer Requests' newsletter's masthead. In my not so creative mind, I was thinking of naming it ’The Cellblock Chronicle’ 🤔 but the more I thought about it, the more I went, ehhh 😝. I just may simply call it the ‘Soldier’s of Christ Newsletter, but that sounds too boring to me. Sharing some of my indecisiveness gives you some idea of what my Michelle has to put up with 🤪. She is a blessing 🤓. Once I'm giving more time to the newsletter, I’ll update you and may look for suggestions from you, the newsletter reader.

My Wednesday Tabletalk devotion was on Hebrews 13:3 'Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body (ESV). I want to thank you for your continuance in remembering the prisoners.

As I was working on putting this week's newsletter, I received notice that Eric a former SOCPM student was killed by gun violence in Rockford August 21st. Eric was only a student for a couple of short stints, he never received a certificate, dropping the first time and then paroling the second time, but I do remember his face. If my memory serves me correctly, it was always a smiling face. It grieves my heart to read of a former SOPCM student dying at a young age. I found a website 'National Gun Violence Memorial' that has a page in remembrance of Eric asking visitors to lite a candle in remembrance of Eric. Will you please lite a candle for Eric. Thank you.

To Him be the glory in ALL things and to Him alone!

Scott Kalas
Soldiers of Christ Prison Ministries

Weekly Message

Hey guys, a short note, but a good message on teaching God’s Word. Personally, things are good, several things, don’t have space to expand, but they are keeping me busy. I had to travel by air a couple of weeks ago and was quite concerned about contracting COVID, but by God’s grace, 13 days after completing travel no symptoms. Praying morning and night for you and your families (2 Timothy 1:2-4).

Become a Better Bible Teacher – Joe Thorn - August 26, 2020

At some point you may be invited to lead or facilitate a small group, devotion, Sunday school class, requiring you to handle the Word of God. For some that is exciting but for others, it is stressful, out of their comfort zone, and think they have no business doing it. This isn’t a message for those who have been called to be a teacher, pastor, Elder, all believers are called to share God’s Word. with a spouse, children, friends.

To begin, make sure you’re familiar with the material. Don’t do a last-minute attempt to wing it. If we’re given the opportunity and responsibility to exhort God’s Word we need to take it seriously. Digest it personally, so when you share, teach, you can tell how you personally have benefitted from it, then encourage others. When teaching, go straight to the text, the Bible, use a book, a paragraph from a Gospel narrative, find a passage that you can read, study, and share with others. The power of teaching is in the Scripture itself. This message is not about hermeneutics or delivery, they are important, it's about some basic tools so you can make the most of the opportunities you have when called upon to teach God’s Word.

Let’s use Psalm 1 as our example. Five things you should do when teaching Scripture. 1) Get the meaning of the text. Don’t lead other people into background information, cultural setting, interesting facts, and other information, when you have a limited amount of time. Remain focused on the main message. Those things are good, but not in all settings, especially if they don’t contribute to a better understanding of the text. Use ‘GOOD’ commentaries (John Calvin, John Gill, Matthew Henry), a good study Bible, (ESV Study Bible). To get to the meaning of the text means to understand to some degree what you are looking at. Going back to Psalm 1, the main concept can be stated as ‘The blessings of God’s people who delight in His law versus the misery of the wicked who don’t know God or His Word,’ 2) Distill things down to a central idea. Not 'thee' central idea of that text, because there is going to be one point that a given text is focusing on, but many times there are many truths or sub-points that the text is addressing. You may want to focus on one of those particular issues. Once you have a grasp of what the passage is saying, boil things down to one central idea. Though the passage is going to say more than one thing you should be communicating on one thing, it can have multiple points but there should be one central idea that all those points support and constantly presenting. A five-minute teaching on Psalm 1 may be distilled down to ‘the blessings and benefits of embracing God’s Word’ 3) Application. This needs to be your personal interaction with the Word of God for yourself before you begin looking for ways to apply it to other people’s lives. Don’t just 'teach' what you want to say to other people, it’s bad form and robs you of passion, earnestness, and a sense of believability. You are not ready to preach to others until you have preached to yourself. Once you do, then you are ready to teach it. In Psalm 1, you may want to ask yourself, ‘where do I need to repent?’ You want to know what sin is this passage confronting in my life? What doctrine have I been ignoring and need to pay attention to? What commands of God have I’ve been disregarding? You need to ask specifically ‘what is it I need to be doing positively? ‘ When you think of repenting, turning away from sin, where and how do I cast away certain sins, while putting on certain virtues? ‘What should I be believing, that I may be refusing?’ That is how you begin to work through the application. Using Psalm 1 you may ask, am I more than just in the world? We all are in the world but are you receiving and acting on the advice of the world that is opposed to God’s Word? We do not stand with sinners or walk with them. We do not sit with scoffers, those who are mocking or make light of the truth. A big question is ‘Do I delight in God’s Word or do I delight in using God’s Word?’ There is a difference. Are we using God’s Word to transform us, make us more like Jesus? Do I meditate on God’s Word? Or am I only learning enough just to share with others? 4) You want to summarize your main idea well. You should be able to summarize this main idea concisely, powerfully, memorably, at the minimum clearly. Going back to Psalm 1, you might say, ‘a joyful and fruitful life only flourishes when God’s Word is fully embraced.’ 5) Keep it simple and short. Don’t over complicate things and don’t drag it out. People will eventually tune out. Five ways of keeping it simple 1) Walkthrough your passage. 2) Know where you are going. Know the stops and points you want to make along the way. It prevents wandering, people know when you are wandering and tune out. 3) Make your point or points clear. Make sure they hear you. Make eye contact You want them not just to hear God’s Word but embrace it. 4) If you have experience with the passage it will be evident. Your interaction will turn up the zeal, the believability, credibility. People will sense you’re not just lecturing but sharing something you believe. 5) Watch your time. Time goes fast for people who want to teach. 6) Trust the Lord. It’s not your words that will be changing people’s lives, it’s you feeding them God’s Word. Don’t stress out not having enough time to share all the things you wanted to share. You’re going to mess up, thinking, ‘I wish I had said it this way or said this.’ You don’t have to be perfect, because God’s word is perfect. He uses His perfect Word by His Spirit to change people's lives, convert the lost, sanctify the saints. We will not delight in God’s Word until we depend on God’s Word and recognize God’s Word is dependable, trustworthy, the rock that we can build upon, and cling to. Whenever you are called on to teach God’s Word, what makes it powerful is God’s Word itself, but secondarily your sincerity. You have received, been challenged changed by His Word, and are now holding it out to others as a fellow sinner, a fellow saint who has reaped from God’s grace. Look for the opportunities, don’t waste them, take the opportunities even though it’s scary and you’ll mess up because God’s Word is perfect and He will use it to accomplish His will and use you to accomplish His will.