Remember when you got your first loan? Were you able to get it? I wasn't. I had to have a co-signer. Then I remember the day that I finally got approved. Now I'm wishing I'd had better sense not to get a loan. But there was something great about getting approved. It was a feeling of, "I've arrived," or, "I'm an adult." I know it's weird but that's what it felt like. The same thing is true of being approved for a job.
Approval doesn't come until we've met all the requirements.
My parents were some that I've sought approval from. Many relationships have thrived or been crushed by seeking for approval. There were many times I've chosen to seek approval from people that caused me to compromise standards and principles I was raised with. So now that I'm older, what or whose approval am I seeking?
I'm still in 2 Timothy 2. It's been awhile since I've posted anything so I've been reading this section over and over again trying to understand it fully. I've looked in to some commentaries to see if I'm getting this right, but what I've read and what jumped out at me personally were two slightly different things. So, I'm going to share them both because I think they both fit. I'm not an expert in the Greek language the New Testament was written in, but I do think God reveals Himself through His Word regardless of the language we're using. But the study helps us grasp a better picture.
I said all that to talk about this verse: "Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth." (2 Timothy 2:15 NASB) ...and I just spilled coffee on my pants. This is going to be interesting.
Let's gather some info on the background of what's going on here. In the few verses afterward, Paul wrote about two guys that were messing up the faith of others by going around and saying that Jesus already came again and they missed it. So the resurrection of ourselves, God redeeming us for an eternity with Him has already taken place. Obviously that would cause quite a stir in the church at that time.
Paul likens their talk to gangrene (and yes, I did just use the word "liken"). That's disgusting. Have you ever seen the affects of gangrene? Do you know what it is? It's the death of skin cells that spread further and further unless cut off. It's an infection gone terribly wrong, an infection left untreated from the beginning. It can be dry or wet, which is even grosser. It's almost as if your body is turning into a zombie body but you're still alive and aware of what's going on. It typically begins on the fingers or toes and spreads elsewhere if left untreated (amputation is the only way to get rid of it). With no blood reaching that area of the limb, it turns black and stiff and becomes unusable. I'd put up a picture, but I don't want to do a search for that. I'm grossed out enough.
That picture though, clearly gives illustration to misunderstanding God's word or teaching something false in the church. It spreads slowly and overtakes the life of the church and God can't use it! The only way to get rid of false teaching is to recognize it for what it is: not truth! And there's only one way to get rid of it: cut it off! So if we don't handle God's Word accurately, we won't know what's gangrene and what's healthy. That's why it's so vital to the health of the believer to know God's Word, to be in it every day!
The example of these two men led Paul to write verse 15. These guys had no basis for the stuff they were saying. So Paul told Timothy to prove himself approved to God, to do everything to make sure he's one seen as approved to God. What he was teaching was truth. The way he was living is what God desires of us. The example he's setting is what should be followed because he knows and understands the truth and accurately handles it (Unlike the coffee I spilt on my pants. And yes, I just used the word "spilt.").
Another way of reading "approved" is like what the commentaries have said, and I agree with them: What we should focus on, instead of the words and sayings and trying to figure out when Jesus is coming back, is our devotion to God, our diligence in presenting ourselves to Him as approved for Him to work in us and through us.
We identify the gangrene by pointing it out for what it is: sickness (wickedness or anything contrary to what God teaches in His Word). We cut it off by paying attention to what's most important and teaching about it: devotion to God, seeking His approval rather than the approval of men.
It's easy to gain followers for ourselves when we have something that catches people off guard, or provokes them because we've hit a nerve with our words. We can easily get lost in a battle of opinions. But our diligence should only be found in seeking God's approval, in handling His Word accurately, and leaving no room for being ashamed in doing so because we know who we belong to. And God knows those who belong to Him anyway (vs. 19).
Maybe we should identify the gangrene in our lives and cut it off so we can pursue God's approval to be used as His workmen who doesn't need to be ashamed. Lord, show us how to handle Your Word accurately.
Friday, May 25, 2012
Monday, May 14, 2012
Not Imprisoned
There are so many things that hold us back from sharing our faith with our friends. Fear of rejection, lack of confidence, to name a few. I believe that what it really comes down to is our commitment to Jesus, our conviction of the Truth in our lives being surrounded by the lies of the world.
