Psalm 1:2

A = But his delight is
B = in the law of the LORD, and
B' = on his law
A' = he meditates day and night.

Poetic symmetry :)

We meditate day and night on the thing(s) in which we find delight. I want this verse to be true of my life that I delight in "the law," God's Word, and meditate on it day and night.

1 Timothy 1

Before we look dive into 1 Timothy, let's look at the context of this pastoral epistle by Paul-

Acts 20:17-38-

Paul went to Ephesus and found some disciples there. He taught in the synagogue, but when some of the people developed hard hearts Paul took the disciples and formed the Ephesian church where he remained for two years. Paul proceeded to Macedonia and Greece, then returned to Miletus, about 30 miles south of Ephesus, on his way to Jerusalem. Paul thought that this was the final time he would be with the Ephesian elders, meeting Miletus.

Paul's final instructions to the elders in Ephesus:
v28 Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.

29"I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock;

30and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them.

31"Therefore be on the alert, remembering that night and day for a period of three years I did not cease to admonish each one with tears.

v35 "In everything I showed you that by working hard in this manner you must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He Himself said, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'"

After Paul's release from prison in Rome, he ended up returning to Ephesus and Timothy joined him there later. Paul then instructs Timothy to stay in Ephesus to continue as the pastor there.

Here we go!

v1:1 Paul, an apostle

of Christ Jesus

according to the commandment of God our Savior and

of Christ Jesus,

who is our hope

What is an apostle? "men who were commissioned by the Lord Himself and given the task of speaking authoritatively on doctrine and practice in the church."

Though 1 Timothy was a personal letter to Paul's "true child in the faith" (v1:2), Paul knew that his letters would be distributed among the churches. Therefore he identifies the his authority from Christ Himself, for one issue in the 1st century church was a debate of whether to consider Paul an apostle since he was not among the original 12 disciples.

Therefore, we are to likewise heed Paul's instructions as authoritative and from God. Paul identifies Timothy as his "true child in the faith." Perhaps this was also a "vote of confidence" or "stamp of approval" for Timothy in the Ephesian church as he was young (v4:12).


v1:3 Timothy's purpose in Ephesus:
so that you may

instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines,

4nor to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies

which give rise to mere speculation
rather than furthering the administration of God which is by faith. (NIV: God's work)

v1:5 The goal of Paul and Timothy's instruction is love from:

1. pure heart
2. good conscience
3. sincere faith

Some people wanted to be teachers of the Law, even though they didn't understand what they were saying! (v1:7) Implied that they were not using the Law lawfully. (v1:8) Law is for the anything that is contrary to sound teaching (v9, 10) according to the gospel, with which Paul's been entrusted. (v11).

Note also that Paul and Timothy's instruction is not just for the sake of correcting heresy, but it is to be out of love and to produce love!

Paul has been entrusted with the gospel, hence he is instructing Timothy to teach men not to teach strange doctrines.

Paul continues in the v12-17 to explain how he was entrusted with the gospel:
v12 Begins w/ thanksgiving to Christ Jesus our Lord who strengthened me, because He considered him faithful, hence put him into service.
God strengthens those who are faithful and will put them into service.

v13 "even though I was formerly"-

• a blasphemer
• persecutor
• violent aggressor

Yet shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief.

v14 "and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant, with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus."

Paul did things in ignorance (unbelief) but was granted mercy- he didn't receive the punishment that he deserved. Rather he received grace, faith and love from God.

v15 It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all.
Interestingly, Paul is writing Timothy to teach men not to teach unsound doctrine and in this first chapter, sound teaching is found right here in v15- a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance- that Jesus came into the world to save sinners! We just gotta stick to the truth!

Paul also identifies himself as the preeminent sinner in v15. But because he is the worst of all sinners, Christ demonstrated "perfect patience" to grant Paul mercy. When Paul was known as Saul, the Pharisee persecuting the Christians, I bet many Christians may have thought, "Why does God not act?" Have you ever heard that question posed? It's usually on the topic of pain and suffering. Why doesn't God step in and stop killers, rapists, etc.? Here Paul gives the reason he was granted mercy- because of Christ's "perfect patience."

What is perfect patience? It may be hard to accept and understand sometimes, but God had a purpose in allowing the Christians to be killed by Saul. Now "Paul," he says that it was so that it may be example for "those who would believe in Him for eternal life." Seeing the persecution of the church by Saul, God could have stopped him in a myriad of ways. But God was patient and merciful and called Saul, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?"

