Teaching By Parables

Good morning and welcome to Our Daily Walk.

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Parables have been around for a long time. Many people think of Jesus when they hear the word parable. That’s because Jesus taught often while using parables.

A parable is a story or illustration that is laid alongside something for purposes of comparison and new understanding. Sometimes we become too deep into our own details or situation and can’t always see what we should be doing. A parable can help to focus our attention on someone else’s situation where we can more clearly make a judgment as to what should happen.

An Old Testament parable was told by Nathan to David in 2 Samuel 12. David, as you know, was the king of Israel and was highly favored by God. But he didn’t always do what he should have been doing. In fact, at this particular time David had literally gotten away with murder.

You recall the story of David and Bathsheba and how she had become pregnant with David’s child. David tried to make it look as if Uriah, Bathsheba’s husband, was the father, but those plans failed. Ultimately David had Uriah killed and then took Bathsheba to be his wife.

From an outsider’s perspective no one really knew that David had caused the death of Uriah or the pregnancy of Bathsheba. But God knew.

The Lord sent Nathan to speak to David about his situation. Instead of laying out the facts and making the accusation to David, Nathan told a parable. Nathan says the following in 2 Samuel 12:1-4.

There were two men in one city, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had exceedingly many flocks and herds. But the poor man had nothing, except one little ewe lamb which he had bought and nourished; and it grew up together with him and with his children. It ate of his own food and drank from his own cup and lay in his bosom; and it was like a daughter to him. And a traveler came to the rich man, who refused to take from his own flock and from his own herd to prepare one for the wayfaring man who had come to him; but he took the poor man's lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.

Knowing the facts as we do it is easy for us to see the parallel to David’s situation. But David doesn’t realize that this is about him. He responds in verses 5-6 with anger and says, “As the Lord lives, the man who has done this shall surely die! And he shall restore fourfold for the lamb, because he did this thing and because he had no pity.”

Nathan’s next words to David are chilling. “You are the man!”

Nathan continues by laying out the facts as God had revealed them. God had blessed David in many ways. He had protected him from his enemies. He had even provided him with many wives.

Now David had despised the commandments of the Lord. He was the one with no pity and with a self-centered action. And he would be the one now who would bear the consequences.

David knows that his sins have been exposed and he does the right thing and confesses his sins. After all, it wasn’t difficult for David to see the right and wrong in the parable, and he knows that he is clearly in the wrong here.

God put away David’s sin but there were still earthly consequences for David and others to bear. The child that was born to David and Bathsheba would not live. And Nathan foretold also of the fact that David’s house would suffer through adversity. The thing that David did in secret was now being punished in full view.

This use of a parable was very effective. I don’t know how Nathan would have fared had he confronted David in any other way. It certainly would have taken great courage to confront the king and outright accuse him of murder. And even after the parable it still took a great deal of courage to say, “You are the man!”

On Our Daily Walk today, may we try to always see ourselves as others view us. May we also welcome the input of others as they try to help us correct those things that are wrong in our lives.

Our thought for the day: “Humility leads to strength and not to weakness. It is the highest form of self-respect to admit mistakes and to make amends for them.”

May God bless you on your daily walk.

© Our Daily Walk, Mike Baker, 2007. Permission is granted to copy these articles provided they are not sold and the author's name and copyright are included.

Teaching Others To Teach

Good morning and welcome to Our Daily Walk.
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Teaching is often a very frustrating and thankless job. Whether in the public schools or in the Bible schools, teachers are often over worked and under appreciated. Finding good teachers is often a challenge. But without good teachers where would we be? We need good teachers and we need to encourage and inspire more and more people to become teachers.

If you are a teacher now or have ever been one in the past, perhaps you can remember the person who encouraged you to teach. Maybe it was your mentor, or your teacher in Bible class or at school.

Chances are that someone saw a potential in you to be able to impart knowledge to others. They encouraged you to not just learn, but also to teach. At times a teacher may refer to one of their own teachers when making a point.

Paul was a mentor to the younger preacher, Timothy. In 2 Timothy 2:2 he encouraged Timothy saying, “And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” As Christians, we should all be interested in teaching others the things that we have learned.

Paul did not just want his instructions to be heard and understood by Timothy. He also wanted those instructions to be passed on to other faithful men so that they could pass it all on to others. Teaching others to be teachers is God’s way of making sure that the good news continues to be spread.

