Friday, April 29, 2011

Notes to the Lord:Family is Family


1 Timothy 5 1Don't correct an older man. Encourage him, as you would your own father. Treat younger men as you would your own brother, 2and treat older women as you would your own mother. Show the same respect to younger women that you would to your sister.

Lord Jesus--Practical advise is always a good thing. Church is like family...relationships that need to be nurtured and grown over time. Relationships rest on unconditional acceptance, not upon performance. Grace that is rooted in a life that reflects you. That is the call.


3Take care of any widow who is really in need. 4But if a widow has children or grandchildren, they should learn to serve God by taking care of her, as she once took care of them. This is what God wants them to do.5 A widow who is really in need is one who doesn't have any relatives. She has faith in God, and she keeps praying to him night and day, asking for his help.


Lord Jesus--Sometimes the simple things get missed. Your will is spelled out here God wants family to take of family. The widow who has no one to help her must be helped by the church.

6A widow who thinks only about having a good time is already dead, even though she is still alive. 7Tell all of this to everyone, so they will do the right thing. 8People who don't take care of their relatives, and especially their own families, have given up their faith. They are worse than someone who
doesn't have faith in the Lord.

Lord Jesus--There are calls that make their demands upon us. The gospel calls us to do what is possible to help family that are in need. The gospel is sometime simple if not always easy. Then everyone who is a brother or sister in Christ is family. Our family is large...


Thank you for the light that you send...clear direction is always good.

Notes to the Lord

1 Timothy 5

1Don't correct an older man. Encourage him, as you would your own father. Treat younger men as you would your own brother, 2and treat older women as you would your own mother. Show the same respect to younger women that you would to your sister.

Lord Jesus--Practical advise is always a good thing. Church is like family...relationships that need to be nurtured and grown over time. Relationships that rest on unconditional acceptance, not upon performance. Grace that is rooted in a life that reflects you. That is the call.

3Take care of any widow who is really in need. 4But if a widow has children or grandchildren, they should learn to serve God by taking care of her, as she once took care of them. This is what God wants them to do.5 A widow who is really in need is one who doesn't have any relatives. She has faith in God, and she keeps praying to him night and day, asking for his help.

Lord Jesus--Sometimes the simple things get missed. Your will is spelled out here God wants family to take of family. But the widow who has no one to help it is the church job to intervene and be helpful.

6A widow who thinks only about having a good time is already dead, even though she is still alive. 7Tell all of this to everyone, so they will do the right thing. 8People who don't take care of their relatives, and especially their own families, have given up their faith. They are worse than someone who doesn't have faith in the Lord.

Lord Jesus--There are calls that make their demands. The gospel calls us to do what is possible to help family that are in need. The gospel is sometime simple if not always easy.

Thank you for t
he light that you send...clear direction is always good.

Monday, April 25, 2011

Notes to the Lord:On Growing Character


1 Timothy 4

11Teach these things and tell everyone to do what you say. 12Don't let anyone make fun of you, just because you are young. Set an example for other followers by what you say and do, as well as by your love, faith, and purity.


Lord Jesus--Paul’s instruction is to be the pace setter...the example that everyone looks up to. Love, faith and purity are measures that are pointed to in a world that twists and turns and is in constant change. Let me be a person who in the middle of change shows qualities of love, faith and purity. Even when the context shifts and twists help me demonstrate durability in these qualities.


13Until I arrive, be sure to keep on reading the Scriptures in worship, and don't stop preaching and teaching. 14Use the gift you were given when the prophets spoke and the group of church leaders blessed you by placing their hands on you.


Lord Jesus--Staying the course over time is what you call your people to. It is doing the same things over time that shape character and the qualities that Paul has just mentioned of love, faith, and purity. Using gifts given, remembering and cherishing the places where past light has been received.


15Remember these things and think about them, so everyone can see how well you are doing. 16Be careful about the way you live and about what you teach. Keep on doing this, and you will save not only yourself, but the people who hear you.


Lord Jesus--So much of the time I think about things that really don’t matter...they are distractions, at best. Paul points Timothy to ponder the places where You have worked and remember them...that these points of light should encourage and inform living in the present tense. The results of this kind of life style will have impacts for Timothy and for those who are a part of his church.


In this day Lord Jesus that will start soon, let me walk the walk that sees character formed.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Notes to the Lord: The Road Goes On From Here


1 Timothy 4
10We have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of everyone, but especially of those who have faith. That's why we work and struggle so hard.

Lord Jesus--You are the One with whom my hope is secure. The offer of salvation is open to everyone. I continue to be a sinner saved by your mercy and grace. The choice to accept your grace remains the dividing line between faith and fantasy. Your finished work on the cross is what defines me, not my meandering attempts at obedience.

The only response that I can give to your grace is acceptance and then depend on you for each step. What about the mess that seems to follow me from time to time?

The places where I just don’t finish well....the places where frustration mixes with acid reflux of the soul...the places where I am clueless and cutting? That is the place where grace really lives...the place where I have to depend on your sustaining grace to transform this person that I am into the person that you would have me to become.

Does that road ever end? Is that process ever finished? I am wondering if it is even finished after we meet face to face...I hope not. I hope that this journey from faith to sight is only the beginning of the changes that I can’t even imagine from this vantage point.

