Mr. Rick Stafford is the Regional Director of the Caribbean and Area Pastor of South Texas. After studying geology for two years at the University of Oregon, in 1965, Mr. Stafford enrolled at Ambassador College. At Ambassador, Mr. Armstrong encouraged the students to not only prove God’s existence and His Way of life but also to learn skills. Mr. Stafford discussed the importance of skills in the Living Ed Forum.

Did you know that God showers us with blessings daily?
The year 2020 has been a year unlike any other in the memory of many people and one that most wish to leave behind rapidly. As a new civil year begins, their hopes are for a better year to come. The world has focused on the coronavirus, economic downturn, natural disasters, ethnic conflict, wars, terrorism, charges of election irregularities, political chaos, and many other horrors. Because of this many have been absorbed with life’s travails. For a change of pace, we will learn in this Digging Deeper that, despite all this, God supplies His people daily blessings. An old hymn admonishes us to “name them [blessings] one by one.” Let us remind ourselves of God’s many daily blessings that will help us concentrate on a broad perspective of the Christian life itself.

Prayer is a vital part of maintaining our personal relationships with God. What are some steps we can take to make sure that we are praying effectively?

Mr. Gene Hilgenberg, the area pastor for Southwest Missouri, Southeast Kansas, Western Arkansas, and Oklahoma, spoke via WebEx for the Living Education students on Thursday, January 7, 2021. Mr. Hilgenberg reminded the students in his assembly that they are preparing to be teachers. “That is our role in the Kingdom, if not now—to help others.” Yet teaching is more than just instruction. Mr. Hilgenberg said, “Our attitude is very important to God. How we think, what motivates and drives us comes from the heart.” God wants His servants to have a heart for teaching.

Jesus picked twelve men from among His disciples to travel with Him and to be taught by Him firsthand. Others also followed Jesus throughout the region as He preached the gospel of the Kingdom of God, performed miracles, and healed the sick. Often, large crowds came to see Jesus and to hear Him preach. They wondered who He could be and what was the meaning of the things He said. His disciples believed that He was the Messiah, but did they really know what that meant?

“It doesn’t do you a whole lot of good if you’ve proved the reality of God but not the authorship of the Bible.” Dr. Jeffrey Fall, the regional director of the U.S. Western Region, gave the first Living Ed forum of 2021. He began by explaining that, for a young person establishing their faith, proving God exists is only step one—step two is proving God is the author of the Bible. Dr. Fall shared several scientific proofs in the Bible that predate their more recent acceptance as scientific truth.

Did you know that the first mention of teaching children God's ways is in the same chapter of Genesis in which God's angels came down to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah? The cities of the plain (Genesis 19:29) had become so wicked that God was left with no choice but to execute judgment upon them. However, tucked in the middle of this story is likely the first direct reference to what we today call education - the instruction of students.