Category: Band

Yesterday, I created a post on the Search Party website describing a plan that we are adopting as a team here in Catania to stay connected to the Word of God and in prayer, both individually and as a team.

Our challenge has routinely been that we knew that we needed to make time as a team for staying connected to Christ, obeying Jesus’s command to abide in him, but we have had many starts and stops in terms of how to do it.

One of my teammates introduced a simple idea to follow a Bible reading plan together, connected to a regular meeting among a few people to check in on one another and our progress.

I put the details of what we are doing over on the website. Our hope is that we can continue to expand the idea by doing this amongst the people of the churches that we are planting, the visitors that come in to work with us, and possibly even have others who are not here following along with us. We’re looking forward to seeing what God will do through his Word and Spirit as he speaks to each of us on a daily basis.

Paul has been explaining to Timothy in his letter that there are people who desire to cause division, that like to quarrel and cause strife and constant friction between people. They value the things of this world such as money and power over the things of heaven.

But Paul warns Timothy that he should pursue a different life. He says:

But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.

1 Timothy 6:11

As a man of God, Paul calls Timothy to pursue something much greater: righteousness – to live rightly before both God and man. To live in faith and love, both for God and man. To endure through hardships and to be gentle with others.

This is the core of the decision that we have before us as well. What is it that I value? What is it that I consider worth spending my time on? Do I invest in the things of this world, or do I invest in the things of heaven? How will I live today, tomorrow, and each individual day after that? Will I pursue gain for myself or will I pursue gain for Christ with my life?

Paul addresses a challenging issue with Timothy in this chapter in that he points out which widows should be helped financially by the church and which should not. In this time, there isn’t a governmental support system or other programs, so the church would be the best opportunity for someone to receive support when they are in need.

Here is what Paul said and then I will list some of the principles that I take away from this below:

Give proper recognition to those widows who are really in need. But if a widow has children or grandchildren, these should learn first of all to put their religion into practice by caring for their own family and so repaying their parents and grandparents, for this is pleasing to God. The widow who is really in need and left all alone puts her hope in God and continues night and day to pray and to ask God for help. But the widow who lives for pleasure is dead even while she lives. Give the people these instructions, so that no one may be open to blame. Anyone who does not provide for their relatives, and especially for their own household, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

No widow may be put on the list of widows unless she is over sixty, has been faithful to her husband, and is well known for her good deeds, such as bringing up children, showing hospitality, washing the feet of the Lord’s people, helping those in trouble and devoting herself to all kinds of good deeds.

As for younger widows, do not put them on such a list. For when their sensual desires overcome their dedication to Christ, they want to marry. Thus they bring judgment on themselves, because they have broken their first pledge. Besides, they get into the habit of being idle and going about from house to house. And not only do they become idlers, but also busybodies who talk nonsense, saying things they ought not to. So I counsel younger widows to marry, to have children, to manage their homes and to give the enemy no opportunity for slander. Some have in fact already turned away to follow Satan.

If any woman who is a believer has widows in her care, she should continue to help them and not let the church be burdened with them, so that the church can help those widows who are really in need.

1 Timothy 5:3-16

Here are some of the important things that I see in this passage:

• It is important to meet the needs of those who are truly in need. The church’s resources should be used for this.

• There are a series of restrictions that should be considered based on a person’s situation. These include:
  • The person should care for their own family.
  • They shouldn’t just be living idly or for their own pleasure and not working.
  • Age as a consideration. Paul specifically mentions that the woman must be over 60.

I do also notice that Paul really only considers widows. He doesn’t even mention men in this case. I don’t know if this is because he believes that the men should all be able to work to support themselves or if that just wasn’t done in their case, but it is interesting that this is the case.

In the end, I don’t know that the church should consider these as **the rules** for giving. However, it does seem that there are principles here that we can use as we consider how the church should give to others and to whom funds might be given.

I don’t think that people necessarily would say this out loud, but I do believe that we certainly think it. The situation goes something like this:

• I made a sacrifice for God.

• I go to the church / mosque / temple every day / week / month / year.

• I read the Bible every day.

• I pray regularly.

• I fast and abstain from food / water / sex.

• I gave money to the church. I gave money to poor people. I’ve done good works to help others.

