October 25

Jeremiah 48:1-49:22; 2 Timothy 4:1-22; Psalm 95:1-96:13; Proverbs 26:9-12

"With great patience and careful instruction..." (2 Tim. 4:2).

The first church I chose myself (in college, away from my father's church) was chosen on the basis of the sermons.  Before we came to our current church, I listened to sermons online to make sure that I could sit under our pastor's teaching.  This careful attention to sermons comes because I've been the daughter of a preacher my whole life.  Though he hasn't always been a pastor, alternating rather between seminary professor and pastor, my dad's passion is to clearly communicate what the word of God says, and to teach others to do the same.  So I've heard a lot of sermons - really good sermons, even if you discount my bias.  

As I think back on my father's sermons, the words Paul wrote to Timothy form a description of my dad's teaching.  "Correct, rebuke and encourage - with great patience and careful instruction" (2 Tim. 4:2, emphasis mine).  My father has never watered down what Scripture says; he is clear on sin and God's call to holiness.  He will never be one of the teachers who "[says] what...itching ears want to hear" (vs. 3). He can - and does and will - correct and rebuke.  I have seen the hours he spends in his study, carefully reading Scripture, researching in commentaries, writing sermons, memorizing them.  He takes the creation and presentation of his sermons seriously.  But it is the two remaining qualities that most mark my memory of my father's teaching.  He always encourages; he is always patient with his congregation.  He teaches with gentleness and exhortation - a wooing to live in the knowledge of the goodness of God and to respond to the Lord with love and obedience.  He does not shame; he does not guilt; he does not recriminate.  

He has "fought the good fight, [he has] finished the race, [he has] kept the faith" (2 Tim. 4:8).  Though he has - please, Lord! - many years to live, these words are already true of him.

You may not have been in a church where you were encouraged.  You may not have had a father who preached sermon after sermon, shaping your view of God in more than one way.  You may not have a father-figure in your life who has demonstrated what it is to live faithfully under God's authority.  Oh, how I wish you had!

But you do still have these examples in Scripture.  Think of how much we know about Paul - how much of his life is available to us in Acts and in his letters.  He corrected, rebuked and encouraged the early churches.  He exercised patience with confusion and immaturity, and he instructed with precision and love.  He never said what itching ears wanted to hear.  And his own words could have been used as an epitaph upon his death, describing his life: fighting the good fight, finishing the race, keeping the faith.

Today, I'm grateful for these two lives, Paul and my father.  And I'm praying that my life - and yours - will be marked by these same characteristics.

- Sarah Marsh

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