Words from a man who knows he is about to die!
When a man is about to die what he says, assuming that he has some time before his actual death and that he choses to focus on the truly significant things in life, should be taken seriously as words that can teach us a thing or two about how to live.
Paul the Apostle (from the Bible) was one such man. He knew that his death was drawing near and told Timothy as much when he said “For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near” (2 Timothy 4:6 in the Bible).
A drink offering was a drink, like wine for example, that was poured out as a part of a sacrifice to God in the Old Testament. Paul used this symbolism to describe how his life had been poured out in sacrificial service to God.
The end was near and Paul knew it!
As I read 2 Timothy this morning the Lord really touched my heart through some of what I read and I wanted to share some of those things with you all. Tears welled up in my eyes through much of what I read as I sat at McDonald’s taking in what the Lord was touching my heart with.
One of the first things Paul told Timothy, and again keep in mind that Paul knows that he is not going to be around much longer so his words are carefully chosen to pass along the most important things to Timothy, is the following:
2 Timothy 1:7-8
For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline. So do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner. Rather, join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God.
What was the reason that prompted Paul to remind Timothy? The sincere faith in Timothy’s heart (2 Timothy 1:5).
Because of Timothy’s sincere faith Paul felt led to remind him to fan into flame the gift of God’s Spirit that lived inside Timothy.
That spoke to me in that I too, as a Christian, along with every other Christian have the Spirit of the Living God living inside me. A real being. A Spirit that has entered into me from God and that empowers me as a Christian to live a life pleasing to God.
That we Christians are to fan into flame the gift of His Spirit within us. Instructions to fan into flame that gift imply and make clear that the gift of the Spirit can be quenched and even made to lie dormant if we do not continually attend to keeping it alive as a fire within our lives.
Not being ashamed of Jesus!
And how did Paul instruct Timothy (and us through those instructions) to fan Him into flame? By not being ashamed of the testimony of God!
By having a willingness to be ostracized and otherwise excluded as a Jesus freak or otherwise by those who we share God with.
Even as I wrote this I had an opportunity, as I often do, to share something of God with another. The person next to me on another computer, whom I have gotten to know as we have sat next to each at the computers here over time, asked me what the little black book that I had on the table was. I had a chance to share that it was a Bible and he in turn shared that he was a Buddhist. The Spirit laid it on my heart to share something with him as a result and I plunged forward by faith to open my mouth and share with him what had been laid on my heart to say to him.
That the Christian faith was an exclusive faith, as different from Buddhism and every other religious system of belief, in that Jesus claimed to be the way, the truth, and the life and that no one can come to God except through Jesus.
Mind you I said it in a perfectly natural way and the reaction of my friend was a testament to the winsome way I said it in that he did not take it wrongly at all and even started to ask me about this post as to what I was writing about. Sharing with me that many of his friends were Christians and otherwise engaging me a bit more regarding Christian things (though we also went on to talk about sports and other things).
My point is that by acting to say what the Spirit was laying on my heart to say to this man and not being ashamed of being associated with Jesus, that such helped fan the fire of the Spirit within me. If I do that enough I will achieve a level of burning passion for the things of God in my life that will result in a life, like Paul’s, of burning out for God with the fire of His Spirit burning brightly through my life.
We are all to do that!
Do not be ashamed of Jesus in your life! Speak openly of Him as naturally as you might speak of a beloved spouse or wonderful child.
I do not mean to say that we are to go around blurting out the name of Jesus at every chance we get just because. That would just be obnoxious at worst and downright annoying to others at best. But if the Spirit of God prompts you to say something to another…say it! Better to say something and be proven wrong respecting the leading of the Spirit than to hesitate at every turn and say nothing. You can always apologize for the former while the latter way of constantly hesitating will lead you to miss opportunities that God has ordained and brought into our lives to reach out to others through us.
One doesn’t always need to be prompted by the way. We should speak as openly about God’s involvement in our lives as we might speak about the involvement of anyone else in our lives. Not hiding the fact that God is there and interacting with us but also not blowing people away with the mention of Jesus’s name every chance we get.
Lack of support even from genuine Christians
Another thing that struck me in what Paul said were his statements that “…everyone in the province of Asian has deserted me…” (2 Timothy 1:15), that ”Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica” (2 Timothy 4:10), and that “At my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them.” (2 Timothy 4:16) .
As much as we might like to think that all the people who profess to be Christians will support us as we go all out to live for God, doing things His way, the fact of the matter is that if Paul and Jesus’s lives are any indication, that there will be times when many if not most will actually oppose what God is wanting to do through our lives.
People, especially those who profess to be Christians but are not, are naturally inclined to be resistant to God.
A life that cuts across their natural inclination, as ours should if we are a living testament to how one should live for God, will incur disdain if not outright persecution.
At times, as happened in Paul’s life, even true believers will turn their backs on what God is doing in and through us. They will get deceived or otherwise fall into not supporting whom God wants to use or otherwise work through.
That’s just the way it is folks! If you want to live for God, I mean truly live for Him, you have a choice to make. Either live for God and suffer loss in this world or gain all that you can in this world and suffer the a lack of real relationship with God in your life.
You cannot be a real Christian and have real relationship with a Living God if you are not willing to give your life in service to Him. If you are not willing to do that your profession of Christ is a sham. A superficial thing that brings shame on His name and adds strength to the cry of many an unbeliever that the Christians are nothing but a bunch of hypocrites!
In the case of following God you cannot have your cake and eat it too. You cannot be a friend of the world and a friend of God! If you are a friend of God the world will hate you! You will stand for righteousness when those around you want to be left alone to live in their sin.
And just as Jesus suffered abuse at the hands of those resistant to God’s ways you too will suffer.
Who persecuted Jesus the most? It was not the “sinners” but rather the religious leaders of his day. The Pharasees and other Jewish leaders.
Likewise you and I will suffer the most from those who profess to be Christians but whose lives demonstrate a hatred for God and His ways. Who do not yield to God in how He wants things to be done, who do not walk by faith, and who will resist a genuine move of God’s Spirit in every way they can.
The outwardly religious have always been and will always be the greatest enemy of true believers whose desire in life is to be like Jesus in this world.
To summarize what I have said in this post based on what Paul told Timothy…
- Christians can quench or fan into flame the gift of God’s Spirit that lives within them.
- They fan the Spirit within them into flame by not being ashamed of Jesus in their interactions with others (there are other things that can be done of course but in context that is the primary way Paul encouraged Timothy to fan the Spirit into flame).
- Living for God involves being misunderstood and at times, feeling abandoned by others to stand alone for God.
- Christians should not be surprised by or stumble over the lack of support for doing things God’s way from genuine as well as false, outwardly professing Christians.
Carlos
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Tags: 2 timothy 1, drink offering, paul the apostle, sacrificial service, spirit god
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