The Spirit makes it clear that as time goes on, some are going to give up on the faith and chase after demonic illusions put forth by professional liars. 1 Timothy 4:1 MSG

 You’ve been raised on the Message of the faith and have followed sound teaching. Now pass on this counsel to the followers of Jesus, and you’ll be a good servant of Jesus. Stay clear of silly stories that get dressed up as religion. Exercise daily in God—no spiritual flabbiness, please! Workouts in the gymnasium are useful, but a disciplined life in God is far more so, making you fit both today and forever. You can count on this. Take it to heart. 1 Timothy 4:6-9 MSG

 Get the word out. Teach all these things. And don’t let anyone put you down because you’re young. Teach believers with your life: by word, by demeanor, by love, by faith, by integrity. Stay at your post reading Scripture, giving counsel, teaching. And that special gift of ministry you were given when the leaders of the church laid hands on you and prayed—keep that dusted off and in use. Cultivate these things. Immerse yourself in them. The people will all see you mature right before their eyes! Keep a firm grasp on both your character and your teaching. Don’t be diverted. Just keep at it. Both you and those who hear you will experience salvation. 1 Timothy 4: 1-16 MSG

JLB is the author of the Blue Book, which some of us use as a launching pad into our devotions. Thousands of people who have discovered this un-copyrighted, unadvertised devotional say it opened a door into God’s heart for them. I can testify that a small army of BB devotees in Oklahoma will be forever grateful to JLB for doing what today’s passage describes—teaching us with his life. (Since JLB has come to Oklahoma to meet us, we call him Jim.)

Jim spent much of his adult life with an organization that served high school students. In that context, he did what this verse describes—he took the Message to heart; he exercised daily in God; he got the word out; he passed it along to others; but most importantly, he learned to teach believers with his life: by word, by demeanor, by love, by faith, by integrity. He kept his ministry gifts dusted off and in use. He cultivated and immersed himself in them. He has kept a firm grasp on his character and teaching.

A bit more about Jim: he graduated from that youth ministry and was promoted into the larger theater of everyday life where he simply kept at itWhile the process of graduation might have been unpleasant, he was not diverted. Jim is an extraordinary ordinary man not because of his popularity but because he has been maturing right before the eyes of those around him. Because he has been teaching those around him with his life, both he and those who are connected to him are experiencing salvation (which is eternally more than just avoiding hell!).

In the current wineskins of Christian understanding, which require buildings, budgets, digital media, religious professionals and their staffs, it might be easy to overlook Jim’s greatest contribution—the vision he is casting as a prototypical citizen of God’s kingdom. He has no real title. He has no large sending organization behind him. What he does have is Christ in him and he has others who Christ loves around him. He has the scripturesthe Spirit and the circumstances through which he is working out his salvation—the exact things with which God has equipped you and me. Jim’s authentic life casts down the illusion that the kingdom of God’s expansion is dependent on professional religious workers with their buildings and budgets. It simply is not so. The kingdom is dependent on Christ alone, Christ in us

If religious institutions are going to make a contribution to the ever expanding kingdom of God, they will be the ones that figure out how to cast the same vision that Jim is infected with, which has equipped him to live out of the life of Christ in him – loving those God entrusts to him with the unique gifts God has placed in Him, which makes him (and can make us) the extraordinary ordinary people tasked to build the eternal kingdom of God.

Father, for a little while longer we will be in the world but not of it. Your Life shall radiate from us in such a way that the world will see you and will glorify you. Come quickly Lord, not to rapture us out of this fallen place, but to empower and equip us to overcome and take dominion of this planet as you originally intended. Thy kingdom come and thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

 

 

 

 

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