Harold's Lessons: Volume III

By Bro Harold Davis

Harold's Lessons Vol. 3 is the third of the three-part series of the lessons I learned in my life experiences.

It is my hope that these lessons will help people to know God better. It is for his glory and honor. Without his help, we cannot make it in this world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Book Vine Press
• Release date: Oct 19, 2020
• ISBN: 9781953699237

Bro Harold Davis

Harold Davis has been studying the Bible for over forty years and teaching a Bible class for thirty-five. The minister of his church Has Brother Davis to fill in for him when he needs to be out of town. A friend asked him to put these lessons into a book, so now he hopes to reach more people. Thanks be to God, and may everyone enjoy this book.

Book preview

Copyright © 2020 by Bro Harold Davis.

ISBN 978-1-953699-22-0 (softcover)

ISBN 978-1-953699-23-7 (ebook)

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Printed in the United States of America.

Book Vine Press

2516 Highland Dr.

Palatine, IL 60067

Contents

A Note from the Author

Lesson One: A Design For Discipleship

Lesson Two: All Stressed Up, Looking For A Place To Rest

Lesson Three: Can’t

Lesson Four: Delegated Authority

Lesson Five: Full Service Or Self Service

Lesson Six: God Made A Change In My Life

Lesson Seven: Have Thine Own Way, Lord

Lesson Eight: Honoring God

Lesson Nine: How Big is Your God

Lesson Ten: Humility

Lesson Eleven: In The Glass Darkly

Lesson Twelve: Jesus, The Holy Spirit Baptizer

Lesson Thirteen: Building on A Foundation That Is Sure

Lesson Fourteen: Lord, I Need A Little Rest

Lesson Fifteen: There Is A Difference

Lesson Sixteen: There Is a Season

Lesson Seventeen: When The Lord Made Arrangements

Lesson Eighteen: Who Am I, That God Would Want Use Me?

Lesson Nineteen: Why Temptations

Lesson Twenty: Wonderful Jesus

A Note from the Author

I lay no claim to originality as my life has been influenced by the input of truth from many sources. Phrases or unique thoughts that have become my own, surely were birthed from hearing a sermon or reading a book at some time in my past. My thanks to the many Pastors and Sunday School teachers who have helped me to understand The Bible, The Word of God.

Lesson One

A Design For Discipleship

Phillippians 2:5-8

Jesus had a design for the evangelizaing of the world. His plan was a good one and still is. He expected His sons and daughters to be followers, learners, and reproducers of Himself. But somewhere along the line human understanding has caused gaps in carrying out this plan. To fill the design, God’s people must recognize and reemphasize their role as deciples. Whether man or woman, single or married, hourly worker or professional, teenager or senior citizen, our identity is in our being a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Discipleship is not based upon where I am, what I do, or what position I hold but upon who He is, what He does, and what He wills for my life.

Living as disciples in everyday service, we should go about our tasks, however small they may be, for we are disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. We’re not only disciples when we dress up and go to church or teach a Sunday school class, but we’re also disciples around the house when we view life from behind a vacuum cleaner or a lawn mower, or when we manage an office in a high rise. Whatever our status, we should be living as disciples in everyday service.

Someone has prayed, In a world of casual inquirers, Lord, I want to be a seeker. True Christians should be seeking God today, everyday. Not just casually interested in spiritual make me feel good strokes, but seeking for God to move in their lives and have His own way in their lives.

In Luke 9:23 Jesus said, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. John 8:31 tells us, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed.

To be the kind of disciples God wants us to be, we must follow Christ, we must feel His concern, and we must finish our course.

Mark 8: 34-36 proclaims, And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it. For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the world, and lose his own soul?

We must understand that those who took up their cross and became disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, as the 12 who followed him intimately for three to three and a half years of his life, were ordinary people like you and me. Remember also that beyond those 12 were many other men and women who followed the Lord and ministered to Him as He went from place to place. They were the whosoever that Mark spoke of. Jesus called people from every walk of life, pouring into them His vision and goals for evangelizaing the world.

They watched Him when He ate, they saw Him when He ministered, they heard Him when He spoke, and knew the times He slept. Because they observed that Christ was One who knew how to pray, the time came that the disciples inquired how to pray. He didn’t have to draw all kinds of diagrams, He didn’t have to create any formulas, or say to them Now I’m going to teach you how to do thus and such. But they saw His life in action and desired to be like Him.

The early disciples were ordinary people, but the thing that set them apart and made them special, was their willingness to follow Jesus.

These were people who couldn’t understand all that God had planned. They tried to figure out what Jesus was talking about concerning the Temple being destroyed and raised up again in three days. They couldn’t get it straight in their minds. When Christ began to speak about it Peter reacted. He didn’t want to hear that. Because of Peter’s response, Jesus had to rebuke him, one of His own disciples who had been so close to Him. [Mark 8:31-33].

Peter was just an ordinary person and was trying to put the message in a human framework. He may have been saying, We don’t want that to happen, Master; we’re going to protect You. It will never take place like that. But Jesus let His disciples know this was not thinking as God but as man. He knew His followers were ordinary people, caught up in the mind-set of human activty [or thinking], but He also knew they were willing to follow.

When God spoke to Moses to be the leader of His people, Moses was so taken back that the frist thing he said was, Who am I, that I should go? [Exodus 3:11]. Finally he expressed the real thing that was bothering him and said, O Lord, please send someone else to do it [4:13]

Let me insert something here, Moses was about 80 years old at this time, which should tell us that we are never to old to learn something or to be used of God.

You know we can really act so humble at times, can’t we! O Lord, someone else can do a much better job. Really what we’re saying is, I don’t want to be bothered. Let me do my own thing. But God spoke to Moses and in essence said, You don’t have to worry about your inabilities or weaknesses. I AM qualifies you for the task.

God was not looking for some perfect human specimen who had it altogether but He was looking for someone willing to go and for one that could prove through his life that God was the great I AM. God would give the directions, and Moses would carry them out. Together they would be a team in the ministry. Together we and God can also be a great team.

Notice that to follow is to answer God’s call, but it is not merely following along like some little puppy, looking to be patted on the head for following. There is a commitment involved, an acknowledgment of identity. We must not be ashamed of Him or His Words. We must be able to identify ourselves with Him and say, Yes, I know Him. He is my Lord and Savior and the one I obey.

Peter had some problems while following the Lord and he had to learn some lessons the hard way. Sometime later he was filled with the Holy Spirit and received the boldness to proclaim the truth as a true disciple of the Lord.

I think about so many people, just plain ordinary people, who are disciples of Jesus Christ. People that I have read about or heard about.

I recall a story told by a missionary from Ghana, about a little lady known as Toothless Mary, She had nothing, but a little mud hut with a straw roof, a small charcoal stove, a few tin utensils and maybe one change of clothes. These were her meager possessions, but she had a burden on her heart for the young people who wanted to go to Bible school. She went about her daily task of scrubbing floors and cleaning houses, keeping only a few coins for herself. She sent more than a dozen young men through Bible school. You see, Mary chose to follow her Lord in discipleship. And we too must make the choice to, take up our cross, and follow Christ.

Christ’s concern is opposite from the concern of the world. Our society has really