The Word

The Word. Scripture. The Bible.
We claim it.
We read it.
We study it.
We believe it.
We know it.
But do we truly live it?
I have wrestled with this in my own life. Do I truly live what I believe? In my case, I have been called by God to be a proclaimer of his word. Do I only proclaim that which I think people want to hear, or do I teach what God wants to be taught?
When you teach contrary to what people want to hear, you are labeled as being mean spirited and mad. You drive people away with your message.
When you teach what people want to hear, you are a wonderful teacher, a true man of God.
I guess the bottom line is you have to ask yourself, "who are you trying to please, God or man?"
The true test of any teaching is did it change those who heard it.
This thing called preaching and teaching truly is foolishness.
To put together some words that formulate into ideals, then stand before a group of people and share it. The people hear and it strikes them in ways and places they have either never thought of or have ignored. The teaching is so much more than that simple explanation. The teaching involves hearing what God wants taught. Allowing God to formulate the message and then, with great fear and trembling, stand before the group and speak it. All the while knowing that you possess no power to change anyone. But for whatever reason, God has chosen to take what was spoken and reveal the hearts of those who heard. Here in is the work of the Holy Spirit as people are lead into repentance. The miracle of teaching the Word of God.

Where are my boundaries on what I teach?
How far am I to go?
I ask this because it is so easy to let my "flesh" get involved. To taint what God is trying to say through me. When my flesh becomes involved in the message, I suddenly have a "get'em God" attitude. That I am separated from what I teach and the only thing that matters is that God gets those who turn away from the truth. This is the behavior I run from and never want to take into a meeting where I am teaching.
That is why I had to repent last Saturday night because I became a pharisee. I judged and found guilty someone who had come to Jesus. I was the keeper of the door and was only going to let in those I thought were sincere and worthy. How sick was that? I guess my wife is right when she says my greatest attribute is that I am very teachable. I may mess up, but I learn quickly from my mess.

I don't believe you can read Scripture and not see yourself in it.
By that, I mean that you will see your short comings, hidden sin, attitudes and behaviors. This is what happens when the Holy Spirit works with you and in you as you do read the Bible.
Seems as though we want to discount the Word (at least our part of reading it) and find someone who will tell us what the Word says. Nothing wrong with being taught. But teaching means there is a responsibility on your part to learn. In the learning, you apply it to your life as you work in cooperation with God on your character defects which manifest as sin.

I'm not saying anything new in this blog that most of you don't know already.
I'm saying it for a reason.
I truly believe that time is short in our country.
America keeps sliding closer and closer to the edge of rejecting God.
Just because God's name is on our governmental buildings and our currency doesn't afford us protection.
We read in Jeremiah where the Jews declared, "The Temple of the Lord, The Temple of the Lord, The Temple of the Lord," thinking that because it was located in Jerusalem, God would surely not allow evil or their enemy to overtake them. Yet America says the same thing. We proclaim GOD BLESS AMERICA. I proclaim "Why?"

We are in need of a true, spiritual, Holy Ghost revival poured out on our country that will shake us to our very core and awaken us to the hour we are living in.
Michael, you are getting to out there. You are sounding like someone who is steeped in the past. Someone who has lost touch with what culture wants. When did culture ever play a part in determining what the message of God should be? Look at the culture Jesus lived in. Roman occupation. A Religious system that was weighed down by "do's" and "do not's". Yet Jesus' message was to the heart of people. Repent! For the Kingdom of God is here but not yet."

Maybe the past is where we need to look.
The future doesn't seem to hold to much for us. In fact, I think out future is going to be determined on what we learn from the past.
Pray for me....
Pray for my family....
I pray for you and yours.
Pray for our country that God would rain down His Spirit that would awaken us from our sleep.
If ever America and the church needed you, It is now Lord.

mb