Good morning. We are back
to the handout sheets. Many are the afflictions (pressures) of the righteous,
but the Lord delivers them out of them all. Thank God! I'm sure you're familiar
with the joke: it came to pass – thank God it didn't come to stay. I've been
reading in the book of Acts. Several times it took pressure for them to do or
to go where they were supposed to. The children of Israel also had no desire to
leave Egypt before they were enslaved. They could've left at any time. They had
the best of the land – who would want to leave? It took the pressure of slavery
to get them to have the desire to leave. Too many Christians are that way now.
Things are going great – who would want to leave? (even to go to heaven). But I
am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinks upon me (is thinking about me right
now). You are my help and my deliverer. Make no tarrying, oh my God. We are on
His mind continually. Of course we want help yesterday. But God is never late.
He has great plans for us. It may not look like it right now in the midst of a
crisis, but everything will work out according to His plan. Then one day we can
look back and say "oh that's what He was up to". Pile your troubles
on God's shoulders. He will carry your load. He will never let good people
topple into ruin. His shoulders are big. He can handle it. As the Andre Crouch
song goes "if I'd never had a problem I wouldn't know that God could solve
them". He can and He will! Father thank You for watching over the reader;
for carrying his/her load. Give him/her wisdom and insight how to solve all of his/her
problems. Reveal to him/her when they are coming and what they are so that he/she
can be ready for them.
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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