[Darris McNeely] While teaching the book of Revelation recently to my students, we came across a passage in Revelation 3:11, where in the message to the church at Philadelphia, Christ says, "Behold, I'm coming quickly. Hold fast what you have that no one may take your crown." Other translations put that, "No man take your crown. Don't let any man take your crown." And then, the discussion that followed, we got into the fact of how important it is that we balance out the instructor, the teacher, the minister, the teacher of the Bible, of religion in our faith with our own responsibility to dig into the Word of God and let the Word of God speak to us.

There is, scripturally, and there is a role for a teacher to teach us the Bible, but we have to be very careful not to get into the cult of personality where we put too much stock, more stock over what a man says. You know, I'm amazed with the internet, YouTube, and all the sources that are available to us, the amount of information, videos, sermons, lectures that are available to us to learn, especially about the Bible, and while they have their benefit to us, remember, do not let any of that be a substitute for your eye to ourselves. Dig into the Word of God by reading it, by studying it, and coming to know it ourselves and letting God talk to us through His Word, which is how the Bible is designed.

There is a scripture that teaches us about that, the 2 Timothy 2:15, telling us how we are to work with this. Paul says, "Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." We all need to be workers in the word of truth ourselves. Use a teacher, listen to a teacher, but let them put you into the Word of God and make sure that you're spending the majority of your time in the Word of God as a worker learning to divide that Word or understand it as God speaks to us. That way, then we'll be connected in faith to God.

That's BT Daily. Join us next time.