2 Timothy 2:3 (Amplified Bible) Take [with me] your share of the hardships and suffering [which you are called to endure] as a good (first-class) soldier of Christ Jesus.
Saturday night, I wanted to write some about the situation and trials that I am facing in this place and time. I had just finished with the M3 meeting (see www.mmmministries.org for information on the group). Scott Engelman had spoken further on the topic of releasing and restoring, which are the two main parts of forgiveness. I focused on the perseverance part of the notes and 'googled' the e-sword program (not that google has anything to do with E-Sword, it's just slang for research to me) for the word perseverance in the Bible. It came up with a 2 Timothy verse and I proceeded to start writing………
And it wouldn't work out.
I had intended to write about the struggle, personally, that I was dealing with right then….and I was typing out another 'complaint' about how we, as a church and community, are failing our children in the wake of another college shooting. How the message has become so distorted that we are giving our children the loaded weapons (figuratively) to destroy themselves. And we wonder why. But I have written about that topic for so long and so loudly that surely someone must be listening…..but it doesn't seem so. Why would they listen to a person like me? I kept erasing and restarting, erasing and restarting. But that was all that came out of that verse and it wasn't smoothly flowing.
So I quit.
And then today, I arrive and work frustrated and depressed. No car, and no money to get a new one (at least to me). I have been forced to beg, borrow, and whimper for a ride. And that will not last too long. But a dear brother in Christ, who works with me, gave me encouragement to endure. To persevere. So I felt the calling to go back to that verse in 2 Timothy and write.
Or so I thought.
I couldn't find the verse in the 'google' program of the website I used; it just isn't as easy as E-Sword's and I once again got frustrated. I put in endurance, what my friend had encouraged me to have, and found what God wanted me to hear today.
A battle is coming. One that will make the historical battles of old and current conflicts between men seem like child's play. And it is a time of training, for the warriors within the Body, to face this battle with honor and endurance. As Matthew Henry says, "We need to grow stronger in that which is good; our faith stronger, our resolution stronger, our love to God and Christ stronger."
To be the warriors that God has called us to be, we must face the regimen of training He is presenting us in this day and time. We must strive for perfection in the correct manner, in a way pleasing to Christ, and must strengthen our faith to be faithful in the battle to our Captain. There will be an unleashing of weapons common and uncommon in the final engagement and we must endure to insure ourselves immune to the betrayer's call.
We must remember who we are fighting for and with…..
2 Timothy 2:10 "Therefore I [am ready to] persevere and stand my ground with patience and endure everything for the sake of the elect [God's chosen], so that they too may obtain [the] salvation which is in Christ Jesus, with [the reward of] eternal glory."
Until the Lord declares, the battle will not be finished. We should strive to make the enemy's forces as unpopulated as we can in pursuit of the Great Commission.
Let's draw our Father's line in the sand and tell the enemy,
YOU SHALL HAVE NOT ONE MORE!!!!
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