Over the last few days I have been meditating on James 3:1 which says, “Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment.” What sobering words!  I posted those words over my desk as a reminder of the serious responsibility that I have before God and before the people I teach on a weekly basis. Those of us who are in positions of leadership, who teach, will incur a stricter judgment based on the way we have handled (or, God forbid, mishandled) the Word of God. What an awesome responsibility… Lord, help me, help us, not to waste it! 

Reader, please pray for those in positions of leadership in the church.  Pray that God will help us to be faithful stewards and to rightly handle the Word of Truth, as 2 Timothy 2:15 commands, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.”  Pray that as we teach and preach, that we will not “waste our pulpit.” And how do we waste it?  According to Dr. John Piper, ”The best way to waste your pulpit is to preach [or teach] your own thoughts, instead of preaching God’s thoughts… The Bible is power and truth. So, “Don’t Waste Your Pulpit” means stay close to the Bible, meditate on the Bible, go deep with the Bible, penetrate through the BIble, to the living Christ, to the living God, and do it in such a way that your people are ignited with the truth of the Bible.”  Check out Piper’s powerful and convicting video entitled, “Don’t Waste Your Pulpit.”