“Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God…”
–2 Timothy 1:8

In his letter, Paul tells Timothy that he was not a prisoner of Rome. He was a prisoner of Jesus. So Paul wasn’t waiting on Rome—he was waiting on Jesus. And Jesus could have released him in a moment. Until he was released—from prison or from life on earth—Paul wanted to be about Jesus’ business—seizing the God-given opportunities in the midst of the suffering that Jesus had allowed. 

Today, we find ourselves in similar circumstances. We, like Paul, we are waiting on Jesus! Jesus could release us any moment. And until He does, we should be about His business. Every day—every decision—is a crossroads. We can either choose our way or God’s way. We can either walk it out our way or walk in the good works that God has prepared for us.

The suffering Jesus allows can be the Spirit’s strategy to refine us for a season for God’s glory. Our King has a certain way of doing things that doesn’t always make sense to us but is good.  When we submit to suffering rather than rail against it in angst or anxiety, we begin to see and seize the God-given opportunities in the midst of it all. 

Has anyone ever been won to Jesus through complaining? Has anyone ever been won to Jesus because of whining? No. Paul invited Timothy to share in his sufferings because Paul knew God was using his suffering to bring people to repentance. Hearts are drawn to Jesus when we willingly submit to suffering that Jesus has allowed.
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Jesus has given us grace, mercy, peace, power, love, and a sound mind so that whatever happens, we can glorify God. When we understand this and submit to Jesus and His higher purposes, suffering makes sense.
Jesus, please lead us by Your Spirit in what You want us to do. Help us  see the multitude of ways You’re giving us to minister and share Your love as we wait on You.

Things weren’t easy for Timothy. It wasn’t easy to follow a crucified Lord. It wasn’t easy to serve an imprisoned apostle. In order to lead and serve his church, Timothy needed to be settled in his heart and steeled in his mind that suffering was part of God’s plan for this season. 

What Timothy needed to personally receive and apply are the same things we need to receive and apply in our lives today. God has given us grace and mercy and peace. God has not given us a spirit of fear, but He has gifted to us power and love and a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7).

How valuable is a sound mind? How valuable is a mind that is not tossed by the wind or waves? How precious is a mind that isn’t troubled by news articles, sound bites, or the fear of suffering? How priceless is a mind secure in the grace, mercy, peace, love, and power of Jesus? 

Those are questions we considered in our study of 2 Timothy 1:8-12. Through Paul’s letter to Timothy, we learn how a sound mind can allow us to stare suffering in the face and still serve courageously and faithfully because we know that suffering isn’t the end of the story. And believing this in the face of unimaginable, unavoidable, and even unjust suffering is vitally important.

​We look forward to spending another Sunday morning together online at 10am this Sunday on our YouTube channel. If you'd like to participate in the chat feature, you'll need to view the live stream in YouTube and be logged in to your YouTube account so we can see who you are.

“So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask Him.”
–Matthew 7:11

God is a good Father, and He gives us some great and powerful gifts. Within the first few verses of 2 Timothy chapter 1, we see a whole collection of precious gifts God gives: grace, mercy, and peace; power, love, and a sound mind.

These are gifts He gives to you—you can’t earn them, or work for them, or try to pay God back for them. They are yours! He has given them to you!

But like any gift, we can receive what God freely gives to us…and then set it aside. We can forget these gifts or neglect them. We can come up with reasons why we shouldn’t have them.

Receiving God’s grace, mercy and peace daily—moment by moment—is often hard to live out, but it is necessary! Because it’s these gifts that allow you to walk in power and love with a sound mind.

​Life is messy, but Jesus is real. His grace, mercy, and peace are real, and He offers them to you! May we all receive these gifts daily, apply them daily, and stir them up in our lives for God’s glory and the benefit of others.

The fact that Jesus chose Paul should startle us. When you think about Paul’s past (as we have in previous studies), it’s surprising that Jesus sent Paul to be His messenger. And it was probably just as surprising to Paul!

Eventually, Paul began to see God’s wisdom in sending him. It wasn’t because of Paul’s intellect, or his skill set, or his knowledge of the Scripture. God sent Paul because…Paul was such a great sinner!

In his first letter to Timothy, Paul writes: ”This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it: ‘Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners’—and I am the worst of them all. But God had mercy on me so that Christ Jesus could use me as a prime example of His great patience with even the worst sinners. Then others will realize that they, too, can believe in Him and receive eternal life.” (1 Timothy 1:15-16)

Do you know that God can do the same with you too? God loves you so much! Because of His grace and mercy, He wants to use you. And He wants you to stir up the gifts He has given to you. Watch our live stream replay of our study of 2 Timothy 1:1-8 and learn how Paul encouraged Timothy to do the same.
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We look forward to spending another Sunday morning together online at 10am this Sunday on our YouTube channel. If you'd like to participate in the chat feature, you'll need to view the live stream in YouTube and be logged in to your YouTube account so we can see who you are.

The world says, “I’ll believe it when I see it.” But that’s not the way of Jesus. It’s as if His life and words are speaking a counter-cultural truth to us: “Believe it, and then you’ll see. I’ll show you. Believe that I love you, that I died for your sins out of My love for you to save you from that awful enemy death. Believe that I beat death when God the Father raised me from the dead. Believe and I'll show you what I can do with a willing and repentant heart.”

