"So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith." Galatians 6:10 ESV
Dwelling on this passage this morning.
Is this verse promoting special treatment for one group as some have said? The 'do good to everyone' statement negates that idea.
Who do you know best, spend the most time with and have opportunity to be 'familiar' with (and not in a good way)? Those in your 'household'.
Lets 'do good' to everyone right now. Those who are close and those who are far away.
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Thursday, March 26, 2020
Wednesday, February 5, 2020
Some Time In 2 Timothy Chapter 4
"I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry." 2 Timothy 4:1-5 ESV
His judgement will be, in part, that He shows up and everyone will suddenly know that He Is very very real.
I'm reading 2 Timothy chapter 4 again and again and marveling at the seeming disorderliness of ministry around Paul. He delegates. He lets people be led but calls out the carnality of Demas and you have to wonder why he highlights that transgression the way he does.
"Do your best to come to me soon. For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. Luke alone is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me for ministry. Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus. When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, also the books, and above all the parchments. Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm; the Lord will repay him according to his deeds. Beware of him yourself, for he strongly opposed our message. At my first defense no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me. May it not be charged against them! But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion's mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen." - 2 Timothy 4:9-18 ESV
He speaks about 'all the nations hearing' but it seems like this is a small band of likeminded people running in different directions at times with sparse resources.
Still...
We see things from farther down the line, don't we? The nations did and are hearing. It was people like them... like us who told the world. People shivering because they needed a garment left at a person's house in haste. People who relied on the faithfulness of others but were sometimes disappointed.
What are my excuses again? Can I justify nursing hurts stemming from things that should have happened in my mind but didn't? Do I have a Demas or a Titus or an Alexander? Paul had a gracious mind towards those people but he also wasn't naive or too proud to ask for help from Timothy.
God was going to rescue him but He was asking Timothy to bring the cloak, books and parchments. Paul wasn't hyper-spiritual living in quasi-spiritual isolation from people and their weaknesses. He asked things of people who sometimes failed to come through.
Can the Holy Spirit help you and I think like Paul was thinking?... like Jesus Is thinking? I say He can and gave us this book so we could make choices about what we read here and mix faith into what we are reading and hearing.
Help us God. Help us to have this mind. We are so far from the 'end of ourselves' like Paul was here. This is the thinking that gets the Gospel into all the world and we want that because You want that.
--
His judgement will be, in part, that He shows up and everyone will suddenly know that He Is very very real.
I'm reading 2 Timothy chapter 4 again and again and marveling at the seeming disorderliness of ministry around Paul. He delegates. He lets people be led but calls out the carnality of Demas and you have to wonder why he highlights that transgression the way he does.
"Do your best to come to me soon. For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. Luke alone is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me for ministry. Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus. When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, also the books, and above all the parchments. Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm; the Lord will repay him according to his deeds. Beware of him yourself, for he strongly opposed our message. At my first defense no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me. May it not be charged against them! But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion's mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen." - 2 Timothy 4:9-18 ESV
He speaks about 'all the nations hearing' but it seems like this is a small band of likeminded people running in different directions at times with sparse resources.
Still...
We see things from farther down the line, don't we? The nations did and are hearing. It was people like them... like us who told the world. People shivering because they needed a garment left at a person's house in haste. People who relied on the faithfulness of others but were sometimes disappointed.
What are my excuses again? Can I justify nursing hurts stemming from things that should have happened in my mind but didn't? Do I have a Demas or a Titus or an Alexander? Paul had a gracious mind towards those people but he also wasn't naive or too proud to ask for help from Timothy.
God was going to rescue him but He was asking Timothy to bring the cloak, books and parchments. Paul wasn't hyper-spiritual living in quasi-spiritual isolation from people and their weaknesses. He asked things of people who sometimes failed to come through.
Can the Holy Spirit help you and I think like Paul was thinking?... like Jesus Is thinking? I say He can and gave us this book so we could make choices about what we read here and mix faith into what we are reading and hearing.
Help us God. Help us to have this mind. We are so far from the 'end of ourselves' like Paul was here. This is the thinking that gets the Gospel into all the world and we want that because You want that.
--
Friday, January 24, 2020
Friendship With God ??
"and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, 'Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness' - and he was called a friend of God." - James 2:23 ESV
Have you 'ghosted' God or are you called His friend? Interesting. Last night we were talking about arguing with God and the craziness of it but how we can find ourselves in that place and how God is saying:
"Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, [even] the sure mercies of David." - Isaiah 55:3 KJV
'Come unto Me'... that is our calling... I firmly believe that drawing near to Him because we respond to the clear need to do so is our 'calling'... it isn't what we do professionally or the ministry we feel drawn to... those are callings but this is 'the calling'... if we are angry at someone that isn't easy to do. It requires humility.
