I feel as though God has been teaching me much in the past few months on being right with Him. I have preached to my team for over a year about being in ‘right relationship’ with God. As teachers of young minds we need to be sure that we are teaching the Word of God and not straying from it as well as living the principles out in our lives outside of camp. It says in the Bible that teachers will be judged harsher than others. James 3:1-2 says:
“Dear brothers and sisters, not many of you should become teachers in the church, for we who teach will be judged more strictly. Indeed, we all make many mistakes. For if we could control our tongues, we would be perfect and could also control ourselves in every other way.” (NLT)
I think there are two ways we are judged harsher. One is by God. We teach because we believe that God has called us into the role of teacher and lead others to Christ. However if we do not make sure that we are teaching the truths of the Bible we could be giving out false information that people take as truth and be lead from God without even knowing it instead of to the truth of Christ. The other way that we are judged harsher is by those around us – those we lead and those who are watching us to see if we are achieving our goals (like the head of the camp, parents, other staff) or who are looking to us for inspiration. People are quick to point out iniquities of leaders whether they mean it harshly or not. If I tell the CLTDs to put on their coats every time they go outside and I forget to myself it is not uncommon for me to be mocked or made fun of by one of those I lead for not being perfect in living what I teach. We are being closely watched to see if we are being people of integrity, people who can be trusted. I know that if I am seen living in sin and not making efforts to repent and recover I can negatively influence your view of the church as Christ meant it to be and your faith life in general. That is a huge responsibility!! (And please do remember that we leaders are far from perfect. We are sinners and do fail and fall sometimes. Please remember that we need grace from you as much as you need it from us!) Jesus, Himself, said,
“But if you cause one of these little ones who trusts in me to fall into sin, it would be better for you to have a large millstone tied around your neck and be drowned in the depths of the sea.” (Matt 18:6 NLT)
Yeah, that is a little terrifying! I am not interested in that and so I need to make sure that I am doing everything I can to not lead you astray. The Bible talks often about what is called ‘false teachers’. That is someone who teaches untruths about God. It is called blaspheming to do so. The thing is I believe that few set out to be false teachers. People rarely intend to teach these untruths. I have little doubt that satan wants me to fall on my face so that you have no intention to believe me when I am teaching about Christ. The devil doesn’t want you to have a relationship with Christ because Christ is his enemy. If I allow satan a place to slip in and influence what I believe and what I teach I can become a false teacher.
To avoid this I need to do everything I can to crush satan. I need to make sure that I am continuing to choose Christ daily. I need to be working on my relationship even when it is hard or God feels far away. So, how do I live in right relationship with Christ? There are a few parts to it:
- I need to be learning about who I am in relationship with. I need to read His stories and see His love and how He responds to His people. The way I see it, the less I want to read my Bible, the more I need to. I need to know the truths within it if I am going to live it and if I am going to teach it. Going to church (and listening), reading books and devotional materials or listening to podcasts can help us to understand the Bible and how to apply it to our lives as Christians. (Participating in CLTD helps here to!!)
- I need to confess my sins and work to conquer them. Yes, God knows your sins – He is within you always and knows even how many cells are in your body! You can’t tell Him anything He doesn’t already know. Confessing to Him is agreeing that what you did was wrong. Confessing to another person helps as well. Once it is out in the open I am more likely to actually work on living without that sin and another person can help to keep me accountable to working on it. When we don’t work on something it tends to fester, grow deeper and do more damage. Often we don’t want to deal with it but the longer we don’t deal with it, the longer we have to deal with it!
- We need to pray. The thing is we often see prayer as us sitting down and bringing a list to God and then closing our time with Him. Prayer has three important parts to it. We need to talk to God, yes, but we also need to be willing to listen to what He places on our hearts (I will blog about this another day, so stay tuned!!). Finally we need to be willing to respond. He is going to use us to make a difference. He is going to teach us and not just instill something within us. If we pray for the world to change, guess who He is going to train to change the world?
- I need to be willing to live right. I have to take it all and put it into action. We need to be living by the laws Christ calls us to. We need to be willing to love someone when we don’t want to. We need to be willing to put in the effort to make things right with someone we are fighting with. We need to act as His hands and feet. We need to do what Christ called us to:
“‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.” (Matt 22:37-40 NLT)
If you want to live as a follower of Christ you need to daily pick up the challenge of living right. Is this hard? You bet!! It is hard for me, it is hard for Frank, it is hard for all of us. Our primal nature is to live selfishly and seek to care for our selves. We are lead into temptation all the time and it is hard to choose to not – sometimes it takes everything we have to say no and turn away. But if I don’t choose to turn away I am allowing satan to plant seeds within me that I have to work to get rid of so I can be the best me I can be. Only then can I be the best teacher and leader I can be. I see it like a spider crawling into my ear and building a nest and laying eggs. Um… gross!!
I am going to let Paul close today’s writing (think of a well-known camp song;)
“And now I make one more appeal, my dear brothers and sisters. Watch out for people who cause divisions and upset people’s faith by teaching things contrary to what you have been taught. Stay away from them. Such people are not serving Christ our Lord; they are serving their own personal interests. By smooth talk and glowing words they deceive innocent people. But everyone knows that you are obedient to the Lord. This makes me very happy. I want you to be wise in doing right and to stay innocent of any wrong. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. May the grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.” (Romans 16:19-20 NLT)
Much love and many blessings to all!!
- Shelley belley sky
