Who'd wanna be a Teacher?

A friend and I have been doing a study on James via email. It's been quite an adventure!! I must share some insights from chapters 1 and 2 sometime. Things like counting it all joy when trouble comes... and not being double-minded ... and faith without works is dead... etc.

Anyhow, that will have to wait, because now we're up to another sticky topic in chapter 3. The first verse certainly made me take a step back. Here's James 3, verses 1 and 2:

"Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check." (NIV)

Sounds a bit scary, eh?

So then, what are the credentials to be a teacher in the church? And if God calls us to teach, how should we live our lives?

Well, to start with, here's a prayer:

O LORD, I call to you; come quickly to me. Hear my voice when I call to you. May my prayer be set before you like incense; may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice. Set a guard over my mouth, O LORD;
keep watch over the door of my lips.
Let not my heart be drawn to what is evil,
to take part in wicked deeds
with men who are evildoers;
let me not eat of their delicacies.
Let a righteous man strike me—it is a kindness;
let him rebuke me—it is oil on my head.
My head will not refuse it.
Yet my prayer is ever against the deeds of evildoers;
(Psa 141:1-5, NIV)

That's not all... still heaps of questions to come!! I'll be back... hopefully with some answers too!

And I'd love to hear what you think! PLEASE!!!