Rev. Patrick Vincent
“And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.” – Eph. 6:4
“Bring them up” = ektréphō – feed.
“Training” = paideía – instruction to reach maturity.
“Admonition” = nouthesía – setting the mind through God-inspired warning.
So let me sum this up:
Fathers, feed your children instruction that will mature and set their minds to God’s mind, through faith, to reach God’s solutions.
Ref:
I took Mary kayaking this weekend. Typical of a 2-year old, she wanted to “do it myself!” Needless to say, we didn’t get very far and she ended up pretty frustrated. Truth be told, she was a hot mess and I apologize to anyone who was expecting a peaceful afternoon on the water, but was instead subject to a full-blown temper tantrum that I’m sure was heard far and wide.
I kept thinking: If she would just relax and let her father do the rowing, we could have fun zipping all over that lake. Instead, she huffed & puffed and sweated & cried. Instead of going somewhere, we went nowhere. Instead of fun, it was… torturous. I was reminded of the disciples on the Sea of Galilee.
“Then He saw them STRAINING AT ROWING, for the wind was against them. Now about the fourth watch of the night He came to them, walking on the sea, and would have passed them by.” – Mark 6:48 (NKJV) [Emphasis mine.]
“Straining” doesn’t do that Greek word justice. Basanizó literally means TORTURING.
They were literally torturing themselves by not relying on Jesus! Likewise, you and I are literally torturing ourselves by not relying on Jesus too.
Whenever we try to earn our salvation by being a “good person,” we are straining at the oars. Whenever we try to save ourselves with religious rituals, we are straining at the oars. Whenever we try to do ANY of the rowing, we will inevitably be straining at the oars.
Thinking you have anything to do with your redemption is the opposite of the gospel. Paul says that teaching telling you otherwise is not even a gospel; it is distorted and accursed, twice! (Gal. 1:7-9) Listen: we are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, by His blood, through faith. Period. (Rom. 3:24-25)
We are all in a tempestuous sea. The wind is against us. No matter how furiously we strain, ROWING IN OUR OWN STRENGTH will never get us to shore. Aren’t you tired of rowing in circles? Aren’t you tired of torturing yourself? Jesus can easily step in if we would only let Him. He calms the sea, silences the wind, and gets us safely to the other side.
But we must first hand the oars over to Him.
Let God help you.
Parents love to give their kids gifts, don’t we? We also love it when they actually use them!
We are all given spiritual gifts from our Heavenly Father. We will all stand in judgement to give account of how we used our gifts at the “bema” judgement seat of Christ (2 Cor. 5:10)
HOW ARE YOU USING YOURS?
The person to whom much is given, much is expected, & much will be rewarded (Luke 12:48). The person who is not using their gifts for Christ everything will be taken from him (Matt. 25:14-30).
We all have gifts from the Holy Spirit, let us use them! (Rom. 12:6)
I want to here Him say: Well done, good & faithful servant! (Matt. 25:21)
Don’t you?
Jesus commanded us to: Worship the Lord your God, & serve Him only. – Matt. 4:10
In 60 of the 91 occurrences of “worship” in the NT, it is the Greek word proskuneo. It means “to kiss, like a dog licking his master’s hand.” Literally & figuratively, to proskuneo is to fawn over, crouch to, & fall down to kiss the ground before.
Our worship of the Lord is the metaphorical kissing-ground between we (the Bride) and Christ (the Bridegroom).
When my dog, Annie sees me, it doesn’t matter if I’ve been gone for 1 minute or 1 hour – she cannot contain herself! She goes completely spastic: she runs all over the place, she jumps up on me, & yes – she licks my hand. She is so excited, she just about explodes! Just like Olivia Newton John in Grease, Annie is hopelessly devoted to me.
When was the last time we got that excited worshipping our Lord & Savior, Jesus Christ? Are we hopelessly devoted?
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Ref: http://biblehub.com/greek/4352.htm
Let’s say someone comes up to you, removes your coat, and sends it away. Would you say you still had your coat?
