2 Timothy 2:14-26 ~ pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart

2 Timothy 2:14-26

14 Remind them of these things, and charge them before God [the Lord] not to quarrel about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers. 15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved,  a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

16 But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, 17 and their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, 18 who have swerved from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already happened. They are upsetting the faith of some.

19 But God's firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.”

20 Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable. 21 Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.

22 So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. 23 Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels.

24 And the Lord's servant [bondservant] must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, 25 correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, 26 and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.

All of our words? Why do the Heavens - space - exist? What if Heaven and space store up every word we have spoken and this comes back to us? Particularly, when we all go through the Valley of Decision and our words come before Jesus the Lord. Joel 2 and 3.


What about:

~ Irreverent babble

~ Regular Life

~ Teaching and leading each other to the Upward Path of God

~ Learning from every Word of God

 

Irreverent Babble -

Wouldn't we all have irreverent babble, even discussing the events of Little League Baseball and team sports. The movies we watch. The Television, the muck that has invaded our lives and our family and friends.

The Pew Report asks us why the Nation loses 2% a year from Churches. 

I think this is pretty clear. We have returned to the 1st Century A.D. 

Muck has hit in divorce, abandonment by parents, grown children and their attitudes, "dating" at all ages - cultural values that do not help the generations, memories of parents who have harmed, responsibilities of busy parents loosing their joy, wobbly parenting, porn, the culture asking us to look for every cent of profit, the expenses of medical cares and the number one bankruptcy of this nation. The ebb and flow of life changing circumstances. The abandonment of jobs, as people age and are let go. Tough and harsh times. Television and isolation. Muckety muck attitudes of superiority and the desire to protect life from trouble.

Regular Life -

Solutions - We need to see what The Book of Acts brings to the model of the Churches. 

What grew the Churches in this time? Only Love. Our Mission Field is not away from the Church, our Mission Field, according to St. Augustine are the (few) people we actually live with and just intersect into our lives.

We need to remember the pervasiveness of Jesus Christ as Living Water, the Holy Spirit. Giving Strength. Refreshing, renewing. Going in to seep, nourish where people would flee. 

Let's be realistic - The Church has always recorded the trouble of people meet people. As a part of Jesus, the doors are open to all people. Rev. Bill Hull says the Church is where enemies learn to love one another.

Remembering this in Jesus Christ - our guide is this - Jesus Loves. Love is the authority of Jesus and His Word.

Wow, Jesus could say a few things really getting our attention.

Luke 14:26
If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters--yes, even their own life--such a person cannot be my disciple.

Luke 9:60
And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” 1 Corinthians 7


Explaining to take a stand against aspects pulling us away from Jesus.

Learning to see God interweaves all situations for the good of those who love the Lord and work to His Purpose.

Youth workers know how to weave the noble and ignoble together.

1 Corinthians 9:19-23

19 Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. 20 To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. 21 To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. 23 I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.


1 Corinthians 9:24
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way as to take the prize.


Not forgetting the direction of Jesus. Not idolizing our families when they are mistaken. Asking the joy and help of the Love Jesus has for us all.




Long ago this meant abandonment and shunning, today this is Love making known. Still God says we should flee sexual sin. You and your household will serve the Lord. Give what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

~ Learning from every Word of God

Trust the Example of God. Trust in God begins at Birth.


God was certainly going to put His own Son in the Trust and Faith -
the position of Mary and Joseph raising a child in the early years - trust is required immediately.

Jesus was named before he was in the womb. Yes. Many years earlier. At birth, he was given pain to find health; circumcision . His culture looked for ways to promote health and long life. This was trust - God would see the small child through the waters of this trouble.

The cultures surrounding the Jews, killed the infants and spread their blood as fertilizer. It was an exchange with the god of prosperity for a life filled with prosperity and did yield crops. We call this today, abortion.

God never felt called to explain why the Children of Israel were not to mingle with the other nations and their gods. We might wonder He had some concern - they would like the idea of prosperity through blood. The animal sacrifices are listed throughout the Old Testament like Psalm 40 - not a pleasure to God. Their blood was not used on the crops, God would rely on solutions other than blood. Leviticus 17:14 surely tells us God was aware Life is in the blood of all living things. Trust God.

Faith gives us Solutions. Acts 1 Model of Churches - would ask us to find love, mercy and humility for each other.

