Do you know how to get others to repent? 2 Timothy 1-2

2 Timothy 2:24-26

The Lord’s bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will.

Being the servant of The Lord is a tough gig.  No one has the restrictions and expectations in regard to leadership as do these servants.   Young Timothy was fresh into the ministry and was even told to not let others despise his youthfulness.   It is no doubt he made some mistakes.  But, in his, perhaps, human desire to respond in an unkind and uncivil manner, Paul sends him the above admonishment.    Timothy was faced with false teachers all around him.   In chapter one Paul actually identifies two of them.   Timothy was not to "stand-up" and scold them.   He was, with gentleness, to correct them, in kindness, without quarreling.  The purpose of the correcting was to lead them to the knowledge of the truth, should God so desire to give it to them.   This knowledge of the truth would allow them to escape from Satan's domain and allow them to repent.    The approach of the servant of God was as important as the repentance of the false teacher.   One act of grace would open the door, God willing, to another act of grace.   Don't expect others to repent if you don't, yourself, act in grace.   Grace begets grace.  

Do you know why God made you so? John 9-11

John 9:1-3

Healing the Man Born Blind

​ As He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him.

In the story of Easter in the Old Testament, her uncle, Mordecai, was informed of a plot against the Jews that would utterly wipe them out.   He needed to get a message to the King to stop the plot and knew that God had put Easter in the exact place that God could use her to save the nation.  In his message to Easter the most famous words of that book are stated to her by Mordecai:

 Esther 4:14

For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place and you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as this?”

God has and does put certain people in the exact place He wants them to accomplish His glory.   For Easter it was winning a beauty contest and becoming the Queen of a foreign land for the sole purpose to rescue the nation of Israel from destruction.   In the passage in John we have the story of a man born blind that has been told, preached upon, written about and studied for centuries.   When the disciples were asked about his condition as to why he was blind the answer was that he was in this state for "such a time as this."   He was born blind because for this moment, the moment the disciples saw him, he would be the forefront of the work of Christ.   He suffered many years with no sight just so at that very moment the disciples would see him and Christ would heal him.   This is truly an example of what Paul taught us in Romans:

 Romans 9:22-23

What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory,

God has made me the way He wants.  He can use me the way He wants.  He might use me for  a season and then put me back on the shelf for another day.  All for His glory.   Can the pot say to the potter, "Why did you make me so?"   This blind man will eventually be rejected and put out of the Jewish worship service.  He will come to knowledge of Christ.     But, for all his life up to this point he was blind just so God could be glorified at the exact moment God wanted him.    

Do you worship God for Who He is or for What He does? Hosea 8-14

Hosea 13:6

As they had their pasture, they became satisfied,

And being satisfied, their heart became proud;

Therefore they forgot Me.

The entire book of Hosea is about Israel's unfaithfulness and how God dealt with it.   Israel had rejected God, despite His abundant mercy and love poured out upon them.  They, rather, pursued false gods, made with their own hands; or, God creation rather than God the Creator.    They not only sought other gods, these gods came out of God's blessing on them.   God gave them pasture lands and abundant food from those pastures.   As a result, instead of glorifying God for those blessings, they began to praise themselves and please themselves.  They became proud of themselves for "what they had accomplished" rather than praising God for how He had blessed them.  Their satisfaction lead to idol worship rather than glorification of God.  In Proverbs, Solomon makes an observation about the wicked, in the same way:

Proverbs 1:31

“So they shall eat of the fruit of their own way

And be satiated with their own devices.

Those who become satisfied with their own devices will cease to worship the God who loves them and wants to be glorified by them.   Israel became so satisfied with what they thought was their own accomplishments that they ceased to glorify God, who gave them those accomplishments.   We all seek to be satisfied.   When we do our tendency is to forget God and rest on our own accomplishments.  Let's not get so satisfied with what God give us that we fail to worship Him for Who He is rather than What He has done.  

Do you know the advantages of your age? Proverbs 20-21

Proverbs 20:29 (NASBStr)

The glory of young men is their strength,

And the honor of old men is their gray hair.

Here is a great truth that gives us many lessons for our own lives.   Perhaps the one that comes to mind first is that each age has its own blessing and/or advantage.   The young man has the distinction of his strength and the old the experience of his age.   It should be noted that the Hebrew word for "strength" in the first line is, perhaps, better rendered, skill.   Young men have skills that gives them glory and a good reputation.   Their vigor keeps them moving forward.  Yet, when old age does catch them and the skills wane from lack of use, lack of power, or lack of will to learn new skills, the aged have an advantage of knowing the short-cuts in life and not having to run the full mile. Perhaps Solomon was thinking of his father, David, who had skills in youth and wisdom in age.  It should be noted, however, that the old and the young both do miss the point of proverbs, however.   Perhaps that is why Solomon gives us this truth.  Both seemed to concentrated on something other than the Fear of The Lord.   Note what Jeremiah tells us, well after Solomon is gone:

Jeremiah 9:23-24 (NASBStr)

Thus says the Lord, “ Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things,” declares the Lord.

