Is that you?

Happy Sunday!

2 Timothy 3:1-9 says, "Don’t be naive.
There are difficult times ahead.
As the end approaches,
people are going to be self-absorbed,
money-hungry,
self-promoting,
stuck-up,
profane,
contemptuous of parents,
crude,
coarse,
dog-eat-dog,
unbending,
slanderers,
impulsively wild,
savage,
cynical,
treacherous,
ruthless,
bloated windbags,
addicted to lust, and allergic to God.
They’ll make a show of religion, but behind the scenes they’re animals.
Stay clear of these people.

These are the kind of people who smooth-talk themselves into the homes of unstable and needy women and take advantage of them;
women who,
depressed by their sinfulness,
take up with every new religious fad that calls itself “truth.”
They get exploited every time and never really learn.
These men are like those old Egyptian frauds Jannes and Jambres,
who challenged Moses.
They were rejects from the faith,
twisted in their thinking,
defying truth itself.
But nothing will come of these latest impostors.
Everyone will see through them,
just as people saw through that Egyptian hoax."(Message).

I split these scriptures up on purpose.  I want you to slow down and read each descriptive word again.  Prayerfully, you will not find yourself in any of these words.  If you do, repent and the Holy Spirit will help you to do better!  Do you know anyone like this?  If so, do what the Apostle Paul told Timothy, "Stay clear of these people".

The Bible is always relevant.  No matter how many years pass, the Word speaks to what we are seeing and experiencing right now.  Dr. Bill Winston challenged us to move up to the next level!  We are responsible for the Word we have heard.  What we do with this revelation is very important.  Church is not for entertainment, but enlightenment.  We should be growing, changing for the better, and advancing.  Temptations that tripped you up last year should not  cause you to fall this year.  Generally, the content in one grade must be mastered before a student can move to the next grade.  In an imperfect world, we know this is not always the case.  But with God you must master the current level of revelation before more will be given to you. 

Hebrews 5:11-14 says, "There is much more I would like to say along these lines, but you don’t seem to LISTEN, so it’s hard to make you understand. You have been Christians a long time now, and you ought to be teaching others, but instead you have dropped back to the place where you need someone to teach you all over again the very first principles in God’s Word. You are like babies who can drink only milk, not old enough for solid food. And when a person is still living on milk it shows he isn’t very far along in the Christian life, and doesn’t know much about the difference between right and wrong. He is still a baby Christian! You will never be able to eat solid spiritual food and understand the deeper things of God’s Word until you become better Christians and learn right from wrong by practicing doing right."(Living Bible).

The Spirit of Fear is running rampant in our world today.  Most of the fear is centered around death.  We all will eventually die.  Let me say that again.  We all will eventually die.  How and when are uncertain, but God did not intend for us to cower in anticipation of death.  Jesus conquered death for us.  He removed the sting of death, and later the Apostles compared death to simply falling asleep.  We do not have to fear, but we each get to make the choice to stand in Faith or live in Fear.  1 John 4:18 says, "Love contains no fear—indeed fully-developed love expels every particle of fear, for fear always contains some of the torture of feeling guilty. This means that the man who lives in fear has not yet had his love perfected."(Phillips).

Jesus comforts us with these words, "I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have [perfect] peace and confidence. In the world you have tribulation and trials and distress and frustration; but be of good cheer [take courage; be confident, certain, undaunted]! For I have overcome the world. [I have deprived it of power to harm you and have conquered it for you.]"(John 16:33, Amplified).

Love and prayers, Cynthia