Father God,


We lift up our sudden flooding larger than Hurricane Ike. The people who were fine on Tuesday and Wednesday and today see tremendous flooding. The people who recovered from flooding a few weeks ago. We ask the Mercy of Father God in the weather.


We desire Your wisdom and guidance and look to Your Word for the centeredness of God. To make the circle, wider, more loving, more filled with Your Word with Holy Spirit in Jesus, to Abba the people, to have Jesus' Joy, Love, Truth and Mercy. Justice.


Father God, help us to Obey You as our Abba. Honor You. Remembering most of the Blessings in life revolve around Your Commandments. Telling us a promise, “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.”

Remembering with us the Journey leads always to You. Your Throne. Majesty and Righteousness in Beauty are Your's.

To see the Willingness of God is Love.

For God so loved
the world,
that He gave
His only Son,
that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.

In invitation for forever.

Remembering You love Thanksgiving for Today and hope for Tomorrow.

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Our Thanksgiving shall meet our lips. You shall teach diligently to your children (your loved ones), and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.

Grandmother Anita never, never, never, never gave up on her son in faith and prayer, Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child  (the New Testament refers to brothers and sisters)  in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it. And in her son's 70's, Joel Olsteen, in Christian Fellowship, handed out free copies of Rick Warren's "Purpose Given Life" and her son saw Salvation in Jesus Christ. Salvation is a gift of Jesus. Those who knock, find. 

Parents, loved ones, do not provoke to anger, but bring them up in the discipline Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Encouragement, Gentleness, Perseverance, Character. Endurance. Do not withhold disciple. Love yourself as well as others. And Honor Father God first with Love.

For Your Willingness, Your gracious Gifts, Your Mercy and Love - Father God, we Thank Thee. Amen in Jesus.

♔ Lord Jesus Saves!  †

Free Will

Free Will. That built in method Father God gave us to help us decide who we are.

Look that up in the Bible and you will find - absolutely nothing. 



And that odd, obscure story of Jonah.

Jonah came to fame before the boat, the storm, popular acclaim and the whale.

Jeroboam II King of Israel reigned forty-one years. 

Proving the rain falls on the just and the unjust.

However Jeroboam II was the same as Jeroboam I:

2 Kings 14

24 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord and did not turn away from any of the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit.

25 He was the one who restored the boundaries of Israel from Lebo Hamath to the Dead Sea,[ in accordance with the word of the Lord, the God of Israel, spoken through his servant Jonah son of Amittai, the prophet from Gath Hepher.

26 The Lord had seen how bitterly everyone in Israel, whether slave or free, was suffering;[f] there was no one to help them. 27 And since the Lord had not said he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven, he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam son of Jehoash.


His Successor?

29 And Zechariah his son succeeded him as king.

Skip a few years and we have Zechariah again. 

Zechariah achieved a free will,  dominant attitude to Gabriel and Zechariah lost his voice. Until God had mercy, when John the Baptist, his son was born.

So far we are not proving Free Will. But the opposite.

GOD' WILL. God says His Name is "I Am."

History is the story of His Story. Winston Churchill thought so and he wrote this: History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.

Jeremiah, said, he couldn't do the will of God. He did!

Paul asked Jesus to look away, He was a sinner. He did God's Will.

Need another free will story?

Joseph of Jacob and the multicolored cape. 

Winston Churchill went on to say this:
History is written by the victors.

Which is exactly what my English Professor, in 2nd Semester English Literature, said to me. The Bible is a collection of "suuuure". And she used the invisible, untrue, fake Hittite Empire. I went up after class, because I love to discuss the Bible and, particularly, Jesus. We had a lovely conversation where she and I were most kind and did disagree. I was stumped - I had no clue the Hittites never existed. Low and behold two weeks later the headlines of The Dallas Morning News found - The Library of the Entire Hittite Nation intact. Which, I betcha, lead to Hollywood adding to Indiana Jones.

And the Hittite Papyrus sealed in containers like the Dead Sea Essenes - were proof the Bible actually is written by Thee Victor, Who Never Lies.


 (PS Indiana Jones, Jeremiah wrote the Babylonian Exiles as he was free. Later  2 Maccabees 2:4-9- The Ark is on Mt. Nebo and is well hidden and sealed by God Himself)


(The Rest of the College English Literature Story is I felt so comfortable speaking with my College Professor, I left a message with her office about The Dallas Morning News Article. She was out of town, but when the grades arrived I was pleased to find I had an A on my paper and for the semester.)

