Ephesians 2:19–22

So then you are no longer strangers and foreigners resident in a land that is not their own, but you are fellow citizens with God’s consecrated people and members of the family of God. It is on the foundation of the prophets and the apostles that you have been built up; and the cornerstone is Christ himself. All the building that is going on is being fitted together in him, and it will go on growing until it becomes a holy temple in the Lord, a temple into which you too are built as part, that you may become the dwelling place of God, through the work of the Spirit.

Oh if only we as a nation could be like what Paul writes about in the above verses. We have been a nation divided for quite awhile now by many issues that without God will never be solved. One good example would the issue of segregation which was addressed in the late fifties and early sixties but damage was deep and could only be reconciled by legislative actions. While things are better now the one glaring lesson learned was that you cannot legislate what is in a persons heart. We still see the distrust and animosity between people and I can’t help but believe that when God is not present in our hearts there is no room for respect or love for others. That brings me to the issue of this day, our southern border and the influx of people illegally entering our country. As a society and a people we try to let this issue slide because there is no other explanation for what they are doing. There are many compelling reasons for it but by law it is illegal, period. It is compelling and begs for something other than just legislation, but the lack of divine wisdom, politics and the desire to prevail make a human solution impossible. John Lennon wrote a song, Imagine and I ask you to do that with me today.

Some theologians believe that this letter, Ephesians, was a circular letter to all of Paul’s Asian churches. It is with certainty that there was a letter circulating among the Asian churches and it is believed that letter was Ephesians. I could stumble through more words but this paragraph from William Barclay’s Daily Bible Study does a much better job.

“Ephesians, as we see it, is the one letter Paul sent to all the eastern churches to tell them that the destined unity of all people and of all things could never be found except in Christ, and to tell them of the supreme task of the Church – that of being Christ’s instrument in the universal reconciliation of all men and women to one another and of their reconciliation to God. That is why Ephesians is the Queen of the Epistles. (DBS Barclay)”

Look at our southern border situation today. As the crisis worsens there, the politicians get louder and different agendas proliferate, the animosity and fervor of the opposing views overpowers humanitarian efforts and reason is no longer at the table. The result is most often we lose all hope of solving this problem. I say again, without God not all things are possible.

The similarities are there so let’s take a look back. Paul was also very good at painting a picture with words. In his day the word for foreigner was “xenoi” and they were in every Greek town. They were disliked and did not have an easy life. They were strangers in a foreign land. The Greek word for stranger was “paroikos”. They were described as a resident alien, one who had taken up residence but had never become a naturalized citizen. These people paid a tax for the privilege of living there. They had one thing in common with the our illegal aliens today. They were never really accepted and were always on the fringe. With all this in mind I ask you to imagine a place with no borders. Within the family of God there are no borders. Through Jesus Christ we have a home with God, there are no borders, come home you are always welcome. It might be a hard stretch to make but please consider this. If God were present in the hearts of those who can make a way here, things would be so much better. We put up barriers, close our minds to anything that might threaten our agendas, even at times refusing to let our own people come to the table of deliberations.

We are the church and Paul saw the church as a building with each of us as a stone, with Christ as the cornerstone that reconciles us to our God. We are many different people with many different ways but our unity in the faith makes us a family, The family of God. There is a lesson here or what I like to call “A God Thing”

Using the church as an example perhaps we would be better off as a nation and avoid such problems if we understood what unity as in the United States could mean. It would not all be about organizations, agendas, political affiliations or even the propagating the views of any body of individuals but just one simple fact. To get back as a nation to God and provide a home with no borders where everyone can dwell in peace, and placing God through Jesus Christ at the table. Maybe we can only imagine because we have allowed our hearts to be harden by the demands of this world.

Yes, it is a stretch….but one can hope. Thanks for coming by the pew this week. I will have some news to share with you next week.

Life is Good

jk

2 Timothy 4:6–8 

For my life has reached the point when it must be sacrificed, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight: I have completed the course: I have kept the faith. As for what remains, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness which on that day the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to me – and not only to me, but also to all who have loved his appearing. 

