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A call to evangelize
Ken Silva2 Timothy 4:1-3
In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: 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 there own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.
In Paul's second letter to Timothy he calls on God and Christ Jesus to be his witnesses. He tells Timothy what he must do and that this task is very serious. Timothy will be accountable to God for how he does it. He must "preach the gospel and teach the truth". The work of an evangelist is to "preach the word". The latest philosophies, opinions, popular theories were not to be followed. False teachers would speak based upon their own ideas. Timothy was to teach from the unadulterated word of God. Paul is warning Timothy that there is a sense of urgency to teach the truth because a time is coming when teachers will teach based upon what people want to hear. People will not want to listen to the truth because it will force them to confront their own sin. Because they don't want to change they will close their ears to the "good news".
This scripture is relevant to many of the issues that are swirling about us today. There is so much misinformation it is difficult to make head or tails on what we should believe. If we take two steps back and separate ourselves from the "noise", we remember that God's Word, the Bible is the truth. We measure, dissect, analyze and rationalize things based upon the "God breathed" truth of the scriptures. An example would be the same sex issue as it progressed through the political circus. The distortion and reframing of the issue to rationalize the passage of this terrible Bill was in stark contrast to what the Bible tells us. We need to be aware that we are surrounded by information 24/7, our task is to filter out the truth based upon God's word.
Dear Lord God I thank you for those that are called to evangelize. The task is difficult, you say so in your word. But you will always provide a way through. I pray for strength, perseverance and endurance for our Pastors. I pray for a spiritual covering of security over them and their families. I pray for encouragement when the hill becomes steep and rest when they are weary. Dear Lord you are amazing, unchanging and ever loving. I thank you for who you are, amen.