No. It was removed. It was sent away. Literally, the coat is no longer here.
Jesus takes our sins away. (1 John 3:5). When John the Baptist saw Jesus he said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:19)!”
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to FORGIVE US OUR SINS and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. – 1 John 1:9 (Emphasis mine)
Just like that coat; they’re gone. Now, of course we don’t miss the coat or go shopping for new coats, right?
“No one who is born of God [deliberately, knowingly, and habitually] practices sin,” – 1 John 3:9 (AMP)
Therefore, if we repent and turn to Him, Jesus forgives our sins (something only God can do, by the way).
The Greek for “forgive” carries the word picture of discharging something so as to leave.
I note it because:
Therefore, because of Jesus’s wonderful Love & Grace, your sins have been:
Let go; fired, dismissed, sacked, axed, laid-off, and canned. They have been given their “pink slip” and “walking papers.” Like Elvis, your sins have left the building.
Brother and sister, they are not even there! (Heb. 8:12, Rom. 11:27, Mic. 7:19, Psa. 103:12)
To pretend otherwise is to act like you still have that coat on that someone removed from you and sent away.
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Doing the legwork for a series on the Holy Spirit, I started by looking up what “holy” & “Spirit” even mean in the first place. (That is just the way my brain works.) Well, I didn’t get very far before I was floored by Yahweh’s unfathomable awesomeness. In fact, I didn’t get past the word holy.
Holy (hágios) means different or otherness.
Great, now I am different and one of the “Others.” (Lost fans unite!) The core meaning of hágios is “different.” [Thus a temple in the 1st century was hágios (“holy”) because it was different from other buildings (Wm. Barclay).]
So, its OK to be different! In fact, we are supposed to be different! Peter goes as far as to say we are “a peculiar people” (1 Peter 2:9, KJV). [And some are more peculiar than others, can I get an Amen?]
Now, slow down. Let me add a little proviso before you go all bananas & let your freak flag fly.
We are to be good-different. You know, like: “He’s different.” “Ok… is he good-different, or bad-different?” We are not different in the sense that we literally wear shiny battle armor like a knight to work every morning (Eph. 6:10-18). That would be bad-different… and you know, super-weird.
No, we should be good-different. As in, the world says “nobody thinks you should be married before you live together anymore.” We say “Yo! Over here! Us. We do!” That’s being different in a good way. [1 COR. 7, EPH 5, 1 PETER 3, & 2 COR. 6:14-15]
Hágios implies something “set apart” and therefore “different” because it is special to the Lord. For the believer hágios means “different from the world” because of “”likeness with the Lord.”
We are different from the world (Rom. 12:2, Prov. 1:15, 1 John 2:15-17, etc.) because we are like our Lord. Which leads me to one of my all-time favorite verses:
As He is, so are we in this world! – I John 4:17
Ok, now you can go nuts. Be hágios because He is hágios (1 Peter 1:16). Be good-different for the Lord. Be peculiar.
Ref:
![](https://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/button/"><img src="//assets.pinterest.com/images/pidgets/pinit_fg_en_round_red_32.png)
How to know you are in Seminary: you wake up and realize you spent all night exegeting Philippians 2:1-11 in your sleep #Jesus #Seminary http://ift.tt/18OO5Os
God is present in the midst of all circumstances, good & evil, working out His good purposes for His people. (BDAG, 969 on Rom 8:28) #Jesus
— Patrick Vincent (@MrPatVincent) February 10, 2015
It's true that life change comes from internal & external change, but mainly it comes from eternal change #jesus #kerryshook #insideout #God
— Patrick Vincent (@MrPatVincent) February 26, 2015
How did Philip help the Ethiopian eunuch? He showed him how Isaiah pointed to Jesus. Want to help someone? Point them to Jesus. #Jesus #LOVE
— Patrick Vincent (@MrPatVincent) February 17, 2015
A Verse A Day 