The precious
and magnificent words which Paul deposited into Timothy were genuine words of
healing and comfort. Paul had received these
words from Jesus directly when He needed them most after His journey to
Damascus and the uncertainty of him of being knocked off his horse and blinded by a vision of Jesus.
During his
conversion experience, Jesus had told Paul (who was then called Saul) to
go into the city and wait. Jesus later spoke to Ananias the prophet in a
vision and told him to go to the "street which is called
Straight", and ask "in the house of Judas for one called Saul,
of Tarsus". (Acts 9:11) Ananias objected that Saul had been
persecuting "your saints", but the Lord told him that Saul was "a
chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the
children of Israel". (Acts 9:15). When Ananias went in to Saul and
laid his hands on him, the "scales" of dead tissue on the
surface of his eyes fell off, and he looked up at Ananias. After additional
instruction in the ways of the Lord, Saul was baptized and spent many days with the disciples at Damascus and immediately began to preach Christ.
Paul learned
what it meant to live a life in the fullness of Christ no matter what
circumstance he was placed in. He consistently
knew that the love of Christ which was his portion, and he wanted this (agape)
love to live in Timothy also. Paul was demonstrating
what it was to have Christ live in him and model that love to Timothy so that he
could see perfectly the outcome of Paul abiding in that love no matter where Jesus took Him.
Paul made
himself a model of true effective Christianity, even when in prison he
demonstrated Christ and never retaliated against the Roman regime that had imprisoned
him, but demonstrated the peace of God even amongst the beatings and lashings and his
eventual beheading, he knew there was nothing to be compared to the beauty and splendor
of his eternal home which was his ultimate goal.
Paul also said to Timothy that the faith and love of Jesus was progressive, even though Paul had deposited
the original (seeds) words within Timothy, the faith and love of
Christ Jesus would continue to grow, take root, and flourish revealing more and
more of the depths of God’s love which manifests in all of our lives without
measure.
Brenton Brown - We Will Go!
Paul told
Timothy to “..guard well this incomparable treasure by the Spirit of Holiness
living within you.” There are so
many forces which are competing for our attention and affection, it takes the
power of the Holy Spirit to help us discern the different influences so that we can be guarded and keep our eyes on the prize which is Jesus alone.
We have not
reached the place of persecution in this nation where the government comes
against the church to such a degree that people are imprisoned and tortured for
their faith, this, however, is a reality in other countries where totalitarian regimes
are hostile toward the gospel and will do everything in their power to silence it
to prevent it from spreading. It is
those Christians in those countries who are under this type of persecution and are under constant
threat of death who know Christ to such a degree that they have surrendered
themselves to trust Jesus to take them to their eternal home even when
captured. Muslim countries like Iran have radical Islamic sects which show no mercy to Christians when caught, they are humiliated, men and women are typically raped, and then
tortured to death.
Christians in these Muslim countries offer their bodies as living sacrifices to the call of Jesus to not
retaliate against their oppressors so they may be a testimony of the love of
Christ in every circumstance, even in the face of their death so that Christ may be glorified in them and God's peace may be demonstrated. In doing so, true revival is breaking out among the people and many are coming to Jesus.
Paul’s narrative
to Timothy is also a call to us to allow the life of Christ to shine from our
lives so that the outward demonstration of love which will confound the world
and its systems and create a desire for what we have.
Now, I speak to
you who are not Jewish, since I am an apostle to reach the non-Jewish people.
And I draw attention to this ministry as much as I can when I am among the
Jews, hoping to make them jealous of what God has given to those who are not
Jews, winning some of my people to salvation. Romans 11:13-14 (TPT)
Paul wanted
to provoke the Jews to jealousy by this profound love God has shown through
Christ Jesus to the non-Jew, shouldn’t we also in our day provoke to
jealousy those who are Muslim to know their savior and demonstrate to them the love
of Christ through our lives? The Muslim faith is only second to Christianity as being the largest religious system in the world, as Jesus has declared: "the fields are ripe unto harvest."
“For thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Once more
(it is a little while) I will shake heaven and earth, the sea and dry land; and
I will shake all nations, and they shall come to the Desire of All Nations, and
I will fill this temple with glory,’ says the Lord of hosts.” Haggai 2:6-7
(NKJV)
Jesus is the "desire of all nations", for it is His love that everyone desires, but they don't know Him yet. It is we who are the ambassadors of Christ to demonstrate that love to broken humanity that they may know their savior and be healed.
We are that "temple filled with glory!"
We are that "temple filled with glory!"
Be Blessed;
Stephen
Barnett
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