New Year, Same Duty: Three Truths of Scripture to Anchor Your Year

By -
(Originally sent out as an article under Eagles' Simply Proclaim)

What’s new this “New Year”? 2017 is three weeks old as I write, and for some of us, it may be a year when we seek new opportunities in our work. Others might find it the “same old, same old.”

Many of us are entering the new year full of uncertainty, and preachers and teachers are no difference. Will we be as passionate as we were when we first rose up and proclaimed the Word?

In times like these, preaching the Word of God is needed more than ever. Here’s why: 
  1. It is directly commanded by the Scriptures

    The call to proclaim the Word is a direct command from Scripture. When Paul exhorted Timothy to “proclaim the Word” (2 Timothy 4:2), this same command also applies to those placed at the pulpit or in a public teaching setting. Louw and Nida, in the lexicon that now bears their name, pointed out that to proclaim is to “publicly announce religious truths and principles while urging acceptance and compliance.”[1] Jesus’ Great Commission to us also points towards the same direction—that we must “make disciples of all nations” and “[teach] them to obey everything” that Jesus has commanded us (Matthew 28:19-20).

    The implication is thus straightforward. As disciples of Jesus Christ, we are commanded to proclaim the Word, whether we feel like it or not. No doubt, there are times when we are discouraged or distracted by other events in our respective lives. But living a surrendered life in Christ means that we submit our circumstances to God’s authority, and trust that He will accomplish His will no matter what.
    _____
    [1] Louw, J. P., & Nida, E. A. (1996). Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament: based on semantic domains (electronic ed. of the 2nd edition., Vol. 1, p. 416). New York: United Bible Societies.
  2. It is our responsibility

    When Jesus was asked about the signs that will come along with the end times, He shared them in a long discussion we know as the Olivet Discourse (Matthew 24-25). In the parables that followed, He reminded His disciples of the need to be faithful and alert. That was the point of His stories of the wise and faithful servant (24:45-51), the ten virgins (25:1-13), the bags of gold (25:14-30) and the sheep and goats (25:31-46).

    In the third parable, Jesus told of the three servants who were given bags of gold to steward while their master went away. Likewise for us, our Master ascended back to heaven but promised to return. Our bags of gold are the resources that God has given us to steward and take responsibility of.

    That means if you are a preacher and teacher, your responsibility is to proclaim the Word. And that responsibility is a serious one, for those who teach will be judged more strictly (James 3:1). We have the responsibility, by the steer of our tongues, to proclaim the Word of God—and to direct our congregations and churches towards increasing Christlikeness before the return of Christ, our Master.
  3. We’re not done yet, and will never be

    Our calling as preachers and teachers, to be honest, will never be completed. Even after three missionary journeys, the apostle Paul still planned to go to Spain, to proclaim the gospel where Christ was not known (Romans 15:19b-24).

    Even today, there are still places where the gospel is not known, and there are still places in the hearts of people (including believers) that Christ has not touched. Every square meter of this earth is His, and we are His partners in sharing His light wherever we go. Regardless of how long we have been in this ministry of preaching and teaching, I’m very sure that there remains work left for us to do, as we proclaim the gospel and equip others to do so.

    That’s why we can’t afford to stagnate as preachers and teachers. We need to continue to read and study the Scriptures so that God’s Word will continue to do its transformative work in us. We need to continually ‘level up’ our skills so that we can proclaim the Word more effectively.
As I reflect on my 2016 and plan ahead for 2017, I can only say that what God has placed in my heart has not diminished, despite distractions in my own personal circumstances. While I find a marriage home and have it renovated, and simultaneously take on new roles in my own church ministry, I sometimes feel that I’ve lost my bearings. But when I read the Word, its richness reminds me why I must continue to proclaim it, study it and discover its truths for myself.
​
What are your plans for your own public ministry, and what might be distracting or discouraging you? How is God working to refocus it back on Himself? Share your thoughts with me; I read all your comments.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Parable of the 'Good Samaritan'

By -
Once there was this man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among thorns, and the thorns spring up and choked him. And as he went on, he didn’t have money, and he met the Queen of Sheba, and she gave him 1,000 talents of gold and 100 changes of raiment. And he got into a chariot and drove furiously, and when he was driving under a big juniper tree, his hair caught on a limb of that tree, and he hung there many days, and the ravens brought him food to eat and water to drink, and he ate 5,000 loaves of bread and two fishes. One night when he was hanging there asleep, his wife Delilah came along and cut off his hair, and he dropped, and fell on stony ground. But he got up and went on, and it began to rain, and it rained forty days and forty nights, and he hid himself in a cave, and he lived on locust and wild honey. Then he went on ‘til he met a servant who said, “Come, take supper at my house.” And he made an excuse and said, “No, I won’t. I have married a wife, and I c...
Read more

Of Teaching and Learning

By -
Image
Over the past two weeks, I was invited to attend a block class on "Learning to Teach." After two weeks of class, here are some reflections that I have. We thank God Bro Casey is a pretty humane teacher... :P  Firstly, teaching needs to meet the changing challenges of the 21st century. This is especially pertinent with all the advancements in technology as well as the worldview changes with the generation today. There is simply no room for the teacher to remain stagnant and not be able to keep up with times so as to engage their students and to facilitate learning. Applying to theological education and Bible school, we have to consider what kind of ministers we are training for the churches in the 21st century. If we are training ministers who are able to engage today’s generation, then we need to review the current methods of teaching and train ministers to be savvy in social media and technology and be able to make use of them in their ministries. Reflecting back on...
Read more

Of Exegesis, Wedding Preparation and the Whole Lot of Things: Another Reflection

By -
Image
To those who know what happened, the past months since the start of 2016 had been very stressful to me. In the preparation to my impending wedding this coming October, my future father-in-law decided to throw a few spanners into the wedding preparation by declaring that he was not comfortable with me as a life partner to his daughter because I am a full time Christian worker and more importantly because I come from a different family background from her.  The latter means that there are certain practices in my own family which are unthinkable in his worldview on how a family should function. This led to intense tensions between Angelina and myself. To compound the stress, NT Exegesis class was not that easy also and the stress of meeting the deadlines mean that I sometimes did not have the time to reflect deeper into the situations I was facing in my relationship.  However, studying the text of Philemon 15-20 reminded me of the way we should conduct our relationship ...
Read more