A few days ago I posted "An Invitation To Suffer" and this post kind of gleans from that one a little deeper. I'm reading 2 Timothy 2:8-13 (NASB).
It makes me wonder though, if even though I'm not in prison, that I've imprisoned the gospel in smaller ways. I'm not sure if Paul's conviction about sharing faith with others while in prison was more of a "what have I got to lose?" attitude, because he shared it outside prison too just like he did in it. It's what it seems like. So, what do we have to lose? And if we do lose something, doesn't that mean we're following Jesus closer? Aren't we supposed to take up our cross and follow Him? (Luke 9:23)
"The word of God is not imprisoned." I love that statement! But it convicts me.
It seems as though Paul tells us what happens if we imprison God's word inside us or set it free. The glory of the freedom of the gospel is seen in the first two sections: "if we died with Him, we will also life with Him; if we endure, we will also reign with Him." It's a promise to those completely convicted of the necessity of the gospel.
The third section defines what happens when we aren't "sold out" or "buy in" in the truth of the gospel: "if we deny Him, He also will deny us." So the times we hold back and put the gospel in prison is the same as denying Christ. That's terrifying! But even in our faithlessness, the moments we're unsure of whether or not God is going to come through, or that the Holy Spirit won't work in us to give us the words to say in sharing the gospel so we keep quiet, those times we don't believe God is true to His promises, He still remains faithful. But if we keep quiet and don't believe He is true to His word to help us and be with us, we'll never experience His faithfulness in a personal way. Maybe in the moments we decide not to share the gospel and put in prison are moments we're also denying the work of Christ within us.
The call to suffering is keeping the gospel out of prison in our lives. The promise of life is given to those who won't deny, who keep the faith, and die to themselves. It seems to be a much better deal in remembering Jesus having risen from the dead, to be relying on the power of God at work within us, to deny ourselves in order to lay hold of a faithful God instead of denying Christ.
Choose whom you will deny. To lean one way is to deny the other. We must ask ourselves if we are fully convicted about the Truth of the gospel. God's word only has one place to go and that's everywhere. It cannot be imprisoned regardless of you. But that one person deserves to hear of His grace, and to receive the key to unlock their soul from the prison that sin is keeping them in. His word is all about freedom. We cannot afford to keep God's word in prison, but we must believe that He is true to His word.
A few days ago I posted "An Invitation To Suffer" and this post kind of gleans from that one a little deeper. I'm reading 2 Timothy 2:8-13 (NASB).
Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, descendant of David, according to my gospel, for which I suffer hardship even to imprisonment as a criminal; but the word of God is not imprisoned. For this reason I endure all things for the sake of those who are chosen, so that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus and with it eternal glory. It is a trustworthy statement:
Maybe scroll back a little bit in your Bible and refresh the first 7 verses in your mind. Paul expresses his deep conviction here. Because of the gospel he suffers. Because of his conviction of the Truth he's in prison. And he believes it doesn't matter where is, the gospel will not be imprisoned with him because everyone needs to hear it, everyone should have a chance.For if we died with Him, we will also live with Him;
If we endure, we will also reign with Him;
If we deny Him, He also will deny us;
If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.
It makes me wonder though, if even though I'm not in prison, that I've imprisoned the gospel in smaller ways. I'm not sure if Paul's conviction about sharing faith with others while in prison was more of a "what have I got to lose?" attitude, because he shared it outside prison too just like he did in it. It's what it seems like. So, what do we have to lose? And if we do lose something, doesn't that mean we're following Jesus closer? Aren't we supposed to take up our cross and follow Him? (Luke 9:23)
"The word of God is not imprisoned." I love that statement! But it convicts me.
It seems as though Paul tells us what happens if we imprison God's word inside us or set it free. The glory of the freedom of the gospel is seen in the first two sections: "if we died with Him, we will also life with Him; if we endure, we will also reign with Him." It's a promise to those completely convicted of the necessity of the gospel.
