Today Our Daily Bread 1 Tim 2

Holy Bible, The New Living Translation
1 Timothy 2:1-15
Instructions about Worship
1I urge you, first of all,
to pray for all people. As you make your requests,
plead for God's mercy upon them,
and give thanks.
2Pray this way for kings and all others who are in authority, so that we can live in peace and quietness, in godliness and dignity.
3This is good and pleases God our Savior,
4for he wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth.
5For there is only one God and one Mediator who can reconcile God and people. He is the man Christ Jesus.
6He gave his life to purchase freedom for everyone.
This is the message that God gave to the world at the proper time.
7And I have been chosen—this is the absolute truth—as a preacher and apostle to teach the Gentiles about faith and truth.
8So wherever you assemble, I want men to pray with holy hands lifted up to God, free from anger and controversy.
9And I want women to be modest in their appearance. They should wear decent and appropriate clothing and not draw attention to themselves by the way they fix their hair or by wearing gold or pearls or expensive clothes. 10For women who claim to be devoted to God should make themselves attractive by the good things they do.
11Women should listen and learn quietly and submissively. 12I do not let women teach men or have authority over them. Let them listen quietly.
13For God made Adam first, and afterward he made Eve. 14And it was the woman, not Adam, who was deceived by Satan, and sin was the result.
15But women will be saved through childbearing F3 and by continuing to live in faith, love, holiness, and modesty.
FOOTNOTES:F3: Or will be saved by accepting their role as mothers, or will be saved by the birth of the Child.
~Lena’s Journalin’~
I’m in such a place in my walk that I ask why all of the time, because I want and need to go further, deeper and beyond the seen realm. I want to delve into the realm of origination and purpose. So this Apostle (author), urges us towards deeper Christianity, why? Why would we accept another’s "opinion" as "gospel" and follow his urging? Why in our independent culture where we know how to do most things as we like them and are comfortable doing them as we desire and when we desire; why would we do it a different way? Why would we take his urgings? That we would live quiet and peaceable lives in all godliness and honesty…..and so they too can receive the salvation we enjoy. Doing this pleases God, whom we love, because he desires ALL men to be saved AND understand truth. People could understand culture, or ideas, or ideals, or knowledge, but do they understand truth? Do they have a place that stirs up even the smallest desire to pursue truth? Do they have even a taste of truth, that causes them to want more? (salt) Men can seek for and actually find many ways to be like god, or a perception of God, but do they find Him, the only one who IS God? Do they find Him in me? In you? Do they know all the others ways are false? Do they even want to know through me? Or am I so steadfast and legalistic that they would never want to listen to truth if I presented it? Or am I so offensive and argumentative, a presser of points to any extreme, at any cost, in other areas that they run when they see me (a messenger of truth) coming? Why would I not press MY points with someone? Do we remember Jesus was right, absolutely correct in all areas at all times, yet when He was being persecuted (which is by the way what happens to us everyday when we are walking in truth), and lied about and accused wrongly, He opened NOT His mouth in defense, He made no natural argument with anybody at that time, when he could have easily stood up to prove His rights, He chose not to. He proved Himself before God and the angels in every realm. He proved Himself by His act of sacrifice for those who were wrong. He proved His correctness by His ultimate act of Love. What does lifting of one’s hand signify? Surrender, right? That would be why the lifting of our hands to God is worship. We surrender, when we could be right, but we realize the only way we are truly right is through what Jesus did for us. Vs 8 is so key to the very nature and character of God’s spirit. The verses about women make me think of another pull on us all (the church is refereed to as "woman", "bride", etc) to exalt and draw attention to ourselves. Pride (root of satan’s fall) is self exaltation rather than God exaltation. The reason we are here is to be messengers and reproducers of truth. Is what I’m wearing providing an avenue for truth to be proclaimed? Is it helping or hindering another from receiving truth from me? Just as strife, arrogance, and being argumentative, etc draws people away from truth’s platform, so would immodesty, conceit, competitiveness and enticement. What keeps us from getting closer to who He is? What keeps us from being more of who he is? What keeps others from seeing who he is in and through us? THAT I should run far away from. Think of woman=-ing church, childbearing =-ing soul winning. Why are there ever complications to natural childbearing? Things get in the way and prevent the natural birth from progressing to the point of birth!!! Let’s translate that spiritually speaking. Does anything ever get in the way of a spiritual birth or spiritual growth? Cast that weight or hindrance aside! For the sake of Christ. Think of the last verse as saying- "and the church will have a much easier and successful time at winning souls and helping disciple people if she wills to make it a purposeful point to continue herself in faith, unconditional and non- striveful God-like love and holiness (where she herself does the words of God she hears) also honoring God her Father, and sees Jesus Christ as her husband. (If we have one husband and are only interested in His attention and affection, we would not want to take what is his and show it to others or cause others to want it, or cause him jeslousy etc, our modesty before others would actually protect what is his alone).