Jerimiah 44:24-47:7, 2 Timothy 2:22-3:17, Psalms 94:1-23, Proverbs 26:6-8
Today is the 24th day of October. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It’s great to be here with you today continuing our journey forward as we all come in around the global campfire and out of whatever was going on and just let it go. Let it go. It’s it…it’s gonna be waiting. It just might look different after we spend a little time letting God’s word speak to us and kinda carving out a little place in our day that we say, “nothing’s getting in here. This is a specific time. It’s a part of the rhythm of my life and I’m setting it aside for life to be poured in from God’s word.” And, so, let’s take that next step. We’re reading from the English Standard version this week. Jeremiah chapter 44 verse 24 through 47 verse 7.
Commentary:
Okay. In second Timothy today we came to one of the verses that…that directly explains why we’re here today around the global campfire doing what we’re doing. And, so, we’ll talk about that in a second because it’s the last verse that we read today. But before that, Paul's…Paul’s doing what he does. Like, he contrasts lists often or characteristics often and he’s doing that today to show Timothy not only what he should aim for but what he should also avoid, the kinds of things that are soul killing but also community, like a community of faith killers. So, one path that is false and destructive, and one path that is true and enduring. And again, the Bible gives us the opportunity to examine ourselves. It brings us to this crossroad where we…we can listen to these lists and go, “okay. Who am I?” So, Paul writes to Timothy that in the last days and in the last times and, of course, he’s speaking of his own time, he tells Timothy, “people are going to be lovers of themselves and lovers of money, and proud and arrogant and abusive, and they’ll be disobedient to their parents and ungrateful and unholy and heartless and unappeasable and slanderous and will have no self-control. They’ll be brutal. They won’t love good. They’ll be treacherous, reckless, swollen up with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. They’ll appear godly but will be denying God’s power as they’re doing it. Avoid such people.” Paul tells Timothy. And he tells him that for his own sake but also, he tells him that as a means of protecting the community from…well…from things that will be nothing but destructive, right? We read the list and none of the things that we read of are healthy and all of them are destructive. I mean, especially in a community. And even though this letter was written a couple thousand years ago, like those characteristics, they’re heart issues. And, so, they’re still with us today in living color. But in contrast to that Timothy had seen Paul. Like he was a protégé. He had traveled all over the world with Paul, had seen the way that Paul did ministry and Paul’s posture of heart. And, so, Paul gave him a different list, a different path than the first path, a path that had been modeled for Timothy. So, Paul tells him, “as for you, continue in what you’ve learned and have firmly believed, knowing where you learned it, and how from childhood you’ve been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through Christ Jesus.” Okay. So, it’s like the divergence between the first set of characteristics or that type of person and the second is…is drastic. So, if we’re following the first path and we’re walking in that way, then we aren’t in a healthy place at all. And if those behaviors are bred into a community then they will become a black hole that will suck the life out of everything. On the other hand, the second path is solid, is life-giving, is enduring in all places and at all time even in trying times even in times when we have to endure.
Prayer:
Father, we invite You into what the apostle Paul was writing to Timothy and we’re grateful that we have the benefit of a personal letter that we can just take like this and read and understand advice that was being given from a spiritual Father to a spiritual son who was a pastor in spiritual leadership and understanding how vigilant of a task it is to consider the paths that we’re walking. And we confess that we usually kind of go through our day and it’s our day whether we planned it or whether a lot of things came up that we didn’t expect, we go through our day and we’re not necessarily in the moment thinking about the paths that we’re choosing that are leading us through the day and…and the reactionary way we often live so that we’re reacting in a negative way and maybe even exhibiting some of the characteristics that we’re to avoid. This often happens because things are just flying at us and we forget to take a deep breath and reconsider what path we’re going to walk. And, so, Holy Spirit You’ve promised You would lead us into all truth, and we believe that fully. It’s just a matter of whether or not we’re gonna pay attention to where You’re leading or what it is that You’re instructing us to do. We pray for the eyes and ears of the kingdom today, that we might hear You clearly in all of the choices we have to make. Come Holy Spirit in Jesus’ name we ask. Amen.
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And that’s it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.