You see, Jesus did not come to make bad men good. Jesus came to give dead men life—eternal life.
Death, pain, and difficulty may come, but that is not the end of the story in Jesus. Glory is the end of the story.

Jesus asks Martha in John 11:40,  “Did I not say to you that if you would believe, you would see the glory of God?” Behind whatever circumstance you see before you today, will you trust that God is working all things together for your good and His glory?

The reality is death IS a defeated foe because Jesus has given us a promise of life. If you are in Christ, your life here on earth is not the end of your story. It is just the beginning.

Do you believe this promise? Do you believe Jesus? He proclaimed, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me though he may die he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26).

Do you believe this? Have you put your trust in Jesus? Then this promise of eternal life applies to you! How is God leading you to share your hope of eternal life in Jesus with others this week?

In our introduction to 2 Timothy, we considered the life of Paul of Tarsus—his life as Saul before encountering Christ, and his life after serving his Savior. And we discovered that understanding Paul’s life helps us to appreciate his final letter written to Timothy.

You see, Paul knew a kingdom was coming. He was pressing on for the glorious appearing of Jesus. Pressing on for the promise of life—eternal life—in Christ Jesus.

It is this life, this eternal life, this resurrection life, that we find in 2 Timothy 1:1.

This past Resurrection Sunday, we considered the life of Jesus. Not only His life—but also His death and resurrection. Watch the replay of our live stream from Sunday and discover how His life gives us hope for today and tomorrow.

To say that Paul was a frequent traveler would be an understatement. He logged over 20,000 miles on his missionary journeys! But the furthest distance he traveled was near the very beginning of his biography as we read in Acts 9—from the top of a horse all the way down to the dusty Damascus road. You could say that it was the first 5 feet that changed him forever. 

As Saul, he persecuted the church—the body of Christ. And Christ stopped him in his tracks, gripped his jealous, angry, murderous heart, and renewed it with the glorious, life-giving, soul transforming good news of the gospel. Over time, as Saul (“the desired one”) was humbled, surrendered, and submitted—he became Paul (“little one”).

20,000 miles of missionary travels came to an end in a Roman prison. But his circumstances did not cause him to despair. His suffering was not senseless. He pressed on. He forgot those things which were behind him. He reached forward to what was ahead. 

Let’s be honest—when we’re in the pit, it’s tempting to remember what got us there, to fixate on the circumstances of our suffering. For Paul, his entire ministry looked like a constant sequence of suffering and futility and failure ending in prison. But from God’s perspective, Paul’s life gloriously fulfilled its purpose—because he submitted to suffering. 

When suffering comes to us, we have a choice. Will we see it as failure, or will we follow Paul’s example? Like Paul, we can choose to forget those things which are behind. Like Paul, we can look forward to what’s ahead—Jesus’ glorious appearing!

Prison is the last place you’d expect a letter of encouragement to come from. But that’s where Paul wrote his second letter to Timothy.

In this letter, Paul assures Timothy of his love and prayers. He reminds Timothy of his spiritual heritage and responsibilities. He encourages Timothy to persevere—as a soldier, athlete, farmer, or minister of Jesus Christ—so that he will reap the reward. And he warns Timothy that his teaching will come under attack as men desert the truth for ear-scratching words.

This letter, along with Paul’s example and the Holy Spirit, were a great help to Timothy—as they are to us today! God’s Word strengthens us to face increasing opposition and to make the most of God-given opportunities to grow right now, in the last days.

Watch the replay of our live stream as we began our study of this important and timely epistle.

​It’s ok.

It’s ok to be raw. It’s ok to be honest. 

It’s ok to be weak. Too weak for work. Too weak for words.

It’s ok to be sad about being weak. And it’s ok to be angry about being weak.

And it’s ok to pour out all of those emotions to a loving God and to tell Him how you honestly feel. 

That’s where Psalm 119 is helpful. It models an honest response to life’s ever-changing circumstances in a way that honors a never-changing God.

In those times of weakness when we don’t know what to say, God gives us the words that bring refreshment to our souls. Words like this: 

• “Revive me, O Lord, according to Your word.” (Psalm 119:107)
• “Hear my voice according to Your lovingkindness; O Lord, revive me according to Your justice.” (Psalm 119:149)
• “Great are Your tender mercies, O Lord; Revive me according to Your judgments.” (Psalm 119:156)
• “Revive me, O Lord, according to your lovingkindness.” (Psalm 119:159)

These aren’t the words that we’d normally expect in a structured acrostic poem about God’s word, and yet we read them—and specific phrases like this—over and over and over again in Psalm 119 as the psalmist cries out to God, pleading with Him to revive him.

Revive me. Teach me. Give me understanding. 

As we ask these things of the Lord and seek Him in His word, He places within us a confident hope and a delight in His word that refreshes our hearts. His power is made perfect in our weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9).

What a great example for us when we feel overwhelmed and overcome with heavy emotions and hurting hearts. We can cry out to God, unburden our heaviness, and ask Him to revive us—according to His word.