Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
This past week has been filled with so many different things. Vicki has been running from one thing to another and most of the time dragging me along with her. She seems to always have something going on in her mind!
She always asks me what I have going on and any plans that I might have for the day. Then she tells me what it is I need to do. It is amazing how right on she is about what I need to do. But after all that is why God brought us together. He knew I would need her to help me stay on track. (please no laughing!)
She was making plans all week for our trip to see Lance play football this past Friday. The game was going to start at 7 but she wanted to leave around noon just so we could make sure we got all our, I mean, her errands done. So right about noon we pulled out.
We were fortunate enough to get everything done before the game. Even though River Road didn’t get the win, they pulled back within 6. It looked like they might score at the very end, but just couldn’t get the score.
On Saturday she wanted me to cook the burgers out for the picnic on Sunday. She put them in some broth and they were ready. I thought things would slow down a little that afternoon, but she determined that it was time to get the house ready for fall. The decorations just kept coming out!
I won’t tell you what all she has planned for the outside except to say that her scarecrow family is growing. I can’t even remember all the names that she has given them. She just has this intense desire to decorate the changing season.
She would be singing and humming all the time as she pulled out more decorations. She would make sure that they were put up just perfectly. She would even step back and look at them to make sure they were just right.
But the reason I’m telling you this is because she always loves to celebrate the changing of the seasons. She wants our house to be filled with things that let others know what season it is. So no matter what season it is, Vicki will celebrate it.
As I thought about this, I remembered what Paul wrote to Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:1-4. “I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires. 4 and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths.”
For Paul it didn’t matter what season it was, Timothy and all Christians, need to be ready to share with others the path God would have them walk. Paul wanted Timothy to have everything just the way it needed to be because the time was coming when people wouldn’t abide in sound doctrine. I’m not sure that Paul wasn’t looking ahead to 2020
It seems that right now people do not want to hear the truth. They want ‘their ears tickled’ so that they feel good about what they are doing. They want teachers that will teach what they want to hear so it fits what they want do.
Now is the time when we need to ‘reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction’ so that people will recognize the changing season. God wants us to stand ready in this time.
We are approaching the ‘fall’ season. It is a time when everything begins to change around us. The grass, trees and plants all will be changing. Now is the time when we must be standing on the truth of God’s Word which never changes.
JESUS, JESUS, JESUS, there IS something about that name!!
Christ only, always,
Bro. Paul
Brother Paul Nachtigall is the preacher at Highland Baptist Church. He can be reached at bropaul@centramedia.net.
