Illustrating the main point.

What’s the nut of the lesson from Ezekiel 1-3? People see Jesus in their toast, in tortillas, M&Ms and just about everything else, but do they see Him in me? The LifeWay commentators take this passage as a lesson on the Christian call to witness. “Taking on a tough task” is described as God expects His people to follow His leadership to share His truth with all people.

Ezekiel saw a strange vision of four beings with four faces and four wings. They had legs and hands and wheels of eyes. What caught my eye was the fact that the creatures moved in synchrony as God’s Spirit led them. This suggests our need to follow the Spirit’s leadership as the four living beings and as Ezekiel did. To be effective, we need to follow the Spirit move for move. How do we demonstrate this in class? Capture and show a video of the Thunderbirds, or photos of synchronized swimmers and divers (easily found on the web using Google)?

I’m about halfway thru reading Spiritual Leadership by Henry Blackaby and son Richard. They describe what leaders need to deliver and what modern followers want. The Lord is our leader, but do we want to re-shape His values to match ours? That’s not following Him. And where do we find purpose and meaning? Are they in serving Christ and going where the Spirit leads, or do we find them in designs of our own making? Teachers need a clear demonstration of making this choice that we can use in class to help learners to follow God and not their own desires. We’ve all performed jobs we didn’t enjoy. Likely, they seemed impossible at the time. Jesus called the rich, young man, but the man rejected the call. What’s an example that today’s learners can personalize and identify with? I’ll keep looking…