Who is the person you would have me become? A big souled person who sees no limits to the boundaries of grace. A person who knows from the inside out that God does change and will continue to change and grow his people...that the beginning of faith is so simple...the starting point is the willingness to accept the reality of my need and the availability of your grace.

In the day that will begin in a few minutes, let me be a big souled person...a person who reaches out in grace with a sure knowledge that God changes everyone who is open to His work in their lives. Remind me of the mercy I have experienced and the hope that lives within me.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Notes to the Lord: You in Me? Me Like You?


1 Timothy 4

6If you teach these things to other followers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus. You will show that you have grown up on the teachings about our faith and on the good instructions you have obeyed.

Lord Jesus--In the middle of the complexities of my world. I find myself at times wondering...is this effective? Am I wasting my time? Did I take a wrong turn somewhere?

That is when you point me to this simple evaluation...Kurt, Are you teaching the Word, like I told you to? Are you telling people that I am coming back? Are you still allowing yourself to be accountable and teachable? That is the point
.

7Don't have anything to do with worthless, senseless stories. Work hard to be truly religious. 8-9As the saying goes. "Exercise is good for your body, but religion helps you in every way. It promises life now and forever." These words are worthwhile and should not be forgotten.

Lord Jesus--Real religion is about relationship with you where prayer and communication is ongoing. More and more I find you entering my thought process...sometimes at surprising ways and times. Enter into my inner stream of thought, Lord Jesus in this coming day.

Change the course of my meanderings when needed. Be Lord of heart, soul, body, mind and take every thought captive. Stretch this small heart of mine to resemble yours if only is small ways in the day that will begin in a few hours.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Notes to the Lord:Before Your Return

1 Timothy 4

God's Spirit clearly says that in the last days many people will turn from their faith. They will be fooled by evil spirits and by teachings that come from demons.


Lord Jesus--These days are dark days, earthquakes,wars on three fronts, and economic unsustainablility. It makes me wonder about the future.

Then I read these lines. There is a spiritual hunger out there.
People who are looking for what satisfies and are not finding it. In the last days there will be a turning away for the faith, with spiritual confusion the order of the day. It will be a time when there will be will be evil at work to fool those who are seeking the spiritual.

There will need to be a high level of discernment on the part of your people. Even in this time there will be choices that need to be made: “many people will turn from their faith.” Even in deception there is choice.

2They will also be fooled by the false claims of liars whose consciences have lost all feeling.

There will be those who choose foolishly when they are listening to the teachings of liars. A twisted time of confusion coupled with active evil. Just because something appears to be spiritual doesn’t mean that it is good. Paul reminds me that evil is an active spiritual force which is seeking my destruction.


These liars 3 will forbid people to marry or to eat certain foods. But God created these foods to be eaten with thankful hearts by his followers who know the truth.

Lord Jesus--The hallmark of these impostors and liars will be the restriction of marriage and of diet. Alarm bells are ringing in my head. I am thinking Waco and Hale-Bopp comet followers all of whom had these kind of restrictions.

4Everything God created is good. And if you give thanks, you may eat anything. 5What God has said and your prayer will make it fit to eat.

Lord Jesus--It is easy to get side tracked on issues that really don’t matter. It will even get more difficult in the times before your coming. The very things that are gifts from your hand will be viewed as needing to be restricted by those who appear to be spiritual.


It really is not possible to know for sure if this is the time that Paul was talking about in these lines. What I can know for sure is that, the time is closer to your coming than when these words were written. Help me to be salt and light in times that seem to be darkening around me. Let me realize that in the middle of where ever you put me I am free to be yours with grace.


Don't let me be sidetrack on issues that are not essential, let me focus on the grace and mercy that I have received and find ways to communicate that in the time and place that you have put me. Give me discernment to serve you in the day that will start in a very little while.

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Notes to the Lord:The Mystery and the Glory


The Mystery and the Glory

1 Timothy 3

14 I hope to visit you soon. But I am writing these instructions, 15so that if I am delayed, you will know how everyone who belongs to God's family ought to behave. After all, the church of the living God is the strong foundation of truth.


Lord Jesus--As I write this I am thinking and praying for Living Springs Community Church. I am praying for the Holy Spirit’ s work in the time that we have both when we are gathered together and when we are scattered.

Paul must have felt some of the powerlessness of being unable to know if he would ever get back to see Timothy and the assignment that he had given him...to be able to encourage him, and give him pointers.


I know a bit about that sense of powerlessness, or maybe a better word is dependency on your power to be at work. Without your active intervention we can not live up to the instruction that has been given. Give power, Lord, to see your people live up to what you have call us to be.

16Here is the great mystery of our religion: Christ came as a human. The Spirit proved that he pleased God, and he was seen by angels. Christ was preached to the nations. People in this world put their faith in him, and he was taken up to glory.

There are so many ways that I have experienced grace and at the same time haven't a clue as to the extent or cost of it. I am the recipient of a great gift and at the same time a great mystery. Why did you ever do it, Lord?


Thank you Lord Jesus for the reminder of the mystery of grace that was expressed first in coming to this place and then in giving yourself for our freedom. It was to a fickle world that cheered you on Palm Sunday and jeered you a few days later that you allowed yourself to be sent...the essence of amazing grace.


In this day that will begin in a few hours help me to live out this simple faith with genuineness, humility, and authenticity.