I received a note from my friend Ray Bandi in New Hampshire containing this little, very simple, suggestion on how to do Bible study:

When I wrote to thank him for it, he responded that it wasn’t his…it came from his friend Bill, a janitor in a local high school! Here’s some of what Ray wrote:

I want to make sure to give credit where it is due.  It’s not my stoplight illustration, it’s my friend Bill Fraser’s.  Bill is about 65.  He’s a janitor at the Lincoln, NH central school…One Sunday morning after church, Bill came over, and he said, “You know, I read the Bible often, but I never seem to get much out of it.”  So, I asked him, “When you read the Bible, what are you looking for?”  And he smiled and said, “I’m supposed to be looking for something?” So, I started him with the quiet time card we use with questions on the back: “Is there … Something to learn about God? Something to learn about me? A promise to trust? An example to follow? An action to take? etc.”  A couple of years later, Bill and another man joined me for Every Man a Warrior.  After that he came with me with to [a Navigator men’s conference].  Then he started coming on our Disciple-Makers Weekends. Now the “janitor” is leading an Every Man a Warrior group with a retired math teacher, a retired (90+ year old) pastor, and a young guy in his 30s with a couple of kids. … And they all know that God has put some things in them that they didn’t have before Bill started helping them. – Ray Bandi, New Hampshire, June 2020 (emphasis Ray’s)

So many lessons. I’ve been writing all week about how God spoke to me through an obituary of someone who “…lived the adventure of seeking God and loving people…” while working as a vice-president for Marriott. Now here’s a janitor doing the same thing. It goes back to my small addition to the message from the obit:

Seek God, love people, help others do the same!

Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus. (Acts 4.13, ESV)

You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others. (2 Timothy 2.1, 2, NIV)