Ok another Free Will Example. Ok, Two Examples.

Daniel and Ezekiel.

 Daniel sounds like he is fun. Your Sunday School or you want to know Daniel. The Holy Spirit manifests this in Daniel. Perhaps we like Daniel for this very reason...

Daniel 1
9 Now God had caused the official to show favor and compassion to Daniel

Ok, Free Will???

Daniel 1

2 And the Lord delivered Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, along with some of the articles from the temple of God. These he carried off to the temple of his god in Babylonia and put in the treasure house of his god.

Ezekiel was also carried off. Ezekiel - son of Buzzi. This Dude was making faith part of all the exiles lives. Taking the boundaries given to him and making The Way, The Truth, The Life.


Boundaries...

Nebuchadnezzar II named his son Am-el Marduk.

Nebuchadnezzar, grew up in the Assyrian Empire where Jonah has caused a spark, a Light - of interest in the Hebrew God "I Am" and his messengers, His archangels are all called El - therefore Am-El was his son. Nebuchadnezzar had read Isaiah and believed he had found - himself - in God's Word.

Isaiah 14

12“How you are fallen from heaven,
O Day Star, son of Dawn!
How you are cut down to the ground,
you who laid the nations low!
13You said in your heart,
‘I will ascend to heaven;
above the stars of God
I will set my throne on high;
I will sit on the mount of assembly
in the far reaches of the north;c
14I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.’
15But you are brought down to Sheol,
to the far reaches of the pit.
16Those who see you will stare at you
and ponder over you:
‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble,
who shook kingdoms,
17who made the world like a desert
and overthrew its cities,
who did not let his prisoners go home?’
18All the kings of the nations lie in glory,
each in his own tomb.

Daniel, I am sure, loved being anointed by God in his own boundaries - however the lions were a bit much.

And Nebuchadnezzar found the Living Power in God's Word as he suffered and recovered. A characteristic of believers.

Boundaries and Miracles.

Now this is the part where we discover ourselves in the Living Water's of God.


Guideposts reports:

For two decades, Mary Ann Franco was blind. Until an accident helped her see. Mary Ann was blind for 20 years and found she needed surgery. When she woke up - she found her boundaries had changed. She was no longer blind. In fact, all her life she had been color blind and now could see color for the First Time.
Seeing her grandchildren for the first time.

This tells us, today, our boundaries are in the hands of God Himself.

Do we need another example. A living example of God's Word Today about Free Will???

Almost every week Joel Olsteen tells his Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas and his television congregation This:

We all work in jobs, situations, care taking, tight economies that are tight and ill fitting. Times that require this!

Romans 5

3We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. 4And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. 5And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.

6 When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners.


Because God wants to save the world in Jesus Christ. We hope for the Blessing of God Himself. Knowing that in our problems, trials, endurance, character, we find God's Love
and discover His Will for Today - Is Making Us Stronger. His Will is Good.

So life leaves us in tight corners.

What if Mary had said, " No WAY. I have a choice."

This is where we just acknowledge - we are in His care. Hopeless to always arrive at change. Proving Einstein wrote the same mathematical formulas again and again and again to arrive at boundary change, in God's Time.

We find Free Will. This is what God says about Free Will.

Joshua was Centered in God: Waiting 40 years to do His Will.

Joshua 24:15
Choose this day whom you will serve,
whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell.
But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.


Proverbs 16:9
The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.


Being like Pope John Paul II, Pappa! The Catholic Pappa said, "We are the Easter People", who ask Jesus to dwell, to live and move and have His Being in our souls:

John 1:12-13
But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

Remembering like Billy Graham, Father God has seen our last chapter and this turns out Very Well!

Revelation 3:20
Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.


Our Free Will is finding

His Will is our Hope and Future.

We do not serve a God who is disappointed in us. We serve a God who tells us we do a flawed Ultimate for His Highness, in in our, just, Love We Hold for Jesus - God is going to Run to Us.

How does God feel about YOU - You who Love Jesus?

When YOU Believe in Your Heart Jesus is Your Love. Your God. Your Savior.

2 Corinthians 1:14
as you have already understood us in part, so that you may boast of us just as we will boast of you in the day of our Lord Jesus.

