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personal from the president
to a spirit of service, we also need knowledge—knowl-
edge that will help us make a living or begin a career, and
knowledge about how the world works—science, math-
ematics, history, etc. We don’t need to accept the values that
the world is trying to pass on in order to learn these things.
Let me say congratulations to all our seniors and wish
them a good “commencement,” a good start in a career or
a furthering of their education. More important, I hope
that, as Christians, they will consider living lives of service.
I would also add a word of caution. The apostle Paul wrote
to Timothy about a world that would reject Him and what
it would be like: “always learning and never able to come to
the knowledge of the truth” (2 Timothy 3:7).
The most valuable education you will ever receive won’t
come from any college. It is from the Word of God. Knowl-
edge without God is hollow and can never fill the spiritual
void that exists in most people today.
Put God first in your life without forgetting the impor-
tance of a good education. And consider each step—each
milestone, each graduation—along the way to be a com-
mencement on a journey toward becoming a better person,
committed to serving others.
When I was a senior in high school, I was asked to give
a speech at our graduation. It was a small high school
in northeastern Arkansas; but for that small town, high
school graduation was a big event, attended by a large per-
centage of the local residents. The gymnasium was always
packed for graduation.
This would be my first-ever “public” speech before such
a large audience. As a senior in high school, I had been
allowed to participate in the Spokesman Club program at
Church, but these were small groups of 20 to 30 people.
High school graduation would have an audience of 200 to
300 people from the local community. I remember strug-
gling with a topic, and I wrote out virtually every word that
I would then read. This was the opposite of what we were
being taught in Spokesman Club, where we were encour-
aged to become an extemporaneous speaker, speaking from
the heart and not from a script.
Now, more than 40 years later, the whole event is a dim
memory, and I quite honestly couldn’t tell you what I spoke
about. The best I can remember is that I spoke about the
concept of “commencement” and talked about how our
graduation was a beginning and not the end of the journey.
I know that it was important to me at that time to get an
education. My uncles, aunts and many of my cousins never
finished high school. We were a farming community, and
most thought it was not important to get a formal educa-
tion to be a good farmer. After all, wasn’t “common” sense
more important than “book learning”?
As members of the Church back in the 1960s (and today as
well), we felt that the institutions of higher learning were a
huge failure. And they were and still are when it comes to
values. But those brethren who chose to attend didn’t go to
these institutions to learn values. We learned those from
the Word of God and from the Church of God. My choice
back then for continuing my education was Ambassador
College, and I never regretted that choice. I had other op-
portunities, even scholarships; but I never felt cheated with
the education I received at Ambassador College.
As our young people graduate from high school and col-
lege, I hope we can continue to instill within them the im-
portance of a good education. As members of the Church
of God, we are committed to serving others. In fact, our
lives are based on the principle of service. But, in addition
commencement