The third section defines what happens when we aren't "sold out" or "buy in" in the truth of the gospel: "if we deny Him, He also will deny us." So the times we hold back and put the gospel in prison is the same as denying Christ. That's terrifying! But even in our faithlessness, the moments we're unsure of whether or not God is going to come through, or that the Holy Spirit won't work in us to give us the words to say in sharing the gospel so we keep quiet, those times we don't believe God is true to His promises, He still remains faithful. But if we keep quiet and don't believe He is true to His word to help us and be with us, we'll never experience His faithfulness in a personal way. Maybe in the moments we decide not to share the gospel and put in prison are moments we're also denying the work of Christ within us.
The call to suffering is keeping the gospel out of prison in our lives. The promise of life is given to those who won't deny, who keep the faith, and die to themselves. It seems to be a much better deal in remembering Jesus having risen from the dead, to be relying on the power of God at work within us, to deny ourselves in order to lay hold of a faithful God instead of denying Christ.
Choose whom you will deny. To lean one way is to deny the other. We must ask ourselves if we are fully convicted about the Truth of the gospel. God's word only has one place to go and that's everywhere. It cannot be imprisoned regardless of you. But that one person deserves to hear of His grace, and to receive the key to unlock their soul from the prison that sin is keeping them in. His word is all about freedom. We cannot afford to keep God's word in prison, but we must believe that He is true to His word.
Wednesday, May 09, 2012
An Invitation To Suffer
Doesn't the title mess you up a little? In 2 Timothy 2, that exactly what Paul extends to Timothy.
A couple posts back I mentioned the reason and motivation for our behavior as Christians: because of the promise of life. Here, at the beginning of the next chapter, Paul encourages Timothy with a greater invitation to do something all of us are afraid of happening to us.
Suffering isn't our idea of a "good time" in following Christ. But when there is nothing else in our life that we've allowed to compete with Jesus, suffering is inevitable. Suffering is the test of the depth of our commitment to God. A good soldier suffers.
This past weekend, I talked with some of those in our Worship Department who serve in the military. Paul used an analogy of a soldier in active service to being a Christian. I asked them about active service and what that looks like. They replied, "You're constantly training to be a better soldier. And it basically means that you're 'on call' all the time. Whenever something needs to be done, you do it. And in the military, it doesn't matter what kind of situation you're in; married, about to have your first child, on vacation, or anything. If they call, you go."
That's quite the metaphor! No wonder Paul used it. To be a good soldier means training, not getting involved in civilian affairs, and being ready to whatever is demanded of you by your commanding officer. As a Christian, the same things apply: training, not getting involved in worldly affairs, and being ready to respond to the call of the Master at any moment.
Paul used another metaphor about an athlete. Everyone hates a cheater and they don't get invited back to the game if they cheat. Seriously, how many of us were distraught to find out that those sluggers in baseball who set all kinds of home run records were using illegal stimulants to get them that good? Did they ever get hired to play on another team after being fired by the one they cheated on? The integrity of the athlete is extremely important. If they break the rules, they're fired or fined tremendously.
We're all in the "competition" of life. But God created the universe so the rules are what He's set in place. If we want to win the prize God has for us, we play according to the rules. Now, the competition is simply an analogy. The rules are simple: Love God with everything you are, and love your neighbor as yourself. If we follow those two things, the prize is eternal life with God in heaven. But you are the one who will decide how that looks like in your life. God spells out what He's looking for in the Bible, and training comes when we look into it for guidance.
Sometimes it's really hard to train. To get good at something takes a lot of work, hard work that later won't be regretted. Suffering is necessary in training. And sometimes suffering comes during the "soldiering" and "competition." But when our sights are set on Christ and the motivation of the promise of life, suffering isn't suffering at all. As a matter of fact, we could go so far as to say that our commitment to Him changes the suffering to joy.
The soldier I was talking with said something like this: "When you're in it, you're in it. There isn't anything else because there can't be. You're also doing what you love doing, and being a soldier isn't as much work as it is a joy when it's what you love doing." Maybe our attitude should be just like that. Maybe we should love Jesus like He's what we love "doing." Maybe our relationship with Him is what we should love the most. That changes the work that it can sometimes become at building our relationship with Him into the joy He longs for us to experience.
A couple posts back I mentioned the reason and motivation for our behavior as Christians: because of the promise of life. Here, at the beginning of the next chapter, Paul encourages Timothy with a greater invitation to do something all of us are afraid of happening to us.
