Brown's Daily Word 10-15-07

Good Morning,
Praise the for the gift of this new day. I trust you has a very blessed weekend of rest and renewal in the Lord and because of the Lord who is the Lord of the Sabbath. The Lord blessed me with a wonderful time with Janice, Jeremy, Micah and Simeon in Boston last week. I got back home safe and sound on Saturday.
It was a great blessing to be in the House of the Lord with HIS PEOPLE yesterday, worshipping and praising Him. One of the readings for yesterday was taken from 2 Timothy 2. There are 13 letters written by Paul, that we have in the Bible. Of those thirteen, the letters to Timothy are the last letters Paul wrote from prison in Rome. They were written just before his death in Rome. Paul had experienced an extraordinary power in his life that was given to him by Jesus Christ, the Risen Lord. Paul knew well that he was nothing apart from Christ. He could say that it was no longer that he himself lived, but Christ Jesus lived in him. Paul could boldly declare that "For me to live is Christ and to die is gain". Paul had no fear living and no fear of dying.
Paul had experienced that every person’s life is like a power tool with an electrical plug. When we are plugged into God and his resources, those resources flow into our lives to empower us to do that which we could not do on our own. The love that we need to care about people, the patience that we need when we are frustrated, the courage that we need in the face of fear - all these things come from being plugged into God’s grace. Lives that do not plug into God’s grace will not have the resources to leave a very significant mark.
Lives that refuse to plug into God’s grace are self sufficient lives, which rely on self and ego. It takes humility to admit that we have sinned against God and to trust in Christ for our salvation, but until we do that we cannot plug into God’s grace. We will find that we are like a power saw trying to cut wood without a power supply. Only lives that are empowered with the Lord's resources will leave a mark that lasts.
In 2 Tim vv. 3-7 Paul exhorts Timothy, to "endure hardship," which refers to a willingness to take the difficult road, the road less traveled. Paul uses three metaphors to elucidate the calling and the nature of Christian life. The first metaphor is that of a soldier. Soldiers have been trained to endure hardship because being a soldier is a demanding way of life. A soldier also has to stay free from civilian affairs. The words "gets involved" in v. 4 literally means "gets tangled up in." In the Roman world a soldier was not allowed even to get married until his enlisted time ended. Instead, a soldier wants to please his commanding officer. The idea is that serving Jesus is like being recruited by Jesus to serve in his army. The focus here is on fighting battles, and also on on the single-mindedness and self discipline it takes to stay disentangled from things to please Jesus. That kind of discipline and single-mindedness is a kind of suffering, because it means saying no to certain things.
There has been debate and discussion recently on the airways about the Phony soldiers who desert the camp, those who betray the commanding officers and their comrades. This, clearly, is not the kind of soldier to which Paul was referring. He calls for us to be genuine, committed, and disciplined.
The second metaphor is that of an athlete who competes. An athlete who is not disciplined enough to meet the requirements will never win. The athlete must also be one who competes according to the rules. Just a few days ago Marion Jones, one of the fastest female runners, who had won 5 medals at the Sydney Olympics of 2000, had to relinquish her medals and the title because she has violated the law and the rules. Being a follower of Jesus Christ is like being an athlete who trains according to the standards of competition. It requires self-discipline and single mindedness.
The third word picture is that of a hardworking farmer. "Hardworking" refers to work that involves difficulties and troubles, and it can refer to toil. Any one who has ever known a farmer knows that farming is a round-the-clock effort, with a readiness to be on call at a moment's notice. It is not a 9 to 5 job with play time built in for the rest of the day.
So, all three word pictures involve discipline, effort, and single-mindedness.
Thus, the point here seems to be this. IF WE WANT TO LIVE A LIFE THAT’S BUILT TO LAST, WE HAD BETTER BE WILLING TO PAY THE PRICE. Everything worth doing in life comes with a price. Graduating with your college degree comes with a price. Starting your own business and building it into a successful business comes with a price.
The same is true of living a life that’s built to last. It means saying no to certain things, just like the soldier, just like the athlete, and just like the farmer. It means single-minded devotion to the task, just like the soldier’s devotion to his or her commanding officer, just like the athlete’s devotion to winning, just like the farmer’s devotion to harvesting a crop. There are no short cuts in any of these areas.
In Christ,
Brown



Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.
Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: What! You too? I thought I was the only one.

C. S. Lewis