Good morning. We are back
to the handout sheets. The righteous shall move onward and forward; those with
pure hearts shall become stronger and stronger. We are not supposed to just sit
there and become stagnant. As someone has said: "if you're not moving
forward, you are moving backward. "The key of course, is to have a pure
heart. As the song says "my will is not my own". We surrender it to
God. As we step forward in faith, we become stronger and stronger. Like Abraham:
I will not stagger at the promises of God through unbelief, but I will grow
strong and empowered by faith as I give glory to God. Before he even had a son,
Abraham was promised that his descendants would be as the stars of the heaven.
Then God asked him to sacrifice his only son, Isaac. Here he was an old dude
and yet he was willing to trust God. He was willing to put all on the line. He
didn't rest on the miracle of Isaac's birth. If God did a miracle before, He
would do it again. That's what so many Christians do. God does a miracle for
them, and then that miracle becomes their God. They are unwilling to surrender
everything to God – even their miracle. Some even fail to give glory to God for
their miracle. Like Paul said "Your grace is sufficient for me, for Your
strength is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, I will boast all the more
gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. For when I
am weak, I am strong." It's not us – it's Him. If we could do it, we would
not need God. Even when we can do something on our own, we still need to rely
on God. The weaker we are, the stronger God becomes in us. And then we can do
all things through Christ who strengthen us. Thank You Father that the reader
has a pure heart and relies entirely on you. Thank You that he/she grows
stronger and stronger day by day. He/she moves onward and forward and does not
stagger at the promises You have given him/her. In You he/she is strong enough
to overcome all obstacles!
Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me
Good morning. Paul then gives a list of a lot of things that he has gone through as an apostle. I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For if you were to have countless tutors in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. There could be many people that you listen to either in church or through the Internet or other means; but there was only one person (as a general rule it was a person) that lead you to Christ. Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me. He was saying that just like a child imitates his or her father, they were to imitate him. He says that again seven chapters later. Since it is easy to forget some things about people we have not seen in a while, Paul says that he sent Timothy to them to remind them of his ways which are in Christ, just as he taught everywhere in every church. Some have become arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. I shall find ou...
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