Category: Faith in the Struggle

For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth.   2 Timothy 4:3,4 At first glance at this passage I am tempted to look outward. It would be…
Read more

I charge you…preach the word; be ready in season and out of season… 2 Timothy 4:1,2 I have disliked these verses in the past. I felt like Paul was insisting that I needed to sermonize everyone I met. I’m no preacher. My father is (though he would never use the term), and a rather excellent one I…
Read more

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:16,17 Have you known those who insist that God talks to them? My internal response has always been part jealousy…
Read more

For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant… without self- control… swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness…   2 Timothy 3:2-6 It is easy for me to see the flesh nature defects in others. I read passages like this and I…
Read more

Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone…   2 Timothy 2:23,24 I have been quite guilty of being a quarrelsome/hypercritical Christian (only long ago of course). I have (OK, I still do sometimes) accepted the deception…
Read more

2 Timothy 2:22 So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. Many see following Christ as a joyless surrender of everything pleasurable in life. Following God will mean giving up my freedom to pursue my own passions. If you find…
Read more

2 Timothy 2:20,21 Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master…
Read more

2 Timothy 1:6,7 …fan into flame the gift of God… for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. Through Jesus, we have the gift of God’s Spirit. The One who spoke the universe into existence dwells with us and in us. He is constantly present and working…
Read more

But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called… 1 Timothy 6:11,12 There are those who preach a passive Christian life. You don’t have to do anything, let…
Read more

But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. What do I pursue? If you audited my life and had to assess that which is…
Read more