January 24, 2009 7:49 AM
Sam wrote:
1st Timothy, last chapter. Love of Money...we've all heard and I believe, understood, what evil this is. NO need to harp on this sin, now is there? No, let's move on to verse 20. "Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to your care...." Okay, so Paul is talking to the young preacher here, but, as usual, is talking to each of us as well. What does it mean to "guard what has been entrusted to your care."? Well, I guess we should start with determining WHAT has been entrusted to us to care for. What could that be? Well, the most obvious is our roles as Christian men. We have been given a gift of salvation for sure, and we should be guarding that, but we have also been given a challenge. A challenge to spread the word of God. Even though none of us lead a church, we are ministers, and we are to be leaders of our families, for sure, and possibly leaders of others (like Rik in attempting to lead Dustin toward Christ). So, if we are 'entrusted' by Jesus to be ministers and leaders, why do we fail so miserably some time? Probably because we don't 'guard' it. We don't make sure that we participate in these roles very much, and that gives a foothold to Satan to get in their and make us ineffective. Paul wanted Timothy to do well, a young man with a huge mission of leading an entire church. He, and Jesus, would want us to do well in our roles, our missions, as well. But we can't do that very effectively if we don't 'get rid of the sin that so easily entangles us', now can we? When we let sin in, we are not guarding our lives close enough to protect the great gifts God has given us. We need to guard our lives against sin. We do this by several means. 1-We pray. We pray to God to give us strength (Like Paul was doing to Timothy). We pray to God to give us courage, hope, words to say and love. We pray for forgiveness of yesterday's and today's sin, because if we don't, we WILL fail, and we have already let our guard down. 2-We read the Word of God. I am not sure just how much you all read on a daily basis--each person is different in their capabilities, desires and time management. I WOULD, however, encourage you to increase your reading to at least an hour a day. Reading, not blogging. By reading the Word of God we learn things with which we can not only guard our lives and missions, but our hearts as well. Did you know that most people can read the Book of Galatians 3 times in an hour. There are only 6 chapters, just like this book of 1st Timothy. Try it. Read it 3 times and see how long it takes you. IF you have time left in that hour, re-read it again. I double-dog dare ya!, as Anthony (Sisco, a preacher in the old ACOC, Dustin) used to say. 3-We confess our sins to others for healing (James 5:16). What does this do for us? It allows us to get help from others. It 'takes a load off' your heart and mind. Although we confess to God for forgiveness, we do so to each other for immediate help. TO BE CONTINUED... Reply to this
January 24, 2009 8:10 AM
Sam wrote:
We didn't do much sin confession on last Saturday, but that is okay, we did have a good time of fellowship. Which brings me to my next thing we do to protect our lives. 4 - We fellowship with others with our same beliefs (Christians). Why do we do this, and how is this going to help us guard our lives. Well, for one, anyone who has elected to follow Christ, has asked for His forgiveness, and has been baptized, is a good source of information, support and real love. You might be able to get any of those three things from non-Christians, but in the long run, it is the Christian who will have better information (salvation, love, hope, etc), can provide better support as we ALL rely on Jesus but we need reminding of that quite often, and can love deeper, an agape style of love when necessary, rather than just a (superficial) phileo style of love. We fellowship with other Christians as we have common bonds...our discussions are not (usually--) of getting drunk, chasing women, pornography, off-color jokes, and as Paul writes in Galatians, 'and the like', but rather center more around on what Jesus is doing for us (or we want him to do for us) in our lives. We fellowship with Christians because we KNOW they will better understand our situations and provide spiritual guidance when needed.
5-We 'fellowship' with non-Christians. WAIT MAC!!! (I mean, SAM), didn't you just say we fellowship with Christians because non-Christians couldn't help us as much as Christians? ABSOLUTELY, I said that, however, we really need to spend time with non-Christians as well. Why? TO LEAD THEM TO CHRIST! I don't mean 'be all things to all people' like Paul claimed to be, but almost. We SHOULD go to a bar, but of course limit alcohol consumption, to try to talk (sense in-) to some of our acquaintences and wean them off the overindulgence. We SHOULD spend time with 'sinners', getting to know their sins, but of course, avoiding those sins as well. We need to meet new people who need our love and the love of Jesus. If all Christians spent all of their time fellowshipping only with Christians, in a lifetime there we be almost no Christians left. Yes, we need to fellowship, but guard our heart and actions, with non-Christians. Who are you sharing your time (and life) with right now, who is not a Christian? Is your goal to lead him/her toward Christ? It should be.
