Teaching Devotions: Passing It On - 2 Timothy 1:14

2 Timothy 1:14           Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you--guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.

In the midst of the present theological wars, it’s very easy to become weary with Church World. We never seem to have any peace because someone or some group somewhere wants things to be different, relevant, and post-modern instead of keeping things sacred, divine, and eternal. I know that I am struggling with this and so are many in the congregation that I serve. Christianity is a hard faith to truly practice and live by in today’s society.

I also find it intriguing that when Paul is writing to Timothy, he is urging him to guard the faith. This is only about 30 years after Christ was crucified and resurrected. With a faith so freshly born and the gospel so newly written, you would think people would be more secure with what they believed. However, it seems that the New Testament Church was also divided and so, to sustain Christ’s Peace, second generation Christians like Timothy had to maintain guardianship over the essential tenets of the new faith.

I heard a pastor once preach that if no one in the present generation shared the faith or spread the gospel, then within four generations Christianity would die. I don’t know if that’s true because it’s never been truly tested, but it does lay an onus on every Christian to pass on the faith to the next generation. What makes it all the harder is that we have to do this on Christ’s terms, and not our own.

So today the challenge is this: to whom, in the next generation, have we shared our Faith?

Prayer:                        Lord Jesus, sometimes we forget that the Christian faith is not a private or personal matter. You called upon Your followers everywhere and in every time to go out into the world to share the Gospel. Forgive us if we have failed to live up to that challenge. Help us, in the life time that we have left, to faithfully share Your Good News with the upcoming generations. In Your Holy Name, we pray. Amen.

John Stuart is currently the pastor of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. If you would like to comment or ask questions of today’s message, please send him an email to pastor@erinpresbyterian.org.

Today’s image is one of John’s latest Psalm drawings. It depicts a verse of Psalm 102. If you would like to view a larger version of the drawing, please visit the following link:

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5292/5519117740_cf1a7fa46f_b.jpg

Teacher Devotions: Christ's Choice

Philippians 2:5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:

Sometimes I wonder how Paul would have fared in today’s world. He comes across as being too sure of himself and I don’t know whether he is rebuking his readers or encouraging them.

Take this morning’s small verse, for instance. Paul begins by stating, ‘Your attitude should be…;’ he doesn’t write could be or might be – Paul insists that our attitudes should be – that’s pretty strong stuff for a preacher to be expressing. That meddles directly with how we manage our faith.

If Paul was around today, he would probably get thrown out of a lot of churches for preaching such a controversial and confrontational message. He would be emotionally tarred and feathered by an outraged congregation, especially one of those ‘you’re okay, I’m okay, everybody’s okay’ type of churches.

When I question Paul’s no nonsense Christianity, I’m reminded of two things: firstly, my own failures as a Christian in trying to be a perfect servant of God; and secondly, Paul’s unquestionable right to state such things. After all, Paul was no cozy theologian who sat in an Ivy League study asking hypothetical questions. He was a diehard Christian who had been almost lynched, battered and bruised, hunted and harassed, stoned and shipwrecked, tortured and tried for his faith in Jesus. If anyone had the right to meddle in our lives and to state things like ‘Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus,’ it surely was Paul.

As a pastor, I come across many people who are hostile to Paul’s teachings, but do you know what? I’ve still to come across one of his critics who have experienced any real persecution.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, sometimes we forget that it was You who personally intervened and dramatically converted Paul on the road to Damascus. Too easily, we cast him aside because his certain faith makes our own beliefs seem shallow and pale. Help us to look again to Paul’s teaching and remind us that he was Your choice. In Your Holy Name, we humbly pray. Amen.

John Stuart is the pastor of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. If you would like to comment on today’s message, please send him an email to pastor@erinpresbyterian.org.

Teacher Devotions: Cold Water

Matthew 10:42 “And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward."

In my opinion, Scottish faucet water is the best drinking water in the world. As I’m writing this, I can still remember hot summer days of my Glasgow childhood, with me running into my house and slaking my thirst with a cold glass of clear water from the kitchen tap. It had its own particular taste, almost like a cold mountain river, and was very refreshing. The water also made great tea, which I have never been able to make here in the United States.

These days, I drink my water from a refrigerated filtered Brita jug, which is about as close to Scottish water as I can get. It meets my needs, especially during the very hot summer months that we experience here in East Tennessee. The filter needs to be replaced about every two months, otherwise the water doesn’t taste as good. It makes me sometimes wish that I had a pipeline all the way beneath the Atlantic to my hometown in Scotland, so that I could drink the fresh water of Loch Katrine, from where Glasgow gets its wonderful water.

When Jesus mentions giving fresh water to the little ones around Him, He’s talking about the future disciples of the church. He’s stating that those who will support and encourage them, in a future time of persecution, will be blessed because of the help they give to these upcoming followers of Christ. These days, I think this is the equivalent of teaching the faith to our kids in Sunday School, Vacation Bible School, and any other church program that helps children to learn about God and come closer to Christ.

Christianity is facing many challenges right now, so the faith that our children and grandchildren possess will be tested and perhaps sorely tried by the society that they are growing up into. This makes it very important for older generations to do as much as they can to support church children, as well as the teachers and leaders of these programs. The future of our faith depends upon the dedicated discipleship of those who teach the truths of Christianity to our children. They are the cold water cup bearers of our kids.

So let’s stop and think about those who are called and charged to teach faith to the church of tomorrow today. Let’s thank God for their commitment and honor them for their work.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, the little ones of our churches and communities need to hear and experience the stories of God and about Your Life. As they grow up into a world which may become hostile to our faith, we pray that the focus, dedication, and commitment of our present day teachers may inspire, encourage, and strengthen our children’s faith. In Your Holy Name, we gratefully pray. Amen.

John Stuart is the pastor of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. If you would like to comment on today’s message, please send him an email to pastor@erinpresbyterian.org.