Fine, Fine, Fine, all the Time, Time, Time…

The Problem?
I have traveled four times to North Africa to work either in pre evangelism or with underground churches.  I traveled to a Caribbean nation five times working with believers there.  I have been in five Asian countries doing the same thing.  One of the realities that is dealt with in each place is a false teaching that when one becomes a believer suddenly all of their monetary and physical needs are supplied by their faith in Christ.  If they aren’t then they do not believe deeply enough.

What Does the Word Say?
To say that this teaching is difficult to validate from the Word of God would be an epic understatement.  To label it false teaching is overly kind.  I have mentioned that I am working through 1 and 2 Timothy with a group of men.  We were in 2 Timothy 2 this morning.  Take a look at 2 Timothy 2:3 – 7.  What does Paul call Timothy to join?

• Suffering
• Separation from the World
• Hard Work with delayed gratification

Those things do not easily align with the message described above.  One of the major themes of 1 Peter is the suffering of believers.  Christ promised that as followers of Him we would be treated as He was treated, John 15:18 – 21.  He was persecuted and crucified.

One of the arguments might be that this word to Timothy was special because he was a leader in the church.  But that flies in the face of Matthew 28:18 – 20.  The apostles, including Paul, were to make disciples and teach them everything that Christ taught them.  That includes the call to suffer.

Does it Matter?
I do not hear that much.  I have not seen that cross stitched on many pillows.  It is the reality in many of the places I have traveled.  Yet there are still those who are teaching and proclaiming the message that faith brings wealth.

If I am reading this right, I believe I am, it is a different gospel.  Paul in Galatians 1:8 – 9 curses those who share a different gospel.

Probably want to stay away from that camp.

The Things

An Old Friend
2 Timothy 2:2 is one of the first verses that I memorized.  It is one of the first passages on which I applied a verse analysis study.  While I have studied the book and the passage several times there is a richness there that continues to bear ongoing scrutiny.

Thursday mornings I am in a study with a group of men and we are working through 1 and 2 Timothy.  This week we are in 2 Timothy 2 once again.  While there is much in that chapter that needs to be addressed look at verse 2 with me one more time.

Lessons Learned
Focus on what Paul exhorts Timothy to do.  Specifically, he tells his apprentice to entrust the things he has heard.  Now if you are like me, the first questions that leaps to mind is what are those things?  There are hints all through 2 Timothy 2 but there is a list in 2 Timothy 3:10 – 11.  My response to this was to go back to Acts 16 – 21 and note the lessons that Timothy would have picked up on his journeys with Paul during the 2nd and 3rd missionary journeys.  I would recommend that exercise.  Some of what I found:

Passage	Lesson
Acts 16:6	The Holy Spirit is in control of the agenda. The leader is the Lord not Paul. Paul was in submission to the Lord.
Acts 16:7	Be consistent in the following of the Holy Spirit’s guidance
Acts 16:9	Paul followed visions. Again the reality of the leadership of the Holy Spirit.
Acts 16:18	Spiritual Warfare
Acts 16:19	Physical resistance
Acts 16:23	Torture and incarceration will be a reality
Acts 16:37	Paul used his citizenship and the law to his advantage
Acts 17:1	Go to the people who are already hungry
Acts 17:11	Connection between the Word of God and belief
Acts 17:20	A major tenant of evangelism look for the God shaped vacuum in the culture

I’ll stop there, there are more, but it will give you a taste…  Do the study yourself, it is worth the effort.

One other observation, Paul writes about his ministry experience in 2 Corinthians 6:1 – 10, what “things” would Timothy learn through those experiences.

How Are We Doing With This Example?
This morning I was chatting with a Christian leader in our town.  He wondered aloud what we could do in our churches to better equip our people to be engaged like Christ, Paul, and Timothy.  One quick observation, both Christ and Paul assembled men and had them with them in ministry.  They were intentional in selection, engaging in life with those men, and launching them into ministry experiences that required them to trust God and lean on the Spirit’s gifts in their lives.

Not sure that we do that often in the Church today.

Personal Responsibility for the Word

What gets you out of bed in the morning?  
That is an easy question for me to answer.  Getting people into the Word of God for themselves.  What I mean by that is equipping people to sit down with their Bibles and a blank sheet of paper and being able to study the Word and thus meet with Christ themselves.  The focus is on men because based on Ephesians 5:15 – 6:33, men are supposed to lead.  To lead people have to be in the Word for themselves.

What does that mean?
Further clarification, by studying for themselves I do not mean reading the notes in a study Bible.  In the workshops I do I forbid them.  I give the participants just the text of the book we are studying.  Further, I do not mean by personal Bible study a fill in the blank study.  Why?  In the case of the study Bible, the notes are not inspired, the text is.  By reading the notes one assumes they are right, usually dropping down below the line that separates the text from the notes before one has struggled with the text.  When we do that we are short circuiting the ministry of the Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth, John 16:13.

In the case of the FIBS (Fill in the Blank) studies, the person who created the study is leading you through their observations.  They are asking you to see what they saw.  I will guarantee that there is more in the passage than they have seen; more that someone doing that study can see…

Why is it important?
For the past few months I have been working through Psalm 119.  This past week I was in Psalm 119:97 – 104.  In there I found validation for what I just shared.  Look at verses 99 – 100.  David says that the Word gives him more insight than his teachers and more understanding than the aged.  That is a big deal.

Studying the Word for oneself puts one in a dialog with teachers and pastors, a conversation if you will.  Rather than being spoon fed, one is comparing what they saw with what the teacher or pastor saw.  Since both parties are gifted by the Holy Spirit and are under His ministry of leading into truth, the dialog will be much richer than the spoon feeding.

Second in the Hebrew culture, well in most cultures, the aged are deemed to have greater understanding.  Here David tells us that observing the Word levels that playing field.  Speeds up the learning if you will.  That is a very good thing.

So What?
The bottom line?  Each of us needs to be in the Word, independently, for ourselves.  We cannot only depend on teachers, commentators, authors of Bible studies, and our pastors to study the Word for us.  We need to do that for ourselves.  That is what gets me out of bed.  If you want help with that, let me know.