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Showing posts from February, 2019

From a New Angle - Insights From 1 Timothy

Lately I’ve been reading 1 Timothy, a letter the apostle Paul wrote to a young pastor in Ephesus. As I read, I appreciated the wisdom and insight that Paul had; so I laboured on condensing the book into key passages that would help me remember the gist of the letter. I slightly paraphrased those passages, but sometimes I would copy word-for-word what the text said because I didn’t want to lose the meaning that was conveyed with the sentence structure and word choice. The idea behind this exercise was to go further into the text and really get a feel for what Paul was saying. By doing this, I learned many things I wouldn’t have seen otherwise. One thing that stuck out to me was the mentality of application Paul had near the end of the book. He’d say something like, “Set an example for the family of believers in your speech, the way you carry and conduct yourself, in your faith, and in your purity of heart” (paraphrase). I would think, “Hmmm. What does that look like for me? What changes...

Resolve: Know what God Commands

"If ye love me, keep my commandments."John 14:15 David, the shepherd boy, loved his father, Jesse. When Jesse told David to bring food to his brothers in King Saul's army and see how they fared, he obeyed. He got up early and went. Jesus loved the Father. He displayed this in his greatest act of obedience, to lay down his life on the cross, so that we can be spared from the judgment our sins deserve. He submitted to the Father's will.  Do we love our heavenly Father? Do we keep His commands? Do we know what it is He commands us to do? We know the Father's will for us by reading the Holy Bible. Have we read it cover to cover? Do we know what God requires of us? Do we know God's will regarding how we are to treat our family, how to manage our money, where to pursue education, how to date or find a spouse, how to think, how to give an answer for the hope that lies within us, how to spend our time, etc.? If our answer is "no" and this is someth...