The Great Example

"For this is a faithful saying:

If we died with Him,

we shall also live with Him." 2 Timothy 2:11

This verse is not speaking of martyrdom specifically, rather it is speaking of dying to our flesh. First of all what does this term "flesh" mean in this context? Well, I'm glad you asked! It means your sinful desires. So when I say to die to your flesh, what I am really saying is that you need to put God's will above your sinful desires. For example, if you want to tell a lie that will make people think more highly of you, well in this situation, dying to your flesh would be not telling that lie!

I think it is interesting that God tells us in this verse to die with Him. How did God die? Read Philippians 2:5-11. It essentially says that Jesus did not consider it robbery to be equal to God, but made Himself of no reputation He took on the form of a man! Wow, that always amazes me. But what a great example to us! Jesus was God, but put that off and became man, because it was the only way that you and I can be saved! So we are to follow His example and die to

our selfish desires so God's will can be seen in our lives.

It is so amazing that this verse has a promise in it as well. If we are to die to ourselves then we will live with Christ! What a privilege you and I have everyday to be able to live with Jesus! We can seek His wisdom through prayer and the reading of His Word. We can feel His presence in difficult times, but more than living with Him here on this earth (which is awesome in itself) we get the amazing privilege of living with Him in eternity! Praise God!

May we die to our selfish desires and enjoy our lives living with the God of the universe who loves us passionately!

Consider this

"Consider what I say, and may the Lord give you understanding in all things." 2 Timothy 2:7

One thing I hear all the time is someone saying, "I tried to read the Bible, but I just don't understand it." I think it is amazing that we can give up on hearing from God so easily. This verse speaks straight to my heart on how I need to approach the Bible. We as believers need to approach God's Word with expectancy to hear from Him. We need to CONSIDER what God is saying to us, because according to the verse above, considering is directly related to understanding. What does this look like? When you open up the Word for your devotions, if you come across a portion of scripture that does not make sense to you, you must pause, consider and meditate on it, as opposed to getting frustrated and giving up. God's Word is powerful and does not return void, we will be truly blessed if we consider what it is that God wants to speak to us. May I encourage you to be overwhelmed with the fact that the living God wants to speak to you as opposed to being overwhelmed with how confusing the Word can be at times? We have an all powerful, all knowing and all loving God, who created us and wants to speak to us. He showed us He cares by giving us His Word, let's show Him we care by considering his Word and trying to understand it.

Lessons from the athelete #3

"Also if anyone competes in athletics, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules." 2 Timothy 2:5

3. Play by the rules

After all your practice and performing in the game, you must always remember that you must play by the rules. It is obvious what playing by the rules looks like in the physical world (I mean, that is why we have ref's right?), but what does it look like spiritually? Well playing by the rules spiritually is simply, playing God's way or it could be said "following God's will for you life." Many Christians are really good at posing and even fooling other Christians, but that is simply not playing by God's rules. The rules that God set for your life are not fake and you cannot fool God. So what do these rules look like? It's simple, Jesus summed it up best by saying the two greatest commandments were to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength and to love your neighbor as yourself. So to play by God's rules you have to put Him first in your life and others second. What does this look like? Well, to put God first in your life, you must do what He wants you to do, over what you want to do (spirit vs. flesh). To put others first, you must do what is best for them over what is best for you. These are difficult concepts, but they are scriptural. Let's not try to cheat our way through the Christian life, because it presents difficulties to us, instead let's play by the rules...God's rules.

Lessons from the athlete #2

"And also if anyone competes in athletics, he is not crowned unless he competes by the rules." 2 Timothy 2:5

2. Perform

Practicing is great, but it doesn't mean a whole lot if you can't actually perform in the tough situations. One of the worst insults an athlete can receive is that they are a great "practice player". This is one who performs great in practice but is not able to perform in the game. How do we learn to perform in the game, spiritually speaking? The best way I can figure out how to put it is don't give opportunity to the flesh. If you know you struggle with something, don't keep it around! After practicing (read the previous blog), then go and perform by taking away Satan's advantage in your life. Here's an example... if some guy is struggling with lust, then he needs to get rid of his movie channel (maybe even the tv!). Or if a girl is struggling with gossip, she needs to remove herself from those that encourage her to fall in this area! Christians, let's be smart and build walls! If an enemy is attacking a city, it would be a whole lot easier for them to destroy a city with no walls (protection), this is the same spiritually! Build walls to keep the enemy out. Only you know all of your struggles, so only you can take this step. Please don't give the enemy a open door into attacking your life. If you do, then what's all the practice for?

Lessons from the athlete #1

"Also if anyone competes in athletics, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules" 2 Timothy 2:5

I want to look at three points that we can gather from athletics and from this verse.

1. Practice

Someone who does not practice in sports is going to be someone who is watching from the sidelines, because they didn't put the effort in that the rest of the team did! The same thing is true spiritually. If you don't practice in your spiritual walk with the Lord, you are going to be on the sidelines watching other Christians compete in this spiritual battle. Practice is very important because you can be ready to defend yourself against the enemy. How does one spiritually practice? Well it's simple, first learn how to use the weapon God has given us. Learn the Bible! Read it yourself, listen to teachings (podcasting... it's amazing!), or do in depth studies. The second way to practice is to pray (getting to know the coach). The third way is to train yourself to be surrounded by Godly influences. To help with this, ask yourself "what am I doing that is bringing me closer to Christ?" After asking yourself this question, you must then keep the things that are bringing you closer to Christ (the above mentioned podcasting, Godly music, Christian friends etc...) and lose the things that are pushing you away from Christ (ungodly music, tv shows or movies that make you stumble, people who bring you down etc...). If you practice regularly you will be ready for the game!

Next blog will be point #2 from athletics... I didn't want you guys to have to read too much ;)