Of course, accepting the challenge to be a teacher can come at a price. Not only is there a greater amount of preparation on your part. But James reminds us that there is also a stricter judgment. He says in James 3:1, “My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment.” Being a teacher includes a heavy responsibility.

But still the need remains for good teachers. Paul is aware of the dangers of bad teaching when he again addresses Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:1-5.

I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

Paul’s concern wasn’t about the faithfulness of Timothy. He was a good student and an excellent evangelist. His concern was that the teaching of good things continues, especially since some would want to follow bad teachers.

Peter weighs in on this issue in 2 Peter 2:1-3.

But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber.

So what’s at stake if good teachers are not to be found? Sound doctrine may give way to heresies. Once faithful Christians may choose to lay aside God’s word and follow after some blasphemous doctrine of man. Future generations may grow up and never know what the truth really is. All of this could be the future if good teachers are not in place.

On Our Daily Walk today, may we remember the good things that we have learned from our teachers and may we determine today that we will not only teach them to others, but encourage them to teach it even more.

Our thought for the day: “To teach is to learn twice.”

May God bless you on your daily walk.

© Our Daily Walk, Mike Baker, 2007. Permission is granted to copy these articles provided they are not sold and the author's name and copyright are included.

Be A Student, Then A Teacher

Good morning and welcome to Our Daily Walk.

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Do you remember your first grade teacher? How about your English teacher in high school? Can you remember their names? How about how they looked?

Over the course of twelve years in school a student may well be exposed to over a hundred teachers. The more years a student is away from school the more difficult it becomes to remember all of those teachers.

But some teachers will always be in our minds. They are the ones who made a difference and who helped us to gain understanding.

Some may be memorable because of something unique. Perhaps they were fresh out of college and you were their first “guinea pigs” in a real class setting. Or perhaps they had unique experiences in life and would weave those details into the class making it more understandable. Whatever the case, some teachers inspire us.

I remember one teacher in high school who taught journalism and history. Mr. Barton was a very memorable person because he looked and acted to be so old. Fact is that he wasn’t nearly as old as he pretended to be. But he played the part quite well.

As he would teach history, for example, Mr. Barton would sometimes arrive wearing an authentic Civil War uniform. Being a huge fan of that war, he would give some lectures in first person, telling details as if he was actually present the day of that particular battle.

Of course, he had not been in that war, but his experiences were rather extensive. He served in Korea, ran his own business for years, served in the state legislature and traveled quite a bit. He enjoyed the fact that his life experiences became a part of his teaching. And we as students benefited from that as well.

As students we absorb knowledge and store it away for use later. But there comes a time when most students will need to turn that knowledge around and impart it to others. The student becomes the teacher.

God wants us to be good students of His word. Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:15, to “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” Some versions say “study” in place of “be diligent.” Either way, the concept is that we are to be responsible to learn and correctly apply God’s word.

But then not everyone will be willing to progress to the stage where they give information as well as receive it. The writer of Hebrews mentions this in Hebrews 5:12-14.

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

Learning about God and Jesus is very important. Obedience to them is paramount. But so also is spreading that knowledge to others once we become Christians.

In Romans 1:16, Paul said, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.” As the song goes, “The gospel is for all.”

As followers of Jesus we are all students of His will. But let’s also remember that God wants us to be teachers as well as students.

On Our Daily Walk today, let’s make a conscious effort today to speak to someone about Jesus Christ and to begin or continue sharing what we have learned with others. May we also continue to hunger and thirst for the righteousness which is God’s word and help others to do the same.

Our thought for the day: “He who ceases to learn cannot adequately teach.”

May God bless you on your daily walk.

© Our Daily Walk, Mike Baker, 2007. Permission is granted to copy these articles provided they are not sold and the author's name and copyright are included.

Who Taught You?

Good morning and welcome to Our Daily Walk.

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Watching one of our sons playing a video game one day I asked, “Who taught you how to do that?” The answer I received was, “Nobody.”

Of course that’s not exactly the case. These two sons of ours are very good at electronic games and gadgets. They seem to instinctively know how to move their thumbs and fingers in order to play them. But, contrary to common thought, they were not born with that knowledge. They had to be taught.

How do we learn? Of course, there are many ways in which a person may learn.

The most common way to learn is to be instructed. A student sits in a class and a teacher provides instruction through lecture and or discussion. Instruction can also come from a book or instruction manual that the student reads without a teacher.