Suffering isn't our idea of a "good time" in following Christ. But when there is nothing else in our life that we've allowed to compete with Jesus, suffering is inevitable. Suffering is the test of the depth of our commitment to God. A good soldier suffers.
This past weekend, I talked with some of those in our Worship Department who serve in the military. Paul used an analogy of a soldier in active service to being a Christian. I asked them about active service and what that looks like. They replied, "You're constantly training to be a better soldier. And it basically means that you're 'on call' all the time. Whenever something needs to be done, you do it. And in the military, it doesn't matter what kind of situation you're in; married, about to have your first child, on vacation, or anything. If they call, you go."
That's quite the metaphor! No wonder Paul used it. To be a good soldier means training, not getting involved in civilian affairs, and being ready to whatever is demanded of you by your commanding officer. As a Christian, the same things apply: training, not getting involved in worldly affairs, and being ready to respond to the call of the Master at any moment.
Paul used another metaphor about an athlete. Everyone hates a cheater and they don't get invited back to the game if they cheat. Seriously, how many of us were distraught to find out that those sluggers in baseball who set all kinds of home run records were using illegal stimulants to get them that good? Did they ever get hired to play on another team after being fired by the one they cheated on? The integrity of the athlete is extremely important. If they break the rules, they're fired or fined tremendously.
We're all in the "competition" of life. But God created the universe so the rules are what He's set in place. If we want to win the prize God has for us, we play according to the rules. Now, the competition is simply an analogy. The rules are simple: Love God with everything you are, and love your neighbor as yourself. If we follow those two things, the prize is eternal life with God in heaven. But you are the one who will decide how that looks like in your life. God spells out what He's looking for in the Bible, and training comes when we look into it for guidance.
Sometimes it's really hard to train. To get good at something takes a lot of work, hard work that later won't be regretted. Suffering is necessary in training. And sometimes suffering comes during the "soldiering" and "competition." But when our sights are set on Christ and the motivation of the promise of life, suffering isn't suffering at all. As a matter of fact, we could go so far as to say that our commitment to Him changes the suffering to joy.
The soldier I was talking with said something like this: "When you're in it, you're in it. There isn't anything else because there can't be. You're also doing what you love doing, and being a soldier isn't as much work as it is a joy when it's what you love doing." Maybe our attitude should be just like that. Maybe we should love Jesus like He's what we love "doing." Maybe our relationship with Him is what we should love the most. That changes the work that it can sometimes become at building our relationship with Him into the joy He longs for us to experience.
Tuesday, May 08, 2012
Mercy And Testing
1 Kings 21-22
This is an interesting account of Ahab, once king of Israel. Let's start with this:
Take a moment and read the two chapters I listed at the top of this post. Read this interesting account.
There are so many things about this that also relate to me and my life. One of the biggest differences between Ahab and I is the fact that I have Jesus. Ahab was bent on doing evil. Now that my life has been changed by Christ, I'm doing my best to make sure I'm bent on pleasing the Lord.
Take a lesson from Ahab and his sin. When told of his destiny, he repented dramatically. God saw his repentance and took away the punishment from his lifetime, but would still carry out judgment upon his future generations as foretold in the prophecy. But God saw his repentance and showed mercy. There is nothing too great for God to have mercy on us. His grace knows no limits. A broken and contrite heart, He will not despise (Psalm 51:17).
Then we move on to a moment of truth in Ahab's life. And in this moment we see a glimpse of what goes on behind the scenes in a realm we don't understand. We see the sovereignty of God, His orchestrating events to the fruition of His will.
Ahab wants to go to war. First off, why in a time of peace (three years of peace) would that even cross his mind? I guess it's because he still surrounded himself with the sins of his past. A moment of repentance without complete replacement with the Lord and worship to Him remains short-lived. His wife was still Jezebel. His surroundings we still consumed with false gods. Even the remembrance of the visible hand of God working a miracle before his very eyes on a mountain complete with fire from heaven could not convert a heart bent on evil. The proverb is true: bad company corrupts good character. Flirting with sin committed in the past will never bring a good result in the end.
Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, joins him in the war (I'm going to call him "Jeho" because his name's so long to type out). But he's different from Ahab. He follows God to an extent and desires to be led by the truth rather than falsehood. Ahab, still surrounded by the falsehood, called in prophets to tell him what he wanted to hear. Jeho knew that these guys prophesying around them were a little fishy and asked for the real deal. Ahab responded the way most of us do to God's Word when convicted by it: "Yeah, but I hate him. He always says things that won't turn out good for me."
How often to do we ignore those truths God says in the Bible because it makes us uncomfortable? We'll spend time picking and choosing what we're going to follow as long as it's easy or makes us feel comfortable. Ahab's prophets were the ones who told him what he wanted to be told. The one true prophet who could actually relay God's message about the future gets ignored because it wasn't good for Ahab. Do we respond the same way? "I'll speak the truth in love, but I need to lie to get out of this one...I'll be faithful to my wife emotionally and physically, but with my eyes, it's different...No one hears me say those words...I know what God says about getting drunk, but what does it matter when I'm with friends who understand me...I only lose my temper in traffic..."
All our excuses in following Him completely doesn't matter and won't matter. What God says is what goes. That's the truth of it. And Ahab found that out after hearing it. You see, the prophet Micaiah knew God's voice over all the other prophets around. (I'm not sure who these other prophets were. Maybe they were advisors or preachers who would give advice to the king from what they believed God's perspective to be. If there were false prophets like mentioned earlier in 1 Kings, they most likely would have been named that in the account. But they were proven false in the end because their word never came true and Micaiah's did.) Those who are true followers of God can tell the difference between the voice of the Lord and the voice of a deceiving spirit. If Ahab, and I'm convinced he knew God's Word would really come from Micaiah, would have listened, he could have saved himself from his fate. But with his heart being bent on evil from the get-go, he wasn't looking for the truth as much as "good fortune" with his decision. He already made up his mind before he asked what the outcome would be.
We do the same thing. We make up our mind before we ask and then refuse to listen when God tells us otherwise, or when His Word gently corrects our path to a closer walk with Him.
We get to another interesting part of the account: the heavenly discussion between God and spirits.
Remember when Ahab repented and God showed him mercy? This is a moment of God's righteous judgment and sovereignty unveiled to us. I believe that the whole time God was looking for any part of a repentant heart left in him. The test of true repentance is tested throughout our lives. Each moment we're faced with temptation is another moment to stand firm on God's grace and mercy. It builds and strengthens our relationship with our Savior. Obviously Ahab failed. But with Jesus, we will overcome! We can conquer through Him because He's conquered for us! And each moment viewed as an opportunity to remember His sacrifice, His love, and our repentance of those things which once held us captive, is one more moment to stand on the mercy of our God.
I'm convinced also, that if God didn't care about us as much as He does, we wouldn't have any hardships at all. Does God wish them upon us? No, but He desires for us to know Him more than do now. The question about those things changes to something like this: will God ever do anything to keep me from growing in my relationship with Him? He desires us so much!
So what will we be known for? Are we the people who provoke God more than any other in the history of the church? Or are the trials we face moments to strengthen our stand on God's grace?
This is an interesting account of Ahab, once king of Israel. Let's start with this:
In the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah, Ahab son of Omri became king of Israel, and he reigned in Samaria over Israel twenty-two years. Ahab son of Omri did more evil in the eyes of the Lord than any of those before him. He not only considered it trivial to commit the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, but he also married Jezebel daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and began to serve Baal and worship him. He set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal that he built in Samaria. Ahab also made an Asherah pole and did more to provoke the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger than did all the kings of Israel before him. (1 Kings 16:29-33 NIV84)Obviously Ahab did not have any type of good reputation with God or among His followers and prophets. It's repeated again toward the end of the 1 Kings. The author of the book makes sure we all know that from the very beginning of his reign to the end of it, Ahab was THE worst.
Take a moment and read the two chapters I listed at the top of this post. Read this interesting account.
There are so many things about this that also relate to me and my life. One of the biggest differences between Ahab and I is the fact that I have Jesus. Ahab was bent on doing evil. Now that my life has been changed by Christ, I'm doing my best to make sure I'm bent on pleasing the Lord.
