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Earning
My Place
In
September of 2005, on the first day of school, Martha
Cothren, a social studies schoolteacher at Joe T.
Robinson High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, did
something not to be forgotten. On the first day of
school, with permission of the school superintendent,
the principal and the building supervisor, she took
all of the desks out of the classroom.
The
kids came into first period, they walked in; there
were no desks. They looked around and said, "Ms.
Cothren, where are our desks?"
Ms.
Cothren replied, "You
can't have a desk until you tell me how you earn
them."
They
thought, "Well, maybe it's our grades."
"No," she said.
"Maybe it's our behavior."
And she told them, "No, it's not even your
behavior."
First
period ended, and still there were no desks in the
classroom. Second period, same thing. Third period, no
desks. By early afternoon television news crews had
gathered in Ms. Cothren's class to find out about this
crazy teacher who had taken all the desks out of the
classroom.
The
last period of the day, Martha Cothren gathered her
class. They were at this time sitting on the floor
around the sides of the room. And she says,
"Throughout the day no one has really understood
how you earn the desks that sit in this classroom
ordinarily." She said, "Now I'm going to
tell you."
Martha
Cothren went over to the door of her classroom and
opened it, and as she did 27
U.S. veterans, wearing their uniforms, walked into
that classroom, each one carrying a school desk. The
veterans placed the school desks in rows, and then
they stood along the wall. By the time they had
finished placing the desks, the children perhaps for
the first time in their lives understood how they
earned those desks.
Ms.
Cothren said, "You
don't have to earn those desks. These guys did it for
you! They put them out there for you, but it's up to
you to sit here responsibly to learn, to be good
students and good citizens.
They paid a price for you to have that desk.
Don't ever forget it." *
Similarly,
there is a place for YOU at the Lord’s table.
It is a place of honor and blessing, wonderful
blessings like peace, grace, sonship, and life!
“What
must I do to take MY
seat at the Lord’s table?” you ask.
You
can’t EARN it.
Someone paid the price for you to have a place
at the Table. Jesus
Christ, God’s Son, died on the cross for you so that
you might have the forgiveness of sins and a place at
His table as a child of God (Ephesians 1:7; Galatians
4:4-6).
You
must ACCEPT it. You
can accept the Lord’s gracious offer by believing
Him (Acts 16:30-31), turning from sin in repentance
(Acts 17:30-31), confessing
Him before men (Romans 10:9-10), and being baptized
(immersed) in His name for the forgiveness
of sins (Acts 2:38).
You must also commit to following Him, for the
rest of your life.
Jesus
paid a HIGH price for you to have a place at His
table. Don’t
ever forget it. But
please, accept it on His terms – and enjoy the
eternal feast!
Won’t
YOU?
David
A. Sargent, Minister
Church
of Christ at Creekwood
1901
Schillinger Rd. S.
Mobile, Alabama 36695
*
See snopes.com -- http://www.snopes.com/glurge/nodesks.asp
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