Another way to learn is by observation. All of us have learned very valuable information by watching others in similar situations. I suspect that much of the knowledge that our boys gained about playing these games came from watching others and from having them to share their secrets on how to play better.

Still another way to learn is by doing. All the book knowledge in the world will not help if we never put that information to use. Had our boys never played those games they would have really never developed the skills that they have today. Putting knowledge to use is so important in the learning process.

Many of you are Christians today. Who taught you? You weren’t just born having this knowledge. It had to come from somewhere. So, who taught you?

Chances are that a great number of people taught you about God, Jesus, Moses, Noah, Abraham and a whole host of other Bible people. Over the years you drank in that information, processing it into your God given computer we call a brain. After some time, those things became a part of you and it became more and more difficult to remember exactly who did teach you this fact or that.

God is interested in teaching and learning, and we have some excellent examples in the Bible to show us the value of a good teacher and a good student.

Paul was addressing a mob in Jerusalem in Acts 22:3, when he mentioned that not only was he a Jew, but that he also was “brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, taught according to the strictness of our fathers’ law, and was zealous toward God as you all are today.” Paul sat at the feet of a great rabbi, Gamaliel, but it took an even greater teacher, Jesus, to cause him to change direction in his life.

Paul also mentioned teaching and learning in 2 Timothy 1 when he recalled that the faith of Timothy was also present in his grandmother, Lois, and his mother, Eunice. They, along with Paul, were teachers of Timothy, and he learned from them all.

All of us have learned what we know. Sometimes we learn this on our own through reading or through observation. But mostly we learn because someone took the time to teach us these things.

In Luke 11:1, the disciples are with Jesus and they make a very straightforward request. “Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.”

They had been with Jesus for some time at this point and had probably heard Jesus in prayer. But they wanted more knowledge. How are we to pray? Teach us how.

This type of learning can be gained by observation, by practice and also by direct instruction. This just wasn’t about knowing the right words to say. This was about gaining insight on how to do a thing they wanted to do in a way that would be acceptable. Lord, teach us.

Yes, God is very interested in the teaching and learning process here on earth. Paul demonstrated that when he said to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:2, “And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.”

On Our Daily Walk today, may we take the time to thank God for all of the people who have helped to teach us about God and salvation. May we also put that knowledge and understanding to work and use it in our lives every day.

Our thought for the day: “A man who acquires knowledge and does not use it is like a farmer who plows his field but doesn’t sow it.”

May God bless you on your daily walk.

© Our Daily Walk, Mike Baker, 2007. Permission is granted to copy these articles provided they are not sold and the author's name and copyright are included.

Following The Directions

Good morning and welcome to Our Daily Walk.

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How good are you at following directions? If someone were to tell you how to drive from your house to another destination, can you follow those directions?

Most of us get pretty good at following directions, especially when we are lost or really need to rely on them. However, at times, we can be guilty of discarding directions if we think we know something better or different.

I’ll never forget my fifth grade teacher. She was fresh out of college and was still developing her style of teaching. So her style might vary from day to day until she found what worked best.

Mostly her classes were very challenging, but at times they were not. Some days the pace of teaching was just too slow for a few of us and as I recall we began to find other things to entertain us while the teaching was ongoing.

In fact we began having races to see who could finish the assignments or tests first. In our rush to complete our work we often made simple mistakes due to our carelessness. This did not please our teacher.

A pattern began to develop of not following directions completely and the teacher knew that she had to do something to regain control of her class. So, at the next opportunity for a test she made her move.

After lecturing us for several days on the importance of always following directions she handed out these tests. These one page tests had questions on both sides of the paper. At the top in all capital letters was the main instruction, “PLEASE READ ALL INSTRUCTIONS THOROUGHLY BEFORE TAKING THIS TEST!”

Too bad we didn’t do that! As soon as we received our papers the race was on to see who could finish first.

The first several lines were easy to do but didn’t make much sense. Draw a triangle at the bottom left side of the page. Circle all words that begin with a vowel in this sentence. Underline the verb in another sentence.

The same kinds of instructions filled that first page and continued on to the next. Many of us were busily marking our papers and being careful to do everything that we were instructed to do, no matter how silly it appeared.

Then came the last line of the test. Here is what it said. “Now that you have read all instructions THOROUGHLY before taking this test, simply put your name at the top of the paper and turn it in. Do not make any other marks on this paper.”

Ouch! She had us. In our rush to do what we thought was right we ignored the very first and most important instruction. Read ALL instructions before taking the test.

