| Daily
Thought – October 7, 2004 |
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| LIVING THE SOLUTION WITH DAILY INSPIRATION |
But God bless
Onesiphorus and his family! Many are the times I've
been refreshed in that house. And he wasn't embarrassed
a bit that I was in jail. The first thing he did when
he got to Rome was look me up.
(2 Timothy 1:16-17, the Message)
Our first reaction when we hear about
someone being arrested and going to jail is usually
what did they do wrong. What about someone you know?
We have been taught to be such “milk-toast” Christians
that we will back down from the truth of the gospel
for the sake of not offending someone. We forget that
even when we are speaking the truth in love those who
are not living for God and do not want to live for God
are going to be offend by the truth of their selfish
and sinful ways. The truth is if you are living the
life God created you to live and are, in love, trying
to share that life with others and let them know that
God wants the same for them, you are going to offend
someone. Sometimes just your presence in the same room
with them can cause them to be offended.
Paul offended many people and many people entered into
a loving intimate personal relationship with God because
of Paul’s ministry. It was those who he offended
that had him put in jail. His teaching threatened their
power and challenged their “authority” so
they wanted to shut him up. The same goes on today all
over the world. Believers are put into prison for saying
nothing less than Jesus is Lord and you need Him in
your life, or for just standing up for what is right
and against evil. But not in America. No, we have freedom.
But do we really, or are we, the Christians in America,
just too timid to speak the truth for fear of being
labeled a bigot. Now don’t get me wrong, I mean
speaking the truth in love. No one, or at least very
few, were ever convinced of God’s love for them
by being told, “YOU'RE A SINNER AND YOU ARE GOING
TO HELL!”. I have found that even being loving
and gentle in sharing the truth of God’s plan
can still offend someone.
The point is this - let’s not be so quick to jump
to conclusions about someone we know going to jail.
Let’s first find out why, second let’s not
let the fear of not being “liked” and yes
someday, even in America, facing jail or worse, prevent
us from sharing the love of God with others and His
desire to have an intimate personal love relationship
with them.
Live life from love, live it with heart...
Live it with Passion
Pete Reinbold
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Scripture
taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®.Copyright
© 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. All
rights reserved throughout the world. Used by permission
of International Bible Society.
NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION® and NIV® are registered
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trademark for the offering of goods or services requires
the prior written consent of International Bible Society.
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy
Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996. Used
by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton,
IL 60189, USA. All rights reserved. |
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