From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] daily devotional
Evening ...
Psalm 76:3
There brake He the arrows of the bow, the shield, and the sword, and the
battle.
Our Redeemer's glorious cry of "It is finished," was the death-knell of all
the adversaries of His people, the breaking of "the and the battle." Behold the
hero of Golgotha using His cross as an anvil, and His woes as a hammer, dashing
to shivers bundle after bundle of our sins, those poisoned "arrows of the bow";
trampling on every indictment, and destroying every accusation. What glorious
blows the mighty Breaker gives with a hammer far more ponderous than the fabled
weapon of Thor! How the diabolical darts fly to fragments, and the infernal
bucklers are broken like potters' vessels! Behold, He draws from its sheath of
hellish workmanship the dread sword of Satanic power! He snaps it across His
knee, as a man breaks the dry wood of a fagot, and casts it into the fire.
Beloved, no sin of a believer can now be an arrow mortally to wound him, no
condemnation can now be a sword to kill him, for the punishment of our sin was
borne by Christ, a full atonement was made for all our iniquities by our
blessed Substitute and Surety. Who now accuseth? Who now condemneth? Christ
hath died, yea rather, hath risen again. Jesus has emptied the quivers of hell,
has quenched every fiery dart, and broken off the head of every arrow of wrath;
the ground is strewn with the splinters and relics of the weapons of hell's
warfare, which are only visible to us to remind us of our former danger, and of
our great deliverance. Sin hath no more dominion over us. Jesus has made an end
of it, and put it away for ever. O thou enemy, destructions are come to a
perpetual end. Talk ye of all the wondrous works of the Lord, ye who make
mention of His name, keep not silence, neither by day, nor when the sun goeth
to his rest. Bless the Lord, O my soul.
2 Timothy 1:6
(6) Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift
of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands.
Go to this verse on Bible Tools
Remembering that Timothy was a minister of the church of God, the
gift was the power and authority to fulfill his responsibility within it.
Though this book was originally just written to Timothy, it has application for
all Christians. The principles in it involve every one who has the Spirit of
God. Each has been given gifts by God to carry out his portion of God's work
within the body.
Salvation is more than mere forgiveness of sin. Another part of
God's salvation is that he gives gifts-abilities, talents, powers, authority-to
do jobs within the church. Salvation requires a journey to the end of God's
purpose. It is a way of life that leads to a goal. God gives every one of us
the powers to succeed in reaching the end of the journey: gifts of the Spirit
given to carry out our functions within the body.
Just as the apostle Paul used the human body in an analogous way,
showing that every portion of the body has its function, so has every portion
of the human body been given the power to carry out that function in behalf of
the body. So with God's church: No matter how scattered it is, or how unified
it is, God has given each Christian the power to carry out his function within
the body. So Paul prodded Timothy to make good use of those gifts to help the
church.
There is no indication within the context that Timothy was
falling short in any way. It is clear from the verbal forms that Paul uses here
that these were things that Timothy had done in the past and was continuing to
do in the present. It could really be written more accurately in the English,
"keep fanning the flame." He was stirring the gift, and Paul was saying, "Keep
on stirring it!" Timothy was cultivating the doctrine, the major means by which
one keeps or guards what has been given.
John W. Ritenbaugh
From Guard the Truth!
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