Paul, who has put on the armor of God and fought the good fight lays it aside that Timothy might pick it up, put it on and continue the good fight. Paul has poured out his life to God, he has offered everything he had and now had only his life to offer and he would do that with great joy. Paul had made many journeys, sharing the good news and gospel of Jesus Christ. The journeys had taken him to Asia Minor and Europe through stormy seas and the confines of Roman prison but now he was to set out on his last journey from this life to haven an eternity. This journey would end in the presence of God. The old warrior had no fear. This faith, courage and joy of Paul is open to everyone who also fights that fight and finishes the race and keeps the faith. 

2 Timothy 4:9–15
Do your best to come and see me soon. Demas has deserted me, because he loved this present world, and has gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. Luke alone is with me. Take Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful in service. I have sent Tychicus to Ephesus. When you come, bring with you the cloak which I left behind at Troas at Carpus’ house, and bring the books, especially the parchments. Alexander, the coppersmith, did me a great deal of harm. The Lord will reward him according to his deeds. You yourself must be on your guard against him, for he hotly opposed our words. 

Paul makes known his displeasure with some of those who have let him down, and of course makes mention of the fact that only Luke is still there with him. So what happen to Demas? Paul says he loved this present world more. The first mention of Demas was in Philemon 24, he is listed as a fellow worker. The next time he is mentioned it is without any comment at all. The finial mention is here in Timothy as a deserter. We don’t really know what happen but I would suspect it would fit many a situation of these present times. The years of service, the pressures of the world at that time and the constant temptations of that world might have caused him to walk away. The frustrations of just coping with the needs of the faith were overwhelming. To live a Christian life these days is a demanding task and one that requires a close relationship with God. It could also have been that he underestimated the cost of living contrary to the standards of the world, the constant conflict between that which is holy and that which is not. Do you and I run the risk of falling away? Take heart….the grace of God can once again lay hands on us and bring us back…we have only to ask.

2 Timothy 4:16–22 

At my first defense, no one was there to stand by me, but all forsook me. May it not be reckoned against them! But the Lord stood beside me, and he strengthened me, so that through me the proclamation of the gospel was fully made so that the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the mouth of the lion. The Lord will rescue me from every evil, and will save me for his heavenly kingdom. Glory be to him for ever and ever. Amen. 

Greet Prisca and Aquila, and the family of Onesi- phorus. Erastus stayed in Corinth. I left Trophimus at Miletus. Exibulus sends greetings to you, as do Pudens, Linus and Claudia, and all the brothers. 

The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you. 

I guess the place to start with these verses would be how Paul was utterly deserted, not one of his friends stood by him. It was too dangerous to proclaim oneself the friend of a man on trial for his life. Paul knows and does three things even in this dangerous situation. Everyone had forsaken him; but the Lord was with him. Jesus had said that he would never leave his followers or forsake them, and that he would be with them to the end of the world. Jesus kept his promise. Paul was alone but he was alone with God….. that was a good thing. Even during the trial he would continue to proclaim the message of Christ. At that moment he might well be a victim, considered a criminal and condemned by Roman justice but he knew he would be rescued. There was the present danger of judgement by the Romans but what ever the outcome he would be safe for eternity. Paul ends this letter to Timothy by invoking the Spirt of the Lord upon his friends, his last words being Grace,the spirit and peace be with you all.

Drop by the pew again next week

Life is Good

jk

2 Timothy 4:1–2

I charge you before God and Christ Jesus, who is going to judge the living and the dead – I charge you by his appearing and by his kingdom – herald forth the word; be urgent in season and out of season; convict, rebuke, exhort, and do it all with a patience and a teaching which never fail.

In the days of Timothy, people were surrounded by false teachers. We see that in our world today. There are those who will go to any length to find arguments that will justify or allow them to do anything they want to do. This behavior is not confined to only the church but is particularly damaging to the faith today. For the church it is a matter of those who tend to think less of sin, they are doing great damage to the church and society.

