These are a few of our SOAP notes from today’s reading. We encourage you to read and journal on your own first, then join us in conversation about what God revealed to YOU today. Click HERE to go directly to the daily reading if you wish.
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The Ultimate Goal | Kim Chipman
S~ The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. 1 Timothy 1:5 (NIV)
O~ Paul is instructing Timothy. He is warning against false teachers, but also against those who argue about details of the law. Knowing all the right stuff if it isn’t applied, like the Pharisees did, is still missing the point. The goal is love from a pure heart.
A~ I would do well to remember this. I can be right – if that’s really important – (which really it’s not) but that’s not the goal. The point of my life isn’t to do all the right things, say all the right things, KNOW lots of things…I could even memorize the whole of Scripture but that isn’t the goal either. Amassing information doesn’t do much.
The goal is love from a pure heart.
P~ There are lots of ways to love well, help me to see how MY people need to be loved. Give me the strength and courage to live it out well. For Your glory. I love You!
Meaningless Talk | Michelle Myers
S~ As I urge you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain men not to teach false doctrines any longer nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies. These promote controversies rather than God’s work–which is by faith. The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Some have wandered away from these and turned to meaningless talk. They want to be teachers of the law, but they do not know what they are talking about or what they so confidently affirm. 1 Timothy 1:3-7 (NIV)
O/A~ The title of this section in my Bible is “Warning Against False Teachers of the Law”. For me, this is one of the many reasons as to why it is so important to have this personal relationship with You. When I listen to other people, many times I end up confused, frustrated, and questioning what You have told and shown me. I end up questioning my own faith.
The most recent incident that came about was in regards to the term Yoga and Christian Yoga. Replace the term “Yoga” with stretching or elongating one’s body and it is all the same movements. In fact, there is a DVD, that I can order on-line and use some of my financial resources for called, “Worship Moves”. It uses the same movements as Yoga. It is done to verses out of the Bible and Christian music.
What You have shown me, is that the difference in any of it, is where a MY HEART is. I get that some people use Yoga for Anti-Christian purposes. I get that when Yoga started, it wasn’t to worship You. Those people did not have a heart for You. My heart is for YOU. So I can stretch, listen to my Christian radio station, and have You on my heart and mind, and be accomplishing the same thing for my physical body that a person doing Yoga is doing, without paying for a DVD to do it and having a heart for and following other false Gods.
What I have seen, is that these focuses on terms, semantics, etc., have caused controversy, strife, and meaningless talk. That interferes with Your work. Which is exactly what the enemy wants.
I have also seen that people’s need to be “right” and set other’s right, most of the time, does not come out of a place of love—with a pure heart, good conscience, and a sincere faith. There is a lot of false pride, self righteousness, and ego involved in having to be a right fighter and a self-appointed member of the Bible police. To these people, it doesn’t matter where my heart is in regards to reading YOUR WORD, listening and following YOU, or the relationship that I have with YOU. Many times, their need to be right and set other people right, comes from their own insecurities and pain.
I know this, because I had a grandmother who was this way. I lived with a mother who was this way. I was this way. It wasn’t necessarily about the Bible or only over the Bible, but it could be over everything and anything. Regardless, it is all meaningless, it is destructive and not constructive, and it is exactly what the enemy wants.
P~ I am so grateful for my relationship with You. Please continue to help me block out the voices of people, guide me to the people I need to be lead to, and not assist the enemy in causing or contributing to strife. Also, I know You have told me to do these stretches, Yoga moves……whatever, because I have back problems. You also know, that I can get pretty lazy and would rather go in for a massage, than do my part, and be pro-active and responsible for my own health needs. This is the route that You have shown me to go, and my heart is with You, while I am doing it!
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