Timothy's Thoughts

H ave you stopped to think how many times in the Bible that God answered prayer by sending a messenger? When Daniel couldn’t understand a vision, God sent a messenger to set him on his feet. When Abraham prayed for Lot’s protection, God sent messengers to forcibly remove him from harm’s way. When Peter was in prison, God sent a messenger to free him. When a eunuch was seeking to understand the scripture, God sent Philip. When some women were praying on the river bank, God sent Paul. With it happening so frequently, you might think that is God’s preferred method. And you just might be right. When Jesus looked at the multitudes in Matthew 9:37-38, he said, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Pray ye therefor the Lord of the harvest, that he would send laborers into his harvest.” And when Isaiah saw a vision of the Lord in Isaiah 6:8, the Lord said, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Isaiah responded, “Here am I; send me.” Could it be that we have the wro...

W hat does it mean to ask in Jesus’ name? John 16:23-24 shows Jesus telling his disciples that whatever they ask in his name, the Father will give them. We tend to apply this to ourselves as well, but we all can think of situations where we asked for something in prayer and ended with “in Jesus name I pray” and we didn’t get what we asked for. So, either that isn’t what this passage is talking about, or we’re applying it wrong. It might be helpful to follow the analogy a little closer. Instead of jumping to this being a God who is omnipotent, so he could give us anything, let’s follow the relationship as it is presented. This is the father/son relationship. So, how would this work with the fathers and sons we know? It occurs to me that I have some things that belong to me, but they are still at my parents’ house. One of those things is a bicycle. Suppose you went to my father and asked, “Can I have that bicycle?” My father would respond, “No, it isn’t mine to give you.” Now, suppose to...

A theist Greta Christina wrote about 6 thing that would convince her to believe in God . Here they are: An Unambiguous Message – Writing in the sky with letters 100 feet high saying “I Am God, I Exist, Here Is What I Want You To Do” Accurate Prophecies in Sacred Texts Accurate Science in Religious Texts The One Successful Religion – The believers in one religion having better lives than those in all other religions. Inexplicably Accurate Information Gained During Near-Death or Other Supposedly Psychic Experiences I don’t see six there either. Perhaps she expects God to know what number six is. But here’s the thing, I don’t think she would believe it if writing appeared in the sky. I’ve seen billboards that were signed “God”, but I didn’t assume God had written the message. I assumed some human wrote it. As for accurate prophecies and accurate science in religious texts, the Bible has been shown many times to have accurate prophecies and to mention scientific concepts that were ac...

T he old hymn says, “You ask me how I know he lives? He lives within my heart.” Some conversations with atheists have caused me to think about that. It doesn’t matter what you say to some atheists, they’ll eventually get back to the claim that we’re just making stuff up because we want to feel good. It shouldn’t surprise us that they would believe that, but if we have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, shouldn’t the song we true? Shouldn’t we have inside knowledge that they don’t and can’t have without that same relationship? What does that look like and how can we know it isn’t just a feeling that we’ve made up? It is natural for people to argue that their beliefs are true. That is something we share with atheists. We look at the evidence and it looks like it points to the God of the Bible. An atheist looks at the same evidence and interprets it very differently. But in both cases, we keep pointing to the evidence as proof. It is also natural for people to support organization...

I magine this scene: You’re talking to someone who has moved into area. In the course of the conversation they say, “We’re looking for a good church. Do you know of any?” There it is! An opportunity dropped right in your lap. You say, “You should come to our church. Our pastor preaches great sermon. Our people are super friendly. We have programs for your kids. Let me give you a card. It lists our service times and our website, so you can check us out.” The other person accepts the card and says, “I’ll be sure to do that.” That’s the kind of conversation we would love to have. But maybe we shouldn’t be so excited. The problem with this conversation is that it involves matching up an ideal church with an ideal person. What if this person doesn’t have kids? What if the church doesn’t have programs for the kids? What if the pastor doesn’t preach very well? What if the church isn’t very friendly? What if the church doesn’t have a website? When I was a teenager, I was the music director at ...

F requently, I find myself having a discussion with someone and picking my words carefully. There are things that I don’t say directly, for fear that doing so would shut down the conversation or harm the friendship. Instead of telling them what I want them to do, I try to swing them around to my way of thinking and hope that they will take the action that I would like. They rarely do. I decided to list these actions that I feel strongly that people should take. The list turned out longer than I expected, but here they are in the order I thought of them: Accept Jesus Christ Of course, I tell people that they should accept Jesus, but there are people who claim to be Christians and yet I doubt their salvation. The fruit just isn’t there. Their lifestyle isn’t that of a Christian. They aren’t involved in church other than attending once a week or so. Attend Church Regularly With some people, it’s hard to know whether they’ll be at church or not. They often have a reason they don’t show up,...

M otivation is in short supply at this time of year. It’s really unfortunate, because this is also the time of year when people have made New Year’s resolutions and they’re trying to keep them. But cold weather and early evenings take their toll. I find it interesting how different my motivation this year is from last year. Last year, at this time, I had a goal. I had lost some weight, but between Thanksgiving and Christmas, my weight had remained constant. I counted that a success, but I was ready to see the scale start moving downward again. My daily calorie intake was so low that I was hungry much of the time. I would ride my bicycle in the evenings because I knew that would allow me to eat more. I had also committed to cycling through the winter and I was anxious so to see how well I could handle the cold. This year, I’m at my ideal weight. I’m not watching my calorie intake as closely, so I don’t associate riding my bicycle with allowing me to eat more. I’m also getting very tir...