ENCOURAGEMENT TO BE FAITHFUL 02-04-17


(CLICK THE TITLE) Good morning and praise God for the wonders of life He bestows on us. This message is for you and it is straight from scripture. Every time you see the name Timothy, insert your name and be blessed.

Today’s Prayer

Father, I come before you this morning on behalf of my brothers and sisters in Christ to make the following professions; we sometimes come to you to ask for riches, thinking that we might be happy; what you sometimes give us in return for that request is hard times so that we might be wise. As we are forced to deal with the situation in which we find ourselves, we realize that we have often learned more in lack, how to relate to more people in need, both physically and spiritually, than we would have if we only associated with wealthy friends. When we suffered unemployment, lack of funds, worry and illness, it was then that we realized that we needed Your help. We needed Your strength, Your encouragement, and the prayers of Christian friends. Through these setbacks, we learned to feel another’s suffering and pain. Oh Lord, in our adversity, You have been our Rock. Help us to encourage others in their times of need, and to share what we have learned, that You are indeed sufficient in times of trouble! In the matchless name of Jesus I pray, Amen.

Let’s eat.

Encouragement to Be Faithful

2 Timothy 1

Greetings from Paul

1 This letter is from Paul, chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus. I have been sent out to tell others about the life he has promised through faith in Christ Jesus.  2 I am writing to Timothy, my dear son.    May God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord give you grace, mercy, and peace. 3 Timothy, I thank God for you—the God I serve with a clear conscience, just as my ancestors did. Night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers. 4 I long to see you again, for I remember your tears as we parted. And I will be filled with joy when we are together again. 5 I remember your genuine faith, for you share the faith that first filled your grandmother Lois and your mother, Eunice. And I know that same faith continues strong in you. 6 This is why I remind you to fan into flames the spiritual gift God gave you when I laid my hands on you. 7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline. 8 So never be ashamed to tell others about our Lord. And don’t be ashamed of me, either, even though I’m in prison for him. With the strength God gives you, be ready to suffer with me for the sake of the Good News. 9 For God saved us and called us to live a holy life. He did this, not because we deserved it, but because that was his plan from before the beginning of time—to show us his grace through Christ Jesus. 10 And now he has made all of this plain to us by the appearing of Christ Jesus, our Savior. He broke the power of death and illuminated the way to life and immortality through the Good News. 11 And God chose me to be a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of this Good News.

 12 That is why I am suffering here in prison. But I am not ashamed of it, for I know the one in whom I trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until the day of his return. 13 Hold on to the pattern of wholesome teaching you learned from me—a pattern shaped by the faith and love that you have in Christ Jesus. 14 Through the power of the Holy Spirit who lives within us, carefully guard the precious truth that has been entrusted to you.

 15 As you know, everyone from the province of Asia has deserted me—even Phygelus and Hermogenes. 16 May the Lord show special kindness to Onesiphorus and all his family because he often visited and encouraged me. He was never ashamed of me because I was in chains. 17 When he came to Rome, he searched everywhere until he found me. 18 May the Lord show him special kindness on the day of Christ’s return. And you know very well how helpful he was in Ephesus.

Quote of the Day

Man’s offense “smells to heaven”: massacres, broken treaties, beatings-up, theft, kidnappings, enslavement, deportation, floggings, lynchings, rape, insult, mockery, and odious hypocrisy, make up that smell. But the thing comes nearer than that. Those of us who have little authority, who have few people at our mercy, may be thankful. But how if one is an officer in the army… a hospital matron? a magistrate? a prison-warden? a school prefect? a trades-union official? a Boss of any sort? in a word, anyone who cannot be “answered back”? It is hard enough, even with the best will in the world, to be just. It is hard, under the pressure of haste, uneasiness, ill-temper, self-complacency, and conceit, to continue intending justice. Power corrupts; the “insolence of office” will creep in. We see it so clearly in our superiors; is it unlikely that our inferiors see it in us? How many of those who have been over us did not sometimes (perhaps often) need our forgiveness? Be sure that we likewise need the forgiveness of those that are under us. 

(Clive Staples) C. S. Lewis

WITH HOPE AND FAITH

REV. ELDER G E STERRETT

FOUNDER

GCKRS HELPING HAND FOUNDATION

http://gckrs.com

Written by Glenn Sterrett, Founder and CEO of the GCKRS™ Helping Hand Foundation.

Leave a comment