by Susan Sampson

The Lord charged Paul, then Timothy and now He is charging each one of us.  There are just 2 weeks remaining in this study.  We are being given an opportunity from the Lord to take the time and think through everything we have been taught.  We do not want to “turn away from listening to the truth and wander off”.  The Lord has chosen us and appointed us as His ambassadors for Christ.  We have a charge to keep.  Our first charge is to the Lord.  “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (Deut. 6:5).  And our second charge is to our husbands if we are married.  “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord” (Eph. 5:22).  And Jesus said, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Mat. 22:39). 

Do you hear the call?  Oh Father, please give us ears to hear your voice speaking to our hearts!  What is holding you back?  Where have you wandered?  I confess to you all that I wander into the valley of fear often and get entangled so easily.  Praise God for our tender and loving shepherd, His rod and staff comfort us.  The Great Shepherd is calling us back to Himself. The King is telling us to come home.  “COME TO ME, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Mat. 11:28-30).

And “My beloved speaks and says to me:  ‘Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come away, for behold, the winter is past; the rain is over and gone'”(Song of Solomon 2:10-11).

The King has paid the ultimate penalty of death for the offenses against Himself!  Is there any greater love?  Our sin has been abolished, washed clean by the blood of Christ.  We have been chosen to be His daughters, set free to serve Him as His ambassadors.  He has lifted us out of the pit of destruction, brought us out of the valley of fear and set our feet upon the Rock.  We are His treasured possession!  We live in the kingdom of God here and now!  We are not to live in the dungeon any more!  Our Father has a place for us at His table.  He prepares His table for us in the presence of our enemies.

NOW we must be ready in season and out of season to speak for our King and to serve our King.  Lord, please lead us by your kindness to repentance.  Instead of wandering and turning away from listening to the truth, help us turn in repentance back in FAITH by grace to you!  Even though we are at your table, our hearts are still hard.  You have given us your word as food for our souls.  And yet we turn away from your table and go after so many cheap substitutes.  Help us to take your word  and eat it and digest it that it may nourish our souls and transform our hearts so that we are more like Christ.

How are we going to spend our time?  The enemy is tempting us. Our flesh is weak.  Our Christmas list is tempting us to go to the mall.  The phone is ringing.  The laundry is piling up.  Homework is never ending.  What are we going to do?  Remember, “for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4b). 

“As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry” (2 Tim. 4:5).

  • Be sober-minded.  Don’t give in to fear and your feelings.  Take every thought captive.  Take the truth to heart & submit to God’s word.
  • Endure suffering.  Put our flesh to death remembering the gospel that Christ died because of our sin and for our sin!
  • Do the work of an evangelist.  Be in the world, but not of the world.
  • Fulfill your ministry.  Don’t give up!  Don’t give in!  Fight the fight of faith!

The charge really is worth everything we’ve got.  Let us confess our fear and unbelief and receive His blessed forgiveness to walk forward by faith in grace!  “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Mat. 6:33).

We all need Jesus.  We must keep our eyes on Jesus.  In him all things hold together (Col. 1:17).  We cannot hold our lives together.  I act like I can, but that is absolutely not true!!  But Jesus can.  He wants to.  He will.  He is the Sovereign Lord.  This means He is in total control of all things at all times.  He is good and His love endures forever!  He is working ALL things together for our good and for His glory!

SO today, step by step, moment by moment, decision by decision, looking to Christ, let us go forward by FAITH and “run with endurance the race that is set before us”! (Heb. 12:1).  To God be the glory, great things He has done and is doing!

by Susan Sampson

Why do we live in the dungeon when we are daughters of the King of kings?!  Why do we walk right back into the dungeon after Christ has set us free from the power of sin and death?!  “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery” (Gal. 5:1). This week the Lord continued to show me my sins of fear and unbelief.  Fear is the opposite of faith.  And it is faith that is the KEY which unlocks the door of the prison that enables us to come out and follow Jesus.  We must believe the gospel is true by faith.  We must believe Christ’s atoning sacrifice on the cross was sufficient to pay the penalty for our sins.  We do not owe any debt for our sin.  Christ paid it ALL.  We must believe this truth by faith.  We cannot make up for our sins no matter how hard we try.  Only the Son of God, the Lamb of God was able to make full restitution for the debt we owed.  We must CONTINUE IN BELIEF!

How do we continue in belief when our thought life is out of control?   We must take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ. “We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5).  It is our thought life that robs us of our freedom and keeps us bound up in knots so we can’t follow Paul’s teaching.  We must take seriously our sin and believe the power of the gospel.  We have to say “NO” to our flesh, our selfish, sinful desires.  Instead of following our feelings, we must carefully and diligently follow the Word of God.  The Lord is using this study to transform our hearts and minds and lives.   All authority has been given to Jesus.  He is the Living Word.  He is our Lord. He is our Master.  We must bow to His authority in our lives, no matter how painful.  I must confess my sin of pride in not wanting to bow and wanting my own way.  God’s ways are NOT our ways.  He is God and we are not.

