Timothy's Thoughts

T he sermon topic on Sunday was “The Qualifications of a Deacon.” I’ve been discussing the topic for the whole of my post-adolescent life, but it takes on a different meaning now that I am a deacon, rather than just a student of the Word. But more than the qualifications of deacon, I find that I am more interested in the role of deacons. I’ve been given this responsibility and I want to fulfill that responsibility the best I can, without overstepping my authority and without leaving anything out. Interestingly, though the office of deacon is important enough for Paul to state detailed qualifications in his letter to Timothy, the Bible doesn’t tell us a whole lot about what the deacons are supposed to do. There are many different ideas, from deacons only serving tables, to being pastors in training, to being the ones responsible for making decisions for the church. Aside from knowing that the word deacon could also be translated as the word servant, if there is anywhere in the Bible tha...

W hy did God destroy Sodom? That seems like a simple question to answer. The Lord himself said in Genesis 18:20, “because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous.” Then in the next chapter, we see some of that sin when the men of the city come to Lot’s house, intent on raping the messengers of the Lord. Many people would answer the question by saying that it was because of the sin of the city and especially the sin of homosexuality. Now another question, why didn’t God destroy Nineveh? Again, the Lord gave us the reason why he should destroy the city when he said in Jonah 1:2, “for their wickedness has come up before me.” Nineveh was very much like Sodom and I expect you would’ve seen some of the same sins in both cities. But the path of the two cities took went in opposite directions. The Lord sent Jonah with a warning for the city of Nineveh and in Jonah 3:10, we see why they weren’t destroyed. “And God saw their works, that they turned from the...

A pple CEO Tim Cook will go down in history as having said, "I'm proud to be gay, and I consider being gay among the greatest gifts God has given me." For those of us who have studied the Bible, that statement raises our hackles. How dare he say such a thing? Clearly, the Bible says that God is opposed to homosexuality and God doesn’t disagree with his word, so it can’t be a gift from God. When we look a little closer at what Tim Cook is saying, he says that his experience as a practicing homosexual has given him a better understanding of the experience that minorities have had. I think we all can agree that being able to see things from the perspective of other people is a good thing. I expect that the good Tim Cook has gotten from his experiences, mixed with his belief that he was born homosexual, is why he is attributing this as a gift from God. (We need not debate whether he was born with same sex attraction or not because the truth is complicated and in the grand sch...

D isturbing is the only word I have for it. I stumbled across an article written by an atheist who is a former Methodist minister. It listed several things that the author says your pastor won’t tell you about the Bible. Things like “Unlike Luke and Matthew, Paul didn’t believe in the virgin birth of Jesus.” Really?! Where did this guy get that? He gets it from Romans 1:3-4. The rest were of a similar nature, so let’s look at this one and not waste our time on the rest. Consider what Paul is saying in Romans 1:3-4. “Declared to be the Son of God…by the resurrection of the dead.” Amazing! You tell me; which more clearly reveals that Jesus is the Son of God, that he was born to a woman who knew no man or that he rose from the dead? That fact that the resurrection of the dead is mentioned here is not evidence that Paul didn’t believe in the virgin birth. If Paul didn’t, then why did Luke? Luke was one of Paul’s closest friends and traveling companions. Based on what we know of Paul, if Lu...

" H ath not the LORD God of Israel commanded…?” Barak gets a bad rap. For one thing, people tend to forget who he is and what he did. (Admittedly, he did bring that on himself.) People are more likely to remember Deborah than Barak, and they certainly can’t forget the actions of Jael when she killed Barak’s enemy, Sisera. We tend to think of Barak as the judge with weak faith, if we remember he was a judge at all, since he wouldn’t go into battle unless Deborah went with him. But when we look at the Hall of Faith in Hebrews 11:32, it is Barak (not Deborah, not Jael) who is held up as our example of faithfulness. It makes me think that we should look a little closer at Barak. In reading Judges 4:4-7, it appears that the Lord had already spoken to Barak, in some way, before Deborah called for him. It doesn’t tell us how the Lord spoke. It may have been through a prophet or an angel, it may have been that the Lord spoke directly to Barak, but the Lord had spoken and Barak knew the wi...

W hen you see one, you see several. And since I’m on a committee that is the first line of defense against creating a similar situation at our church, I’m paying even closer attention than I normally would. I find it both disturbing and bothersome as I think about what we need to do to prevent it from happening to us. Two days ago, Travis Reed was convicted of fondling a boy. As if that isn’t disturbing enough, Travis Reed was one of the youth workers at his church. About a day earlier, Derek Hutter, a youth minister at another church was arrested on charges of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl. I’ll leave it to the courts to decide whether he actually did it or not. (I actually find it just as disturbing that it is possible for a youth worker to be falsely accused.) But I think we can say that we’ve seen enough of these situations to realize that it is possible that he is guilty. What I really want to know is, how can we avoid hiring people like this? There are some similarities ...

W ithout a doubt, this woman will become the lastest poster child for what is wrong with abortion. This woman won’t tell you why she believes abortion is wrong. Instead, she makes the claim, “I am not ashamed.” She demands, “don’t put murder on me.” And the basis of her argument, “this is my body.” If you don’t watch this video and feel sorry for this woman, something is wrong with you. While I can’t agree with her choices or her argument, she gives us a clear view of a world that is wandering around in the darkness of sin. Jesus died for her, she just doesn’t know it. The first thing I have to ask is, if she is not ashamed, why does she make such a big point of telling us that she isn’t ashamed. Clearly, she doesn’t want to be ashamed, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t. She doesn’t want this thing that she has done called murder. Somehow, the message has gotten through to her that she has killed a living human being. The government isn’t calling it murder, but she knows it to be so. An...