“I thank God whom I serve, as did my ancestors, with a clear conscience, as I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. As I remember your tears, I long to see you, that I may be filled with joy. I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well. 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 God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.” (2 Timothy 1:3-7 ESV)
I never knew any of my grandmothers. My father’s mother died in the flu epidemic of 1918 when he was only four years old. My mother’s mother died when I was two years old, and I have no memory of her, although I do have a picture of me and one of my brothers with her. And my father’s step-mother lived with his dad in a different US state and we never heard from them, and I don’t recall them ever coming to visit us. So I only ever knew my mother’s father and he never remarried after my grandma’s death.
But my mother’s mother kept journals, and she was a godly woman who loved the Lord with all her heart, mind, and soul. But the journals went missing for a while, and then they were found, and eventually I had possession of them for a while before I passed them on to another family member and they got lost again. But when I read my grandmother’s journals I connected with her in ways in which I did not connect with anyone else in my family. She talked just like me, and she had the same heart for Jesus.
So, whenever I read this passage of Scripture I identify with Timothy that he had a grandmother of such sincere faith, a faith that proved genuine by her actions, just like I had. And my grandmother prayed to the Lord for someone like me to come along, although I suspect she had in mind a male, not a female. But the Lord is having me do the kinds of things that she prayed for many years ago, way before I was born into this world. And my faith in the Lord is so much like the faith that she had, although we are different people.
I know that my grandmother cried many tears. She was so burdened for the salvation of the people of this world, and she was so burdened for the church, the body of Christ, who even back then had so many people not living the faith that they professed and who were worldly and ungodly in their actions. And she was a definite prayer warrior, and she was someone who went to people’s homes and who ministered to their needs. Not everyone was fond of her, and some thought her crazy, but she loved Jesus.
And the Lord has given me a similar burden for the salvation of the lost, and not only for those who make no profession of faith in Jesus Christ but for all who make verbal professions of faith in Jesus Christ but who do not live, in practice, what they profess with their lips. And the Lord has given me a similar burden for his idolatrous and adulterous church, so many of whom have wandered far away from the Lord and from the truth of the Scriptures to follow after the lies of the enemy, instead.
So the Lord Jesus gave me the same encouragement that he gave to Timothy, many times over the course of my life when I was being persecuted for my sincere faith and devotion to the Lord and to the teachings of the Scriptures, in context, and by others who professed faith in Jesus Christ, and by some pastors of church congregations who just did not get me, and/or who were walking in the ways of the world and of the flesh, and so I was an offense to them, for I did not fit in with their marketing schemes.
And so the Lord would keep encouraging me to not fear them and to not let the opinions of other humans determine who I should become and what I should do with my life. And when I retreated in fear, he would push me to get back up on my feet and to keep pursuing him and his will and purpose for my life, and to keep doing what he has called me to do despite how I am treated in return. And, by the grace of God, I have not retreated for the past twenty years, but I have remained steadfast in faith despite all else.
And I have done and am doing what God has called me to do which is to be his servant and witness in taking the message of the gospel of our salvation to the people of the world and to the church, for not everyone professing faith in Jesus Christ is a true biblical follower of Christ. For not everyone calling Jesus “Lord” has truly made him Lord (Owner-Master) of their lives. And not all who profess him with their lips have been crucified with Christ in death to sin and raised with him to walk in newness of life in him, no longer as slaves to sin, but now as slaves to God and to his righteousness.
And God has called all of us who profess his name, not only to forsake our sins and to follow him in obedience to his commands in holy living, but he has called all of us to be his servants and witnesses in taking the true message of the gospel to the people of this world and to let them know that faith in Jesus Christ requires that we die with Christ to sin and that we now live for him and for his righteousness in walks of obedience to his commands or we do not have salvation from sin and eternal life with God.
See: [Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; Jn 6:35-58; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; 1 Pet 2:24; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]
VOICE OF TRUTH
By Mark Hall & Steven Curtis Chapman
II Corinthians 12:7-10/I Corinthians 1:20-24
Oh what I would do to have
The kind of strength it takes to stand before a giant
With just a sling and a stone
Surrounded by the sound of a thousand warriors
Shaking in their armor
Wishing they’d have had the strength to stand
But the giant’s calling out my name and he laughs at me
Reminding me of all the times I’ve tried before and failed
The giant keeps on telling me
Time and time again, “Boy you’ll never win!”
“You’ll never win!”
But the stone was just the right size
To put the giant on the ground
And the waves they don’t seem so high
From on top of them lookin’ down
I will soar with the wings of eagles
When I stop and listen to the sound of Jesus
Singing over me
I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CsiBjc0UIA
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