Sanctified by the Cross

8  Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, 9  who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, 10  and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. -  2 Timothy 1:8-10   So far this year, my morning time in the Scriptures has been in the Pastoral Epistles.  That is, I have been eavesdropping on Paul’s conversation with Timothy and Titus as they seek to faithfully carry out the ministry that God has given them in Ephesus and Crete. These are incredible books. As they are in the Bible and from the very mouth of God, we would expect no less.  The incredibleness of them lies not so much in the greatness of who they ...

2 Timothy 4:9-13 9  Do your best to come to me soon. 10  For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. 11  Luke alone is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me for ministry. 12  Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus. 13  When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, also the books, and above all the parchments. Paul sits alone in a Roman prison as he pens these words to Timothy, He finds himself a deserted and without anyone to attend to him except for Luke.  That is in part because Demas loved the world and ran after it deserting the ministry work that was originally in his hands.  It still happens today.  Paul also finds himself alone because the others that were around him, are off dong faithful gospel ministry in the places that God had called them to.  For that he would have rejoiced. ...

Proverbs 21:1-5 (ESV) 1  The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD ; he turns it wherever he will. 2  Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the heart. 3  To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice. 4  Haughty eyes and a proud heart, the lamp of the wicked, are sin. 5  The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty. Generally when I hear the phrase, “God knows my heart” people mean it as a reason for not doing something the Lord has clearly commanded. Or it is often to claim the genuineness of their motives, intentions or actions that may seem contrary to what God has revealed. The trouble is, treating it as a rock to hide behind is not treating it as it really is. God knowing our hearts in Scripture is generally more like a searchlight that finds out an escaped prisoner than it is the perfect cover. As sch...

"Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory."      1 Timothy 3:16  Godliness is a word that has fallen into disuse lately. It is quite literally a mystery in our current generation. It seems that only a couple of generations ago it was at the top of the list, at least for Christians. Granted, I am not one who thinks that the Christianity of the past had everything right.  Our need is not to return to the 50's style of Christianity.  To idealize the era of  Leave it to Beaver,  is to forget that each and every generation has its shortcomings and blind spots.  Every generation insists on certain things to the detriment of other things. Even things that we say that a certain generations did better than others we must understand that those things that a ...