DO YOUR BEST...

Remind them of these things, and charge them before God not to quarrel about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers. 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 (2 Timothy 2:14–15, ESV).

Woven into everything the apostle Paul told Timothy in his second letter are stirring words of long-term, finish-line thinking. 

Paul wanted Timothy to live with the end in mind. 

It’s not those who have a great start, but those who finish well who get the reward. Here is one of those summary challenges toward pursuing a well-lived life: “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed. 

The verse begins with a helpful standard of performance, “Do your best.” This can also be translated be diligent, which means make every effort or extend yourself. 

Paul follows that standard with specific actions. As always, the wise foundation for living requires that we stand firmly and passionately—but not arrogantly and not obnoxiously—on “the word of truth.” Consider it this way: you begin by “rightly handling the word of truth,” leading to choices for which you have “no need to be ashamed,”culminating in being able to “present yourself to God as one approved.”

What does it mean to be “one approved”? A person who is approved by God is “a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.”

Understand this: God is watching the way we handle His book! Someday we are going to have to account for what we did with His Word. Paul was telling Timothy, and us, to make sure we don’t end up being workers who are ashamed. God wants to say to each of us, “Well done good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:23).

“Rightly handling the word of truth” has to do with a couple things. First, it has to do with spending time in the word each day reading and studying to know the heart and mind of God. Rightly handling the word of truth has to do with NOT jamming God’s Word down people’s throats—but also not soft-peddling it. It means using the Scriptures in an appropriate, measured way. 

The original expression is literally cutting it straight. It’s used of a bricklayer laying out bricks in a straight row, or of men building a highway. Cutting the Word of God straight means identifying what it doesn’t say and emphasizing what it does say. You rightly handle the word of truth when you don’t compromise it, complicate it, or water it down.

Every time you DO YOUR BEST to insure your effort can meet up with God's grace, to handle God’s Word rightly, you can be sure of His approval. And you will be living with the end in mind.

Paul told me to "remind you of these things!" I hope you will benefit from my effort to present myself to God as one approved, who will not be ashamed because I have rightly handled the word of truth! 

Drip Coffee with Free Refills!! 

Robbs

I AM SO DOUBLEMINDED

A double minded man is unstable in all his ways (James 1:8, KJV).

Have you ever found yourself wanting one thing but doing something totally opposite?

Like maybe after spending an hour at the gym, you decide to eat a Sprinkles cup cake. Chances are, you’ll never reach your goal on the bathroom scale that way. Or you want a good marriage, but you want to keep being selfish. You want to make impulsive purchases at the mall and have financial growth and security. Or you’re not ready to let go of your private addiction (eg: Scandal night), but you want a growing relationship with God. Stop! It doesn’t work that way. These things can’t co-exist, and it’s double-mindedness to want them to.

Notice three things the Bible says about double-mindedness:

First, double-minded people are everywhere.
There is double-mindedness in all of us. There are competing things we want that we try to make go together. And we have to begin to think differently about this.

If I really want this, I’m not going to have that. I have to get off the fence and stop with the in-between. No more half-measures. I have to settle this. What do I really want?

Second, double-mindedness creates instability.
Are the friends wondering which You is coming out today? Is the extended family worried about how that uncle is going to act at the next family gathering? Are all the employees on edge anticipating what the office will be like when "she" or "he" arrives?

Or maybe it’s you. You’re unstable, and you know it. The people around you sure know it. You’re unpredictable. You might try to hide it in public, but people close to you see it and they never know what to expect from you. The bottom line is that you want two things that can’t coexist, and it makes you unstable.

Third, double-mindedness affects everything.
Seriously, everything. The Christian who is double-minded about daily bible reading and prayer? It's affecting his relationship with God and eternal security. The guy who is double-minded about his marriage? It’s affecting his career. The woman who’s double-minded about her finances? It’s affecting her parenting. 

You might protest, “I make some bad financial decisions, but I would never do anything to hurt my family!” Well, you actually are. Double-mindedness affects everything.

Ending double-mindedness isn’t easy, but it’s pretty simple. You have to want to think differently. And you have to take action that reinforces your desire.

Later in that same chapter of James, we read, “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” (James 1:22, ESV).

