Above Rubies Daily Encouragement Blogs
ARE WE TEACHERS OR BABIES?
10. WE SHOULD BE TEACHERS
Hebrews 5:12 (NLT) says: “You have been believers so long now that you ought (opheilo—it is your duty) to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things about God’s word. You are like babies who need milk and cannot eat solid food. For someone who lives on milk is still an infant and doesn’t know how to do what is right. Solid food is for those who are mature, who through training have the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong.”
How long are we meant to stay spiritual babies? We would be devastated if we were still spoon feeding our little babies and toddlers when they were four or five years old! And yet many adults still need to be spoon fed when they are adults! They still don’t feed from God’s Word each day for themselves. They wait for Sunday for the pastor to spoon feed it into their mouths.
As babies in Christ we soak up the m ilk as people teach us (1 Peter 2:2). But we don’t stay on milk. We’ve got to get into the meat and learn how to get food daily for ourselves and learn how to chew on it and digest meaty things. This Scripture doesn’t say it’s a good idea. It says we ought to be doing it. It’s time we were teachers. It’s our duty!
11. THE DAILY DUTY
Both 2 Chronicles 8:14 and Ezra 3:4 talk about the daily duties of the priests. Ezra 3:4 says they “offered the daily burnt offerings by number, according to the custom, as the duty of every day required.” God ordained the morning and evening daily sacrifice. They also had to attend to the fire upon the altar every morning and evening, to light the lamps every morning and evening, and to light the sweet incense every morning and evening. Among other things these were their daily duties.
God ordained the morning and evening principle back in tabernacle days which is good for us to continue each day. We keep the fire burning in our homes as we attend to our family altar morning and evening (not a literal altar, but a gathering together as a family). Any less is not enough to keep the fire burning. Any less is not enough to keep the light shining. That’s why we need to come before the Lord as a family every morning and evening to read God’s Word and to cry out to Him. This is a duty, but if God is truly No. 1 in our lives, it will be our greatest delight and the “longed for” times of each day.
When we know what’s best for our lives and family’s lives, duty is always delight.
Blessings from Nancy Campbell