Passing the Faith Along

213 - Today's Prime Time Devo comes from 2Ti 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.” (2 Tim 2:2) Paul was an Apostle, and as an Apostle he had some one on one training with Jesus. He made this clear in his letter to the Galatians: “But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. 12 For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ.” (Gal 1:11,12) The things that Jesus passed onto Paul are essential to the faith and therefore were passed onto Timothy in the presence of other witnesses, and now Timothy is charged with committing these things along to other faithful men, who are gifted teachers. If you are a rightly called pastor and/or teacher, you have had these teachings of Paul committed to you! And guess what? You are charged with committing these teachings to other faithful men and gifted teachers. The word “commit” here speaks of a deposit. You are to deposit what has been deposited in you to these other faithful teachers. Call it discipleship. Call it mentoring, call it what you will, but it must be done with every generation. Do you want to see what happens when you skip a generation? Just read the Book of Judges. It is not enough to fire shotgun blasts of teaching in weekly sermons to a congregation, this charge from Paul involves a more specific targeted audience. Where do you find these faithful men who are apt teachers? It's not up to you to find them, it is up to you to make yourself available to deposit. It is God who provides the gifted Eph 4:11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, I have been blessed to sit under a pastor who understood the importance of passing the faith along, and it was with amazement that we watched our little congregation turn out many pastors and teachers who went on to serve in various ministries. What was our pastor's secret? He prayed and trusted the Holy Spirit to do his work! It was the Holy Spirit's doing to be sure, and it involves the work of prayer. Jesus reminded us in Mt 9:37, “Then He said to His disciples, "The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. 38 "Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest." Prayer is vital in this matter of passing the faith along, don't neglect it! It only takes the neglect of one generation to lose it!