Tuesday, June 20, 2017
As for us, we can’t help but thank God for you, dear brothers and
sisters loved by the Lord. We are always
thankful that God chose you to be among the first to experience
salvation—a salvation that came through the Spirit who makes you holy and
through your belief in the truth. He
called you to salvation when we told you the Good News; now you can share in
the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. With
all these things in mind, dear brothers and sisters, stand firm and keep a
strong grip on the teaching we passed on to you both in person and by letter. 2 Thessalonians 2:13-15(NLT)
Years ago a
leader in a church I served disagreed (rather strongly) with a decision I had
made. In the ensuing “discussion” I was
trying to explain how I saw the circumstances and the reasons behind why I chose plan “A” rather
than plan “B”. The leader could not see
it from my perspective and got frustrated.
His frustration took the form of an angry tone of voice and a
shouted: I know what I believe; don’t confuse it with facts!
That was
not the kind of standing firm with a
strong grip Paul the apostle had in mind! Rather, Paul was encouraging the church to
stand firm in the pathway of all the teaching he had passed on to them.
In the past
several decades we have seen a loosening of the grip on Biblical truth, in
favor of rationalizing human, sinful behavior.
The result in our day is a wave of individualism that has weakened the
church and body of Christ. It is easy to
see some of those results in the life of the local church:
·
Church
attendance comes in a distant third or less when compared to the beach,
mountains or sleeping-in
·
Biblical
standards of morality are merely suggestions
– or just passed-off as superstitions of a past culture
·
Biblical
authority is no longer questions; it is blatantly discarded, or, worse, denied
as false.
It is rare
to see a firm stand in the things of God today, and we can thank intolerance
for accepting and learning the Word of God.
After all, how can anyone stand firm in the will of God if the Word of
God is not known?
For You Today
What
is it upon which you stand firm and grip strongly?
NOTES
No comments:
Post a Comment