“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.”
~ 2 Timothy 3:16
Hi James and Ellen,
Are you valuing the days that God has you living on planet Earth? Are you hoping that God will change the conditions in which you are now living with on planet Earth? Are you fearing what God has in the future for your lives on planet Earth? Your grandpaa was eight years old when your grandpaa’s dad and ma built a bathroom in the house where your grandpaa grew up as a kid. Your grandmaa was in high school before your grandmaa’s dad and ma had a car. After your grandpaa’s dad asked your grandpaa to clean out the west or south ‘room’ in his barn, your grandpaa’s dad would pay your grandpaa a dime for each time that he filled his dad’s manure spreader with manure. Your grandmaa helped her ma each Saturday to completely clean the house where she was living with her dad and ma. When your grandmaa and grandpaa were kids, your grandmaa and grandpaa had chores that their dad and ma expected them to do. Your grandmaa and grandpaa both had a dad and ma who purposively and faithfully lived and modeled Christ-follower lives. Your grandpaa’s dad and ma and your grandmaa’s dad and ma made sure that their kids were taught and trained so that when your grandmaa and grandpaa became a guy and gal that they would have the underpinning to know how to live consistent and committed Christ-follower lives.
Do you ever wonder what God is going to have it be like for you – as you get older, to live on planet Earth as Christ-follower kids? Paul – about 1940 years ago, scribed a second letter to send to Timothy. Timothy was a young guy who Paul mentored for years. In the second letter that Paul scribed and sent to Timothy, Paul – in 2 Timothy 3, gives Timothy a glimpse of what he should be looking for as signs of the imminent return of Jesus to planet Earth. Jesus’ initial visit to planet Earth was to die so that His death would become the ransom payment for every sin of every single guy, gal and kid who would become a Christ-follower. The final two letters that Paul scribed he sent to Timothy. Paul had asked Timothy to hang out in the city of Ephesus – as his emissary, to oversee the leadership of the house church movement that was taking place in the city of Ephesus. Paul’s first letter to Timothy seems to be to your grandpaa a rather curt and strategic letter. Your grandpaa has reflected that after Timothy received Paul’s initial letter, that Timothy may have sent a note back to Paul asking him to please accept him as a guy with feelings who was doing the best that he could with the gifting and talents that God had hardwired him with instead of a guy who had been asked by Paul to remain in the city of Ephesus to complete tasks that he – Paul, had started when he spent three years or so in the city of Ephesus. Your grandpaa thinks that the second letter that Paul scribed and couriered to Timothy seems to communicate being more compassionate and personally directed. Your grandpaa made this thought the crux of a devotional that he gave during an annual Canadian South American Mission board meeting. This annual board meeting took place about fifteen years ago when your grandpaa was the Executive Director of the Canadian South America Mission. Just as Timothy may have struggled with the impersonal way that Paul scribed in the first letter that Paul sent to him that he . . . your grandpaa was hoping that when he gave the devotional that just maybe the guys who were on the Canadian South America Mission Board of Directors would see your grandmaa and grandpaa more as being a guy and a gal whose hearts’ desires were to serve God with their hardwired gifting and abilities versus a guy and a gal who were expected to care for and to grow an entity – which was a perception that your grandpaa had at times from the guys who were on the Canadian South America Misson Board of Directors.
When Paul scribed the last letter that he would scribe – which was the second letter that he sent to Timothy, Paul was in a jail in the city of Rome facing death. Not long after Paul scribed his final words, Nero martyred Paul. In the last letter that Paul would scribe – which was sent to Timothy, Paul told Timothy that the last days will have guys and gals ‘thumbing their noses’ at God. Paul told Timothy that the last days will see guys and gals caring only for themselves, loving money more than anything else, becoming narcissistically boastful, exuding condescending pride, affirming abusive responses, acting in malicious, disobedient ways – such as a kid to his or her dad and/or ma, communicating ungratefulness, living in unholy ways, having no love, showing no forgiveness, slandering freely, demonstrating no self-control, reacting brutally, desiring nothing that is good, operating treacherously, reacting rashly, promoting conceit, pursuing personal gratifications versus pursuing God’s love and forming a personalized godliness that offers no hope. Paul also scribed that guys will worm their way into weak-willed gals’ lives to control them – as these gals will be sin loaded and evilly swayed by their wicked desires. Paul’s message to Timothy of a future doomsday included seeing evil guys and guys and gals who are Christ-follower imposters going from bad to worse while guys, gals and kids who are godly Christ-followers will be facing persecution just as Jesus was severely persecuted by the guys who killed him. Paul finished his warning to Timothy with an exhortation which is that any guy, gal or kid who becomes a Christ-follower must be equipped to share his or her faith through learning to declare Biblical truths. Verse 16 says, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.” Your grandpaa is convinced that if a Christ-follower guy, gal or kid invests as much time as possible in internalizing God’s Word into his or her life that he or she will be ready for planet Earth’s final days.
2 Timothy 3 (954)