"Difficult Times Will Come" - Are they Here?

   
     In Second Timothy chapter three, Paul is writing to Timothy. Paul is talking about the last days. He starts by saying that difficult times will come. Verse two talks about this time, and says, "For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, 4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God; 5 holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power;" Paul concludes verse five with the statement, "and avoid such men as these."

     Really, Paul? How is that even possible? Judging by the list he gave Timothy, I'd say we are in the last days, 'cause I know a lot of folks or hear about them on the news that fit just about every category he listed. What's even worse, some of 'em are in the church!

     So what do we do about it? How are we going to get through these times? In verse twelve, Paul says that, "And indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted." I was accused one time of belonging to the church of Christ. He said he could tell, because we all have a "persecution complex." Maybe it's not a complex, maybe we really are being persecuted, because we are desiring to live godly lives! When you put someone who is godly in the midst of the people mentioned before, you will stand out.

     But what does Paul tell us to do to get through this? He says, "You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them; 15 and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 16 All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; 17 that the man of God may be adequate, (thoroughly) equipped for every good work."

     Paul says stay in the word. It is what we need to keep ourselves from the contamination around us, and to bring the light into this world of darkness. Pick up your Bible and use it the way God meant us too.

God Bless you richly as you spend time in His word - Robert

Lets talk about church growth!

     During our Bible class yesterday morning, the teacher was focusing on Saul's conversion in Acts 9:1-31. Saul's conversion account ends in verse 19, so why did he include the next 12 verses? That is where most of us would stop in teaching about conversion, right? Saul was baptized in verse 18, and the conclusion of his baptismal event was him eating and regaining strength in verse 19.

    That is one of the problems facing the church today. We think that when someone is baptized, we have done our duty. We have converted them. Let us look at what follows in this account. Saul spends several days with the disciples, and immediately begins preaching about Jesus. That kind of enthusiasm in our new converts is often squashed, because we think they "don't know enough" to do evangelistic work, or some other equally lame excuse. We need to encourage our new converts. They have access to a whole new pool of lost souls we might never have come in contact with before. We should be right there with them, helping them, building them up, etc.

     While what I just mentioned above is very important, that is not my primary focus today. I want to look at verse 31 of this chapter where it talks about the church growing.

     We read, "So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria enjoyed peace, being built up; and, going on in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it continued to increase."

       My question is: are these the requirements for a congregation to grow, in addition to evangelistic effort? Do we need to have peace both within our congregation, and within the congregations we interact with? Do we need to have a congregation that is being built up, meaning encouraged from within? Do we need to be going on (or conducting ourselves daily) in the fear of the Lord and the comfort of the Holy Spirit?

     The short answer is, I don't know. I do find it important to point out that Jehovah God through the Holy Spirit inspired Luke to write these words, associating all these items with church growth. Are these direct commands that we have to follow? I don't see that they are, but my question would be, what harm would there be in ensuring that our congregation and the congregations around us are all at peace with each other? Or that we are encouraging the congregation from within, or conducting ourselves in the fear of the Lord and comfort of the Holy Spirit? What would it hurt? Would our congregations not be stronger for it? Would our congregations not be somewhere that we, and those we are evangelizing to, would want to be?

    So my challenge to you today, and everyday from here on out, is this. In addition to being evangelistic, try to be at peace within the congregation you are in, encourage those you worship and fellowship with, and conduct yourself in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit!


God Bless You as you strive to serve Him!


Robert