Are you ready to put an end to double-mindedness?

Want what God wants. 

Seek His ways in His Word. 

Confess your desire for two things that cannot coexist, and put off the behavior that is keeping you from doing the thing that will make you more like Christ.

Pray with me:

Heavenly Holy One , I confess that I don’t always want what You want. Sometimes I desire one thing but act in a totally different way. I confess that my behavior can create instability in other areas of my life and hurt those around me. Thank You, Lord, for opening my eyes to my double-mindedness. Help me to think differently. By Your grace, help me to do the things that reflect Your power in my life. In Jesus’ character changing name, amen.

Doppio to Go! 

Robbs

KEEP HOPE ALIVE

“Do you want to be healed” (John 5:6, ESV)?

Whether you’re in the midst of a rough marriage, a health crisis, or just feeling the weight of our sin-worn world, nothing in your life is going to change until you change the way you think. You have to care enough to hope for something better. Bottom line: you have to want it.

Remember the story of the guy who waited for 38 years by the pools of Bethesda until Jesus showed up and healed him? John 5 explains how the angel of the Lord would stir up the pools, and whoever got in the water first got healed. Pretty cool—if you’re the first one in the pool.

Imagine how often the water churned only for this guy’s healing to escape him. How many times in the first year alone did he watch other people get the breakthrough he longed for?

Maybe at year five he was still making a plan. But what was he thinking in year ten? By year twenty or thirty-five, had he resigned himself to permanently camping out and begging by the side of the pool? “This is my life. This is how it’s always going to be.”

Sound familiar? Maybe as you’re reading this, the biggest thing you’re battling is simply the fact that you still think the way you’ve always thought. 

What gets lost is hope, and when you stop hoping, you stop caring.

Remember what Jesus said to the man by the pool? He knew he’d been there a long time, but Jesus said . . . wait for it . . . “Do you want to be healed?”

It sounds like a rather obvious question from the God of the Universe, doesn’t it? So, clearly, He was after something different. He wanted to know what the guy was thinking.

Was he still hoping to be healed? Or had he lost hope?

Do Christians lose hope? Yes, we can. We stop hoping for several reasons.

We stop hoping because hopeless people suck the hope out of us.
Picture this. You get up in the morning, get into God’s Word, and spend some time in prayer. You get your mind set on Christ and leave your house super positive, ready for the day and trusting God. Then someone shows up and says, “I would be so depressed if I were you! You must be miserable! How long have you been single [or sick . . . or out of work. . . .]?” You had some hope, but they drained it right out of you. 

Are you surrounding yourself with people who have hope, or people who suck the hope out of you?

We stop hoping because it’s hard to hope.
Hope doesn’t come naturally—you have to work at it. Think about it. Nobody works at negativity—that just shows up, right? You have to discipline your mind to think differently.

We stop hoping because it hurts to hope.
The Bible says, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick” (Proverbs 13:12). When we hope, we make our hearts vulnerable to being disappointed. Inevitably people let us down, things get us down and it hurts. 

Maybe you are hoping—or were hoping—for God to do something in your heart and life, or say, in one of your friends or family members, but you haven’t seen it yet. So you’re not praying anymore and you’ve hardened your heart.

But ask yourself this: can you see that it hurts even more not to hope? Can you see what happens when you don’t care anymore—when you don’t even pray?

You have to think differently. 

Scripture tells us to “Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer”(Romans 12:12).

As Christians, we know that no matter how many peaks and valleys we go through in life, this whole thing is heading fast toward a massive, forever celebration. We’re fired up about that, and we look forward to it!

The world sees only a hopeless end; Christ-followers see an endless hope. And this hope lives not just in eternity, but here and now as God meets needs, answers prayer, carries burdens, forgives sin, changes lives, and increases joy as we journey to that endless hope.

Heavenly Father, my hope is in You. I praise You because You are faithful and loving and always have my sanctification in Your sovereign plan. Help me to discipline my mind to wait on You, pray to You, and rejoice in Your eternal hope until the day my faith becomes sight. I need your grace to do this.  In the name of Yeshua, our living hope, amen.

DRINK & PRAY

Ephesians 5:18 says, “Do not be drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit.” 

