HOW JESUS HAS CHANGED OUR STATUS Receiving Christ’s sacrifice on the cross as payment for our sins we are made children of God. This spiritual transaction changes our status in at least three ways: 1) FROM SINFUL TO RIGHTEOUS – Christ took our sin upon Himself and the Father counted His righteousness as ours for
PRAYERS FROM THE PIT The prophet Jeremiah had been cast into a pit because of his preaching. His own people hated the word he preached so much, that they cast him into a cistern, which “had no water in it, only mud, and Jeremiah sank down into the mud” (Jer. 38:6). If it hadn’t been
BE WARY OF PREACHING THAT GIVES FALSE HOPE Jeremiah lamented the failure of Judah’s prophets to preach God’s Word and to call His people to repentance of their sin. Instead they filled the people with false hope. The last days of Jerusalem before its fall to Babylon were marked by a people with “itching ears”
NOT BECAUSE OF US BUT BECAUSE OF HIM Be careful not to judge unbelievers as if you are better than they. Remember that God saved us not according to us, but according to Jesus. We have not earned salvation, nor are we able to work at keeping it. It is the mercy and grace of
THE GRACE OF GOD SHINING FORTH The unmerited favor of God has been revealed in Christ, so that all humanity might be saved, both those of low estate and those of high, whether far or near. This grace of God is revealed in the gospel of God (See Col. 1:6). It is sufficient to save
TITUS REMEMBERED ON CRETE Although it is uncertain when the apostle Paul visited the island of Crete, that he did visit it, and that he left Titus behind to establish its church, is a matter of history. Paul’s pattern would have been to do this work himself, but some pressing concern must have caused him
FULFILLING THE MINISTRY GOD HAS GIVEN YOU As Paul faced the real possibility of execution for preaching the gospel, he gave final instructions to Timothy. He wanted Timothy to be unafraid of suffering and willing to work hard for the sake of the Good News. Like a captain issuing orders to one of his men,
DOES GOD HAVE A WORD FOR YOU? After giving prophecies for the Jewish remnant and the nations surrounding Israel, God gave Jeremiah a specific message for his assistant, Baruch. Jeremiah may have been God’s mouthpiece, but Baruch was his pen. For he had written down every word that Jeremiah dictated to him from the Lord.
CHRIST OUR STRENGTH Paul’s second epistle to Timothy is a letter of encouragement from a father to his spiritual son. The affection Paul has for Timothy is evident, yet so is his desire to see him strengthened in the Lord. Paul had learned to depend on the grace he received from abiding in Christ to
MAINTAINING YOUR PASSION FOR MINISTRY This is the second letter the apostle Paul wrote to his spiritual son in the Lord, Timothy. Here, we see Paul boldly reminding Timothy, as a father would a son, to take personal responsibility for his own spiritual passion. He reminded Timothy of his calling into the ministry and the