Timotheose - A son in the Faith

REWARDS

The chapter is summed up in the sixth chapter of Paul's letter to the church in Galatia; "Do not be decieved: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows."

I cannot but feel that, along with a blunting of the majesty of God and the 'fear' that should be our reponse to His aweful presence the concept of judgement is not held in high esteem in our day.

It is as though professors; I am using the term to those who 'profess' Jesus as Lord, believe themselves somehow immune to being judged and condemned if found wanting. Does not Matthew relate the words of Christ truthfully? "Not everyone who says to me 'Lord, Lord' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven."

I pray that I am not decieved and that I sow to the Spirit and not to the flesh. I pray we all 'work out our salvation with fear and trembling' this day and every day.


Feed the hungry
Give the one who thirsts drink
Clothe the naked
Release the oppressed
Visit the prisoner
Rescue the lost
Loose the chains of injustice

Love for all

For the glory of He who called us

RUINED

The reading is on the Holiness of the Lord and the inevitable human reaction to being confronted by his power, majesty and goodness. It was/is a very good chapter but it hardly goes far enough in my opinion. The Holiness of God the Father is one of those things which few people want to discuss or think about.

Perhaps it is difficult or even impossible to consider a being who is absolutely powerful, good and just. I do agree with trhe author when he says that we have "... dumbed Jesus down to our level these days. We treat him like a buddy we meet at the mall, ... He didn't come from the next street over. He created the entire Universe."

Now it is understood that this is one of the purposes of the incarnation of the Christ but why don't we consider the Trinity as so far above us that it is inconcievable that He even chose to come into our world as Jesus of Nazareth. Why is it that we want to reduce the Creator to such a 'manageable' level?

I say it is simply because of pride. It is simply pride that manifests in the sinful human desire to not examine oneself in the searing light of the perfection which is the Lord. I wish to reduce the distance between my sins and God's standards so that they do not peirce my heart with 'fear and trembling'. I want to reduce this great gulf of moral righteousness to only a few paltry hubris-filled steps.

All this is to my shame and to the lessening of the new life that he has planted in my heart. The more that I stand convicted of rebellion and wretchedness the deeper my love and my thankfulness becomes and the deeper and richer is the personal experience of His love and grace. I know this is the only thing worthy of drawing breath for and yet I find myself in a constant struggle to abide in these truth despite the infinite worth of the prize.

Forgive me, forgive us all.

There is, it seems in this verse three important demands made upon the one who would consider eternal life. Each of which, in turn must be submitted to before a disciple is born.

First the command to 'deny himself' is linked logically and sequentially to the command to 'pick up his cross' which is also inexorably joined to the final order to 'follow Me'. This denial of self must, when read in this manner be a necessary pre-condition of the second AND third commands. In other words it is necessary to deny oneself in order to pick up ones cross and then to follow.

Remembering here that Christ's audience would know full well what the act of picking up of 'ones' cross would mean. First off Christ says it is 'his' cross. Meaning that this cross, this instrument of death was made for 'him', it is tailor made for the would be disciple. It is 'his' death. Secondly when one does shoulder that awful burden there is an inevitability to the destination, there is no turning back until it is done.

Which brings me back to my original point that given this stark fact it becomes necessary, nay absolutely imperative that the one who would follow after the resurrected Son of God be fully aware of the cost, consequence and culmination of his journey before he steps upon this hard path.

And after having considered all of these impossibly hard truths this man, this one who would enjoy life and love everlasting must choose. He must decide, he must make a conscious act of will. He must be obedient to 'the call' knowing full well what this decision means.

He must deny himself his life and die.

One of the guys that I work with at the Foundation House asked me if I thought that this was something worthwhile for him to do and after I read it I got totally stoked on doing it myself. I heard David Nasser speak at the Starfield Concert in Victoria this last summer and his message was pretty good and as I am going through some transitions in my life now where I want to cut out all of the extraneous baggage of the 'world' this seems to be a real gift from God.

It involves commitment to a 40 day fast which Nasser describes as "... denying yourself of something so you can focus more completely on God." as well as doing bible study, scripture memorization and introspection. I have briefly looked over some of the questions and the format and I think it should be quite challenging and is most likely just what I need right now.

Perhaps I will keep a little journal of my progress.