Charged to Teach

A Living Faith
Who Understands Faith?
Paul Evangelizes in Rome

Deuteronomy 4:5-14

The Message

^5-6 Pay attention: I’m teaching you the rules and regulations that God commanded me, so that you may live by them in the land you are entering to take up ownership. Keep them. Practice them. You’ll become wise and understanding. When people hear and see what’s going on, they’ll say, “What a great nation! So wise, so understanding! We’ve never seen anything like it.”
^7-8 Yes. What other great nation has gods that are intimate with them the way God, our God, is with us, always ready to listen to us? And what other great nation has rules and regulations as good and fair as this Revelation that I’m setting before you today?
⁹ Just make sure you stay alert. Keep close watch over yourselves. Don’t forget anything of what you’ve seen. Don’t let your heart wander off. Stay vigilant as long as you live. Teach what you’ve seen and heard to your children and grandchildren.
¹⁰ That day when you stood before God, your God, at Horeb, God said to me, “Assemble the people in my presence to listen to my words so that they will learn to fear me in holy fear for as long as they live on the land, and then they will teach these same words to their children.”
^11-13 You gathered. You stood in the shadow of the mountain. The mountain was ablaze with fire, blazing high into the very heart of Heaven. You stood in deep darkness and thick clouds. God spoke to you out of the fire. You heard the sound of words but you saw nothing—no form, only a voice. He announced his covenant, the Ten Words, by which he commanded you to live. Then he wrote them down on two slabs of stone.
¹⁴ And God commanded me at that time to teach you the rules and regulations that you are to live by in the land which you are crossing over the Jordan to possess.

For Reflection

How do you teach?  Perhaps that is the wrong question.  Rather than focusing on how we communicate the good news and fretting over each action and word, we should first be reminded about how people learn.  Ask your self, how do I learn?  

More often than not it is a process of trial and error.  We learn from others mostly by observation.  We judge the competence, trustworthiness and fairness of others. It is then we decide whom we want to be like and what to avoid. Then we experience successes or failure in practice.

So then why is it so surprising that many people turn away from organized religion when the practitioners seem to behave in ways that seem inconsistent with the teachings of Christ?  It is not a matter of doctrine.  Rather, it is a matter of acting in ways that are consistent with Christian hospitality, grace and love. 

 

Pray

that those who observe you will see God in your attitudes and behavior.  Pray that you discipline your works and actors.  Pray that you will live a live consistent with the love and grace God has shown you.