Verses 19-21 describe the effects of being filled with the Spirit. The effect in verse 19 is very musical. Clearly joy in Christ is the mark of being filled with the Spirit. But not only joy. Also gratitude in verse 20—perpetual gratitude, gratitude for everything. (Which obviously eliminates grumbling and pouting and self-pity and bitterness and scowling and murmuring and depression and worry and discouragement and gloominess and pessimism!) 

But not only musical joy and universal gratitude, but also loving submission to each other’s needs (verse 21). Joy, gratitude and humble love—these are the marks of being filled with the Spirit. To this should also be added boldness in witness from Acts (see Acts 2:4; 4:8, 31; 13:9). No one can fail to be bold and eager in witness when the Spirit is producing in him overflowing joy, perpetual gratitude and humble love. O how we need to be filled with the Spirit! Let’s seek it! Pursue it!

How? 

Start with the closest parallel: “Don’t be drunk with wine, be filled with the Spirit!” How do you get drunk with wine? 

You drink it. Lots of it. The wine of Paul’s day was so weak you would have to drink for hours to get drunk. So how then shall we get drunk (filled) with the Spirit? Drink it! Lots of it. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 12:13, “We were all made to drink of one Spirit.” Jesus said, “If anyone thirst let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.’ Now this he said about the Spirit.” (John 7:37f).

How can you drink the Spirit? 

Paul said, “Those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit” (Romans 8:5). We drink the Spirit by setting our minds on the things of the Spirit. What does “setting the mind on” mean? Colossians 3:1, 2 says, “Seek the things that are above…set your minds on things that are above.” “Setting the mind on” means seeking, directing your attention toward, being very concerned about (Philippians 3:19), being devoted to and taken up with. So drinking the Spirit means seeking the things of the Spirit, directing your attention to the things of the Spirit, being devoted to the things of the Spirit.

What are the “things of the Spirit”? When Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2:14, “The natural man does not welcome the things of the Spirit,” he was referring to his own Spirit-inspired teachings (2:13) about the thoughts and ways and plans of God (2:8-10). Therefore, “The things of the Spirit” are the teachings of the apostles about God. Jesus also said, “The words that I have spoken to you are Spirit and life” (John 6:63). Therefore, the teachings of Jesus are the “things of the Spirit.”

So drinking the Spirit means setting our minds on the things of the spirit. And setting our minds on the things of the Spirit means directing our eager attention to the teachings of the apostles about God and to the words of Jesus. If we do this long enough we will get drunk with the Spirit. In fact we will get addicted to the Spirit. Instead of chemical dependency we will develop a wonderful Spirit-dependency. (I totally want to be under the influence here!) 

One more tip: the Holy Spirit is not like wine because he is a person and is free to come and go where he wills (John 3:8). Therefore Luke 11:13 must be added. Jesus said to his disciples, “If you then you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” If we want to be filled with the Spirit we must pray for it. And that is just what Paul does for the Ephesians in chapter 3, verse 19. He asks his Father in heaven (verse14) that the believers “might be filled with all the fullness of God.” Drink and pray. Drink and pray. 

Drink and pray.

2 PETER 3

The End Is Hecka Near

• Peter reminds his readers that this is the second letter he's sent to them. (Oh, we remember, Peter.)
• He's writing again to let them know that Jesus is going to come back. For real.
• Yes, people are saying that he's a little bit behind. Yes, the disciples thought he would have been here by now. What can we say? Jesus likes to be fashionably late?
• This is all part of the end of the world anyhow. Naysayers will pop up and start trash-talking the second coming. We thought he'd be here already. You keep telling us he's on his way, but everything's the same as it always was.
• Look, scoffers, God destroyed the world once with water. Remember the flood? And Noah's ark? So, why wouldn't he take the whole place out again? This time he's going to do it with fire, though. 
• Also, you're forgetting that God doesn't keep time like humans do. He'll get here, but it won't be by our clocks, says Peter.
• Besides, God might be waiting for more people to come around on this whole Jesus thing. After all, if he gives us some more time, more folks will be saved from those fires of destruction. See, that's just sensible.
• Trust me, he says. The end of the world will come when we all least expect it. Everything's going to crumble and die, and only the faithful will be left standing.
• That means keep the faith, guys. Stay strong, be good, and fight the good fight, and you totally won't be scorched alive as God burns the Earth to rubble, okay?
• Paul also mentioned this stuff in his letters. Of course, some folks don't know how to properly interpret a letter, so they're claiming that Paul's writing supports them. Nope. Paul's on Peter's side all the way…says Peter.
• Right, so stay on the good path. Don't stumble and fall as you're walking along. Love Jesus and everything's gonna come up roses.
• Peter out. Peace.

