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Ever Faithful: The Farmer Pt. 2

The Farmer Part 2

2 Timothy 2:1-7

Planting the Seed

Once a man has had the soil of his heart tilled by the revelation of God’s truth, he  ready for the seed of faith to be planted. Seeding (or Sowing) is a matter of having the courage to sow in the first place. Many Christians are content in their lives, and uncomfortable with the task of sowing. They may find a freshly ploughed field ready, for the introduction of God’s mercy, grace, and forgiveness, yet they will not reach into their bag of seed to plant.
 
I have found those who have an aversion to planting in others usually lack seed themselves! Christ called us to preach and make disciples. It was his final commandment! Yet when faced with this, many are content to shrug their shoulders and carry on. They are content with their mustard seed, why share? Read more…


Ever Faithful: The Athlete Pt 2

The Athlete Part 2

2 Timothy 2:1-7

Open Competition

The church is a church of athletes, we are continually running our race, boxing with the flesh and competing with ourselves for the prize of hearing God say, “Well done, My good and faithful servant (Matt. 25:23).” But we do not compete by ourselves, we have other more nefarious enemies to contend with. They too serve a master and his name is Satan. They claim to serve themselves or perhaps no one, but we the Christian know that while some may claim that there are no “sides” and no “Teams” we truly know there is. You are either a slave to the world, to the flesh to death or a slave to Christ and there is no in-between (Rom. 6:15-23). We compete in this day and age not against governments or policies, not against taxes and legislation, we compete against teams of a different nature altogether (Eph. 6:10-20).
 
What are the other teams? It would take me more than a lifetime to go through all of them but some of the major contenders of this day are Pantheism, Secularism, and Relativism. Pantheism is to make the world God, Secularism is to make science God, and Relativism makes self God. All of these things are our competitors and yet they follow only one rule that of Idolatry. The Christian must be well drilled to deal with these cheaters but here we must make an important choice: Will you follow the rules or will you try and subvert them? Read more…


Ever Faithful: The Athlete Pt 1

The Athlete Part 1

2 Timothy 2:1-7

Based on the Paul’s writings, he was a great lover of sports, or at the least, his audience was. He uses analogies of the athlete often throughout his letters. This is almost certainly due to the universal popularity of the Olympic games in the Greek/Gentile world. Athletes were rigorously trained and the ancient Greeks were proud of athleticism. They admired strength and talent, but all of these things were mute if the competitor refused to follow the rules.  Here in 2 Timothy chapter two, Paul focuses this trait: Obedience to the Rules.

Subverting the Rules

There was no prize in winning the bout through unfair means because it undermines the purpose of competition. If all athletes abided by the same rules, their talents would shine and the prize would be won according to their ability in the activity, not the subversion of it. Read more…