Saturday, March 26, 2005

Today Our Daily Bread

2 Timothy 3: 1 - 17
1 Don't be naive. There are difficult times ahead. 2 As the end approaches, people are going to be self-absorbed, money-hungry, self-promoting, stuck-up, profane, contemptuous of parents, crude, coarse, 3 dog-eat-dog, unbending, slanderers, impulsively wild, savage, cynical, 4 treacherous, ruthless, bloated windbags, addicted to lust, and allergic to God. 5 They'll make a show of religion, but behind the scenes they're animals. Stay clear of these people. 6 These are the kind of people who smooth-talk themselves into the homes of unstable and needy women and take advantage of them; women who, depressed by their sinfulness, take up with every new religious fad that calls itself "truth." 7 They get exploited every time and never really learn. 8 These men are like those old Egyptian frauds Jannes and Jambres, who challenged Moses. They were rejects from the faith, twisted in their thinking, defying truth itself. 9 But nothing will come of these latest impostors. Everyone will see through them, just as people saw through that Egyptian hoax.
10 You've been a good apprentice to me, a part of my teaching, my manner of life, direction, faith, steadiness, love, patience, 11 troubles, sufferings - suffering along with me in all the grief I had to put up with in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. And you also well know that God rescued me! 12 Anyone who wants to live all out for Christ is in for a lot of trouble; there's no getting around it. 13 Unscrupulous con men will continue to exploit the faith. They're as deceived as the people they lead astray. As long as they are out there, things can only get worse. 14 But don't let it faze you. Stick with what you learned and believed, sure of the integrity of your teachers - 15 why, you took in the sacred Scriptures with your mother's milk! There's nothing like the written Word of God for showing you the way to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 Every part of Scripture is God-breathed and useful one way or another - showing us truth, exposing our rebellion, correcting our mistakes, training us to live God's way. 17 Through the Word we are put together and shaped up for the tasks God has for us.
The Message
~Lena’s Comments ~
This made me think of how it is an enemy ploy against the strength of our faith, to cause us to be unhappy at home, or on the job or other relationships so we’ll look for satisfaction in other things and other people. We have to find our desires full in God, in Christ, or else we will be seeking to be satisfied by every offer that comes our way. If we "can’t get no satisfaction", we’ll always be dissatisfied and our enemy will continue to bring his offers to us over again and again to tempt us in whatever area we feel our needs are not being met by man. Why so down cast Oh my soul? Put your hope in God- not in your mate, or friends, or substances, or habits, or food, or shopping or your job etc, etc…Put your hope in GOD, for He is God ALONE. God’s word is the only true source of satisfaction, the only source of real truth. Believe the word, more than you believe in the ability of that cigarette or of that entertainment or of that one drink or even of that friendship, to satisfy your longing soul. The reason our souls have a continual longing, is to continually bring us to Him, closer and more regularly to Him.