WEBVTT

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Day 344, or December 10th. We have a positive

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point to make. Our thoughts today come from 2

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Timothy 3, verse 16. All Scripture is God -breathed

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and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting,

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and training in righteousness. First, the big

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picture surrounding this verse. Paul writes what

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was probably his last letter from prison in Rome.

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Unlike the previous time, Paul was imprisoned

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in Rome, when he was under a sort of house arrest,

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as recorded in Acts chapter 28, this time he

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is in prison as a criminal and awaiting execution.

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As a Roman citizen, he could not be crucified,

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so he probably died by being beheaded. He knows

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his time is coming to an end and he wants to

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pass on as much as he can to his beloved Timothy

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before it's too late. He is ready, willing and

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able to pass the baton on to the next generation

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of believers. This is something church leaders

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have often found difficult over the years. Paul

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describes the qualities of a leader and warns

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of trying times to come for Timothy and all other

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believers. And now our action step for today.

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When the Bible talks about the Scriptures, it

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simply means the writings that form a holy book.

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The word Bible, which we tend to use, is Greek,

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and is never used in the Bible. Sadly, it has

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changed somewhat anyway, so that in the 21st

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century it means any authoritative book on any

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subject. For this reason, we often refer to the

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Scriptures or Bible as being holy, which means

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set apart for God, making them very special indeed.

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Paul begins and ends with positives, teaching

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and training. In between these are rebuking and

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correcting, which are integral parts of teaching

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and training too. Truly the Bible is our training

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manual for life. In short, we have a positive

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God who longs to help us get the most out of

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life. Be sure to put your positive specs on when

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reading the Bible. In a world where everyone

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seems to be pessimistic, we believers have much

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to teach a negative world. To the hopeless we

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can offer hope and peace to those who are in

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turmoil.