daily java

Daily Java:

After seven days the Lord gave me a message. He said, “Son of man, I have appointed you as a watchman for Israel. Whenever you receive a message from me, warn people immediately. If I warn the wicked, saying, ‘You are under the penalty of death,’ but you fail to deliver the warning, they will die in their sins. And I will hold you responsible for their deaths. If you warn them and they refuse to repent and keep on sinning, they will die in their sins. But you will have saved yourself because you obeyed me. (Ezekiel 3:16-19)

In James 3:1, the writer James said: Dear brothers and sisters, not many of you should become teachers in the church, for we who teach will be judged more strictly.

It is a great thing to teach and to have people look up to you as a leader, to hear what you have to say, to take what you say as definitive. After a while, if you are not careful, you begin to believe that you really do have the answers.

But a teacher has a responsibility that is greater by far that his students. It is the responsibility of telling people and guiding people into the truth. Not just telling, not just guiding, but into the truth.

If you do not live up to that responsibility, you are in danger of sinning.

The Lord told Ezekiel in this passage that his responsibility was greater than just information dispensing. His job was not just to teach, but to guide into what is right. And he would be held accountable as to how he did it.

In 1 Timothy 5:17, the apostle Paul said: Elders who do their work well should be respected and paid well, especially those who work hard at both preaching and teaching. A preacher, a pastor, a teacher is not one that just gets to be in front of people, but is one who will be held accountable for what he teaches, what he preaches, how he leads.

There is a responsibility of the highest magnitude given to those who teach and those who lead God’s people. God told Ezekiel that when if he didn’t do it in the right way, his life would be forfeit too.

If he taught and they heard and changed, he would be as God wanted him to be. If they did not change, yet he taught anyway, it would not be his fault. But if he did not tell them, their blood would be on his head.

That is the downside of teaching. It is great to sit up front and tell people stuff and have them write it down and listen to you and even compliment you. It is another to be held accountable by God for what you teach.

The honor part is easy and fun. The responsibility part is scary.

So what does a teacher do? Does he get so afraid he will do something wrong that he refuses to teach? I have known people who were so afraid that they would give the wrong answers, or, even worse, not have an answer that they refused to teach at all.

When a person refuses to do what God wants him to do, that is another story. But God tells us this to let us know that teaching is not a lark. It is dead-serious.

And you have to do it out of love. Who in the world would do something that important and full of responsibility for fun?

making something big out of a fluffy movie

I have been watching Hook off and on the past few days. Since we had our cable disconnected I have been watching bits of movies at odd times. At lunch today I watched the end of Hook.

The movie is a great parable of finding yourself in the face of great odds.

But in the end there were some things that really struck me.

Tink had been trying to get Peter Pan to stay with her. She even became large to be his size so he would stay. His mind is still muddled and he begins to kiss her. She has made the comment that his whole life has been sad and it is no wonder that he has lost his happy thoughts.

As he is at the point of kissing Tinkerbell he suddenly remembers his wife and family. His life has not been sad. It has been good. And he has two great children to show for it, along with a wife that he loves. He yields to duty and love rather than pleasure. His life as Peter Pan was over and he had to save his kids. He remembered that he had responsibility, He was no longer a Lost Boy. And he accepted it.

There is a point at which his little girl realizes that her dad is Peter Pan, and where his son acknowledges that he is Peter Pan along with all the Lost Boys. His children realize he is something more than a self-centered distant dad. He is something great.

There have been points in my life where I have done something really big in ministry or maybe just a feat of strength and my children recognized it. They still sometimes talk about it. For a moment it made me larger and they were proud of me as their dad. It was worth all the hassle to have those moments. And there are times when I wish I could recapture them. But I can’t.

When the leader of the Lost Boys, Rufio, the one who took over after Peter Pan left, is killed, his last wish said to Peter is I wish I had a dad like you. He says it in the presence of Jack, Peter’s son, who suddenly realizes his dad is far better than he thought

Peter tries to leave and Captain Hook says if you do not stay and fight me, there will be daggers flung at the door of your children’s children’s children.. if he did not deal with it now, it would never end. There are some things that have to be dealt with now or they will never end. He realized a lot of his job was to deal with them for the safety of his kids.

There are things we as fathers have to do to protect our children and sometimes they are not pleasant. As a pastor, there are things I have to do that I do not enjoy, but it is my job. If I do not, the church will suffer.

A lot of stuff off a fluffy movie, but that is why it is one of my favorites.




Maybe tomorrow I can find great existential meaning in Snow White.