Teach me to teach...Part VI

A reproof, a rebuke or an exhortation to bigger and more moral things is not necessarily as bad as it seems, at least to the innocent or not so innocent bystander. If these things are done in love, with a velvet boxing glove, then peace and love can be obtained. If one carries a big stick and speaks softly, more results are really attainable. 2 Tim 4:2, Titus 1:13, and Titus 2:15 are brilliant affirmations about the kindness of being tough and doing so in a way that is kind. I am, at the same time, admonished not to follow those who will not follow God. (Titus 3:7, 10,11) Does this mean “Don’t speak to them”? I hardly think so. What it means is that do not be linked to these people. Do not socialize, do not develop an intimate relationship with, and any of the other connotations of this. I am instructed to treat people with kindness, that doesn’t mean I have to be linked to them. I have a friend that has chosen to follow a way that is unacceptable to Christ, the way of legalism. (Gal 2 and 3) She and her husband have chosen this way after many discussions with the elders of the church and have decided that the best way to worship God is to follow Jewish precepts while embracing Christ. So be it. They are happy in this. But I cannot follow them. I cannot be accepting of what they believe, nor can I give them indications that I am willing to believe they are going in the right direction. Either I am for Him and what His son said, or I am against Him. And God exhorts me not to add anything to His word, in Revelations 22:19. At the same time, I am told to be compassionate and kind and holy in Jude 22.

Teach me to teach, that I might teach Part IV

And a teacher can show us how to be in one accord, how to join in with singing with one another songs of praise to God, how I can teach the person standing next to me in church just by sincerely singing and having harmony with my brethren. I sing to my God, and for the purpose of singing to Him as He sang to me before I was even born. I sing so that in my song there is praise, lifting others up, admonishing some, instructing others and above all unity in the Spirit of the body. (Col 3:16) I must allow God’s word to consume me, and a teacher can help me in this regard. By singing in church for the sake of God, I am acknowledging that God loved me enough to send His son in to this world so that I may have eternal life and not perish in my sins. (John3:16) I must be taught to be willing to do whatever it takes to stay family, because that, too, is God’s will. The love I have for my brethren will demonstrate that I am His. Even when I suffer, as in 1 Thess 2:14-15, “For you, brothers, become imitators of God’s churches in Christ Jesus: You suffered from your own countrymen the same things those churches suffered from the Jews, who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and also drove us out. They displease God and are hostile to all me.” When I am truly in Him, I share freely with all in His family, I break bread in remembrance of Christ, and I love as He did, putting their needs ahead of mine. I Corinthians 11:22 describes greed and selfishness that strife and individual desires produce. The chapter is a great admonisher because it convicts me of not being serious in my love for God when I refuse to come to the defense and aid of my brethren, or when I allow my sinful desires, lusts, and misinterpretations to harbor and separate me from my brothers. The separateness defiles God’s temple, as spoken of in I Corinthians 3:17, because it leads me to instant gratification and a life of constantly trying to fill a hole with pleasures instead of God. I do not treat God as seriously as I do the cares of this world. And I become lost in my addictions to seeing and doing things that make me feel better and temporarily happy. Teachers can show me that eternal peace is much better than temporary happiness because temporary happiness is just that…temporary. Those desires only last for the moment and may not return. On the other hand, the peace which passes understanding will never leave.

Teach me that I might teach

Even though a child is cruel, God chooses to give them His blessing. And as instruments of His blessings, He instructs the elder ones, such as Jacob, Moses, Joseph (Deut 33:1-29; Gen 49:1-33; Gen 47:7-10) to dedicate and bless His people and to remind them of the Father in God. And God does something really interesting in the blessing. It appears that the younger and lesser has always gotten the better part of His blessings or the first blessings. (Gen 48:8-22; Gen 28:1-4; Gen 27:23-31) Could this be to demonstrate that the law of primogenitor is incorrect, that man’s ways are not God’s ways? Could it be? I’m not certain. But I do know that God considers the least shall be first, the last shall precede and so forth. That is part of His role as the protective Father, looking after those who would otherwise perish in the cruelty of mankind, cruelty that was learned from childhood and somehow not discouraged.

And I need to look to my teachers in the church to teach us the truth. That I am part of the fold and that all we are is sheep in need of a shepherd. My teachers need to show me that we have a Shepherd that will lead us to heaven and the peace that passes understanding. (Acts 20:28) And my teachers show me that I can make a contribution, as Paul writes about in Ephesians 4:15, 16, no matter where I come from, no matter what my background is or how different it is from everyone else, no matter if I am rich or poor or what my race is or educational background. I am part of the whole and with me the “we” is a well-oiled machine and without me the “we” misses something. God created all of us for the purposes of growing in Him, for the sole purposes of demonstrating His power, and the more elements in the “we” the stronger His body is. And the whole key issue that teachers need to emphasize to me, is how I can better serve, not just what I can get involved in, but in making my heart conjoined to His heart, not just how and what I can learn about Him, but what I allow to absorb into my being. How quick am I to say, “Not my will…” to Him? My teachers can demonstrate how I can effect a change in attitude. In eastern religions the importance of a teacher ranked with how one understood their higher power. It is the same with God. A teacher, a good teacher, explains and exhorts his or her students to not only know of God, but how to become part of God and to experience the spiritual relationship with Him. For that to happen, a teacher must show that I can only lift up with a teaching and not with a talent. Talent can only carry me so far, teaching will show me how best to use that talent for the purposes of being one of God’s children. (1 Cor 4:4)

Teach me so that I may teach...part III

Children are cruel. They are raw, they are loud, they are mean. These are gross stereotypes, but for good parents, those who are not raw, loud, and mean would soon follow their peers. I was not born good. Nor was I born bad. I was just born. Left to my own devices and without the guidance of my parents I would not know manners, I would not know right from wrong, and I would not believe in God. Parents are gifts to their children from God, and they are emissaries of God to teach morals and wisdom and to guide along the straight and narrow. They are also givers of love. For the most part. Those who aren’t like this make God truly upset, because they are not being what He intended His children to have. When a parent abuses a child, God cries and is angry and makes Him repent of making that parent a parent.