|
News for the Pews |
Home
8th April 2026
WednesdayReflection
************************
'Pastor John Miller'
is the Senior Pastor of Revival Christian
Fellowship in Menifee, California.
Be Faithful
.... 2 Timothy 1:13-18
13 Hold firmly to the true words that I taught you, as the example for you to follow, and remain in the faith and love that are ours in union with Christ Jesus.
14 Through the power of the Holy Spirit, who lives in us, keep the good things that have been entrusted to you.
15 You know that everyone in the province of Asia, including Phygelus and Hermogenes, has deserted me.
16 May the Lord show mercy to the family of Onesiphorus, because he cheered me up many times. He was not ashamed that I am in prison,
17 but as soon as he arrived in Rome, he started looking for me until he found me.
18 May the Lord grant him his mercy on that Day! And you know very well how much he did for me in Ephesus.
Paul is in a dark, dark dungeon in the capital of Rome. He was certain that he was going to die.
He has the sentence of death within himself and so is writing to his protege, Timothy, this young man who's a pastor in the city of Ephesus, which is kind of one of the main cities of Asia Minor.
Think of Paul, over 30 years of faithful ministry.
He had given himself tirelessly, relentlessly to serving the Lord, to preaching the gospel.
He had ambitions and desires to take the gospel to Spain, but now he's been arrested.
He's not under house arrest like his first imprisonment, he is in chains and in a deep, dark dungeon.
He's writing to Timothy and calls him to come before winter and, "Bring my coat, my parchment, my books, and bring John Mark with you.
That's what Paul is going to encourage Timothy to do - to be faithful to the faith, the gospel, and to keep true to the truth of God's Word.
Secondly, he's encouraging him to be faithful to Christian friends and to work together with other believers in the promoting of the gospel.
Thirdly, in 2 Timothy 2:1-2, to be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
Paul tells Timothy to, "Hold fast."
What is he to hold fast? "...the form of sound words. Paul wants Timothy not to follow the bad example of those who had turned away and were not following in the faith.
Now, Paul was an apostle. He spoke with apostolic authority, and what he passed down to Timothy was the faith.
Let me explain something.
In the New Testament, it's talking about the body of truth that we believe as Christians known as the Bible or Christian doctrine or what we would call orthodoxy.
It's so essential, and I think that we live in a day, in a time, in an era that Christians have departed or drifted away from the apostolic doctrine, the truth of God's Word.
How are we to hold this sound doctrine?
In two ways, in faith and in love.
That's not just enough to have the information in our heads, we have to believe it in our hearts.
You hold onto it in faith, in other words, believe what you believe, and he says to hold onto it in love.
We're to be compassionate, kind, and loving.
The Bible says the world will know that we're Christ's disciples by our love.
Sometimes Christians don't really believe what they believe.
Sometimes, "Well, I believe the Bible."
Do you really, really, really believe what you believe?
><(((°>
This is an edited version.
The full article is avaiable on request
Pastor John Miller
is the Senior Pastor of Revival Christian Fellowship in Menifee, California.
He began his pastoral ministry in 1973 by leading a Bible study of six people.
God eventually grew that study into Calvary Chapel of San Bernardino,
and after pastoring there for 39 years, Pastor John became the Senior Pastor of Revival in June of 2012.
During the Interregnum
March 2025 to ....
Contact the Benefice Office
E-mail:
thebeneficeofbhkandr at gmail dot com
Contact the Benefice Office
Sunday School Rooms, Church Lane,
BUGBROOKE, Northampton, NN7 3PB
Land Line: 01604 830373
E-mail:
thebeneficeofbhkandr at gmail dot com
Mon., Tues., Wed., Thur.
9:00am to 11:30am
For Baptism bookings (Christenings)
to arrange an appointment please contact
the Benefice Office.
For Wedding bookings:
please contact the Benefice Office to arrange
an appointment.
Who Made This?
Seeing as you asked, if you can give helpful
advice or report factual corrections and
'deliberate mistakes',email:-
regparker3 at gmail dot com
Email addresses shown using words in an
attempt to avoid 'spam',
Type the email address replacing 'at' with '@',
and 'dot' with '.'
|