So, the aged might think they have accumulated wisdom simply by hanging around.  The youth may think they don't need the Fear of The Lord because they have their skill-set(s).   But, neither our skills or our experience can replace the need to know God and to live in Fear of Him.   It might be our glory and our honor, but it can be to our detriment when we trust in these things rather than the Fear of The Lord.

What does God do beside hearing our prayers? Psalm 102-104

Psalms 102:17-20

He has regarded the prayer of the destitute

And has not despised their prayer.

This will be written for the generation to come,

That a people yet to be created may praise the Lord. 

For He looked down from His holy height;

From heaven the Lord gazed upon the earth, 

To hear the groaning of the prisoner,

To set free those who were doomed to death,

God knows us and He knows our weaknesses.   In the next chapter the writer makes that quite clear:

Psalms 103:14

For He Himself knows our frame;

He is mindful that we are but dust.

Since He knows that He has a listening ear to our prayers.   He knows we will be calling out to Him at some point and He has obligated Himself to hear His children's cries.   That is His character.  As it is stated above, "He has regarded the prayer of the destitute."   He "has not despised their prayer."  It states that God "looks down from His holy height" and "The Lord gazed upon the earth."   We can rest assured that in the midst of our failures to be holy in our lives, God is watching and waiting for our cries for help.   In our weakness His strength is perfected.  

2 Corinthians 12:9

And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.

Although all the above is refreshing and reassuring, the real beauty of this portion of the Psalm is in the final two lines above.   He "hears" the groaning of the prisoner and "to set free" those doomed to death.   It isn't that He just hears.  The guards of the prison hear.  The other prisoners hear.   But, they are powerless to set the chains free.  It is only God who not only hears but sets us free from our death and our chains.   That is the greatness of the passage and why the writer just said, "this will be written for the generation to come."   Our freedom from the penalty of death; our freedom from the power of death; and our freedom, soon, from the presence of death is all because of our great God whom we praise to others. 

Do you worship before or after God gives you a blessing? 1 Chronicles 15-19

1 Chronicles 15:16

Then David spoke to the chiefs of the Levites to appoint their relatives the singers, with instruments of music, harps, lyres, loud-sounding cymbals, to raise sounds of joy.

David prepared for rejoicing before there was something visible to rejoice over!!   In chapter fifth-teen of this book David is about to move the Ark of the Tabernacle back to Jerusalem.   He had attempted to do this before but because they used a cart and not the Levites carrying the Ark, God burst through in judgment and killed a man who reached out and touched the ark with the oxen stumble and the wagon began to tip.   This incident was fresh on the minds of all Israel.   But, David confessed his sin and was now about to move the Ark, correctly, and he prepares prior to the move, for an awesome celebration.   We sometimes think of worship as something we do AFTER God does something.   But, David gives us a great lesson in this text that we ought to prepare prior for a celebration, in anticipation of what God is ABOUT to do.   We can worship AFTER; there is nothing wrong with that.   But there is something special about preparing for what God is ABOUT to make happen.   That is true worship by faith.   Daniel's three friends did that just before they were tossed into the fire ... they worshipped God whether they would live or die.  They didn't know which one.   They worship for what God was ABOUT to do.   We ought to be intentional, in the above manner, with our worship.    Waiting for God to do something and then worship is a great idea.  But, preparing prior to God's working is truly worshiping by faith.   

What do you do when you find yourself in a place you don't like? Numbers 9-12

Numbers 11:11-15

So Moses said to the Lord, “Why have You been so hard on Your servant? And why have I not found favor in Your sight, that You have laid the burden of all this people on me? Was it I who conceived all this people? Was it I who brought them forth, that You should say to me, ‘Carry them in your bosom as a nurse carries a nursing infant, to the land which You swore to their fathers’? Where am I to get meat to give to all this people? For they weep before me, saying, ‘Give us meat that we may eat!’ I alone am not able to carry all this people, because it is too burdensome for me. So if You are going to deal thus with me, please kill me at once, if I have found favor in Your sight, and do not let me see my wretchedness.”

Sounds like me about my "career" and complaining I am not in the "ministry."   For years I have complained about the place God has placed me in His service and I sound just like Moses and these people; complaining about my "lot" in life.   The odd aspect of this portion of the story is that in Moses' words about how the people are complaining to him about having no meat to eat, he, in turn, complains to God about the role he has to play in this plan. If it were not for His abundant grace, God would have destroyed them all; He would destroy me.   WE all need to accept the role and life God has given us.  He does not make mistakes.  We ought not fear what He has us doing, the role playing, or the place serving.  We ought to only fear that we don't do it according to His Word.   Later in this same chapter Moses' brother Aaron and his wife will complain that Moses gets to be the boss.    God will strike them.    God wants us to faithfully follow Him ... not according to our desires, but according to His plan.   He will give us to eat what we need and He desires to give us; He will give us the positions He desires to give us; He will put in charge whom He will put in charge.   We are only to submit to His leadership and follow His plan for our lives and rejoice.    God is most glorified in me as I am most satisfied in Him.