Monday, August 22, 2005

Today Our Daily Bread 2 Tim 1

2 Tim 1
Greetings from Paul
1This letter is from Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by God's will, sent out to tell others about the life he has promised through faith in Christ Jesus.
2 It is written to Timothy, my dear son.
May God our Father and Christ Jesus our Lord give you grace, mercy, and peace.
Encouragement to Be Faithful
3 Timothy, I thank God for you. He is the God I serve with a clear conscience, just as my ancestors did. Night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers. 4 I long to see you again, for I remember your tears as we parted. And I will be filled with joy when we are together again.
5 I know that you sincerely trust the Lord, for you have the faith of your mother, Eunice, and your grandmother, Lois. 6 This is why I remind you to fan into flames the spiritual gift God gave you when I laid my hands on you.
7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline. 8 So you must never be ashamed to tell others about our Lord. And don't be ashamed of me, either, even though I'm in prison for Christ. With the strength God gives you, be ready to suffer with me for the proclamation of the Good News.
9 It is God who saved us and chose us to live a holy life. He did this not because we deserved it, but because that was his plan long before the world began-to show his love and kindness to us through Christ Jesus. 10 And now he has made all of this plain to us by the coming of Christ Jesus, our Savior, who broke the power of death and showed us the way to everlasting life through the Good News. 11 And God chose me to be a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of this Good News.
12 And that is why I am suffering here in prison. But I am not ashamed of it, for I know the one in whom I trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him* until the day of his return.
13 Hold on to the pattern of right teaching you learned from me. And remember to live in the faith and love that you have in Christ Jesus. 14 With the help of the Holy Spirit who lives within us, carefully guard what has been entrusted to you.
15 As you know, all the Christians who came here from the province of Asia have deserted me; even Phygelus and Hermogenes are gone. 16 May the Lord show special kindness to Onesiphorus and all his family because he often visited and encouraged me. He was never ashamed of me because I was in prison. 17 When he came to Rome, he searched everywhere until he found me. 18 May the Lord show him special kindness on the day of Christ's return. And you know how much he helped me at Ephesus.
Footnotes:
1:12
Or what has been entrusted to me.
~Lena’s Journalin’~
Do you think of people in Christ like this? Thanking God for them, Remembering them in your prayers, longing to be in fellowship of God’s word and spirit with them, being filled with joy at the thoughts of them? That is how God Our Father feels about us as his sons and daughters, and how we should be feeling about our sons and daughters and brothers and sisters in the faith. God has set us in one big awesome family! What has god not given us a spirit of fear of? Doing His will, being in ministry being called and sent out leaders! He has empowered us to Do His will, and to have and keep and flame whatever it takes to do that will. Isn’t it awesome that what we do and who we are is not based upon our merit, or if we do or do not do such and such and so and so? It is all based on God’s Divine overall plan for the earth, the world, salvation etc, and all He is looking for is someone who will say yes to Him and agree with that plan and do it by the power He gives us to do it with. When we say yes, we have access to all we need to accomplish the goal. Don’t you marvel that God chose you? I do. Paul did, Timothy did. God is amazing how He thinks. Being imprisoned is not the point of anything, unless you are not in obedience to God and your sin imprisons you. Otherwise there are only bars, and bars cannot hold back the love of God from being expressed by you. I know that is extreme, but we have to be willing to think in an extreme fashion. What is holding us back now? Are we enchained or barred? Why then do we not proclaim him with a bold unrestrained passion? What keeps us or holds us back from his love and the expression of it towards others? What has been entrusted to us? The message of salvation, the gospel message, entrusted to us! Guard it. What does guard mean? Keep watch over, keep contained. Oh my goodness, hold onto it with all you have and if it costs your life (think security guard), do not let it go! Keep it safe from evil words or lies that would steal it or bribe it from you! God has entrusted us with His Son, what have we done with his Son?