2 PETER 2

The Big Baddies

• There are teachers and then there are false teachers. 
• False teachers teach people to believe things that are completely wrong—like that the world isn't going to end and God isn't going to judge everyone. They're just ignoring stuff that Jesus said, and God won't be pleased when he gets a hold of them.
• The worst part is that tons of folks fall for it. Don't let these guys drag you down with them, says Peter. They'll try to trick you with their lies about the end times, but don't believe it for a minute. God has judged them and he's going to annihilate them in the end. 
• Look, when a bunch of angels disobeyed God, he didn't just shrug it off. He cast them down into Hell. Naysayers will be seeing them soon.
• When God saw the world was wicked, he flooded it and killed everyone. Well, everyone except Noah and (because of Noah) his family.
• And when he saw those sinners behaving badly in Sodom and Gomorrah, he burned their town to the ground. Luckily, Lot 'nem was able to escape in time.
• The moral of the story? God does not play.
• He will bring an end to this world and judge folks. But like he did with Noah and Lot, God will show mercy on anyone who does what's right and follows him. Hey, God's not a total meanie.
• These false teachers though? They're sinners. They want things they shouldn't have. They hate the folks in charge. And they're also not beneath telling lies.
• They're kind of like stupid animals in a slaughterhouse. They're on a conveyer belt to their death and they don't even know it.
• And the hating continues: false teachers are like a cancer that eats away at the Christian community. They're adulterous and sinful. They lead the *faithful astray. Oh, and they're super greedy.
• They're kind of like Balaam, this guy from the Hebrew Bible. He loved money so much that he went against God. Bad move.
• God has reserved a dark corner in Hell just for these folks. They spit out all kinds of nonsense and try to lure people in with the promise of "freedom."
• People can only really be free if they give themselves over to God. These false teachers want Christians to tie themselves to the world and keep on sinning.
• They might promise freedom, but they're actually slaves to sin. They won't be able to deliver on that promise.
• The worst part about this all is that these guys know what is right. They were sinful pagans before they started following Jesus. Now they're going back to their evil ways even though they know it's wrong.
• They might as well have never heard of Jesus. At least then they could plead ignorance when God comes knocking.

2 PETER 1

Hi, Again

• Peter's back. And this time he's writing to all of Christendom. Yeah, he likes to go big picture.
• He's also got some good news: God has given Christians everything they need to live good lives now and in the coming world. Christians have the smarts to escape the trappings of "the world" and to live as one with God. 
• But Christians have to keep up their end of the faith bargain. They have to do good deeds and be smart and control themselves and preserve and be holy. Oh, and be loving, too. Exhausting.
• If anyone doesn't do these things, well, it's not gonna work out so well for them in the end.
• But if you stay on the path to goodness, everything will be alright and you'll get your ticket to board the train to Heaventown.

Death Becomes Him

• Peter knows that Christians already get this stuff. But he wants to keep giving refreshers as long as he's around to do it. See, he's not long for this world—death is knocking. It's hard out there for an apostle.
• Now, some folks have accused Peter of making up all this stuff about Jesus. (Who you gonna call? MythBusters!)
• Not so fast. Peter saw all of Jesus' goodness with his own two eyes. Remember that time he went up to the mountain with Jesus and the boss started to sparkle and whatnot?
• All this great stuff that Peter's been telling the world about actually happened. Not to mention, he adds, that the Hebrew Bible totally predicted that THAT was how Jesus' life would go down. (P.S. That's a New Testament POV and the Hebrew Bible fans don't agree.)
• But just in case you're thinking that Peter is selectively interpreting the Bible—he's not. Those interpretations come straight from God. (And yes, this is Peter talking about himself…super trustworthy!)