2 Timothy 3:1-5
But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power.
Has the world seen itself in this condition before? Categorically, yes. There have been civilizations, world powers, malevolent and diabolical dictators, cultural perversion, and sadistic sexual entities. However, never with such denigrating global alignment.
The Bible teaches that as true followers of Jesus, biblical worldview Christians, and people of genuine faith, we are not to be fearful, worried, or distracted by times of trouble. In fact, the trouble that is set before us is the kind of trouble we have been warned of.
If we do become fearful, anxious, and distracted by the trouble that we see, hear and feel, we are vulnerable and likely to be overcome by the very trouble we were afraid of, anxious about, and distracted by. Becoming captivated and overcome in that way is not what any of us want for ourselves, or for anyone that we care about.
Yet, we often find ourselves in that place and space – sometimes predictably, and sometimes surprisingly. As we all know, this is not an emotionally or spiritually healthy and righteous place to be; and certainly it is not a place or space we want to continue finding ourselves. At the Reunion Church we stand firm with a biblical worldview and are actively doing something about this. We see, we hear, and we know who and what has captured culture, government, schools, church, family, and our nation. By the grace of God, and the leading of Holy Spirit, we are going to equip our community and condition our families to “Biblical Readiness.” Here in the writing and instruction of Paul the apostle to Timothy the young pastor and protege` we have chosen our foundational passage for this series – Biblical Readiness.
What lies before us absolutely cannot be navigated (not possible) for those believers not ready, for those not equipped, and for those unwilling to trust and follow the Scriptural guideposts. The Scriptural guideposts reveal to us the direction we must go, and the distance we must travel to negotiate the journey and to arrive at our desired destination. When Jesus said, “I am the way” it was literally what He meant – that is why He also said, “follow Me.”
In this series Biblical Readiness, we are going to uncover the Scriptural guideposts necessary for negotiating the present and pending difficulty and trouble that has become the current reality of our world. Readiness and Biblical Readiness are conditions or better yet, “states of being” that have of course, obvious similarities. However, Biblical Readiness has a very distinct and objective meaning that must be understood clearly by those who are named as believers in Christ, or, whom optimally have embraced their identity as a biblical worldview Christian. Let’s take a quick look at those distinctions between readiness and biblical readiness.
Biblical, just one word of difference between the two definitions – yet that one word (biblical), sits at the focal point of the present-day trouble and human struggle.
There is no integrity or moral logic to that process of reading, feeling, interpreting, and believing. There must be at least a sound elemental process in place with which we seek to right and righteously interpret Scripture as it was intended by its’ authors of origin. How Scripture makes me feel when I read it is of course a real human response. However, how Scripture makes me feel as I read it is unreasonable as a reliable path to interpreting, understanding and believing it’s context and content.
When I read something from Scripture that makes me feel uncomfortable or vulnerable, my human tendency is to then push away from that passage and the author’s intended meaning. (For example: “forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so also you must forgive.”) I do not like how that makes me feel. So, once I have pushed away and become guided by how it made me feel (in this case uncomfortable, mistreated, and vulnerable), now I deconstruct that Scripture and I must reconstruct it to mean something less literal, less demanding, or difficult for me. In reality there is no longer a path to biblical readiness for me. I have reimagined my own truth, constructed by how I felt the guideposts needed to be placed and moved away from a Scripturally sound biblical worldview. I travel the path of difficulty and trouble, following my guideposts. And, they are just that – mine. I can move them when I want based on how they make me feel.
However, I am not in a state of readiness – I am lost, simply because I have moved the guideposts so often I can no longer know which way to go to get through times of trouble – troubling times.
To be in a state of Biblical Readiness, I must be equipped with guideposts (Biblical truth) that does not move based on human want and desire. I want and desire many things. Some are right and righteous, but far too many are not.
How can I trust that? I can’t.
Biblical Readiness allows me to trust eternal guideposts that lead me through trouble and difficulty. I can trust them because those guideposts have been in place since they were first given to those who placed them.
This is a good place to introduce a simple process for Biblical Readiness:
What did the Scriptural guidepost say?
What was the purpose for what the Scriptural guidepost said?
What will happen when I follow this Scriptural guidepost?
Suddenly I realize something. I realize that I can go to that Scriptural guidepost over and over again, because those guideposts have not ever moved – and they shall not be moved. That is Biblical Readiness and an uncompromising biblical worldview.
Once we have equipped ourselves to Biblical Readiness and eliminated from the menu those destructive and spiritually fatal considerations, we can finally hear the voice of the Spirit, and be led by the Spirit away from the appetite of consequence of our present darkness. The presence and work of the Holy Spirit will then serve as the central source used to move us soundly back and forth from any subjective dialogue to the objective and conclusively revealed truth of God’s Word – Biblical Readiness.
To build a practical and approachable response to Biblical Readiness, I am going to identify in the next few weeks three contextually sound Scriptural guideposts to readiness. These scriptural guideposts will be known as…
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