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Tag: timothy

  • I was in the spirit

    I was in the spirit

    I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet. – Revelation of Jesus Christ to the Apostle John [1:10]

    We interrupt our series on Psalm 119 for a message about prayer, the Holy Spirit and hearing from God.  God willing we will continue tomorrow, 28 January, in the year of our Lord 2014.

    Life in the Spirit

    8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus…

    26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

    Luke 12:12 “… for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”

    John 4:24 “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

    IF you attended church on Sunday, good for you; yet consider that not all who attend church are part of Christ’s church. Some are not yet saved (in our mortal timetable) and others will turn back to their hearts of stone forever until Judgment. We must consider the witness of our corporate worship and our prayer in church.

    Lord, I want to thank you and praise you for your salvation: for saving me, for Your own sacrifice for my own sinfulness. I thank you for the Cross of Christ Jesus and the Spirit of your Presence, which does comfort me from time to time (for I do not always listen, as I ought).

    IF I pray the prayer I have just prayed in private, it is my prayer to God – my part of a conversation in the Spirit with the Living God. IF I utter this same prayer in the company of believers (church), it becomes my corporate prayer of witness.

    Is it the same prayer?

    It is the same words, but not the same prayer; for my own life and soul stand before my brothers and sisters in the Lord and also non-believers among us as witness of the sincerity of my words (known only to God) or the motive of my proclaiming loudly in the company of believers the same.

    Personal prayer is an intimate conversation between you and God. Corporate prayer is a public proclamation to God before witnesses.

    Jesus tells a story of two men who went up to the church to pray. One prayed most publicly, as if his prayer thanked God that he was not like those who were not saved. His teachings were that he showed concern for others and for God, but his witness was that his only concern was to be seen at church. Another prayed so humbly he would not even look up to God from the holy place where he worshiped.

    Paul often prays for individuals both individually and corporately as a specific church (a named group of real people with real and specific needs for prayer and supplication). Paul’s corporate prayers have no hint of self-aggrandizement like the Pharisees.  (‘See how I pray as I should and how you likely do not pray?) Paul frequently asks for prayer for himself and his companions, but for the sake of Christ and for the Church. You can read more of Paul’s heart and example by guidance in almost any of his letters to the churches (the epistles). 

    Paul gives further instruction to the church as to corporate worship and corporate prayer. Some of our 21st century worldly ways have accepted as proper that which is non-scriptural and causes controversies unhelpful in building up each church and body of believers. Some christians will stand firmly on the shaky foundation of just a single verse of scripture (or two). I will not do that. Let the Spirit instruct you as to what is right for you and for your particular church.

    Some often heard in church ought to keep silent and others not heard in church ought to be heard from.

    I speak of the gibberish of prayer in tongues without interpretation, prayer for the stranger rather than for the near brother or sister in the Lord, and prayer for proud example of your personal witness (as if evangelizing the faithful in the place of worship). Again, I will leave it to you and the instruction of the Holy Spirit to help you in this (excerpted below).

    Pray for All People

    First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people…

    1 Timothy 2:1 alone is worthy of much more of your consideration and that of the worship leaders of our churches.

    8 I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling…

    11 Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. 12 I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet.

    The proper culture of the centuries has been that a man is the head of the woman. Some use this to oppose women preaching and some to oppose women speaking in church or being part of church leadership. My observation is that too many wives are the heads of their christian husbands; some because they insist, but most because their husbands with not step up to bold witness in Christ as we ought. For Jesus said:  “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.” [Luke 19:40]

    I, myself, have been guilty of both not speaking when I ought and more often guilty of speaking when I ought not. I have done what I ought not to have done and said what I ought not to have said. (Who is not guilty in these things?) I am poor example to any of one led always by the Spirit, failing in humility to Christ Jesus as our Lord (even IF I lift up my hands as if I am humble unto the Lord). Even now I find I must leave my gift at the altar because of unforgiveness, because I am not humble enough before the Lord to ask a sister for forgiveness seven times seven. [Matthew 5:23-24]

    Yet if I am led by the Spirit to pray or to speak or to sing or to raise hands or to kneel or to exhort or to teach or to preach, I will by the grace of Christ Jesus do what God would have over the will of every man or woman, mostly over my own will in obedience to His.

