Today's passage is Ezra 6:1-12.
Darius reponds to the letter sent by the Trans-Euphrates officials. First he says that Cyrus did order the rebuilding of the temple, the costs to be borne by the royal treasury and the temple articles taken by Nebuchadnezzar returned.
Darius upholds this decree and adds to it, telling the Trans-Euphrates officials to stay away from the work, pay the men who are doing it, and provide the priests with everything they need. He says that if anyone disobeys his decree they will will be crucified and their house reduced to rubble. He prays that God will overthrow any people who destroy the temple.
The work of life, of building my temple, of returning to the places of my sins in order to repent, is hard.
Distractions abound and often I don't see where I can find the energy to continue.
As to the worldly distractions of seeking praise rather than accepting rebukes, today's passage gives the perennial command that I find hard to obey: Stay away from there.
Because the combination of things I'm doing at my school seems to be unique in the eyes of a few people, I'm being encouraged to write about them.
This year I will likely meet a famous guy in the educational world who wrote about what my college friend did as director of a board of education.
My daydreams tempt me with scenarios of that meeting, daydreams that glorify me by riding on the coattails of my friend.
My repentance is to tell no one in the secular world what I'm doing to improve the learning of my students and the teaching of my teachers.
I simply pray to God for his grace and inspiriation, put in the hours--sometimes too many!--and do the work.
God's grace is the royal treasury I depend on.
Another temple building that is hard for me to stay away from is the Sunday School. This is because it is completely foreign to my Western attitude and the Western attitudes of my students.
At Sunday School I am largely reduced to the role of a jailer, telling my boys to pay attention and stop fiddling with their cell phones.
My Western attitude is that the boys need something to do, something that helps them apply the lesson chosen by the pastor.
Doing is how the learning comes.
To my mind, it would be so simple to change the current system.
The students all have their QTin.
Few of the students do regular QT.
So do a collective QT with our classes after the pastor or teacher has given a QT to the whole group as a sample.
Make the classes into mini mokjangs.
But, like Darius, my wife tells me to stay away from there.
I'm the outsider. It's not my temple.
Lord, stop me interfering in the building of your temple in myself and in others.
Let me focus on where I am and what I have to do to please you.
Let me trust in you more deeply and depend on your grace to fulfill my mission.