Paul continues this last chapter of Timothy with a charge and a challenge and shares three things about Jesus. Jesus will be the judge of the living and the dead and the day will come when Timothy’s work will be tested. Did he take the good news everywhere he could and did he do so in love and truth? We today are charged to do the very same thing. Christians should not concern themselves with the criticisms or judgements of others. I am sure Timothy as well as we today looked forward to hearing Well Done from our Lord and Savior. We must stay focused and allow the spirit to lead us in this very important calling. The spirit will enable us to not be distracted by the criticism; it will save us from our egos which in turn could make us self-centered and demanding thanks and praise for everything we do. It will save us from being hurt by others ridicule and ingratitude. Jesus will return in victory. As christians we are preparing the way so that all things will be ready whenever he appears. Christians should live their lives in such a way that at any moment they are ready for the coming of Christ.

Jesus is king. The day is coming when all the kingdoms of this world will on bended knee become the kingdom of Jesus Christ. Our work, Our lives and Our service must be such that it will stand the scrutiny of Christ and be a sign of the reality of our citizenship of the kingdom of God. As christians we must be persistent and carry the word every day to all peoples wasting no opportunity but remembering to be courteous and respectful in our duty to get the message out. We have to get back to making people aware of the sins of this world. The church must address sin and not excuse it to the new norm. People must be compelled to recognize it and see themselves as they really are. There was a day when the church was fearless in rebuking those behaviors that distracted from living a holy life. Not only did good things happen but many bad things were set aside and God had a place in the hearts of his people. All are sinners, there is a common guilt and we should not set ourselves up as moral judges but we have a duty to rebuke and warn, when a such words need to be spoken. In rebuking the sins of this world we should also take care to encourage things which support Godly behavior. Paul recognized that a message of constant rebuke would remove any hope and cause despair among the people. We as christians must have a tireless patience, avoid becoming irritated and never ever look at someone as being beyond salvation. We willingly encourage and enable another’s way to salvation because we have a resolute belief in the changing power of Christ.

I will wrap this weeks blog with things that were expected of Timothy and apply to us this very day.

-stay focused on our calling

-stay steady and not allow the craziness of the world to distract us

-there will be a price to be paid and we must accept it without complaining or regret

-we must remember we are the bringers of good news

-we should always be of service to God, to the Church and to other people

Paul also wrote in another book a good thought to end this day’s blog.

Philippians 4

8 Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. 9 Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.

Life is Good

jk

The Greek word parakolouthein, literally means to follow alongside. It means to follow someone physically through any and all difficulties. To mentally follow and  pay careful attention to that person’s teaching and fully to understand the meaning of what is being said. Simply put to be a disciple one must remain loyal at all times, a friend that understands what is being said and follows in complete obedience. There is much here between the lines and Paul shares a list of things in which Timothy as his disciple has been a part of. An apostle has duties, two of which are teaching and training. Real teaching comes out of real experience. Taking that teaching and training others in its value requires the fact that you have lived it. These two duties require that you know Christ and have striven to live in his way. You truly are training for life. Paul had an aim in life. From that moment on that road to the restoration of his sight he saw nothing but Christ on the cross and took the message of salvation to all he could. As members of the Christian community we should always have a goal, the focus of our aim so to speak. Is our goal Christ centered and faith driven or do we just bend which ever way the wind blows? We must have faith in our God and patience toward others allowing love to guide us to two major requirements of christian living. God forgives and cares and only God enables us to do that. Paul completes these verses by addressing the experiences of an apostle. First in his mind is endurance, not a passive endurance but one of spirit filled faith which faces evil in a way that some good will come out of it. It is not a spirit that takes things as they are but a spirit that through faith takes control of life. That kind of endurance is necessary if we are to conquer the persecutions that will come our way because of our Christian faith. Persecution and hardships will come. Paul is sure God will rescue those who put their faith in God. For those who believe there will always be a future but there is no future for those who refuse to accept the way of God.

These last three verses of chapter three Paul speaks to the value of scripture.

-Scriptures give the wisdom which will bring salvation.

-The Scriptures are of use in teaching.

–The Scriptures are valuable for reproof.

–The Scriptures are of use for correction.

The scriptures instill in us the burning desire to save others and equips us to do that which we have been called to do.

It was my intention to continue on through 2nd Timothy. After some study and thought I think it best to leave that final chapter to another time. If you have made it to this point I hope you take away with you something that will strengthen your faith and give you the endurance to defend the faith by living the faith each and every day.

