1 TIMOTHY 6
20 O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you. Avoid the irreverent babble and contradictions of what is falsely called “knowledge,” 21 for by professing it some have swerved from the faith.
GUARDING THE DEPOSIT
When I was young, I went to buy bottles of pop from our newspaper shop, i received something back if I kept them unbroken, so My mother and Father made sure I was careful with these bottles, but being me, I sometimes broke them.
Timothy is Paul’s protégé, he is the one earmarked by Paul to take over as leader of the churches. He has been trained by Paul, he has had time and effort invested into Him.
Paul has deposited the knowledge of the truth of Jesus Christ into his heart, throughout these two letters of 1 &2 Timothy, he pleads with his protégé to keep strong and to keep the true gospel safe.
Paul knows more than most that there were many false teachers who were trying to steal the gospel.
The words of Paul echo down to us, each generation has been entrusted with the gospel and NOW it is their responsibility to deposit it with the next.
Let me ask you this:
How much depositing of the gospel have you done to the next generation?
Now I am a bit older, it is my responsibility to deposit the true gospel unto the next generation of Timothy’s.
Many of us need to have a legacy and that legacy should be the one Paul has, one of not just sharing the gospel, with his current generation, but passing it on to the future generations.
Older Christian, are you mentoring a younger Christian?
I have a dear friend in China, who I taught English too, when I first came to China. I have been able to pass on books, sermons etc to encourage not just him but others. There are older Christians reading this, who may have books at home that are just lying there, if they are good, get them into the hands of a young Christian’s.
Also, to the Timothy’s, guard the gospel you have been given with your life. It is the very power of God unto salvation unto all who believe, it has been deposited in your life, now it’s time to pass the deposit on.
Don’t break or lose the deposit, like I did when I broke the bottles (that only happened once or twice), but my father wasn’t half mad.
If you do break or lose the deposit, it will be God himself that you will answer to, so guard WITH YOUR LIFE.
Are you guarding your deposit or have you lost it？
God bless you
WORKING TOGETHER WITH GOD AND EACH OTHER
1 Corinthians 3
4 For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?
5 Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man?
6 I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.
7 So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.
8 Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour.
9 For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building.
10 According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.
I really want us to concentrate on verse 9. 。
We are workers together with God
You know there are many gifts among the body of Christ. My brothers and sisters, we are not in competition with each other, we are workers together with God and with each other.
I am blessed to write and share and to be in ministry, as are many others, that doesn’t mean I am in competition with other people who are writers and indeed write fifty times better than myself.
A dear sister writes beautiful poetry, that is her gifting from God. I can’t write poetry, am I jealous?.. No. Do I thank God for her ministry?….Yes. 一
Maybe you think you can do something someone else is doing.. but are you prepared to pay the price.. to go through the difficulties that person may have encountered. The Lord does not give out gifts until that person is ready to handle it.
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I always remember when the Lord started me writing.. I had never written before and I put emoticons at the bottom of the messages .. but the Lord has helped me and taught me.
We are to thank God for the different offices and gifts that people hold. Let us remember it is the Holy Spirit who gives out the gifts and ministries and every one he gives out is to the person who can uniquely do that role within the body of Christ.
Please read and study 1 Corinthians Chapter 12.
You have your own unique role in the Body of Christ, one that has been chosen for you by the Father and given to you through the operation of his Spirit, who also gives you the power to operate in it.
Be very careful believer, not to be unhappy with the spiritual gift you have been given, that would be to grieve the Holy Spirit and to tell Him, that he doesn’t know what he is doing, when he clearly does.
For those of you, who do not know what their gift is, then seek God’s face on the matter, he will reveal what He has in store for you and he will give you the strength to operate in that gift.
When the Lord is looking for people to use, he does not look at what denomination you are in, what size church you are in or what the size of your bank balance is.. he looks for a willingness to serve Him and to also serve the Body of Christ.
Let me finish with a question.
If the Lord said your gifting was washing up and serving tea every week after church, would you accept that or would you complain? Be very careful not to complain, the Israelites got nowhere and died in the desert because of their complaining and critical spirit. see Numbers 14
God Bless you all