"Be diligent to come to me quickly....Bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas when you come....Do your utmost to come before winter." (2 Timothy 4)
"Please come as soon as you can." (NLT) "Try your best to come [to me] before winter." (Amp)
This sounds like a plea to me, someone in great need. Now most would say that "spiritual" people don't talk like this. Okay--------- but human beings do. "Spiritual" people have to so impress everyone with some "rugged individualism's misinterpretation of, "I can do all things...," that they cannot say, "Be diligent to come to me quickly....Try your best to come [to me] before winter." They must keep up that "I'm untouchable by life." Okay; then they're on their own.
I was sharing once in a Bible seminar in Eastern Poland during the communist era with a group of university students. When I spoke of some of Paul's "humanness," one student said, "O, that's not St. Paul." That was her problem. He was Saint Paul. To religious people, the Sunday School class, and worship service people this is not the Apostle Paul, the Saint Paul they have heard about. The only Paul they know is the missionary who traveled over much of the Roman Empire, never slept, worked 24 hours a day preaching, passing out tracks, conducting planning meetings, has churches named after him, "St. Paul's." How could this Paul possibly have been so needy as to say to a young man, and his disciple at that, "Be diligent to come [to me] quickly"? And, "It is cold here. Please bring my coat."
In this letter to a young disciple, Paul speaks of betrayal and, dare I say it, loneliness, "....Demas has forsaken me....Only Luke is with me....Alexander the coppersmith did me much harm....The first time I came before the judge, no one came with me. Everyone abandoned me." No, I do not believe Paul was complaining or "moaning" in defeat. He said, "But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me...." But why is it that we do not allow people to say they are lonely, or to say, "'Please come as soon as you can'----------- because I need you?" I tell you right now, my friend, I repent of any time someone made such a request, and I did not respond, "....as soon as you can."
No one knows, nor will ever know the agony of the Cross, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" Again, most of the "Seven Last Words From The Cross" services put a "divine spin" on this cry of our Lord Jesus. But as the "God/Man," what was going on? Theologians say that it was because Jesus was bearing our sin, that Father is as Habukkuk 1 says, "Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on iniquity." Okay. But what about abandonment? What about loneliness? Remember the Garden? "Father, if You are willing...." I have seen over the years so much hurt which people try to cover and bear on their own, trying to maintain the facade of spiritual strength. But if this is you today, remember that among all the maladies of humanity, Jesus bore loneliness, abandonment, fear, grief, "in His own body on the tree." And remember also that, "bear one another's burdens," is the privilege and duty of the Church.
Now I am not attempting to deny the, "power of God for salvation," viz., to deliver, heal, keep, empower, strengthen, over come, "by the Blood of the Lamb." What I am attempting to do is encourage you to be a human being, accepting our limitations, that it is okay to feel alone in the world, to be upset with abandonment, betrayal, and perhaps most of all, be able to share your deepest needs with others who are Fellow-Followers of, "the Lamb wherever He goes." No one was ever intended to "go it alone!"
Father, in Jesus' Name, may I be such a person, a person who will not judge, condemn, nor abandon anyone of Your Sheep which is alone on life's cliff. Amen.
"Please come as soon as you can." (NLT) "Try your best to come [to me] before winter." (Amp)
This sounds like a plea to me, someone in great need. Now most would say that "spiritual" people don't talk like this. Okay--------- but human beings do. "Spiritual" people have to so impress everyone with some "rugged individualism's misinterpretation of, "I can do all things...," that they cannot say, "Be diligent to come to me quickly....Try your best to come [to me] before winter." They must keep up that "I'm untouchable by life." Okay; then they're on their own.
I was sharing once in a Bible seminar in Eastern Poland during the communist era with a group of university students. When I spoke of some of Paul's "humanness," one student said, "O, that's not St. Paul." That was her problem. He was Saint Paul. To religious people, the Sunday School class, and worship service people this is not the Apostle Paul, the Saint Paul they have heard about. The only Paul they know is the missionary who traveled over much of the Roman Empire, never slept, worked 24 hours a day preaching, passing out tracks, conducting planning meetings, has churches named after him, "St. Paul's." How could this Paul possibly have been so needy as to say to a young man, and his disciple at that, "Be diligent to come [to me] quickly"? And, "It is cold here. Please bring my coat."
In this letter to a young disciple, Paul speaks of betrayal and, dare I say it, loneliness, "....Demas has forsaken me....Only Luke is with me....Alexander the coppersmith did me much harm....The first time I came before the judge, no one came with me. Everyone abandoned me." No, I do not believe Paul was complaining or "moaning" in defeat. He said, "But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me...." But why is it that we do not allow people to say they are lonely, or to say, "'Please come as soon as you can'----------- because I need you?" I tell you right now, my friend, I repent of any time someone made such a request, and I did not respond, "....as soon as you can."
No one knows, nor will ever know the agony of the Cross, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" Again, most of the "Seven Last Words From The Cross" services put a "divine spin" on this cry of our Lord Jesus. But as the "God/Man," what was going on? Theologians say that it was because Jesus was bearing our sin, that Father is as Habukkuk 1 says, "Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on iniquity." Okay. But what about abandonment? What about loneliness? Remember the Garden? "Father, if You are willing...." I have seen over the years so much hurt which people try to cover and bear on their own, trying to maintain the facade of spiritual strength. But if this is you today, remember that among all the maladies of humanity, Jesus bore loneliness, abandonment, fear, grief, "in His own body on the tree." And remember also that, "bear one another's burdens," is the privilege and duty of the Church.
Now I am not attempting to deny the, "power of God for salvation," viz., to deliver, heal, keep, empower, strengthen, over come, "by the Blood of the Lamb." What I am attempting to do is encourage you to be a human being, accepting our limitations, that it is okay to feel alone in the world, to be upset with abandonment, betrayal, and perhaps most of all, be able to share your deepest needs with others who are Fellow-Followers of, "the Lamb wherever He goes." No one was ever intended to "go it alone!"
Father, in Jesus' Name, may I be such a person, a person who will not judge, condemn, nor abandon anyone of Your Sheep which is alone on life's cliff. Amen.
When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, on that day he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"
Hebrews 12:2
Hebrews 12:2
