God’s Word

“Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke, and encourage – with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear” (2 Timothy 4:2-3).

Those of us who grew up in church circles will be familiar with the first of these verses – Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke, and encourage – with great patience and careful instruction. However, we may not be as familiar with the second verse.

There are two things:

  1. We are called to preach the word. Not our opinions, not our thoughts, not what we think is right. We are called to preach God’s word. God’s word dictates what is true and what is wrong, what is good and what is sin.
  2. There will be a time when people will reject God’s word and surround themselves with “teachers” who will say just what people want to hear.

Paul wrote these words two thousand years ago. Yet, these words are absolutely relevant today.

Our society has a hard time accepting the truth because the lies being uttered from some pulpits is exactly what they want to hear.

Friends, the word of God comforts and strengthens. AND if the word of God does not correct, rebuke, it’s probably not the word of God. If the word of God never corrects and rebukes, it would mean we are perfect just the way we are. And we all know that ain’t right.

The word of God absolutely comforts and strengths. AND it corrects and rebukes. And that’s a good thing.

Fully Alive

“The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being” (Genesis 2:7).

God made man from the dust of the ground. And when he was made, the man had the shape and form of man, but there was no life in him. Only when God breathed into the man the breath of life did the man come alive.

  • Looked like a man
  • Shaped like a man
  • But wasn’t fully alive until God breathed into the man the breath of life.

There are many today who go through life having the form and the shape of a living being. But there is no life in them. They have no idea why they are alive. They have no purpose and no direction. They merely exist.

The breath of God is God’s Holy Spirit. It is only when the Spirit of the living God comes to dwell with us can we be fully alive. We will never know what it means to be fully alive and living until we receive the Spirit of the living God.

A person without God will look like a living being, but there is no life in them.

To fully live means to fully live under the direction and the guidance of the Holy Spirit of God. This is an ongoing, continual “yes” to the whispers and the leadings of the Holy Spirit. This is the process of becoming more like Christ. For it is when we become more like Christ, that we become fully alive.

As we live into this new year, may we obey the leading of the Holy Spirit of God so that we resemble Christ in our thoughts and deeds. Don’t just endure 2025. Let us become fully alive!

Repent and Return

“Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:22-23).

These verses are comforting. They are reassuring.

What is astonishing is not these words, but these words in the context of the chapter:

“I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of the LORD’s wrath. He has driven me away and made me walk in darkness rather than light; indeed he has turned his hand against me again and again, all day long…he has besieged me and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship. He has made me dwell in darkness like those long dead…I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me…YET THIS I CALL TO MIND AND THEREFORE I HAVE HOPE. Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” (Jeremiah 3:1-3, 5-6, 19-23).

God’s compassion and faithfulness are not negated because of suffering, darkness, bitterness, or hardship. Even in suffering and darkness, bitterness and hardship cannot strip away God’s compassion and faithfulness toward us.

God is compassionate and faithful toward us not only in times of joy and light, but even in suffering and darkness. And that’s good news. There is never a place or a time when God’s compassion and faithfulness is not present.

The suffering that the writer of Lamenations is describing is the result of Israel and Judah’s generational unfaithfulness to God. The suffering is the result of the choices and decisions of Israel and Judah, it’s the result of their rejection of God and God’s ways.

But even in our rejection of God, God continues to be compassionate and faithful. God continues to call on his unfaithful people to repent and return.

What amazing words of comfort and reassurance.

God loves you. Repent and return. That’s an open invitation.