If your brain works like mine, you read the heading for this post and hear the song from the 70's by Rufus and Chaka Kahn... "Tell me something good, tell me that you love me, yeah..." followed by the funky guitar licks and talk box... but that's just how my brain works...
Today's devotion isn't about 35 year old music. The heading is more a paraphrase for one of today's verses, and the commentary on what people want to hear today when it comes to "religion". Let's look at the verses:
2 Timothy 4:1-5 (New Living Translation)
2 Timothy 4
1 I solemnly urge you in the presence of God and Christ Jesus, who will someday judge the living and the dead when he appears to set up his Kingdom: 2 Preach the word of God. Be prepared, whether the time is favorable or not. Patiently correct, rebuke, and encourage your people with good teaching.
3 For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will reject the truth and chase after myths.
5 But you should keep a clear mind in every situation. Don't be afraid of suffering for the Lord. Work at telling others the Good News, and fully carry out the ministry God has given you.
Go back and read verses 3 and 4. I think that time is here, huh? All too frequently we hear where this denomination has compromised their foundational beliefs or endorses cultural norms that are an abomination to God. In conversations with others on a daily basis we hear people accepting and even embracing things that we know goes against all that is "good and true". Paul makes it very clear in these verses that there is such a thing as absolute truth, where popular culture wants us to believe that whatever is relevant to an individual is truth to that individual. This new cultural belief has been referred to as "universalism" or "relativism", which basically holds to the idea that "all roads lead to God". (There is a whole different subject for another day.) Let's take a look at some verses from a couple of chapters back in 2nd Timothy to see how to handle such beliefs and to wrap up today:
2 Timothy 2:23-26 (New Living Translation)
23 Again I say, don't get involved in foolish, ignorant arguments that only start fights. 24 A servant of the Lord must not quarrel but must be kind to everyone, be able to teach, and be patient with difficult people. 25 Gently instruct those who oppose the truth. Perhaps God will change those people's hearts, and they will learn the truth. 26 Then they will come to their senses and escape from the devil's trap. For they have been held captive by him to do whatever he wants.
Have a blessed day,
Wendell
