Thoughts From 2Timothy 1 - Part 1

 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, in keeping with the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus,2 To Timothy, my dear son: Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.3 I thank God, whom I serve, as my ancestors did, with a clear conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers. 4 Recalling your tears, I long to see you, so that I may be filled with joy. 5 I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also. 2Timothy 1:1-5

      The word life jumped out at me in these 5 verses and as we read on, we will see it more. There is life in Christ. Whether we use the word life to be the absence of death, or in a sense to mean a quality of life as used in the phrase, "He's living the life" - both are true of being born again.

      Even the term born again, implies a new life event where the old you is gone and the new you has begun. Paul realizes that he was once dead as an enemy of God in sin, just like Adam and Eve on the day they ate from the tree experienced death as promised by God, in the same way Paul's spirit was dead, and he could not commune with God. But God woke him up on the way to Damascus and said basically for Paul to stop doing what he was doing and start serving Him. Paul repented of his sins, believed in Christ and was brought to life in a spiritual sense. If we are created in the image of God to be triune, we have a body a soul and a spirit. The Spirit is the part that is not alive at birth and until we are saved or born again, we are 2D creatures meant to live in a 3D world. Do you ever picture unbelievers that way? It's like they are walking around in a TV screen, and you have jumped out of the TV completely, and it is totally done by faith. An alive faith. Lois and Eunice passed it on to Timothy. Don't ever be ashamed of "brainwashing" your kids with Christianity. Do you want your kids dead or alive? Do you want them 2D or 3D? Do you want them living in a TV or outside a TV?

      The second definition of life is a quality of existence. My Dad would often say, "Now that's really living" after eating Mom's Rhubarb pie or something he really enjoyed. We aren't meant to survive in life but to thrive. In a sense, we are meant to live in brilliant color while the rest of the world is living in black and white. Christ brings joy to life while sin leads to death and sorrow. Christ brings freedom while the devil brings bondage.

      Are you truly alive? Have you stepped out of the TV into 3D? Is your life in technicolor or black and white? Faith is alive. Trust Christ!