Walking and Wondering

"I remember your genuine faith, for you share the faith that first filled your grandmother Lois and you mother, Eunice.  And I know that same faith continues strong in you.  This is why I remind you to fan into flames the spiritual gift God gave you when I laid my hands on you.  For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline."  (2 Timothy 1:5-7 NLT) Question ... Have you ever found yourself fighting fear and timidity in your life?  Okay another question ... what is timidity again???  The dictionary defines timidity as lacking self-assurance, bravery or courage; being fearful.  Apparently Timothy, a young pastor in the city of Ephesus, was fighting this very thing.  So Paul, his spiritual father, writes to give him some great council.  (Side note ... it's so important to have spiritual fathers and mothers in your life to help in times of need.  Pride says you can do it alone; wisdom say...

Luke 12:15 - Then He said, "Beware!  Guard against every kind of greed.  Life is not measured by how much you own." While at first glance this seems so simple, the complexity behind monitoring this in our lives is SO challenging.  We so easily drift towards measuring life by earthly standards, rather than Heaven's standards.   The backstory here involves someone coming to Jesus and asking him to tell his brother to give him his portion of their father's estate.  Jesus, rather surprisingly, responds by saying, "Who made me the judge over this situation?"  In other words, don't drag me into your conflict.  The bigger issue here isn't the inheritance, it's what's driving your emotions.  Then He goes on to explain the bigger picture ... GREED!  Where we so easily think that the amassing of wealth and possessions will lead to freedom, it can actually lead us to bondage.  It can cause us to judge people based on what they've a...

Luke 11:27-28 - And it happened, as He (Jesus) spoke these things, that a certain woman from the crowd raised her voice and said to Him, "Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the breast which nursed You!"  But He said, "More than that, blessed are those who hear the Word of God and keep it!"     That last line jumped off the page at me this morning.  Jesus says that 2 things define a blessed life: HEARING the Word and then KEEPING it. In our world of information overload, it is SO easy to become people marked by good intentions but poor follow-through.  We can find ourselves moving from inspiring moments to inspiring moments where we're ever excited about the possibilities of change but never actually changing.   Someone's testimony about the Lord touching their lives can inspire us to see similar impact in our own lives.  We hear a sermon that convicts us about areas of weakness in our walk with the Lord and are determined to address ...