Another reminder

Our Daily Bread
While praying over the weekend, I was reminded about my motivations and actions at times.  Was I praying for God to be with me during my concert so I wouldn't embarrass myself and so others would admire and praise me?  Or was I praying for God to be with me so I could glorify him with my singing?  What about in my daily life?

The devotional reminded me about it again today.  Do we look at others with the love Jesus gave us or do we look down at them because of their position in life, their ability (or inability) to sing, or any other reason to look down our nose?  As humans, we long for power and superiority.  There is nothing wrong with that as long as we focus on our mission from God.  The power from the Holy Spirit to live for God.  The superiority over Satan and the sins of our flesh to praise our Lord.  We can do this!

During the time of Lent that starts tomorrow, let's look at giving up our sinful selves instead of some earthly pleasure or treat!

Lord, we know you want us to love others.  Please help us put aside all the things that keep us from doing that!

Teaching Tuesday
We studied I and II Timothy and Titus this week in EFM.  Here is what I liked and didn't like.

All the books had great intentions in my opinion: encourage the church, warn against false teachings and help move the church forward by defining some structure.  All good things.  You should read these three books to get the entire picture.

While reading these books, especially the Timothys, I was reminded over and over about how these passages are abused over and over in our churches.  They are used to exclude people instead of include people and define the roles of leadership too narrowly for any age.  I knew a Godly man in my home church that everyone admired for his spirituality and good works.  We all loved him and looked to him for inspiration.  The kind of church leader any church would be happy to have, BUT he married and divorced early in his life before he accepted Christ.  The church deemed him ineligible to be a deacon or preacher because of that.  Seriously?  Restricting women from being leaders in the church?  Seriously?  I have had a problem with this interpretation for decades!

There are other passages that I have issues with as well.  I try to focus on the positive passages and the passages that warn us against false teachings.  I wish more folks looked at the false teachings passages and honestly evaluate if they are guilty or not!  We should focus on loving God and loving others!

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The Bible is a like a "tweet" about God.  We don't have enough characters available to tell of His glory! - Fitzpatrick