That action of moving towards God instead of away is the difference between spiritual life and death. Are our minds alive and moving in hope or are we spiraling into disappointment? Eternal life is linked to believing in Jesus as a 'one-time' thing but living life and living in life is all about drawing near... even when we are offended because we don't think God is being the right kind of friend in our relationship with Him.
---
Have you 'ghosted' God or are you called His friend? Interesting. Last night we were talking about arguing with God and the craziness of it but how we can find ourselves in that place and how God is saying:
"Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, [even] the sure mercies of David." - Isaiah 55:3 KJV
'Come unto Me'... that is our calling... I firmly believe that drawing near to Him because we respond to the clear need to do so is our 'calling'... it isn't what we do professionally or the ministry we feel drawn to... those are callings but this is 'the calling'... if we are angry at someone that isn't easy to do. It requires humility.
That action of moving towards God instead of away is the difference between spiritual life and death. Are our minds alive and moving in hope or are we spiraling into disappointment? Eternal life is linked to believing in Jesus as a 'one-time' thing but living life and living in life is all about drawing near... even when we are offended because we don't think God is being the right kind of friend in our relationship with Him.
---
Friday, December 13, 2019
The Way Of A Man
"I know, O LORD, that the way of man is not in himself, that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps. Correct me, O LORD, but in justice; not in your anger, lest you bring me to nothing." - Jeremiah 10:23-24 ESV
A thought from coffee time last night.
Do you and i know this? Where do we find our way? It isn't going to come from a divine spark inside us. This passage tells us that.
I say that my 'way' is in God. I'm like a river flowing from birth to death and beyond and the terrain surrounding that journey has been determined by God not me. My decisions matter. God planned things with foreknowledge of my future decisions but I can't 'find my way' in myself.
I find God in the Bible. That is where I can know Him objectively. I can see Him in nature but His thoughts are given by scripture and the Bible becomes a portal of knowing my way.
"How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! Through your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way.
[Nun] Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." - Psalm 119:103-105 ESV
Does God seem silent and your future uncertain? Look for Him in the Bible and you will find Him. The word will light your path.
-
A thought from coffee time last night.
Do you and i know this? Where do we find our way? It isn't going to come from a divine spark inside us. This passage tells us that.
I say that my 'way' is in God. I'm like a river flowing from birth to death and beyond and the terrain surrounding that journey has been determined by God not me. My decisions matter. God planned things with foreknowledge of my future decisions but I can't 'find my way' in myself.
I find God in the Bible. That is where I can know Him objectively. I can see Him in nature but His thoughts are given by scripture and the Bible becomes a portal of knowing my way.
"How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! Through your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way.
[Nun] Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." - Psalm 119:103-105 ESV
Does God seem silent and your future uncertain? Look for Him in the Bible and you will find Him. The word will light your path.
-
Tuesday, December 10, 2019
The Anointed Team
"For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body - Jews or Greeks, slaves or free - and all were made to drink of one Spirit. For the body does not consist of one member but of many." 1 Corinthians 12:12-14 ESV
Meditating on the value of a team and the use of the word 'Christ' here. Jesus was and Is our Saviour's name that represents His incarnation. Christ Is who He Is and always was. It Is His eternal identity in relation to creation. He Is the 'anointed One'.
Christ is the One who took on the role of identification with mankind.
"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." - Matthew 25:34 ESV
"He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you" - 1 Peter 1:20 ESV
"And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." - Revelation 13:8 KJV
A team is like Him and He Is like a Spirit-filled team. These unique teams exist because He died, rose again and now sits in session at the right hand of the Father.
It takes many people working together to represent Him. He Is more than one of us but identifies which 'each' and 'all' of us.
-
Meditating on the value of a team and the use of the word 'Christ' here. Jesus was and Is our Saviour's name that represents His incarnation. Christ Is who He Is and always was. It Is His eternal identity in relation to creation. He Is the 'anointed One'.
Christ is the One who took on the role of identification with mankind.
"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." - Matthew 25:34 ESV
"He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you" - 1 Peter 1:20 ESV
"And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." - Revelation 13:8 KJV
A team is like Him and He Is like a Spirit-filled team. These unique teams exist because He died, rose again and now sits in session at the right hand of the Father.
It takes many people working together to represent Him. He Is more than one of us but identifies which 'each' and 'all' of us.
-
Thursday, November 28, 2019
Faith And Magnetism
Thinking this thanksgiving morning about iron, magnets and faith. The Earth has a magnetic field. Free floating magnets will seek to align with that field and point magnetic north. They also produce a field themselves. There are only a small group of elements that 'hold' magnetism. Iron is one of them.
"Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another." Proverbs 27:17 ESV
The iron in you affects the iron in me. The faith in you affects me and vice versa. It can magnetized me when I have lost my charge (aligning influence). Intense heat causes iron to lose a magnetic charge but it can become remagnetized.
