Teachers inspire! Teachers motivate, encourage, arouse, and enthuse! Teachers cheer, support, persuade and push! Teachers stir up and fill with enthusiasm! Who? Individuals. What? The whole being of the individual - mind, body, soul, heart and spirit. Really good teachers well up in the student a whole experience of learning and that is the reason they have such a profound effect on lives. Their eyes, heart, words and expressions leave a mark on the life of the student, not just for the subject matter at hand, but the passion for learning.

The children of Israel received God’s instruction well some of the time, but most of the time they were hard hearted, stubborn people. They were set in their ways; they had a comfortable piety which kept God at a comfortable academic distance. Isaiah, God’s servant messenger says,

For they are a rebellious people, lying children, children unwilling to hear the instruction of the LORD. For a people shall dwell in Zion, in Jerusalem; you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. As soon as he hears it, he answers you. ²⁰And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. ²¹ And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, "This is the way, walk in it," when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left. ²²Then you will defile your carved idols overlaid with silver and your gold-plated metal images. You will scatter them as unclean things. You will say to them, "Be gone!" Is 30:9, 19-22

Jesus, the teacher, was born into this world as the perfect, righteous, holy son of God. Religious leaders received him for a time as an academic but couldn’t figure out where he had gone to school to get his knowledge. People received him as a prophet who healed them and filled their bellies. When Jesus, the teacher, opened his mouth and performed miracles he brought to light the kingdom of God in his person. Those who were touched, inspired, aroused, and motivated heeded Jesus’ proclamation and call in their mind, body, soul, heart and spirit.

The teacher in the Old Testament pointed eyes to the way and called people to walk in it. Jesus proclaims, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, walk in me and I in you!”  Students’ hearts are stirred to declare, “My Teacher, Jesus Christ, the Way, lived perfectly for me.” We beg God with passion, “please scatter into the depths of the sea all the junk, the guilt, the fears, the things we have worshiped that are not the Christ, and the lies we have believed. These are unclean things in our lives and we don’t need IT! We give God permission to say ‘BE GONE!”

Jesus, the Teacher, engages our soul and heart with his life and his living Word. His Word is life; his word calls us out of darkness into light; his word gives us courage to find a teacher or to teach if we’ve been touched to the heart and soul with the Christ. His word never lets us stay where we are; it always calls us to walk in him. In Christ, our teacher, we hunger for the Living Word and thirst for the Living Water which he freely provides because he is a giver.

May God grant us courage to see with his eyes the beauty in being taught. May God grant us boldness to proclaim his mercy as those who have been touched by the teacher. May God’s peace guard our hearts. Blessings IN Christ, Cindy

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