Recover themselves out of the snare of the devil
2 Timothy
{2:22} Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
{2:23} But foolish and unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they do gender strifes.
{2:24} And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all [men,] apt to teach, patient,
{2:25} In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth;
{2:26} And [that] they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.
**
Flee also youthful lusts- youthful lusts. It's no secret that when you are youthful you do have untempered lusts. Some teenagers let their lusts consume them. Men and women have these lusts as well and often men an women are loathed to let the youthful lusts be tempered and carry them on into adulthood. We're no longer allowing youthful lusts to stay there are we? If we talk sex alone just look at the explosion of erection drugs out there for men who have trouble getting and staying that way. More and more youthful lusts are sought after and encouraged not being turned away from. 'Flee also youthful lust', perhaps there is a reason for this, perhaps dwelling on and encouraging youthful lust is a huge distraction from all that would help a person grow in Christ. Youthful lusts are purely selfish aren't they? Self-gratification, self absorbtion, and we know that selfishness is against all that is God.
Told to flee youthful lust we are also told to... 'follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.'
Further we are admonished, 'But foolish and unlearned questions avoid, knowing they they do gender strifes and the servant of the Lord must not strive but be gently unto all men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves, if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledgeing of truth and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil who are taken captive by him at his will.'
Wow, so much there.
We are admonished flee youthful lusts, rather follow good. We are told to avoid foolish and unlearned questions, avoid strife. People like to goad other people into arguments don't they? Well sometimes. Debating is something we're encouraged to do, and keeping it civil of course is the best way but often debates can get heated. Some people-- most people-- like to be right about whatever it is they're arguing for and Christians are told not to argue, not to cause strife, but to be gentle, teaching, patiently, meekly.
God does give repentance to those who acknowledge Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior who died for them so they could have eternal life, and that is the truth. Without believing in the truth repentance is impossible.
Repentance to the acknowledging of truth and that they my recover themselves out of the snare of the devil who are taken captive at his will.
Recover themselves ouf of the snare of the devil. Amen!
The devil does take captives as he wills, we might not want to believe it, but it's true. Captive into sin, snared by the devil, no one wants that do they? No one wants to be snared by the devil. How many are snared and don't even know? Recovering themselves out of that snare is done by obtaining repentance by acknowledging the truth. Through Jesus and Jesus alone we can find repentance can we be recovered out of Satan's snares.
Praise God for His love through Jesus!
Amen
“Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.”- Psalm 100:4-5
11/23/09
Rev 4:11 Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.
Rev 5:9 And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;
Rev 12:11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.
For God's pleasure we were created. Some might start up instantly saying, see God's just toying with us as if we were nothing but play toys. God gets His amusement from our pain. Untrue. God is forever, for eternity and God lives in eternity while we live in finite time. Our days are numbered in this life of agony and yes, for many it is agony. In fact for all of us it is agony in some degree, on some level emotionally, mentally, or physically, possibly all three. We have heartache, we have pain, we have tears, we live in a world where things are imperfect from our beginnings. We live in a world where all our far ancestors no longer exist and all we have is the knowledge that they had to exist so we could be where we are now. We live in a world where we produce more of us to live on after us and this is what we call eternity- living through our future generations. God lives in eternity always and He knows that our finite lives are temporary because of things gone wrong. The future we are told by God, won't have any agony to be endured. We are and were created for God's pleasure and it is His pleasure that we exist at all as His creations. It is His pleasure just as it is a parent's pleasure to behold their own children and hope for the brightest of futures for their children. God knows that we have the potential to be the creatures He wants us to be and the day will come that the creatures He has created for His pleasure will be as He intended them to be and then for all eternity.
How foolish is it for the creature to question the Creator? Without the Creator there would be no creation to question. Our very existence we owe to God and it's an existence with the possibility for a future of perfection in Him.
We are redeemed to God by the Blood of the Lamb. God paid a price for us and it was no small price when the Word became Flesh- when Spirit took on Flesh, when eternity became finite with the possibility of remaining so forever, but by the grace and mercy of our Lord eternity was restored to God made flesh as Jesus lived and died for us, only to live again to redeem us to Him.
Rev 12:11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.
They loved not their lives unto death.
We can't love our lives not in the sense that this life is all there is and we get so caught up in it that nothing else matters. We truly need to live as if Heaven is a reality, that Jesus' second coming is a reality, that life eternal is found in Jesus and the life we have here is temporary and not something we should love in and of itself but love God and trust in Him for everlasting life in Jesus.
May God bless and keep us in Him by His mercy and grace now and forever!
Amen.
11/23/10
11/23/11