    • Let us not say, “Thus says the Lord,” when it is not the Lord who has said it.
    • Let us not presume to pray for unknown others as if we are priests and intercessors for the church; as if all do not have the intimacy of the Spirit near at hand and within the body of the Church.
    • And let us not cry out of our own need so much as we plea for it in private and as a church we plead for our beloved brothers and sisters near to us, drawing all nearer to the Lord God by prayer.

    I do not know, but the Spirit knows, what will build you up and what scripture may lift higher your corporate worship of Christ Jesus, our Lord. I leave it between you and the Lord.

    Prophecy and Tongues

    14 Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. 2 For one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God; for no one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the Spirit…

    4 The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but the one who prophesies builds up the church…

    9 So with yourselves, if with your tongue you utter speech that is not intelligible, how will anyone know what is said? For you will be speaking into the air. 10 There are doubtless many different languages in the world, and none is without meaning, 11 but if I do not know the meaning of the language, I will be a foreigner to the speaker and the speaker a foreigner to me. 12 So with yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church.

    13 Therefore, one who speaks in a tongue should pray that he may interpret. 14 For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my mind is unfruitful. 15 What am I to do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also; I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also.

    I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also; I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also. – 1 Cor. 14:15b

    19 Nevertheless, in church I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others, than ten thousand words in a tongue.

    Therefore, beloved fellow believers and worshipers, let up worship the Lord in holiness. Let us pray and sing and worship corporately as just one stone next to others of the same Temple, singing and praying in thankfulness for the Cornerstone of our faith. Let us build up one another in Christ’s abiding love, faithful to those who will wait upon Him, praying without ceasing, and loving one another in the certain hope of our community of living faith to the witness of all the Lord leads into the church and all who gaze upon Christ’s Temple of His Church from the darkness of this world.

    I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day and so I was grieved over our many sins and especially my own. But thanks be to Christ Jesus for His righteousness and for the Holy Spirit of the Living God, Who comforts and guides. He hears our heartfelt prayers.

    Pray also for me, that the Lord would lift me up in the Spirit in loving witness to His way, His truth, and His most holy Life, given for us by His Blood of the Cross.

     

  • Respect

    1 Timothy 5:1 Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father…

    I recently had an unfortunate experience of misunderstanding at a time when I needed encouragement from a brother or sister in the Lord or anyone else.

    If you look closely above my own smile you will see much white hair. 🙂 Yes, in some instances (even if I don’t like to admit to all of my 6+ decades) I am an older man.

    Of course, none of us likes rebuke. As parents we have given many rebukes of improper behavior to our children. As husbands, we have heard proper rebuke from our own wife (and they, from us). IN THE LORD, with His love I would hope.

    Just yesterday I had to rebuke a young man for a wrong attitude toward Christ. He said, “We go to church, etc., as an excuse of calling themselves ‘christians’ like those faithful to Christ Jesus by the truth of the fruit of our lives. My point to him was that “We are the church, etc.” and must live as Christ commands and live by His higher standards for us.

    Paul writes to Timothy of these higher standards for our lives.

    Christians are NOT supposed to look and behave like just anybody. We must be a man like Christ or a woman like Christ in our relationships to others — especially other Christians — our new family and His.

    Take a look at some of these standards for the church, that is: you and me.

    1 Timothy 5

    Instructions for the Church

    Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers, 2 older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity.

    3 Honor widows who are truly widows. 4 But if a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show godliness to their own household and to make some return to their parents, for this is pleasing in the sight of God. 5 She who is truly a widow, left all alone, has set her hope on God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day, 6 but she who is self-indulgent is dead even while she lives. 7 Command these things as well, so that they may be without reproach. 8 But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

    “Everyone needs compassion, a love that’s never failing…”

    During difficult times I nearly weep at the very hearing of those words.

