RIGHT PRIORITIES! For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. —I Timothy 6:10 Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to your care. Turn away from godless chatter and the opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge, which some have professed and in so doing have departed from the faith. —I Timothy 6:20-21             Two things are mentioned in the above passages that have cause people to wander from the faith or depart from the faith— eagerness for money and some ideas falsely called knowledge.             “The love of money…

YOUR REPUTATION FOR JESUS He must also have a good reputation with outsiders, so that he will not fall into disgrace and into the devil’s trap. —I Timothy 3:7             How am I looked at by those who do not know our Lord Jesus Christ? Do I have a good reputation among them? Does my life I live line up with our Lord that I profess and do the lost see that? Are they positively impacted by who and whose I am?             We will surely come into conflict with the lost when we are sharing the gospel.   But even when we share the gospel do we come across…

THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully, understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine, in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted. —I Timothy 1:8-11             Those of us who have been justified understand, or we should understand, that we were justified through…

  I LOVE OUR LORD I love you, O LORD, my strength.  The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. —Psalm 18:1-2 “Teacher, which commandment is the greatest in the Law?” Jesus declared, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’  This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’  All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” —Matthew 22:36-40             Do you truly love the Lord…

ENCOURAGE AND BUILD UP Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing. —I Thessalonians 5:11             When were you last encouraged by a fellow follower of our Lord Jesus? When was the last time a fellow follower of Jesus built you up? Or, when was the last time you encouraged a fellow follower of our Lord Jesus? Or, when was the last time you built up a fellow follower of Jesus?               The Thessalonians were doing this and our Lord through the Apostle Paul acknowledged them for doing so. They were a local church active in the encouraging and building up of each…

NO GOOD APART FROM OUR LORD I say to the LORD, “You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you.” —Psalm 16:2             What have we that is good apart from the Lord? Apart from the Lord we live for ourselves. Just look at the world around us to see how that goes. Or, look at your own life before you had a relationship with Jesus. Selfishness— idolatry, taking the Lord’s Name in vain, dishonoring to parents, not even thinking about setting time aside for our Lord, murderous in thought or action, adulterous in thought or action, stealing, lying, wanting what is not ours— that is what life…

OVERCOMERS! For we wanted to come to you—indeed I, Paul, tried again and again—but Satan obstructed us—I Thessalonians 2:18             Never forget that our adversary is actively against us. He is not just there, he is working to defeat us any way he can. He wants to hinder us from faithfully following the Lord. The Apostle Paul said that “we are not unaware of his schemes” (II Corinthians 2:11). Do we understand his schemes? Satan actually “prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (I Peter 5:8).  Yes, he wants to destroy you. That is his wicked purpose. We are told to “Resist him, standing firm in…

NEW CLOTHES! Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.  Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.  You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived.  But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.  Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.  Here there is no Gentile or Jew,…

GOD MAKES DEAD MEN LIVE! And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. —Colossians 2:13-14 As for you, you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you used to walk when you conformed to the ways of this world and of the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit who is now at work in the sons of disobedience. At one time we all lived among…

THE BEST IS YET TO COME But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. —Philippians 3:20-21             Hey citizen of Heaven, are you looking forward to your glorious body that will be like our Lord Jesus’ body? —- “Beloved, we are now children of God, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when Christ appears, we will be like Him, for we will see Him as He is” (I John 3:2). How…