Good Morning Fellow Servants of the Most High God!
It's been a very busy few weeks and I need some time to recover from my working vacation. God has been the Lord of my schedule and has allowed me to almost complete my todo list. Now I can relax and focus on pastoring.
Just wanted to remind you that tomorrow we have worship at 10. There is no children's church. Thanks (Mike, Barb and Karen for serving so well. Enjoy your summer!) There will be a children's sermon during worship and some activities in the upstairs nursery for the kids to do on their own.
Tomorrow we will be updated on the National Conference by our lay delegate, Kathy Canfield. We will install new members. And we will discuss and vote on adding AC to Fellowship Hall. (Remember we had a $10,000 and $3,000. donations toward the estimated $15,500. to install AC). Pray and prepare to discuss and vote. Will be a busy morning!
I love the Our Daily Bread for today! 2 Tim. 1:6-10 is used with the reminder to fan into flame the gifts God has given us. We are all custom made for God's custom purposes. he has given us gifts and His Spirit to complete them. We are called to earnestly following Jesus and fanning into flame these gifts. It only take a spark! God gives us His power to become inferno's for Christ. He gives us love and self-discipline to move from being holey to holy! Amen! And His grace is sufficient! PTL! Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty! And we are putting on Christ's holiness and righteousness for His name's sake. May we earnestly pursue all He has for us and spur each other on to the good works He has planned for us! Amen!
See you all tomorrow! May God guide us and prepare us to be all about Him and His business as we incarnate Jesus and His love and salvation to the world around us! Prepare your hearts to worship, listen and follow Him! Amen! Fan into flame the gifts God has given you!
ODB:
From Holey to Holy
He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. 2 Timothy 1:9
READ 2 Timothy 1:6-10
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As a child, my daughter loved playing with her Swiss cheese at lunch. She’d place the pastel yellow square on her face like a mask, saying, “Look, Mom,” her sparkly green eyes peeking out from two holes in the cheese. As a young mom, that Swiss-cheese mask summed up my feelings about my efforts—genuinely offered, full of love, but so very imperfect. Holey, not holy.
Oh, how we long to live a holy life—a life set apart for God and characterized by being like Jesus. But day after day, holiness seems out of reach. In its place, our “holeyness” remains.
In 2 Timothy 1:6-7, Paul writes to his protégé Timothy, urging him to live up to his holy calling. The apostle then clarified that “[God] has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace” (v. 9). This life is possible not because of our character, but because of God’s grace. Paul continues, “This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time” (v. 9). Can we accept God’s grace and live from the platform of power it provides?
Whether in parenting, marriage, work, or loving our neighbor, God calls us to a holy life—made possible not because of our efforts to be perfect but because of His grace.
By Elisa Morgan
REFLECT & PRAY
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How do you view personal holiness? In what ways will you ask God to remind you of His all-surpassing grace that brings about His holiness in your life?
Dear God, please help me to lean into Your grace and not my efforts to live a holy life.
For further study, read Why Would Anyone Want to Be Holy?
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SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
Paul and Timothy had a wonderful relationship as mentor and mentee—one that Paul felt had risen to the level of a father and son (see 2 Timothy 1:2; 2:1). Though there were a number of men and women that Paul discipled and trained for ministry (including Titus, Tychicus, Aristarchus, Aquila and Priscilla, and others), there seems to be a distinctly different relationship with Timothy. In 1 Corinthians 4:17, Paul introduces him to the believers at Corinth this way: “For this reason I have sent to you Timothy, my son whom I love, who is faithful in the Lord.” This is unusually strong language for Paul and clearly speaks to a depth of relationship. No wonder in some of his final words he appeals to Timothy to join him: “Do your best to come to me quickly” (2 Timothy 4:9).
Bill Crowder |
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