    Think of all the deserted older men and older women in nursing homes at this time of the year. Their grown children (even christian children) often abandon them in favor of the hustle and bustle and worldly priorities of their own lives. Once, we took care of our aging moms and dads in our own homes as long as we were physically able. We sacrificed and honored our mother and our father all the days of our lives.

    Once, christians honored marriage and would never break up a home for their own ends (let alone continue to call themselves christians); but now christian divorce, hated by God, rebuked by Jesus, and a breaking of our own covenant to God and witnesses “until we are parted by death,” is as prevalent as with those who would never claim Christ as Lord. Our Christian marriages are the very symbol of Christ’s relationship He desires for His bride, the church. [SEE: Ephesians 5: ]

    Ephesians 5: 31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”

    32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.

    33 However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

    As you, dear Christian brother, dear Christian sister, approach this turning of the year from the passing old to the new, consider the nature of how we are called to have changed by our taking up the cross to follow Jesus Christ, to witness His love in our relationships with others and by our own personal shining example to all others.

    Put On the New Self

    If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

    5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6 On account of these the wrath of God is coming.

    7 In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. 8 But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.

    9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator…

    12 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience,13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.

    14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And letthe peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body.

    And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

    Rules for Christian Households

    18 Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.

    19 Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them.

    20 Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.

    21 Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged…

    23 Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, 24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward.

    You are serving the Lord Christ. 25 For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality.

    My dear, beloved family of Christ Jesus,

    We live a new life of sacrifice and obedience to scripture, truthfulness of our word, and witness to our Lord and Savior, who offered Himself as acceptable sacrifice for our many sins. Do not live, dear brother, dear sister, in your over-bearing selfishness of your own flesh. Humble yourselves before our Groom, you His church and His Bride.

    Be Holy, as our Lord is Holy.

    Love one another, as I have loved you.  – John 13:34

  • Our Sin

    Our Sin

    Psalm 51

    English Standard Version (ESV)

    Create in Me a Clean Heart, O God

    To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.

    4 Against you, you only, have I sinned
    and done what is evil in your sight,
    so that you may be justified in your words
    and blameless in your judgment.

    Mark 8:

    34 And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them,

    “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it…

    38 For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

    Titus 1:16  They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.

    2 Timothy 2:

    If we have died with him, we will also live with him;
    12 if we endure, we will also reign with him;
    if we deny him, he also will deny us;
    13 if we are faithless, he remains faithful—

    God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, 26 and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.

     

    John 13

    English Standard Version (ESV)

    Jesus Washes the Disciples’ Feet

    Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end…

    17 If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.

    18 I am not speaking of all of you; I know whom I have chosen. But the Scripture will be fulfilled, ‘He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me.’

    If you know our Lord’s commands, ‘blessed are you if you do them.’

    And if not blessed for obedience to our Lord who died for our sins on the cross…

    IF not blessed, then cursed. (May God have mercy on your soul.)

    One of You Will Betray Me

    21 After saying these things, Jesus was troubled in his spirit, and testified, “Truly, truly, I say to you,one of you will betray me.”

    22 The disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom he spoke.23 One of his disciples, whom Jesus loved, was reclining at table at Jesus’ side, 24 so Simon Peter motioned to him to ask Jesus of whom he was speaking. 25 So that disciple, leaning back against Jesus, said to him, “Lord, who is it?”

    You believe your sin is against me; but your sin is the adultery of Judas.JudasBetrayal

    I gave her time to repent, but she refuses… – Revelation 2

     John 15:12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

     

    Ephesians 5

    English Standard Version (ESV)

    Walk in Love

    Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.

    2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us,

    a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

    Walk as children of light

    9 (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), 10 and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.

    11 Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.

     

    Wives and Husbands

    22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.

    23 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.

    24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.

    25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.

    31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”

    32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.

    33 However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

    Against you, you only, have I sinned
    and done what is evil in your sight…

    Forgive us, Lord

    by the fragrant offering of the Blood of Your Cross.

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