Lots of false prophet talk and then Paul indulges in a little foolishness! That Paul is a NUT! A nut I tell you. At one point he is even in a hand basket, and I wonder if he was thinking "where am I going and why am I in this hand basket?!" I bet he was.
Next bullet point on Paul's agenda is prayer. He talks of times he was in a pickle and prayed....and prayed.....and prayed until God answered him. Sometimes it may not be the answer we want at that time (reference: Garth Brooks song, Unanswered Prayers (see I can do it with country song too, my pop culture/biblical connections are FAR reaching and vast)) but it may be what we need and just don't know it yet.
And finally, Paul warns them that they cannot continue to do what they know is wrong and then continue to ask forgiveness over and over a gain. They seem to be doing good whilst Paul is there watching but as soon as he leaves they appear to go back to doing whatever they feel like.
AHH what a connection I feel with Paul. My students do this every single day. As long as I am staring at them, they do right. The minute I literally turn my head all hell breaks loose. Its crazy. I tell them at least once a day "Character is doing the right thing when nobody's looking"......the rest of that quote being- "There are too many people who think that the only thing that's right is to get by, and the only thing that's wrong is to get caught." --J.C. Watts
1 comment:
You are getting good. You brought up some things that I didn't catch.
10:4-5 The battle is in our minds - our thoughts. Remember it is not what goes into the body that makes it unclean, but what comes out. If our words/tongue control us like the rudder of a ship, how much more do our thoughts since they control our words? The most important thing is to not let the enemy get a foothold in your mind to where he can influence your thoughts. The second part of this is realising that Christianity is a worldview, not just theology. We must battle and "refute arguments and theories and reasonings and every proud and lofty thing that sets itself up against the [true] knowledge of God." That includes evolution, ethical relativism, man as inherently good, society as determining/contolling the "goodness" of man, socialism over capitalism, abortion, homosexuality, materialism, etc. This is why I am so willing to debate atheists/evolutionists anytime, although they almost never will. No atheist/evolutionist has ever won a debate in a major venue over a Christian/creationist. They can't. The truth will always prevail. General relevation, Divine revelation (God's Word), science, history, and reality doom their theories to the very abyss of unreason and faith on which they claim the Christian worldview is founded.
13:5 tell us to examine and test and evaluate our own selves to see whether we are holding to our faith.
In our weakness (our limits), God is made strong [by showing that He is capable and willing to help us by surpassing our limits and doing for us what we could not otherwise do, thereby proving that He is God, and we are not.]
Tomorrow is Acts 20:1-3 and Romans 1-3
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