SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/27/2024 10:01 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 “Intro to 2 Timothy 1:6-18”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: 2 Timothy 1:6-18
Message of
the verses: “6 For this reason I
remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you through the laying
on of my hands. 7 For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power
and love and discipline. 8 Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our
Lord or of me His prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel
according to the power of God, 9 who has saved us and called us with a holy
calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace
which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity, 10 but now has been
revealed by the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and
brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, 11 for which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle
and a teacher. 12 For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not
ashamed; for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to
guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day. 13 Retain the standard of
sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith and love which are in
Christ Jesus. 14 Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure
which has been entrusted to you. 15 You are aware of the fact that all
who are in Asia turned away from me, among whom are Phygelus and Hermogenes. 16
The Lord grant mercy to the house of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me and
was not ashamed of my chains; 17 but when he was in Rome, he eagerly searched
for me and found me — 18 the Lord grant to him to find mercy from
the Lord on that day — and you know very well what services he
rendered at Ephesus.”
I continue looking at the introduction to these
verses, like I said in my last SD this will take a while just to get through
the introduction, but I believe that it will be worth taking the time as it is
my prayer that we will all learn things from this section that will have great
effects in helping us all serve the Lord in a way that will bring glory to His
name.
I
have been listening to the first of three sermons that John MacArthur preached
on these verses and am learning that no matter how gifted a person may be, or
no matter how well talented, biblically literate, astute, or articulate, and no
matter how much opportunity or privilege he may have, if he lacks spiritual
courage and commitment, he will not speak and act effectively for the
Lord. One of my favorite verses,
actually two of my favorite verses are found in this letter that Paul wrote to
Timothy. Verse 2:7 has been a verse that
I have quoted to the Lord on different occasions when I was fearful about
something, and I am learning that it is not good to be fearful for the Lord is
always in control. I remember a time a
very long time ago when our very young family were all going to stay with
another family who had five children, in a cabin at a park. I had to go to the entrance of the park in
order to meet them and take them to the cabin.
There was a sense of fear that overcame me and so I quoted that verse to
myself, trusting that if this fear was coming from the evil one that quoting
this verse would get rid of the fear.
Well it did and I was very thankful for that. The other verse that is very special to me is
2 Timothy 2:15 and I have mentioned that is what the name of my blogs are.
Now
back to Timothy and we can see that Paul is calling for a level of commitment
in which he is saying, (MacArthur paraphrasing) “I don’t care what the world thinks, says, or does. I know what God has mandated for me to be and
to do, and that is what I determine, by His power, to be and to do. Whatever the consequences, I will boldly
stand for Christ.” “The apostle
specifically mentions that theme three times in this passage (vv. 8, 12, 16),
because it is the heart of his message to the young pastor Timothy. It is a
call for him to have an uncompromising, unflinching commitment to proclaim
Jesus Christ, regardless of the danger of difficulty.”
In
earlier letters that Paul had wrote he used the word content:
“2Co 12:10 Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with
persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I
am strong.
Php 4:11 Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to
be content in whatever
circumstances I am.
1Ti 6:8 If we have food and covering, with these we shall
be content.” I write
these verses because I think that one of the things that Paul is saying to
Timothy, and to us too is we all must learn to be content, and if we are
content in doing what the Lord has called us to do then we will not be fearful. The story of Elijah taunting the false
religious leaders, the Baal worshiper comes to mind as he did taunt them as
they were trying to get Baal to burn their sacrifice, but to no avail and then
Elijah would pour water on the sacrifices he was going to offer and the Lord
sent fire on the sacrifices and it licked up the water and consumed the
fire. Many Baal worshipers were killed
that day. Soon after that Elijah became
fearful of the queen and ran off and hid desiring to kill himself. He went from fearless to fearful in a short
amount of time. God would feed him and
told him where to go and things got straightened out. Perhaps earlier in Timothy’s life he was
fearless, but now that he knew that his mentor was about to die he was becoming
fearless. We are humans and even though
believers in Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord we have ups and downs in our
walk with the Lord. Paul is desiring to
help Timothy through this rough patch and I believe that is what this letter is
about.
Spiritual meaning for my life today:
2 Timothy was not really the book that I wanted to study after spending
almost five years in Matthew’s gospel, but it surely seems to me that this is
the letter that the Holy Spirit was leading me to study, and perhaps it is
because I have some things in my life that are similar to the things that were
going on in Timothy’s life.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I pray that the Spirit of God will use this
letter to cause me to grow in my faith and help me get through some issues that
I am going through at this time.
11/27/2024 10:34 AM
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