Queen's Road Cell

11. How would you summarize 2 Tim 2:14-26? Just to recap: 1:1-18 speaks of not being ashamed of the gospel and of guarding it.  2:1-13 speaks of being prepared to suffer to pass on the gospel"/"endure in sharing the gospel"   2:14-26 encourages Timothy to be an "approved worker" and a "vessel for honorable use" as the Lord's servant. There is a shift from the charge to guarding and suffering for the gospel to living a life worthy of the gospel . There are behaviours to follow and behaviours to avoid.       If you remember, we were asking if "faithful men, who will be able to teach others also" (2 Ti 2:2) are born or made.  Who are these 'faithful men'? We said a few months ago that the verse can be paraphrased: "teach trustworthy people to teach others" "teach those who can teach so that others may be taught" "teach reliable people who won't change the message"    "Faithful" here mea

 8. Even though chatter leads to foolish teaching and immorality, what confidence can a Christian leader have (2:19)? What is the nature of our confidence? Is it confidence in the fact that false teaching will never prevail? This seems unlikely, both in the light of verse 17 (" their talk will spread like gangrene") and of personal experience. I think the injunction is to encourage us to continue to faithfully teach and preach the Word (v.15) so that we can be "approved" by God. Faithful ministry will bear fruit.  The 2 reasons why we can be confident in doing this are because:   1.  God Himself knows that we belong to Him. He is the one who called and chose us from before the foundation of the world. He will keep us spiritually secure until glory. 2. True faith from God is reflected in holy living, and right teaching. The false teaching spread by some is evidence that they are not truly of the Lord. This may not be initially clear on first contact with people, but

 It was good to be able to meet physically once again! I was glad to have a time of worship together and to share face to face about how our spiritual life has been like since we last met together. My only sharing was the truth that God often brings His people to enormous trials, often to the brink of destruction (as in the story of Joseph in Genesis) so that He then will provide a way of escape to glorify His name. This explains why we are often providentially kept safe in disaster, and why our prayers are not answered in the way that we first prayed for them. This really wonderful sermon by John Piper to BSF leaders says it better than I can: https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/does-god-intend-evil-for-our-good