Category Archives: Bible

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The Life That Honors God: Train For Godliness

This is part of the series The Life That Honors God, from 1 Timothy. Check out more from the series!

Over the next few days, I want to share five different aspects of The Life That Honors God. This series, based out of 1 Timothy chapter 4 and chapter 5, is all about how to live a life that makes a difference to others, but most importantly, to God. Click on the link in the box above to see the introductory post, with links to all five aspects.

The Life That Honors God: Train For Godliness

1 Timothy 4:7-8 says this:

Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives tales; rather, train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.

Christianity is not about trying to be Godly; it is about training to be godly.

John Ortberg, in his book The Life You’ve Always Wanted, talks about the difference between trying and training.

John says that if you go out and try to run a marathon you’ll never be able to do it. But if you train to run a marathon, then in time, with the right disciplines in your life, you could accomplish it.

I have seen this very example in the life of a family member. Marissa is the wife of my wife’s brother. A few years ago she ran in a marathon. Twenty-six miles. It was interesting to watch, from a distance, as she prepared. You don’t just get up and decide one day to run a marathon.

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The Life That Honors God: Teach The Truth

This is part of the series The Life That Honors God, from 1 Timothy. Check out more from the series!

Over the next few days, I want to share five different aspects of The Life That Honors God. This series, based out of 1 Timothy chapter 4 and chapter 5, is all about how to live a life that makes a difference to others, but most importantly, to God. Click on the link in the box above to see the introductory post, with links to all five aspects as they are posted.

The Life That Honors God: Teach The Truth

1 Timothy 4:6 says:

If you point these things out to the brothers, you will be a good minister of Christ Jesus, brought up in the truths of the faith and of the good teaching that you have followed.

Many of us have been brought up in the truths of the faith. God may have been talked about in your homes. The truths of the faith may have been taught to you by godly men & women, who gave of their lives to you as Sunday school teachers, preachers, youth leaders.

And those of you who didn’t grow up in homes built upon a Christian foundation, if you attend church, you still have the truths of the faith being taught to you weekly, right there.

Next time you’re there, look around you. See the people who are involved in teaching you the truth, right there with you. Some of those people you may have known all your life. And there are all kinds of people involved in teaching other people. Some teach younger children. Others teach adult Bible classes. These teachers bring Scripture to life for their listeners. And there are others, like VBS workers, small group leaders, elders and deacons, and the list goes on and on. And there is always a need for more people to become involved in teaching the truth.

I remember when I first became aware of this truth. I was going to be a freshman in high school. We had just started going back to the church that I had grown up in, Northside Christian Church. When the preacher left, and the church hired another, my parents took the family and went across town to another church for two or three years.

But now we were back at Northside. And I didn’t know anyone anymore, but I signed up to go to church camp anyway. There were at least twenty-five kids going, I should make some friends, right?

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The Life That Honors God

I love ministry. I love meeting people, getting to know people, hanging out with people, teaching people and discipling people. I love to watch people make a decision to give their lives to Christ and then begin that journey that lasts a lifetime with him. I love helping people grow into a life that honors God.

The Life That Honors God

This idea of honoring God with my life really began to fit together for me a few years ago. It’s been bouncing around in my mind since then, and I’ve been trying to develop this into practice in my own life. We were living in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and I went to Springfield, Missouri to participate in my brother Rick’s ordination service. My portion of the service was “Wisdom and Advice from an Older Brother in the Ministry.” So I began to think about what I have learned over the years about ministry, and how that applied to my brother’s life, and how it applied to my life.

Rick’s youth minister preached the ordination sermon during that service. Much of what he said began to refresh my memory about why I chose to serve Christ; and, more importantly, how I was to serve Christ.

Springfield, Missouri is a very long drive from Fort Wayne, Indiana. And when I drive I love to have some music playing. And, if my wife and the kids aren’t with me, I love to have it playing loud. But not as I drove back home that day. As I thought about my service to Christ, I began to be reminded that one of my roles in ministry is to teach others . . . ministry.

Sure, I’ve been ordained, and have dedicated my whole life to a career in ministry. But I began to wonder, how was that any different than what the Bible teaches about ministry for every Christian?

As I drove, I put in my CD of the NIV and listened to what Paul had to say to Timothy. And then it became clear. Each of us, as Christians, have been called to serve Christ with his or her entire life! Each of us are ministers in the Kingdom of God, not just members! Every one of us has a role to fill, and what is required to fill that role? Everything! Every aspect of our lives! Every waking moment of our day, and our sleep too! If God is not Lord of all, then he isn’t Lord at all!

