Day 344, or December 10th. We have a positive
point to make. Our thoughts today come from 2
Timothy 3, verse 16. All Scripture is God -breathed
and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting,
and training in righteousness. First, the big
picture surrounding this verse. Paul writes what
was probably his last letter from prison in Rome.
Unlike the previous time, Paul was imprisoned
in Rome, when he was under a sort of house arrest,
as recorded in Acts chapter 28, this time he
is in prison as a criminal and awaiting execution.
As a Roman citizen, he could not be crucified,
so he probably died by being beheaded. He knows
his time is coming to an end and he wants to
pass on as much as he can to his beloved Timothy
before it's too late. He is ready, willing and
able to pass the baton on to the next generation
of believers. This is something church leaders
have often found difficult over the years. Paul
describes the qualities of a leader and warns
of trying times to come for Timothy and all other
believers. And now our action step for today.
When the Bible talks about the Scriptures, it
simply means the writings that form a holy book.
The word Bible, which we tend to use, is Greek,
and is never used in the Bible. Sadly, it has
changed somewhat anyway, so that in the 21st
century it means any authoritative book on any
subject. For this reason, we often refer to the
Scriptures or Bible as being holy, which means
set apart for God, making them very special indeed.
Paul begins and ends with positives, teaching
and training. In between these are rebuking and
correcting, which are integral parts of teaching
and training too. Truly the Bible is our training
manual for life. In short, we have a positive
God who longs to help us get the most out of
life. Be sure to put your positive specs on when
reading the Bible. In a world where everyone
seems to be pessimistic, we believers have much
to teach a negative world. To the hopeless we
can offer hope and peace to those who are in
turmoil.