‘Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.” (James 3:1)
I put all of this before you publicly as a test. Your reaction to this is my fleece.
My Family
- As husband and father, I am the head of my household and am responsible for them in every way. Not the least of these responsibilities is for teaching them about God.
- We homeschool our children because we want to be assured that they are being taught the things that they should be, as they should be. I must take the same action with ‘Sunday School’.
- The method for choosing who teaches my children is done with no vetting process. Someone volunteers or is asked to serve by the ‘nominating committee’. This person or people then use curriculum that I have found to be lacking in substance, although honestly I haven’t spent the amount of time that I should even evaluating it. This does not measure up to what God wants for a father in relationship to his family and in teaching them His Word.
Condescension, Arrogance and Impatience
- The message I have been called to deliver is very hard and not easy to be heard. I have found myself irritated and impatient with the lack of understanding and action on the part of those to whom I’ve been speaking. I cannot allow this to turn into something impure on my part.
- I also cannot allow the resistances to my words and attitude keep someone from hearing the Truth. If anyone rejects the words I’m speaking, I don’t want it to be because of me, but because they simply can’t handle the Truth. At that point, the Holy Spirit can begin to work, if they are truly believers.
- Many of us have grown up ‘in Church’, still others are new Christians. Even so, just as we have been studying for the past several months about evidences of Salvation, there is less to be seen in our lives collectively as there is to simply talk about. We are to be doers of the Word, not simply hearers. (James 1:22) Sadly, we have fallen into complacency and wandered far from the Truth of the Gospel. Our ‘Church’ time has become less to do with the worship of God and fellowship of the believers as they do with on one end, simple tradition, and on the other end, downright heresy.
Lack of time in prayer
- If I am to be delivering a hard message, I must also be willing to spend much time in prayer for the preparation of the hearts in those to whom I am speaking. Sadly, I have been lacking in this area.
- God showed me that He wants to plow our hearts to hear his Word. He wants us to understand so He can plant His Word deep within us. I have tried to share His Truth, but have met with resistance. I have spent less time in prayer for God to remove those resistances than I have ‘bellyaching’ and getting irritated.
Lack of knowledge of the Scriptures
- To be a teacher of the Word, one must know the Word. Although I do know some, if not much, I am sorely lacking in this area. A teacher must be one that has deep understanding of a subject, not just a little more, or in some cases, less than those he is teaching.
I love each and every one of you, and would never want to hurt any of you. Please accept my appreciation for the time that I have spent attempting to follow behind a teacher like Pat that we all still love and miss and will continue to do so for many years to come.