• I followed all of the rules…most of the time!

And so, therefore, God owes me. He owes me to get into heaven…right? Wasn’t that the deal? God gives me these rules, and I need to live like a good religious person, and then I get to go to heaven someday when I die.

Right?

God owes me.

Wrong. Not true. Incorrect.

Today, I read in Timothy 4 where Paul says this to Timothy:

The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth.

1 Timothy 4:1-3

In chapter 3, Paul explains again to Timothy that there is one God and one Mediator, Jesus Christ. And it is through Jesus that we are given grace and mercy.

But instead of receiving grace and mercy from God, we frequently choose to believe the lie that is taught by demons, that if we just follow some rules, or if we are just religious enough, or if we are a good person, then God will owe you.

Some people believe that he owes you some type of ease in this life. They read that God is going to bless his people and they interpret it as God owing them money…meanwhile conveniently skipping over the fact that Jesus says that we should expect hardship and persecution.

Or other people believe that God owes you heaven, that because you have been a good person, or even if not a good person, a religious person, then God owes them eternal life.

But what are they really doing? By buying into this idea of following the rules and being, in some way the one who controls their destiny, they are simply considering themselves to be like God. This is the original lie that Satan told to Eve in the Garden of Eden, that by eating the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, that their eyes would be opened and they would be like God.

But that is not at all the reality, and is certainly not the story that the scriptures tell. Instead, as those that have been created and who have rebelled against God, we deserve nothing more than punishment and death, but God gave himself as a sacrifice for each of us by sending Jesus Christ to receive the punishment of our sins. Therefore, we have before us an incredible gift of grace and mercy, and only through faith in this gift can we be saved.

God doesn’t owe me anything, but out of his love for me and for each of us, he has given me everything.

Although I hope to come to you soon, I am writing you these instructions so that, if I am delayed, you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.

1 Timothy 3:14-15

Paul has been writing to Timothy to keep he and the church on track as he is leading the church in Ephesus. In the previous chapter, Paul spoke about how the times of prayer and worship should be conducted as well as the roles for men and women.

Now in this chapter, Paul is speaking about the appointment of elders and deacons and how the church is to be led and governed, and through these things, we can see that there is a way in which the church is ordered and managed, a proper way in which it is to be led.

Paul is continuing to charge Timothy with his duties as Timothy continues his work in Ephesus. He reminds Timothy of the great truth about God’s desire to bring all people back to himself:

This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people.

1 Timothy 2:3-6

Frequently, I hear a refrain from my Muslim friends as they try to proactively convince me that everything is OK, that the values that they had in their home country were the best. They say things like these:

• Christians and Muslims…we are the same. We serve the same God!

• You know… where I come from, the Muslims and the Christians are all together. When the Christians celebrate Christmas, the Muslims are there with them. When the Muslims celebrate Eid, the Christians are there too.

• Yeah, the Christians have Jesus, and the Muslims have Mohammad, but we are all the same.

On the one hand, they have a point. I might typically respond that I do believe that we are all of the same as we stand before God. We are all people that are in need of God.

But that is, of course, very different from understanding who God says that he is and the truth that he is telling us about himself.

Yesterday, I was speaking with a man who was saying these things above, but I explained that Jesus said that he was the way, the truth, and the life, and that no one could come to the Father except through him. Jesus is therefore specifically not saying that you can come to God in one way or another. He is saying that there is one way, and if we do not know that way – a very real risk if we maintain the attitude that everyone is just OK as they are – then we cannot come to the Father, and we would be lost and destined for punishment forever.

Paul is emphasizing this once again to Timothy. There is one God and there is one Mediator, who is Jesus. And this Jesus gave himself as a ransom, a payment, to receive back the people that have been lost into the kingdom of darkness. He ransoms them away, paying for God’s wrath as he took it upon himself.

Paul is writing to Timothy, the first leader that he ever began to develop as part of his traveling apostolic team from the churches that he planted. It seems that his intent is to remind Timothy of the work that Paul has sent him to do, but in starting his reminder of the work, Paul starts with a reminder of who he is and where he has come from:

Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life. Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.