All of this is impossible apart from the grace of God.  And so we cry out to our beloved Savior along with the blind man and say, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” (Luke 18:39)  We remember who Jesus is.  We remember “He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love” (Song of Solomon 2:4).  This is the beautiful truth.  God’s word is absolute truth.  Our feelings cannot be trusted, they are not true.  They are like shifting shadows which change moment by moment depending on our circumstances.  “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick” (Jer. 17:9).  We must stand on the rock of the Word of God.  CONTINUE IN BELIEF!

So practically speaking, when 4 p.m. rolls around and the cloud of confusion descends and we desperately want to CONTINUE IN BELIEF, what do we do?  We “enter His gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise!” (Psalm 100:4).  We do as Paul commanded us and “Rejoice in the Lord always…in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God (Phil. 4:4,6).  And many times this will be a sacrifice of praise because we don’t feel like it when everything is pressing in.  But God is worthy of all praise and thanksgiving at all times.  The result of our prayers and praise and thanksgiving is verse 7, “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” 

What perfect timing from the Lord with the Thanksgiving holiday this week.  He is so good!!  It is my understanding that when the Pilgrims landed in the new world they prayed Psalm 100.  May the Lord pour out His grace to enable us to say “NO” to our 3-year-old selves and Believe by Faith, Follow by Faith, Fight by Faith and Continue in Belief by FAITH!!  To God be all the glory!

Have a blessed Thanksgiving!

by Susan Sampson

Focus passage: 2 Timothy 3:1-9. Avoid such people.  This was a difficult lesson for me.  When I read the focus scripture all I could think was that the description of the people fit me.  It was difficult not to fall into despair and feel condemned.  Praise God for the reminder and exhortation Laurie gave to us to no longer identify with who we were before Christ!  Praise God that she pointed us directly to the gospel, to the death and resurrection of Christ!  May we all see this long list of sins and understand that is what put Christ on the cross.  This is why He came.  He paid the penalty that we should have paid and would have paid had He not come – and now “it is finished” (John 19:30).  Now the Spirit of the living Christ dwells in believers.  Listen to the truth – STOP and hear the very words of our Lord.  Do not listen to your feelings!! “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.  The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.  All this is from God…” (2 Cor. 5:17-18a). We must now believe this is true.  We must now identify with Christ and walk forward in His grace.

Yes, it is true, we do still have our flesh.  But Christ has broken the power of sin and has given us power over our sin.  “For God gave us a spirit not of fear, but of power and love and self control” (2 Tim. 1:7).  So how do we avoid being “such people”?  We must kill the flesh.

Laurie exhorted us to take just one sin and to “get radical with it”. She gave the example of getting a radical new haircut.  We would never cut just a part of our hair off.  It ALL has to go.  Jesus speaks to this very thing.  “And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away” (Mat. 5:30a).  This week I noticed the yard of of one of my neighbors.  Their landscaping is stunning.  But this week they pruned everything.  Their beautiful knockout roses were cut down to a nub!!  Hydrangeas all cut back only to a foot above the ground.  It was radical.  All I could see was dead looking stumps.  And yet I know what will happen next year.  The flowers will be in full bloom, even more beautiful than before!  Let’s get cutting!

But how do we get radical with just one sin?  This was in our lecture notes.

  • See your sin as God sees your sin and call it sin
  • Don’t give in to your sin.  Say NO by faith!! Say “no” to your sinful desires
  • Humbly trust in God and not your own strength (or I would add – our feelings)
  • Walk forward in faith believing that Christ is in you

I urge all of us to prayerfully and diligently spend time with the Lord in our homework on Day 5.  The Taking the Truth to Heart and Bringing it to Life page is a gift from the Lord to help us.  He knows our need.  He knows our hearts.  He wants to help us.  Only Christ can give us power over our sin.  He is our Victory.  Please don’t just gloss through this to get it done.  Cry out to the Lord for Him to show you what He wants to show you.  Then may we all by God’s grace respond in humble obedience.  Not turning a deaf ear to the Spirit.  Not being stiff necked.  But turning to the only One who can forgive us and cleanse us of all unrighteousness.

Remember the woman with the alabaster jar of perfume?  It was worth a years’ wages.  She broke it and poured it out on Jesus’ feet and then wiped His feet with her hair. This was radical.  This was Mary.  Lazarus’ sister.  He was there too.  Jesus had brought him back to life.  Mary had witnessed this miracle.  The disciples had witnessed the same miracle yet the bible says they were “indignant.”  But it was personal to Mary.  It was also just 6 days before the Passover.  They gave a dinner for Jesus.  John says that “Martha served.”  But what Christ says about Mary is “she has done a beautiful thing to me” (Mat. 26:10).

It’s less than 2 weeks to Thanksgiving and Christmas is just around the corner.  I feel the pressure.  The pressure from a long to-do list.  But I want to be Mary.  I want to LOVE God with ALL my heart, soul, mind and strength.  I want to abandon my heart, soul and mind and strength at the feet of Jesus.  I want to abandon my need for control, my desire to get it all right, my fear of failure and give my Savior ALL.

Lord Jesus, break our hearts like that alabaster jar and render our hearts completely yours.  Enable us to live the gospel and be the Light in this very dark world.  Help us not to be intimidated or afraid of the darkness in the world or in our hearts.  Help us run to you, Abba, as a little child would when they get afraid of the dark.  Help us believe who we are in Christ and that you created us for Christ and not this culture.  Christ has come and He is coming again!