Genesis 13-15

Matthew 5:1-26

“He is the One we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ.” Colossians 1:28

What is “admonishment”? Some of us may have read that word in Scripture before, but have not thought deeply on its meaning. The Greek word for “to admonish” is noutheteō, which means “to warn, admonish, instruct; to put in mind.” We could think of admonishing almost like a parent, where a parent would warn, instruct and give wisdom to their child. As Christians, we sometimes experience admonishment during the worship service, through the songs that we sing or the message that the pastor preaches. It is as though there is nobody else in the room and God’s Word is cutting right into the heart of something going on in our life to put us back on the path of righteousness. It is as if the Holy Spirit is putting His finger on that something, and Jesus is saying, “Let’s talk about this today. I want to lift this out of your life because it’s taking you away from the fullness and the freedom that I have for you.” 

I (Brett McBride) remember experiencing admonishment in a profound lesson years ago when I was working at Urban Promise. We would operate our summer camps at a church in downtown Toronto, Canada. This church had a flat ceiling on top and from up there, I could see the kids coming from the subway towards our summer camp. One day, I decided to fill a bunch of balloons with water and soak some of the kids who were giving me a hard time at camp. 

I went on the roof with all these water balloons, waiting for the kids to walk into the church below me. As I saw them coming, I grabbed the biggest water balloon because there was this kid that was giving me a hard time. I thought I would also be godly by praying, “Lord, whoever deserves this water balloon, may it fall on them.” As I wanted to make sure I would hit them, I was trying to match their pace. While I was walking, guess what happened next? I trip over a wire on the roof and the balloon goes up in the air and landed right on me! Not only that, I threw out my back and was bedridden for three days! 

At that moment, the Spirit was admonishing me: “What do you think you’re doing? These are My kids and you are going to do this to them? I need your attention for a few days to rectify some of the things clearly going on in your life.”

What is God doing to get our attention? May we heed His admonishment today.

PRAYER: Father God, thank You for admonishing me on the things that I need to work on. Help me to heed Your admonishment and align my life with Your ways. Amen!