6-We go to church. Yes, we go to a church building (Rik) to be a part of a church organization as we are called out to do (eglesia). By going to church, worshipping God with others (both Christians and those learning of Christ), hearing someone else's point of view on God's Word, and giving of our time and money, we are helping to guard our lives for Christ. If we skip church, we leave ourselves more open to Satan, AND HE KNOWS IT! Attending Church services is definitely a way to rejuvenate one's self, although every day we should be doing that on our own and with other Christians. TBC... Reply to this
January 24, 2009 8:24 AM
Sam wrote:
And lastly, (7), we guard our lives by loving God. He has given us SO much that we will never be able to repay Him. Impossible. We HAVE to love our God. If we don't, we don't deserve anything that we have (except maybe our sins, hardships and pain). It is not hard to love a God who breathed life into each of us a 'few' years ago (for me, it was 59 years ago yesterday at 5:09 PM on a cold Monday in St. Johnsbury, Vermont). He started me off with a kiss of life, and I thank Him everyday for allowing me to continue living this life for Him. For many years I abused God. I was 46 years old when I finally returned to Him (as I had left him as a child). He allowed me to return because of His great love for me. And I am forever eternally grateful (full of great love) to Him for allowing me to do so. I do not show Him the love I ought most of the time, and for that, I continually ask for His forgiveness, and for your assistance.
Yes, we do guard our lives to some extent, much like Paul wanted Timothy to guard his. We don't really ever learn if Timothy took to heart what he read in this letter from his mentor, but I would imagine he probably did. Can you apply those 7 listed above items in YOUR walk for God as you also attempt to guard what has been entrusted to you?---your life for God. Reply to this
January 24, 2009 2:55 PM
Johnbob wrote:
You should write a book about that. This scripture reminds of the one that says, 'to those who have been entrusted much, much will be expected'. We have been entrusted with a lot, and I don't think I can expound further than you already have. Reply to this
How many of us are content? how many of us say to our selves, if this would happen, or if I could just have that I would be happier. Here he refers to money, but there are many desires in our lives that lead to non-contentment. "if my wife was more spiritual then I would be content" , or "if my children did this or that, that would do it for me". We do not gain because of our lack of gratefulness. As I sit here recalling the Saturday we had breakfast I do not recall any of us without clothing, and we all looked well fed. There are many horror stories out there of things that happen to husbands and wives, sons and daughters and I constantly try to thank God for not allowing any real bad stuff to happen to my family, I am grateful and I want to stay grateful. Reply to this
January 24, 2009 2:51 PM
Johnbob wrote:
Contentment is matter of perpective - if we only realized how good we have it. Just read a book about life before 1900 - most of the time, it was just plain hard - lots of disease, famine in various places, no mass communication, most people were illiterate. We live like kings in comparison. We have a support group of true friends who are very wise and give us advice for free, help through hard times - friends we can open up to. I was talking to another band parent recently, and the lady said that she used to walk around the neighborhood but stopped partially due to the fact that most houses there were bigger and nicer. I couldn't even relate to thinking like that. So I have my sins, but I do feel content most of the time. Reply to this
1st Timothy, last chapter.
Love of Money...we've all heard and I believe, understood, what evil this is. NO need to harp on this sin, now is there?
No, let's move on to verse 20. "Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to your care...." Okay, so Paul is talking to the young preacher here, but, as usual, is talking to each of us as well.
What does it mean to "guard what has been entrusted to your care."? Well, I guess we should start with determining WHAT has been entrusted to us to care for. What could that be? Well, the most obvious is our roles as Christian men. We have been given a gift of salvation for sure, and we should be guarding that, but we have also been given a challenge. A challenge to spread the word of God. Even though none of us lead a church, we are ministers, and we are to be leaders of our families, for sure, and possibly leaders of others (like Rik in attempting to lead Dustin toward Christ). So, if we are 'entrusted' by Jesus to be ministers and leaders, why do we fail so miserably some time? Probably because we don't 'guard' it. We don't make sure that we participate in these roles very much, and that gives a foothold to Satan to get in their and make us ineffective. Paul wanted Timothy to do well, a young man with a huge mission of leading an entire church. He, and Jesus, would want us to do well in our roles, our missions, as well. But we can't do that very effectively if we don't 'get rid of the sin that so easily entangles us', now can we? When we let sin in, we are not guarding our lives close enough to protect the great gifts God has given us. We need to guard our lives against sin. We do this by several means.
1-We pray. We pray to God to give us strength (Like Paul was doing to Timothy). We pray to God to give us courage, hope, words to say and love. We pray for forgiveness of yesterday's and today's sin, because if we don't, we WILL fail, and we have already let our guard down.
2-We read the Word of God. I am not sure just how much you all read on a daily basis--each person is different in their capabilities, desires and time management. I WOULD, however, encourage you to increase your reading to at least an hour a day. Reading, not blogging. By reading the Word of God we learn things with which we can not only guard our lives and missions, but our hearts as well. Did you know that most people can read the Book of Galatians 3 times in an hour. There are only 6 chapters, just like this book of 1st Timothy. Try it. Read it 3 times and see how long it takes you. IF you have time left in that hour, re-read it again. I double-dog dare ya!, as Anthony (Sisco, a preacher in the old ACOC, Dustin) used to say.