1 Thessalonians 2:
for a short time, in person not in heart, we endeavored the more eagerly and with great desire to see you face to face, 18because we wanted to come to you—

19 For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you? 20 For you are our glory and joy.

Feel free to Love the Lord Your God with all Your Heart.






Father God,

We live in a time where people fall from faith and hope and joy. Muck surrounds us. When we lift our heads, muckety mucks say we fail at life, hope, and faith with attitudes. The culture hopes to throw muck on our loved ones, on our families. We live lifting our faces up to Jesus.

Help us each day to know like Max Lucado says "Father God would put our refrigerator art on His refrigerator."

To feel the certainty that Father God would Run to Lift us.

The Thanksgiving, The Great GLORY OF OUR FATHER GOD

Bring the whole blessing God saves The World in Jesus our Hero.

His unending, never diminishing storehouse, where all things are possible.

The test God gives us to Believe Jesus in our Hearts and Profess His Blessing of Salvation with our Mouths.

For us. For you, for you, His Child by His own Will, His own Call. Jesus will open the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows.

In this Blessing, let us pray for those we Love. For the People He has given us. And be filled Loving them with Peace, Joy, Comfort, Gentleness, Patience, Encouragement, Tenderness, Diligence, Dignity, Self Control. Seeing the Good in others and holding them to Jesus.

And this Holy Spirit goodness sweeps our homes, the hope we have for the future, our words of Life. This Love brings forth fathers, to families, to Churches, to Communities, to Cities, to States and His Love covers the Nation to be a Light to the World.

Because in our Love Jesus has for us, we have encouragement to Love and Hope.

Let your Words pick Life.

Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.

Our Blessing is in You, Jesus Christ. Our Strength.

Amen and Alleluia.

♔ Lord Jesus Saves!  †

2 Timothy 2:14-26 ~ one approved

2 Timothy 2:14-26

¹⁴ Remind them of these things, and charge them before God ^{[the Lord]} not to quarrel about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers. ¹⁵ Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, ^{[one approved after being tested]} a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. ¹⁶ But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, ¹⁷ and their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, ¹⁸ who have swerved from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already happened. They are upsetting the faith of some. ¹⁹ But God's firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.”

²⁰ Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable. ²¹ Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work. 

²² So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. ²³ Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. ²⁴ And the Lord's servant ^{[bondservant]} must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, ²⁵ correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, ²⁶ and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will. 

Matthew 23:23  
"How terrible it will be for you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your mint, dill, and cummin, but have neglected the more important matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faithfulness. These are the things you should have practiced, without neglecting the others."

We can take all of our denomination differences. We may look at King James Version or the English Standard Version and stake our claim. Or we can say - God is Love. Jesus never quoted the added Chapter and Verse. He merely said, "It is written." Jesus gave us ideals and He lived them. Mercy with Truth over all else. Every day. His Father's ideals and He gave His life for them. For us. Beyond that..... we must say to ourselves each day - cast the first stone. And our attitudes and words must reflect the ideals of Jesus. And the mercy of Jesus.


Romans 4:25
He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.

  Church at Varengeville Against the Sunlight - (Wings of Morning.) Painted By Claude Monet.

John 1

¹ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was in the beginning with God. ³ All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. ⁴ In him was life, and the life was the light of men. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. 

⁹ The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. ¹⁰ He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. ¹¹ He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. ¹² But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, ¹³ who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

¹⁴ And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. ¹⁵ (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”) ¹⁶ For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. ¹⁷ For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

Father God,

You are a Stronghold to the poor of health, heart, spirit, finances

a shelter from the storms of life

and a shade from the heat of poor self esteem, criticism or reproach.

In telling us of the Feast in Jesus Christ. We find the Table of Lord God, our You, Our Father has Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Comfort and is a Strong Help in times of need. The Table of the Lord God is where You long to enfold us in Your arms, a chick gathers her young.

In Heaven, You will complete us and we will be filled with all the Goodness of You.

You do not change Your mind. You Promise and Fulfill.

When we Trust in You, You pour out blessings. Hope does not put us to shame, because Your love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

Jesus Christ, You are faithful as the Son over God's house. And we are Your house, and we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope in which we glory. Eternity always and today.

Father God, we praise you because You wanted to make the unchanging nature of Your purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, You have confirmed it with an oath.

Cover us in Your Name. Amen Jesus.

♔ Lord Jesus Saves!  †