1 Timothy 1:15-17

Paul knows who he is. In the paragraph before this, in verse 13, Paul said that he was a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a violent man. Today, we might even say that he was a terrorist. He was someone that killed others for their religious beliefs.

It is from this place that Jesus called Paul to serve him. Paul was a terrible person, maybe even the type of person that Jesus had chided previously while he was on the earth, and yet, now, he is calling Paul because he wants him to devote his life to serve God in the way that is truly God’s plan, through Christ, giving his life completely to him.

Paul was the worst of sinners, but God showed incredible patience with him. Not only that Paul would be saved but that many others would be saved as well and receive eternal life.

Most importantly, though, is that through all of this work of God, he is the one that receives the glory. Paul calls Jesus the King eternal and that he is the one who should receive the glory for all that he has done in Paul’s life. Paul’s salvation and work has nothing to do with what Paul has done, but everything to do with what God has done in and through Paul’s life.

As Paul is wrapping up his letter to the Colossians, in the last chapter, he asks the Corinthians:

And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains.

Colossians 4:3

Paul is the Apostle to the Gentiles, the one who is leading the way for the Gospel to enter into Galatia, Macedonia, Greece and Achaia, and in the province of Asia. He is a great evangelist, makes disciples wherever he goes, and has leaders that are being sent here and there, proclaiming the Gospel everywhere that he goes.

But here, he asks that the Colossians would pray for an open door for his message. Paul, even after all that he had accomplished in his Gospel work, needed God to open the door for him. Paul was not doing his work under his own power. He was, instead, moving and working under God’s authority and power. And only in this way could his message of the Gospel of Jesus go forth. Only if God sovereignly moved upon people, opening a door and making a way for his message to go forward could he share in an effective way.

This is a reminder for each of us as well. As we are sharing the Gospel and looking for inroads into communities, God himself must open the door. He is the one who must make the way. As Christ’s ambassadors, we are the ones to deliver the message, but God must take the first step to open the door and make the way.

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Colossians 3:1-4

As followers of Jesus, our life, our priorities, and all that we have and do have changed meaning. Paul says that because we have been raised with Jesus, we should set our hearts on the things above.

What does it mean that we are raised with Jesus? By committing ourselves to him, we have committed our lives to the one who purchased us, and saved us, from God’s wrath for the sin that we have committed. Therefore, since we have been purchased, we are no longer our own. We no longer should concern ourselves with the things of this life. Instead, we have died to the concerns of this life. We left those things behind when we committed ourselves to Christ.

Instead, we have been given a new life. We have died to the old life and we have been born again, resurrected into a new life with Christ Jesus. This means that we no longer need to worry about the things of this life. Instead, we need to look forward to concerns that are much greater, and of much more significance.

What will I eat? What will I wear? Jesus said that God will take care of these things for us.

This also reminds me of the parable that Jesus told about the treasure hidden in the field and the precious pearl. I wrote about it recently, which you can see more here, but as we remove our gaze and the time that we spend worrying about the things of this life, we prove what Jesus has said about the preciousness of the Kingdom of God.

In the parable, Jesus said that the Kingdom is like a treasure or a precious pearl, and when someone finds those things, they sell everything that they own to buy the treasure or to buy the pearl. That is because they recognize the value of what they have seen. In the same way, we must recognize the value of the Kingdom of God.

As we recognize the value of the Kingdom, we should fix our minds on those things. We must concern ourselves with the things that our King has in mind for us, no longer looking back to the old things, the old ways of life, the things of this world. We must continue to look forward, fixing our eyes and training our hearts and minds on the important things of heaven.

For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority. In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.

Colossians 2:9-12

The first statement, in verse 9, is pretty amazing, if you really consider what it is saying. As Paul writes to the Colossians, he says that God himself is present in Jesus. That means that we have had God himself walking around on the earth. God comes and speaks with people. The disciples and the people of that time walked with God. They spoke with God, face to face. We even have the words of Jesus written in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, meaning that we have the words of God himself as he spoke to the people.

From there, Paul says that we have been circumcised by Christ. This isn’t a circumcision performed by human hands, but a circumcision that is done by Christ, throwing off the old flesh, which is buried as we are baptized and instead giving us a new life as we are resurrected, just as Jesus was raised from the dead.