3-We confess our sins to others for healing (James 5:16). What does this do for us? It allows us to get help from others. It 'takes a load off' your heart and mind. Although we confess to God for forgiveness, we do so to each other for immediate help. TO BE CONTINUED...
Reply to this
We didn't do much sin confession on last Saturday, but that is okay, we did have a good time of fellowship. Which brings me to my next thing we do to protect our lives.
4 - We fellowship with others with our same beliefs (Christians). Why do we do this, and how is this going to help us guard our lives. Well, for one, anyone who has elected to follow Christ, has asked for His forgiveness, and has been baptized, is a good source of information, support and real love. You might be able to get any of those three things from non-Christians, but in the long run, it is the Christian who will have better information (salvation, love, hope, etc), can provide better support as we ALL rely on Jesus but we need reminding of that quite often, and can love deeper, an agape style of love when necessary, rather than just a (superficial) phileo style of love. We fellowship with other Christians as we have common bonds...our discussions are not (usually--
5-We 'fellowship' with non-Christians. WAIT MAC!!! (I mean, SAM), didn't you just say we fellowship with Christians because non-Christians couldn't help us as much as Christians? ABSOLUTELY, I said that, however, we really need to spend time with non-Christians as well. Why? TO LEAD THEM TO CHRIST! I don't mean 'be all things to all people' like Paul claimed to be, but almost. We SHOULD go to a bar, but of course limit alcohol consumption, to try to talk (sense in-) to some of our acquaintences and wean them off the overindulgence. We SHOULD spend time with 'sinners', getting to know their sins, but of course, avoiding those sins as well. We need to meet new people who need our love and the love of Jesus. If all Christians spent all of their time fellowshipping only with Christians, in a lifetime there we be almost no Christians left. Yes, we need to fellowship, but guard our heart and actions, with non-Christians. Who are you sharing your time (and life) with right now, who is not a Christian? Is your goal to lead him/her toward Christ? It should be.
6-We go to church. Yes, we go to a church building (Rik) to be a part of a church organization as we are called out to do (eglesia). By going to church, worshipping God with others (both Christians and those learning of Christ), hearing someone else's point of view on God's Word, and giving of our time and money, we are helping to guard our lives for Christ. If we skip church, we leave ourselves more open to Satan, AND HE KNOWS IT! Attending Church services is definitely a way to rejuvenate one's self, although every day we should be doing that on our own and with other Christians. TBC...
Reply to this
And lastly, (7), we guard our lives by loving God. He has given us SO much that we will never be able to repay Him. Impossible. We HAVE to love our God. If we don't, we don't deserve anything that we have (except maybe our sins, hardships and pain). It is not hard to love a God who breathed life into each of us a 'few' years ago (for me, it was 59 years ago yesterday at 5:09 PM on a cold Monday in St. Johnsbury, Vermont). He started me off with a kiss of life, and I thank Him everyday for allowing me to continue living this life for Him. For many years I abused God. I was 46 years old when I finally returned to Him (as I had left him as a child). He allowed me to return because of His great love for me. And I am forever eternally grateful (full of great love) to Him for allowing me to do so. I do not show Him the love I ought most of the time, and for that, I continually ask for His forgiveness, and for your assistance.
Yes, we do guard our lives to some extent, much like Paul wanted Timothy to guard his. We don't really ever learn if Timothy took to heart what he read in this letter from his mentor, but I would imagine he probably did. Can you apply those 7 listed above items in YOUR walk for God as you also attempt to guard what has been entrusted to you?---your life for God.
Reply to this
You should write a book about that. This scripture reminds of the one that says, 'to those who have been entrusted much, much will be expected'. We have been entrusted with a lot, and I don't think I can expound further than you already have.
Reply to this
6. But Godliness with contentment is great gain.
How many of us are content? how many of us say to our selves, if this would happen, or if I could just have that I would be happier. Here he refers to money, but there are many desires in our lives that lead to non-contentment. "if my wife was more spiritual then I would be content" , or "if my children did this or that, that would do it for me". We do not gain because of our lack of gratefulness. As I sit here recalling the Saturday we had breakfast I do not recall any of us without clothing, and we all looked well fed. There are many horror stories out there of things that happen to husbands and wives, sons and daughters and I constantly try to thank God for not allowing any real bad stuff to happen to my family, I am grateful and I want to stay grateful.
Reply to this
Contentment is matter of perpective - if we only realized how good we have it. Just read a book about life before 1900 - most of the time, it was just plain hard - lots of disease, famine in various places, no mass communication, most people were illiterate. We live like kings in comparison. We have a support group of true friends who are very wise and give us advice for free, help through hard times - friends we can open up to. I was talking to another band parent recently, and the lady said that she used to walk around the neighborhood but stopped partially due to the fact that most houses there were bigger and nicer. I couldn't even relate to thinking like that. So I have my sins, but I do feel content most of the time.
Reply to this