by Aubrey Belue<\/p>\n
One of the earliest jobs my dad had was teaching school – he began while still in his teens, at a one-room school in upstate Mississippi. Some of his students in the higher grades were as old and as big as he was, and more than once, he maintained discipline with the threat of a literal fist fight! He would tell me of a mother who brought her son to school and explained that he was very sensitive. She said, “Whenever there is trouble, and discipline is called for, just hit the boy next to mine, and Junior will get the message. There will be no need to actually punish him.” (To this day, I am not sure whether this actually happened, or was one of his “made up” experiences). Whatever. I’m here to tell you that it won’t always work.<\/p>\n
Early in my preaching “career”, not much older than my dad was as a teacher, I was working in central Illinois, and a Methodist lady started attending. For some reason, she became attached to me and continually praised my efforts, coming up to me after every lesson to tell me how much she appreciated my stand for truth. Believing (and I still do) that my work included identifying and opposing every stripe of religious error, I started including in my material lessons on sprinkling, and the error of salvation by faith only, as well as one or two other fallacies the church she was with held to – and this continued for several months. No matter, she still held me high and expressed her respect for me as a teacher who “taught the Bible.”<\/p>\n
After a while, it dawned on me that there was a disconnect between what “her church” believed and the truths I advanced relative to those things. I had taken these issues in isolation, without being specific about who taught them. Eventually, I preached a lesson on Methodism, pointing out that the Methodist Church taught sprinkling, faith only, and instrumental music, among other things. That was the last time she commended my teaching, and soon after, she quit attending. As long as I was “hitting the one next to her” (teaching without making a specific connection), she failed to get the message! When she realized these things had personal implications, her prejudices kicked in.<\/p>\n
The lesson I learned? Teaching “general truth” falls short of the demands of gospel teaching! Biblically, teachers in the first century made it clear as to the application: “Thou art the man.<\/strong>” God doesn’t “blind side” folks, and neither should we. Becoming a disciple requires hard choices, and it does not help to withhold the implications of such alternatives. “Warning the wicked from his <\/b>wicked way<\/em>” (Ezekiel 3:18-19) is an uphill fight if he doesn’t even know he is among the wicked!<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Aubrey Belue One of the earliest jobs my dad had was teaching school – he began while still in his teens, at a one-room school in upstate Mississippi. Some of his students in the higher grades were as old and as big as he was, and more than once, he maintained discipline with the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[536,451],"class_list":["post-90248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-preaching","tag-teaching"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":32806,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/a-passage-to-ponder-ephesians-61-4\/","url_meta":{"origin":90248,"position":0},"title":"A Passage To Ponder: Ephesians 6:1-4","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 1, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Ken Weliever In a 2014 sermon, Steve Malone asked \"What do the following have in common?\" 90% of homeless and runaway children 63% of youth who commit suicide 80% of all rapists 85% of children with behavioral problems 71% of all high school dropouts 75% of all teens in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":88265,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-i-need-to-go-to-school-to-preach\/","url_meta":{"origin":90248,"position":1},"title":"Do I need to go to school to preach?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 29, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Mr. Hamilton, I have studied the Bible all my life. 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The elders met him at\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/02\/Shush.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":58718,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/please-knock-on-my-door\/","url_meta":{"origin":90248,"position":3},"title":"Please Knock on My Door!","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 4, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"by Dick Cupp Have you ever hesitated to knock on someone's door, afraid that those inside don't want to hear anything about the gospel of Christ? Let me tell you of a young man who would have given a great deal just to have some Christian knock on his door\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/02\/knocking.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":60538,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/two-preachers-amos-and-amaziah\/","url_meta":{"origin":90248,"position":4},"title":"Two Preachers: Amos and Amaziah","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 29, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Mark White The Old Testament prophet Amos was a shepherd turned preacher. The crowd to whom he preached was the upper class of Israel, including the King himself. He was not their choice of a preacher, however. They did not choose him -- God chose Amos for them. 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