Take a lesson from Ahab and his sin. When told of his destiny, he repented dramatically. God saw his repentance and took away the punishment from his lifetime, but would still carry out judgment upon his future generations as foretold in the prophecy. But God saw his repentance and showed mercy. There is nothing too great for God to have mercy on us. His grace knows no limits. A broken and contrite heart, He will not despise (Psalm 51:17).
Then we move on to a moment of truth in Ahab's life. And in this moment we see a glimpse of what goes on behind the scenes in a realm we don't understand. We see the sovereignty of God, His orchestrating events to the fruition of His will.
Ahab wants to go to war. First off, why in a time of peace (three years of peace) would that even cross his mind? I guess it's because he still surrounded himself with the sins of his past. A moment of repentance without complete replacement with the Lord and worship to Him remains short-lived. His wife was still Jezebel. His surroundings we still consumed with false gods. Even the remembrance of the visible hand of God working a miracle before his very eyes on a mountain complete with fire from heaven could not convert a heart bent on evil. The proverb is true: bad company corrupts good character. Flirting with sin committed in the past will never bring a good result in the end.
Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, joins him in the war (I'm going to call him "Jeho" because his name's so long to type out). But he's different from Ahab. He follows God to an extent and desires to be led by the truth rather than falsehood. Ahab, still surrounded by the falsehood, called in prophets to tell him what he wanted to hear. Jeho knew that these guys prophesying around them were a little fishy and asked for the real deal. Ahab responded the way most of us do to God's Word when convicted by it: "Yeah, but I hate him. He always says things that won't turn out good for me."
How often to do we ignore those truths God says in the Bible because it makes us uncomfortable? We'll spend time picking and choosing what we're going to follow as long as it's easy or makes us feel comfortable. Ahab's prophets were the ones who told him what he wanted to be told. The one true prophet who could actually relay God's message about the future gets ignored because it wasn't good for Ahab. Do we respond the same way? "I'll speak the truth in love, but I need to lie to get out of this one...I'll be faithful to my wife emotionally and physically, but with my eyes, it's different...No one hears me say those words...I know what God says about getting drunk, but what does it matter when I'm with friends who understand me...I only lose my temper in traffic..."
All our excuses in following Him completely doesn't matter and won't matter. What God says is what goes. That's the truth of it. And Ahab found that out after hearing it. You see, the prophet Micaiah knew God's voice over all the other prophets around. (I'm not sure who these other prophets were. Maybe they were advisors or preachers who would give advice to the king from what they believed God's perspective to be. If there were false prophets like mentioned earlier in 1 Kings, they most likely would have been named that in the account. But they were proven false in the end because their word never came true and Micaiah's did.) Those who are true followers of God can tell the difference between the voice of the Lord and the voice of a deceiving spirit. If Ahab, and I'm convinced he knew God's Word would really come from Micaiah, would have listened, he could have saved himself from his fate. But with his heart being bent on evil from the get-go, he wasn't looking for the truth as much as "good fortune" with his decision. He already made up his mind before he asked what the outcome would be.
We do the same thing. We make up our mind before we ask and then refuse to listen when God tells us otherwise, or when His Word gently corrects our path to a closer walk with Him.
We get to another interesting part of the account: the heavenly discussion between God and spirits.
Remember when Ahab repented and God showed him mercy? This is a moment of God's righteous judgment and sovereignty unveiled to us. I believe that the whole time God was looking for any part of a repentant heart left in him. The test of true repentance is tested throughout our lives. Each moment we're faced with temptation is another moment to stand firm on God's grace and mercy. It builds and strengthens our relationship with our Savior. Obviously Ahab failed. But with Jesus, we will overcome! We can conquer through Him because He's conquered for us! And each moment viewed as an opportunity to remember His sacrifice, His love, and our repentance of those things which once held us captive, is one more moment to stand on the mercy of our God.
I'm convinced also, that if God didn't care about us as much as He does, we wouldn't have any hardships at all. Does God wish them upon us? No, but He desires for us to know Him more than do now. The question about those things changes to something like this: will God ever do anything to keep me from growing in my relationship with Him? He desires us so much!
So what will we be known for? Are we the people who provoke God more than any other in the history of the church? Or are the trials we face moments to strengthen our stand on God's grace?
Wednesday, May 02, 2012
Beginning Real Marriage
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