My friend
Betty and I discussed our different writing styles and where I write more
factually, her writing leans more toward the creative side. What we read takes
a similar course in that I like news and she prefers poems and inspirational. I
suspect when we read the Bible there is a similar pattern and she is edified
with the feel-good, heart-felt elements of Scripture and I feel spiritually fed
from the concrete thou shalt and shalt not passages. In spite of a believers preferred
style of reading or writing, Paul’s charge to Timothy is applicable to
everyone, “But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become
convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and
how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you
wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (2
Tim3:14 NIV).
1 comment:
Gail;
-----There’s evidence available for believing anything. All it takes is a little skillful cherry-picking. And this world-full of people demonstrates that almost everything imaginable is believed by someone, maybe not so much by deliberate cherry-picking, but by the same effect made from the highly scattered nature of solid, relevant facts. Paul’s charge to Timothy shows some important “therefor’s” useful for gaining relatively accurate knowledge and sentiments about the Lord.
-----The Potter has the right to make the vessel for any use He desires. He made Timothy for a noble use. Timothy was blessed to be born to parents who taught God’s Word to him early. You can not give the charge Paul gave to Timothy to just anybody. Rather, the reason Timothy was being given this charge was because what he had been raised to be made him thusly chargeable. -----So Paul could charge him to continue in what he’s learned because of the integrity of the people from whom he learned it. In a world where there is ample information to select for constructing almost any idea imaginable, it is very important to know the character of those from whom you learn. It isn’t about separating into cloistered groups of similar ideologies which never intercommunicate, even though that is what both the church and the rest of mankind has done. It is about gaining enough self-control to sort and vet information for receipt or rejection, not people. People are always receivable for love no matter what they believe or tell you.
-----The reason we can have this courage to interact with all men is because it is the holy Scriptures which makes us wise for salvation in the Spirit we’ve received through faith in Christ. He leads us into all truth if we desire truth only. With the help of the Scriptures in the guidance of the Holy Spirit, there is ample evidence for believing everything evidence speaks as it falls into uniquely available position amongst the emerging picture of truth. This is why I never again will allow anyone within my hearing to claim the Bible is not a scientific textbook. The first thing scientific investigation requires is a framework of understanding within which to work. That framework is as much, or more, science as the investigation itself is science. And the Bible provides the only framework in which the truth about things can form. It is textbook, which covers also science. Timothy had the framework in which evidence speaks only the truth. Timothy's style was chargeable.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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