SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/9/2025 9:22 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-6 “The Teacher”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: 2 Timothy 2:2
Message of the
verse: “The
things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men
who will be able to teach others also.”
We have been talking about the role of a teacher for
some time now and I suppose that we will be for at least a couple of more days
as the role of a teacher, one who teaches the Word of God is a very important
role and in this letter to 2nd Timothy Paul is challenging Timothy
to get back to doing the things that God has called him to do including
teaching.
Like Timothy, every preacher and
teacher is to guard the purity and the integrity of God’s Word. In the spirit of this first sentence I saw a
post on FB this morning from a well know Pastor in our area who said something
like when people who read the Bible and throw out the things that they don’t
like in the Bible they are making the Bible say what they want it to say. Like Timothy we too are to guard the purity
and the integrity of God’s Word and do nothing to change it to fit what we want
it to say. That would be very foolish
indeed. I have to say that when I began
writing my blogs a long time ago that I named both blogs 2 Timothy 2:15 and the
reason was that I did not want to say anything that was untrue when it came to
the Word of God and that is why I have to study it to read it, to think about
it, to listen to it in order to know it and thus not put anything that is not
true about the Word of God on the blogs that I write. One may wonder why I have two blogs name 2
Timothy 2:15, and the reason is that when I started my blog that I accidently
began two blogs and so since I had wrote many Spiritual Diaries before I began
my blogs that I decided to put the older Spiritual Diaries onto the second
blog, so perhaps this was exactly what the Lord wanted me to do all along.
Now back to 2 Timothy and MacArthur
writes that “Some of those also are called to accurately and fully teach other
godly leaders in the church. As already
mentioned, if the church is weak, it is because its leaders are weak. Conversely, if the church is to be strong,
its leaders must be strong. And leaders
can become strong only if they are carefully built up in the Word of God. We all received the truth from faithful men
before us, and we are to preserve it so that it is passed on accurately and
fully to the next generation (cf. 1 Tim. 6:20; 2 Tim. 2:14).”
MacArthur goes on to write about
something that I know is near and dear to his heart and that is Bible
schools. I will quote one more paragraph
from MacArthur’s commentary in a moment but first I want to talk about how the
colleges in our nation have turned from teaching the Bible to teaching against
the Bible. In the early years of our
country what we call the ivy league schools, like Harvard and Pristine were
begun to teach the Word of God, but it seems that Satan was allowed to get into
the teaching of these schools and they gradually began to turn away from the
Word of God. I remember listening to a
sermon by John MacArthur a few weeks ago as he was talking about a famous seminary
in our country that he refused to name and how it too was beginning to turn
away from the accurate teaching of the Word of God. I can say that the church that I attend began
before the civil war in our country and although it has been at different
locations it has stood firm on the Word of God and what the Word of God
teaches. I am thankful for that for the
last church that I attended for 32 years called a Pastor that certainly was not
the kind of Pastor I wanted to sit under and so my wife and I left and came to
the church we are now attending.
MacArthur writes “It is for that
primary purpose that Bible schools, Christian colleges, and seminaries are
founded and that books and commentaries are written—to prepare dedicated
Christian men and women for effective service to the church and in the
world. And within that broader purpose
is the narrower one of giving special attention to raising up new generations
of mature spiritual leaders who are uniquely trained and assigned to carefully
guard and faithfully articulate God’s truth.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: To make sure that I always when I am studying the Word of God to “Study to show yourself approved to God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust the
Lord to guide me to do the things that He has called me to do, and do them
faithfully.
1/9/2025 9:52 AM
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