Titus 2:7f - Watch God nail me about my teaching

7 And you yourself must be an example to them by doing good deeds of every kind. Let everything you do reflect the integrity and seriousness of your teaching. 8 Let your teaching be so correct that it can't be criticized. Then those who want to argue will be ashamed because they won't have anything bad to say about us.

God just decided to nail me about integrity with respect to my teaching. The vision I’m having is a pond, clear and still, that reflects the beauty of the nature around it in an uncorrupted, honest and truthful way.

In the same way, my life and my teaching must be such that my teaching is just a reflect of my teaching, nothing more, nothing less.

I must do good deeds of every kind – can’t remember the last time I even feed a homeless person. That’s a high benchmark.

My teaching can’t be prettied up. I need to reflect life the way I see it. There needs to be truth conveyed in my teaching, nothing more, nothing less.

It reminds me of when I was doing my research in gene therapy as part of my Science degree honours. I kept on wanting to modify the results of my experiments to fit my models. I soon learnt that there is truth even in what appear to be the anomalies. Although I might think I’m correcting errors or enhancing limitations, in reality there’s nothing I can add of value. I need merely reflect the pond.

Even if I’m only reflecting a partial picture, I hope I can reflect that part of the sky with truthfulness.

Hebrews 10:23 - Why I'm not out clubbing & on drugs

Hebrew 10:23 Without wavering, let us hold tightly to the hope we say we have, for God can be trusted to keep his promise

1 Corinthians 15:14 And if Christ was not raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your trust in God is useless.

1 Corinthians 15:19 And if we have hope in Christ only for this life, we are the most miserable people in the world

You know, I can't escape the fact that as Paul said, if Jesus did not rise from the dead, the very fundamental basis of my life is worthless. If God can't be trusted, then all of my life is in vain.

Before you think I'm obviously in a depressed mood :), let me point out Hebrews 10:23 - "God can be trusted"

I'm not in the nightclubs satisfying as many biological urges as I can, as much as I can, at the same time, for this one simple reason - God can be trusted with my life. He will not let me down. I will not be disgraced because of him.

And it for this reason alone that I can say with Paul - "I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, for it is the power of salvation."

Think I'll sleep well on that. :)