That’s the only zero I ever received in my life on an exam. I’ll never forget it.

God gave specific instructions to the children of Israel before they went to conquer the Promised Land. But they didn’t follow it. Notice the instructions here in Deuteronomy 12:29-32.

When the LORD your God cuts off from before you the nations which you go to dispossess, and you displace them and dwell in their land, take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed from before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, “How did these nations serve their gods? I also will do likewise.” You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way; for every abomination to the LORD which He hates they have done to their gods; for they burn even their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods. Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; you shall not add to it nor take away from it.

John echoes this last line in the last chapter of Revelation. God’s instructions: be careful to observe what He teaches; don’t add to His word or take away from His word. Just read carefully and follow the directions.

On Our Daily Walk today, may we fight the urge to do what we think is best instead of following God’s instructions for us. May we learn from the examples of others and live our lives in full subjection to our Creator.

Our thought for the day: “God judges a man not by the point he has reached, but by the way he is facing; not be distance, but by direction.”

May God bless you on your daily walk.

© Our Daily Walk, Mike Baker, 2007. Permission is granted to copy these articles provided they are not sold and the author's name and copyright are included.

Teach Me

Good morning and welcome to Our Daily Walk.

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A small boy looks up at his father one Sunday morning as he’s getting dressed. His dad is tying his tie. Wanting to be like his dad, the young boy says, “Dad, will you teach me to tie a tie like you do?”

I can remember my father teaching me how to tie a tie. The first few tries were not very good. Too short, then too long, then it would seem as if my fingers wouldn’t work at all as they should. But eventually I was able to tie a tie without even thinking.

All through our lives we look around and see that others have a talent, skill or a bit of knowledge that we do not have. As these things appeal to us we instinctively wish to be taught about them.

What about you? Maybe you’ve seen someone with a card trick. Or maybe someone you know is able to do a magic trick or two. On a more practical side, perhaps as a young mother, you are looking to mothers of older children as you ask, “Can you teach me how you got everything done in a day?”

Teach me. Those words are beautiful to hear. They show that the person is interested in gaining knowledge. They also show that they are prepared to put that knowledge to use once they acquire it.

David writes about teaching in Psalm 119, the longest chapter in the Bible. Ten times he uses the word teach. In eight of those times he is asking God to teach him about His statutes, or ways. In the other two verses he is asking to be taught about good judgment and knowledge and also about judgments.

Listen to this passage from Psalm 119:129-136.

Your testimonies are wonderful; Therefore my soul keeps them. The entrance of Your words gives light; It gives understanding to the simple. I opened my mouth and panted, For I longed for Your commandments. Look upon me and be merciful to me, As Your custom is toward those who love Your name. Direct my steps by Your word, And let no iniquity have dominion over me. Redeem me from the oppression of man, That I may keep Your precepts. Make Your face shine upon Your servant, And teach me Your statutes. Rivers of water run down from my eyes, Because men do not keep Your law.

David was a man after God’s own heart. His words reflect the deep devotion of a person who is continually longing for knowledge and direction. In all his ways, David wishes to follow after God and be faithful.

Here is another passage earlier in the chapter in verses 33-40.

Teach me, O LORD, the way of Your statutes, And I shall keep it to the end. Give me understanding, and I shall keep Your law; Indeed, I shall observe it with my whole heart. Make me walk in the path of Your commandments, For I delight in it. Incline my heart to Your testimonies, And not to covetousness. Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things, And revive me in Your way. Establish Your word to Your servant, Who is devoted to fearing You. Turn away my reproach which I dread, For Your judgments are good. Behold, I long for Your precepts; Revive me in Your righteousness.

If the Lord will teach and give understanding David says that he will keep the law and the statutes. That is the heart of one who desires to learn and put that knowledge to use.

Why? Because David delights in the law and the commandments of the Lord. He doesn’t fight against it as some do today. He doesn’t want to learn about it so he can find loopholes somewhere to get out of it. David sees his knowledge of God’s will as salvation.

Turn us away from bad things and revive us in Your way! Help us all to learn to choose Your will and Your way over the ways of man. Teach us, O Lord.

On Our Daily Walk today, may we always be willing to be taught and to grow in our understanding and appreciation of God and His ways.

Our thought for the day: “If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.”

May God bless you on your daily walk.

© Our Daily Walk, Mike Baker, 2007. Permission is granted to copy these articles provided they are not sold and the author's name and copyright are included.