MVCC New Testament Challenge

1 Timothy 6:11b-12 Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness.   12  Fight the good fight of the faith.  Take hold of the eternal life  to which you were called and about which you made  the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.    Read this verse and then listen to this song and ask God to speak what is true. Ask Him to reveal what areas of life you need to surrender to Him. https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=qkSBmRAVXNc   

1 Timothy 4 speaks about training to be godly. Here Paul compares physical training with training to be godly. I remember watching the “World’s Strongest Man” competition. Watching as these men moved HUGE things. What I did not see as a part of that show was all of the training required to get to that point. The hours of work in the gym, the sacrifices that were made with what they could eat and time management required for them to get to this competition. Paul explains how physical training is good! It’s a good thing to keep your body in shape, yet there is something much more important. That is training to be godly. There are so many applications that can be applied to this. We start off by looking at how every training requires discipline and disciplines. Do you read your Bible? When do you read your Bible? How often do you read your Bible? Do you pray? When do you pray? How often do you pray? I think you catch where I am headed with this. As you train physically your body get...

1 Timothy 2:1-2 First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people,   for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and  dignified in every way.     Are we praying? What are we praying for? Paul makes it clear here that we should be praying for all people, but then he specifies those in authority. At times, when difficult times come we are so quick to pray for elected and nominated officials, but when we disagree with them or when things go back to normal...do we still pray? Take a moment today to pray. To ask God to work in the hearts of our Federal/State/Local governments. Ask God to guide their decisions. Pray for revival in D.C. and Harrisburg. Pray for a humbling of hearts and turning from evil ways. Pray for a surrender to the gospel. Pray for strength and godly wisdom.  May we live lives that are godly and dignified in every way....

There are a lot of significant thoughts about the return of the Lord Jesus in 2 Thessalonians, but there is something else of great importance that we can be doing right now. We can be praying for missionaries.    We talk a lot about the need for praying for missionaries.  We also need to talk a lot about how we should be praying for them.  Here is an acronym, taken from Scripture, that may be of some help. The acronym spells PEWBOARD.  It reminds us that although it may seem insignificant to us that all we are doing is sitting on a pew, we can be a vital part of missionary work.  We can pray.   There are a lot of missionary agencies, boards, and sending societies, on which we will never serve, but just because we are on the “pewboard” doesn’t mean we are ineffective in supporting those on the front lines.   All throughout the epistles we read of personal prayer requests from that great missionary – the Apostle Paul.  His specif...

1 Thessalonians 5 is a chapter filled with many wonderful, thought provoking verses. I believe I could write a number of articles based on this one chapter of the Bible, but for today I am choosing just one: Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing. 1 Thessalonians 5:11 This verse has always resonated with me, but I believe it does so in a different way this time. Right now we are living through an unprecedented time, entering our seventh week of “lockdown” due to the COVID-19 pandemic. I believe that most of us need encouragement now more than ever, no matter what season of life you’re in: ·     Grandparents desperately miss seeing their grandchildren ·     Parents who may not have homeschooled before are now doing so nationwide ·     Many are out of work when they are used to going out and providing for their families ·     Some of our dear elderly are being quarantin...

1 Thessalonians 3:11-13 Now may  our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus,  direct our way to you,   12  and may the Lord  make you increase and abound in love  for one another and for all, as we do for you,   13  so that he may  establish your hearts blameless in holiness before  our God and Father, at  the coming of our Lord Jesus  with all his saints.   Paul in writing to the church in Thessalonica was so looking forward to the day when they would be together again.     I know that we each look towards the day that we are able to all be together again. Through this season, many in our nation have struggled with anxiety, depression and so much more. Many have lost their jobs, closed their business and face the uncertainty of what lies ahead. However, through it all we can trust that God will hold us fast. God will not abandon us.  Start your week off with this verse as a pray...

1 Thessalonians 1 speaks of the testimony that the church in Thessalonica had. V.3 says,    remembering before  our God and Father  your work of faith and labor of  love and  steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.  (ESV) Tomorrow's sermon is called The Power of a Testimony.   What does your testimony look like? As we read through 1 Thessalonians we see the power of a testimony. Your testimony provides credibility and can give serious weight to help people to listen and trust you, but a bad testimony can also destroy years of work. When I say "testimony", I am not talking about a 5 minute sharing time of talking about when you came to know Jesus, but instead how you live your life. How you speak, act, live and everything else.  Big Daddy Weave wrote an awesome song a couple years ago,  https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=1TKAN-nAsu8   What is your story? Are you living what you are preaching? Everything in ...