So what does that mean? Over the next few days, I want to take a look at 1 Timothy 4, and part of 5, to see just what Paul says about serving Christ.

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Becoming A Model

I love it when I read a passage from the Bible that I’ve read dozens of times, and notice something completely new. Have you ever had that happen? It happened for me just the other day.

Coin In Sand

I was reading through the book of 1 Thessalonians this week, and I stumbled across a phrase, and a challenge, that I’d never noticed before.

Paul wrote this letter to the Thessalonian church while he was in Corinth, right around the halfway point of the first century. The church in Thessalonica was a young, small church in a very large and pagan city. These early Christians faced sever challenges to their faith at every turn, including persecution and social pressures, temptations from their old, previous lifestyles, and conflicts with other Christians. Paul’s letter to these readers sounds strikingly familiar to our culture today.

In the first chapter, Paul is expressing his thanksgiving for the believers in this church, sharing how they labored and endured in the face of the trials they were experiencing. Paul writes of how they were chosen by God and how they became imitators of the Lord, in spite of severe persecution and suffering.

And then, he writes verse 7:

And so you became a model to all the believers…

A model…

How many times have I read this passage and never noticed this phrase?

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Responding To Jesus

We live in a society that seems to have a variety of responses to Jesus. One of the things I try to do every week is draw people to Jesus with my sermons and messages.

Even in our small community, I see different responses to Jesus. Some have told me that they don’t see any need for church or faith or Jesus. Others have a hard time letting go of the conveniences and routines (ruts) in order to allow him to reign in their lives.

Survey Checklist

Just this week, I had the opportunity to watch someone make the response to recommit their life to Christ and get back on track with his leadership.

But I realized this week that this variety of responses isn’t new. In fact, people have responded to Jesus in different ways ever since he walked this earth.

I was reading through the Gospel of Matthew recently, and read chapter nine. Over the past few days, I’ve been drawn back to it over and over, and finally saw a recurring theme in these few verses. Of all the stories shared in this chapter, each one of them reveals a different way that people responded to Jesus.

Let’s look at the different responses.

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Think On These Things… Excellent Or Praiseworthy

In Philippians 4:8-9, Paul gives us a detailed list of characteristics that should define our thought life. From whatever is true, to whatever is noble, to whatever is right, to whatever is pure, to whatever is lovely, to whatever is admirable, these qualities define the level of our thinking.

And, ultimately, each one of them leads straight to God.

If Anything Is Excellent Or Praiseworthy

So it shouldn’t surprise us that the last phrase in the list, separated by hyphens in order to summarize or rephrase the list, should do the same thing. The final phrase Paul uses summarizes the entire scope of proper thought, and it, too, takes us directly to God.

Paul uses two words in this final phrase, “excellent” and “praiseworthy.” Let’s take a look at each of these words.

Excellent

This word conveys the idea that something is eminently good, valuable beyond value. In Stoic philosophy, it describes man’s highest goal and true destiny. At its root, it even carries the idea of manliness or valor; something worthy of intrinsic praise or virtue.

What can be more worthy of praise than God himself? Who is more good than God? Jesus even asked this question and implied the answer when he asked the rich, young ruler “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone” (Luke 18:18-19).

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Think On These Things… Whatever Is Admirable

In Paul’s list of things that should be the focus of our thoughts, he lists a series of descriptive terms. These terms are all focused on godly and God-honoring perspectives.

As he wraps up the first part of his list, he gives us the word “admirable.”

Whatever is Admirable

There are lots of ways we use this term.

We admire things and people. When someone builds a new home, we admire their home. We admire athletes, or actors, or leaders, or pastors.

But I’m not sure this is the admiration Paul has in mind when he uses the word.

When we look up the word in the dictionary, we get a better sense of what Paul’s referring to. According to dictionary.com, admiration conveys a feeling of wonder, pleasure, or approval or the act of looking on or contemplating with pleasure.

But the third definition listed hits pretty close to the meaning: an object of wonder, pleasure, or approval.

What Paul is saying here is that things that are admirable are worthy of our praise. This is not the same idea that Paul will state in the next sentence, when he uses the word praise with the idea of worship. This is more of the idea of praising the qualities of something, something that is well-spoken of.

So what is the object of our wonder? What is the object of our admiration? What is the object of our awe?

Or rather, perhaps we should ask “Who” instead…

It’s very interesting to me, as we examine each of these words in detail, that the object of each one ultimately is God himself.

Our thoughts should be directed towards that which is admirable, and not that which is offensive.

My challenge to you is to think on this today. Avoid the offensive. Focus on the admirable. Focus on the godly.

What that is admirable are you thinking of this week? You can leave your thoughts in the comments section below.