Many believers in one place believing with a freeing message that lets them float to align with the mind of God is an amazing unique thing.
Ancient seafarers used compasses to align themselves and safely navigates the seas. Faith can do that for us also.
I'm studying to align myself to God this morning. I'm going to be around people today and I want to have a strong 'magnetic charge' of faith so I can be a blessing and not a curse. Doctrine without power is dangerous and fragmenting. Grace causes freedom. Power and freedom are an amazing combination aren't they?
"If any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever, and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him. For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy." 1 Corinthians 7:13-14 ESV
This passage is talking about marriage and divorce but doesn't it also speak about the magnet-like power of a believer. One believing parent can bring temporary 'alignment' to a child that has no faith field of their own yet. A person can have a sanctifying influence in a household. The visitor brings Jesus in but the person who lives in that home has Him reside there.
--
"Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another." Proverbs 27:17 ESV
The iron in you affects the iron in me. The faith in you affects me and vice versa. It can magnetized me when I have lost my charge (aligning influence). Intense heat causes iron to lose a magnetic charge but it can become remagnetized.
Many believers in one place believing with a freeing message that lets them float to align with the mind of God is an amazing unique thing.
Ancient seafarers used compasses to align themselves and safely navigates the seas. Faith can do that for us also.
I'm studying to align myself to God this morning. I'm going to be around people today and I want to have a strong 'magnetic charge' of faith so I can be a blessing and not a curse. Doctrine without power is dangerous and fragmenting. Grace causes freedom. Power and freedom are an amazing combination aren't they?
"If any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever, and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him. For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy." 1 Corinthians 7:13-14 ESV
This passage is talking about marriage and divorce but doesn't it also speak about the magnet-like power of a believer. One believing parent can bring temporary 'alignment' to a child that has no faith field of their own yet. A person can have a sanctifying influence in a household. The visitor brings Jesus in but the person who lives in that home has Him reside there.
--
Friday, November 15, 2019
The Need For Fresh Wisdom
"If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways." - James 1:5-8 ESV
- No one is disqualified from getting wisdom from God because of a pre-existing condition
- God gives generously
- God won't 'reproach' those who ask. He won't taunt, revile or 'make fun' of anyone. Shame should not prevent anyone from asking
- The doubter disqualifies themselves
- Doubt creates instability that resembles a ship tossed in a storm
- Doubt is functioning in an identity that is split into two opposing 'minds'
- The doubter must not 'suppose' (an interesting word that means think but it is a verb in the middle voice so the person is also the recipient of the action of the verb) that they will receive anything from the Lord. I think the word 'suppose' is key to understanding this passage properly
- Asking 'in faith' is a key component. No one is disqualified but not everyone gets wisdom. Asking with a particular mindset is needed
The author is inspired by God and He is telling us something here. He is giving us the ability to problem-solve with God.
This is a great passage to talk to God about. We can't be in that 'in faith' pocket apart from that dynamic.
I lack wisdom. My day is far from cut and dry. I love that I can come agenda-free to God and say, 'I want to collaborate with you.' and He is available to that. The disciples didn't 'suppose they would receive anything' from Jesus and when they did He gently rebuked them. He was for them but His actions were not centered around them. He was seeking to save and redeem what was lost. I want that wisdom today. I want to be free from arguing with myself about myself and worrying that a won't have what I need if things don't turn out a certain way.
--
- No one is disqualified from getting wisdom from God because of a pre-existing condition
- God gives generously
- God won't 'reproach' those who ask. He won't taunt, revile or 'make fun' of anyone. Shame should not prevent anyone from asking
- The doubter disqualifies themselves
- Doubt creates instability that resembles a ship tossed in a storm
- Doubt is functioning in an identity that is split into two opposing 'minds'
- The doubter must not 'suppose' (an interesting word that means think but it is a verb in the middle voice so the person is also the recipient of the action of the verb) that they will receive anything from the Lord. I think the word 'suppose' is key to understanding this passage properly
- Asking 'in faith' is a key component. No one is disqualified but not everyone gets wisdom. Asking with a particular mindset is needed
The author is inspired by God and He is telling us something here. He is giving us the ability to problem-solve with God.
This is a great passage to talk to God about. We can't be in that 'in faith' pocket apart from that dynamic.
I lack wisdom. My day is far from cut and dry. I love that I can come agenda-free to God and say, 'I want to collaborate with you.' and He is available to that. The disciples didn't 'suppose they would receive anything' from Jesus and when they did He gently rebuked them. He was for them but His actions were not centered around them. He was seeking to save and redeem what was lost. I want that wisdom today. I want to be free from arguing with myself about myself and worrying that a won't have what I need if things don't turn out a certain way.
--
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