1 Timothy 6:20 “O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called.”

It’s been such a very long time since any of these studies have been done, but God has truly been dealing with me and working to get me to listen to Him and do these studies again.

Even though I really have wanted to do them again, anything and everything has kept me from obeying our Lord. I truly cannot do that any longer! Beside it being a blatant sin (disobedience to God is a sin, no matter how some may choose to rationalize it), when God calls us to do something, when we’ve offered ourselves for Him to use, God puts that calling in our hearts! It truly becomes part of us as we walk with God, to where if we DON’T do that thing God called us to do, we feel uncomfortable. We begin to lack the peace and presence of God that we may have felt when we were walking in the calling wherein God has placed us and told us to be and work for Him!

This is something God has truly been teaching me lately. Of course it’s something I should have already known, but we all know how hardheaded I can be!

Anyway, God has been putting it in my heart to do this again, but I just kept not doing it. I could say that everything kept me from doing it, but honestly at times I just made up excuses. Anything from my computer acting up (a real and legitimate excuse there) to “well no one wants or reads them, so why,” and then one that was REALLY ridiculous yet true: “Lord, I can’t seem to do it anymore! I’m not making sense, and it just seems I can‘t teach a thing anymore!” But you know, about that last excuse . . . I never had any ability because it was and is and always will be, GOD, not me!

Honestly though, as mentioned above, if we don’t walk in a calling that God has told us to walk in, we feel it. We feel that lack of peace and comfort! But that should be absolutely no surprise. Afterall, it is disobedience to God, which is sin! Sin separates us from God, so how can we expect to be at peace and feel close to God like before, when we are walking in sin?

If you have trouble believing that just because you don’t do something “good” that God has told you to do, you’re sinning, then just remember the very plain verse in James. James 4:17 ”Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.” Don’t believe the lie that you have to do something bad in order to sin. Just don’t do what you know is good . . . That’s sin right there. There’s the saying, “evil triumphs when good men do nothing.” That’s not too far from the truth there!

So, for you, you have to ask yourself if you have been feeling that uncomfortable feeling, or that restlessness, or that lack of peace. If you pray and pray and yet you still struggle with that, then analyze your life and check yourself to see if you are not doing what God would have you to do. The Body of Christ, especially in the United States of America, largely seems to be “asleep” as I call it, and we see Christians who act as though their lives are so very miserable. They don’t have the joy, the happiness, the light shining into the darkness that you would expect to see from someone who has Christ living in them. That may very well be the reason: They are directly disobeying God by choosing not to walk in the calling that God has for them. They may try to walk in the calling they have chosen for themselves, but then it fails and they wind up in resentment even. We have to walk, where GOD wants us to walk. Not where we want to walk, not where our family wants us to walk, nor where our friends want us to walk!

That’s why we look at 1 Timothy 6:20, at the first part of the verse that is . . .

If you remember the LONG while back, the past year or so worth of studies we’ve done, has been about doing what God has called us to do. Remember all of them, and remember that God did not save us and then forget about us, letting us go about our lives here on Earth until we die and THEN He takes interest in us. No! God saves us, and gives us a job to do while we live the rest of our temporary lives here on Earth. If we didn’t have a job, God would not make us live here anymore! This place is not exactly peaches and cream, and do you believe God wants us to go through all this trouble, without a reason? We are still here, which means God still sees that we can do more for Him while here. Pray that God shows you what He wants you to do, if you don’t already know. Remember that the Lord has called us His friends. Why? Because He has shown us the Father’s Will and not kept us in the dark! (Remember John 15:15 and Romans 12:2) And don’t go off into the belief that Jesus was only talking to those in the Bible (That‘s worthy of 15 studies alone!), because He also gave us the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, the Holy Ghost . . . And what does He do? He speaks to us what God our Father has said. He assures us and helps us and stirs in us what the Lord has said to us to do, and teaches us to know the Truth!

Let’s never forget any of this, because it truly is important. It’s not a matter of just being a good minister of the Lord’s grace, but rather simply being a Child of God who is not wanting to sin through disobedience to God!

With that in our thoughts, remembering that such disobedience is sinful, I’m going to have to personally rely on you on something. Remember Galatians 6:1, “Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.”

Remembering it . . . If you see that I do not do these studies over a period of time, and you therefore know that I am not doing what God wants me to do, it’s your job to send me a message and ask me why I’m not listening to God, and lift me back up because I am not obeying God. He would have me do these studies, and I must do them until He says otherwise. Now, I don’t know if I’ll be able to do them daily again, but there is absolutely NO reason a week should pass without one.

But if you see I am not doing them again, please help me out by sending me a message, in meekness of course (it’s not to beat me down, but to lift me back up if you can), and most importantly, PRAY for me!

I will see all of you again soon and will pick these studies up once more. I know I’ve said that before and, well, it didn’t exactly happen. But it’s necessary that I do. Similar to 1 Corinthians 9:16, woe unto me if I DON’T do what God wants me to do!

I do love you with brotherly love, and even though I’ve been gone, I have not stopped praying for you. I pray that God has kept and blessed you all this time, and that He lifts you higher and higher! I pray that your day is an excellent one, as we serve an Excellent God!

Love always in Christ,
Your friend forever,
And brother,
Michael

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Psalm 47:1 “O clap your hands, all ye people; shout unto God with the voice of triumph.”

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