Life is Good

jk

This week in the Pew I share with you from the second Book of Timothy, Chapter 3: 1-9 .The two letters to Timothy and the letter to Titus and a short letter to Philemon differ from the other Pauline Letters, in that they are private letters, written to individuals.

Although private in nature, their purpose is set down in 1st Timothy 3: 14-15. 14 I am writing these things to you now, even though I hope to be with you soon, 15 so that if I am delayed, you will know how people must conduct themselves in the household of God. This is the church of the living God, which is the pillar and foundation of the truth.

In time these two letters were referred to as the Pastoral Epistles. There are five points that Paul makes in these two letters to Timothy.

-care and organization of the flock of God

-how men and women are to behave within the household of God 

-instructions as to how God’s house should be administered

-what kind of people the leaders and pastors of the Church should  be   

-threats which endanger the purity of Christian faith and life should be dealt with. (WB DBS)

I intend to  focus on the last one.I am not given to doomsday essays that are based on the current condition of society. I do believe that the spiritual health of the church in an indicator that we are moving closer to The Day of The Lord. The early church believed that the time was short, they expected Christ to come at any moment. I believe that within scripture we can find the knowledge to recognize those changes that will lead us to the time that God will challenge all evil and the finial victory of God’s coming will be established.

I must start by telling you that I am 76 years old. The importance of this is that I believe I am qualified to speak to the current state of the church and world today as I have traveled some years to get here. You might say that in these verses Paul takes no prisoners. He sees some disturbing events happening in the church and the world that go beyond normal change and growth as would be expected in this new way. Paul paints a picture of what a Godless world would be like in verses 2-5 and it closely mirrors our world today. People are living a life that is centered in self, destroying divine and human relationships. They value their stuff and money more than they do their relationship to God. They become arrogant and boastful for personal gain and prosperity. A person who is boastful is not hard to spot but arrogance is a matter of the heart and is often mistaken for confidence. Here is an interesting thought. Boasting and arrogance leads to a false pride and the result most often is insults to other people and the church. The old Rabbis called it the sin of insult. This becomes an action of contempt and results in hurtful words or harmful actions toward others. That which comes from such behavior is ugly, hard to understand and hard to forgive. People will be disobedient to their parents. I won’t stay long with this but it is a sure sign of a decadent civilization when youth loses all respect for age and fails to recognize the place of respect it owes to those who gave them life. People will become thankless. They will refuse to recognize the debt they owe both God and others. People will refuse to recognize even the basic decencies of life. People will allow their passions to rule their lives will seek to gratify them in the most shameless ways. They will be without human affection and so centered on themselves that even the closest ties of family and friends will be nothing to them. They will be relentless in their hatred of others, unable to come to an agreement or to forgive. They will not remember the words of the Lord, ‘Father, forgive them.’ It just keeps getting worse…people will slander another’s good name and engage in unfounded gossip with no regard for what it will do to someone else. They will be unable to control their desires, they will behave savagely with no human sympathy for man or beast. They will no longer value the good things of life such as the joy in keeping good company. They will fill their minds and hearts with sordid literature losing the good things of life and corrupting their minds. They will be treacherous in  their actions toward others, rushing headlong into things driven by their conceit and contempt for all things contrary to their direction in life. Lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. They will retain the outward form of Godliness but deny its power. They will turn from God and seek their own way. In the remaining verses 6-9 are disturbing patterns that are present in today’s church. There will be a time of seduction in the name of religion. There will be those who will gain an undue and unhealthy influence over others, especially with those who are easily impressed.  They will use the normal curiosity of people about new trends and changing moral and societal changes to ease moral resolve. People will turn from the day to day discipline of Christian life, lured into a desire to be a part of the newest fashionable movement or intellectual remake of the scripture, losing the battle to live a Christian life. These distractions will in time be defeated if we, God’s people remain strong in our resolve to pursue the more excellent way.

There is much going on in the Christian community this day. There will always be those who will wish to debate what has been written, turn a scripture to fit a situation they favor or oppose and mixed in among them will be the false teachers who attack or seek to change the word as written to fit their desires. Next week we will continue in 2nd Timothy starting at verse 3:10 and go through to the final chapter, of this very important letter.

Thanks for stopping by the Pew, mark your bibles and return next week.

Life is Good

jk