House

2 Tim 2:20In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for noble purposes and some for ignoble. 21If a man cleanses himself from the latter, he will be an instrument for noble purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work.

The Message interprets this passage as:

20-21In a well-furnished kitchen there are not only crystal goblets and silver platters, but waste cans and compost buckets—some containers used to serve fine meals, others to take out the garbage. Become the kind of container God can use to present any and every kind of gift to his guests for their blessing.

But when I read it, I interpreted that our life is like a house. We tend to keep a lot of stuff in our house and some of it is good for us and some of it isn't. Some of us hoard piles of 'stuff' in our lives. Sometimes we need to do some cleaning out!

The spirit clearly says

I Timothy 4 starts with "The spirit clearly says". If found this interesting as it doesn't indicate if the spirit clearly spoke to one person or how the spirit spoke, just that the spirit was clear. A lot of times things do not always look like they are clear- it is more murky as to what might be correct in a given situation. However, I think the Spirit desires to speak clearly to us.

overseer

In my Bible in 1 Timothy 3, it speaks of an 'overseer'. I think in today's terms that would be a pastor. But I think the term overseer is cool. Instead of calling his 'pastor Al', I may now call him 'overseer Al'. And see if I can keep a straight face :)

Paul also refers to the Church as "God's household" which is a good picture of it, really.

Context

1 Timothy 2 is a short chapter but full of difficult writings.

8I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer, without anger or disputing.

9I also want women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, 10but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God.

So, Paul's hope for men is a spiritual one but for women is a physical one.
Is this because women were more spiritually advanced? lol.
Maybe men have more trouble with the spiritual things, and women with the material ones?

And then we come to:
11A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. 12I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent. 13For Adam was formed first, then Eve. 14And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner.
Are women more easy to deceive?
This was our downfall!
Why does God gift some women as orators if they are to be silent?
There is obviously a lot of disputed territory here. I am still trying to grasp why Paul appends this to the front of the chapter that indicates that Jesus wants everyone to be saved. Would Jesus want women to speak if it mean that that goal was met?
I know many people have disagreements over this and so I am certainly not expecting any resolution here, just stuff to think about.

Ignorance is bliss

1 Timothy 1:13Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief.
Paul says that he was shown mercy because the motivation for his actions was not so bad. He thought he was doing the right thing when he did it (killing Christians). Can people who deliberately do bad things still be shown mercy? Does bad motivation overrule God's mercy?

Idle

2 Thessalonians 3:6In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command you, brothers, to keep away from every brother who is idle and does not live according to the teaching[a] you received from us. 7For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example. We were not idle when we were with you,...11We hear that some among you are idle. They are not busy; they are busybodies.
Me thinks Paul may have had some type A personality. I can relate.
So if we take from this that God wants us to keep busy, what does this mean?
I don't think it's that God doesn't want us to be reflective as passages I've read in the last week talk about how important it is to think of heavenly things not earthly things = God does want us to reflect on Him.
But he also wants us to be productive and do useful things.
As a pose to talking behind others' backs, which likely is not constructive or edifying.
This may be encouragement to keep our focus on the positive.

Encourage your hearts

2 Thessalonians 2:16May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, 17encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.
We should always look to encourage others' hearts and pray for God to encourage and strengthen us and others.

Quiet life

1 Thessalonians 4:11Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, 12so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.
A quiet life. I am not sure the exams office qualifies as a quiet life! I try to live without too much drama though.

In my Bible, a note it made at the start of the book was that 1 Thessalonians said that 1 Thess was about "eschatology" (the return of Jesus) but I didn't really read it that way, I thought the book was more about how to live now and about encouragement.

prayer from 1 Thess.

1 Thessalonians 3:12May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you. 13May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones.

Stand firm

Colossians 4:12Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings. He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured.
I like that prayer "that you may stand firm in all the will of God". This implies that the will of God must not be so difficult to determine, if we are to stand firm in it. (Though it sometimes seems not so clear) But that's what I pray for myself that I will stand firm in all the will of God and for others that they will as well.

I liked reading Colossians- it gave me prayer inspirations.

Earthly nature

Yesterday I read:
Colossians 3:5Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. 6Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.
Verse 6 is the kicker-if we put our time and out energy on worldly things instead of heavenly things then we encourage the wrath of God to come. I don't think we want that! I wonder how much our current society encourages the wrath of God and if they know or care that they are doing this.

After pondering this yesterday, this evening I went to a service where the speaker talked about blessings (as it is Thanksgiving). He covered what the world considers blessings- like wealth, a good career, nice house, car, etc. and how that compares with what God considers blessings- righteousness being credited to us for what Jesus did, the blessing of truth clearing our mind, blessing of wisdom, blessings that come from obedience.

fullness

I'm in Colossians now. I notice a theme in Paul's prayers - that he prays for fullness in Christ for others. He uses different words that that. Each of his prayers a little different, but the main directive for all his prayers seem to be that others would be full of Christ. I like that directive of prayer.