Acts 1:5-And he(Saul)said, "Who are You, Lord?" And He said, "I am Jesus whom you are persecuting, 6but get up and enter the city, and it will be told you what you must do."

"But" expresses God's mercy on Saul. Mercy in that God could have taken Saul down right then and there.
"And" expresses God's grace on Saul. Grace in that God gave Saul an opportunity to turn around from being the foremost of sinners to an apostle of Christ!

Back to 1 Timothy 1:16, Paul is saying that if he, the worst of the worst of sinners can be reformed by God, then no one is ever totally lost in this life. God has given each of us a time here on Earth to call him Savior and Lord, when that time is up and we've not put our full faith in Him, then we are totally lost to damnation.

Fittingly, Paul breaks into praise, v1:17- 17Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

The chapter ends with Paul's commission again to Timothy-

18This command I entrust to you, Timothy, my son, in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you fight the good fight,

19keeping faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith.

20Among these are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan, so that they will be taught not to blaspheme.

v18-19, Paul commissions Timothy again fight the good fight = keeping faith and good conscience
Very similar to v5, love from:

1. pure heart
• no ulterior motives or agenda
  
2. good conscience
• doing what you know you should
  
3. sincere faith
• not a hypocrite
  

In this first chapter, Paul instructed Timothy what to do and how to do it.
What: He was to each men not to teach unsound doctrine. In other words, Timothy was to teach men how to teach sound doctrine, hence preventing them from teaching strange doctrines.
How: Out of love- with a pure heart, clean conscience, and a sincere faith.

Iron Man (Two Thumbs Up! Chick Flick!)

We're usually in the City on the weekends, in from the 'burbs, and stay at my parent's house. Sometimes when the kiddies are in bed, we take off for a late night date while my parent's are at home with the kids.

When "Iron Man" opened, I kinda really wanted to see it, but I wasn't dieing dieing to see it ASAP like "Superman Returns" or "Batman Begins." For those two, we didn't get to the theaters till long after they already moved them to smaller theater screens so my long suffering wife and I saw them on the IMAX screen at the Metreon. I figured, "Hey, if they're moved to small screens, might as well go see these mega blockbusters on the biggest screen available... IMAX baby!" Remember Superman was in IMAX 3-D BTW. And Batman fight scenes were pretty close up by the director's intention... so my wife got a little nauseous in that one.

Anyways, it had been a while since we went out on a late nighter. And my parents were leaving for a cruise to Alaska in a few days, so it was going to be a couple weeks until we'd have the convenience of free babysitting for a date.

But my wife always gives me, "Why can't we ever go to see a romantic movie?" To which I say, "We'd go if there were ever any good ones."

Anyways, I think I'm a loving husband... Sooooo... I was ready to take her to see "Made of Honor" which opened the same weekend as "Iron Man" Really!

Now, don't get me wrong. My wife is awesome. When I gleefully showed her the trailer for "Spider-Man" she sweetly, genuinely, immediately said to me, "I'd love to take you to see Spider-Man." She went to see "Spider-Man 3" with me while we were on vacation in Honolulu. Yeah- she's awesome.

Anyways... we're hustling the kids off to bed and she's browsing the newspaper to see what movies are out and I point out the review for "Made of Honor" in the SF Chronicle. I 100% would have taken her to see it if she still wanted to go. She flipped to the front of the Datebook section and saw the "Iron Man" review.

With the kids off to bed, she reluctantly said, "OK, Let's go." Whenever she's reluctant to go see one of my superhero/action movies my retort is, "Have I ever taken you to a bad movie?" Well, I think the only one would be "The Matrix Reloaded" in IMAX... the Burly Brawl made her a little nauseous.

As the movie came out over a month ago, you already know: Chicks dig Iron Man! So many of our lady friends rave about it. G loved it. Sure, she was tense through out the whole thing, but it was thrilling. She loved the story, the humor, RDJ, Gwyneth (hot!), and the Suit, of course.

I never read the "Iron Man" comic books so I went in pretty "clean." I thoroughly enjoyed it and walked out of the theater in awe thinking to myself that that was probably one of the best superhero movies ever.

So "Iron Man" is two thumbs up from us. And yes, it really is a chick flick.

It will be interesting to see how "The Dark Knight" compares with "Iron Man."

Galatians 1

Paul opens the letter to the Galatians by identifying himself to be an apostle, "not sent from men nor through the agency of man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead." (1:1)

What is an apostle? "men who were commissioned by the Lord Himself and given the task of speaking authoritatively on doctrine and practice in the church." Therefore he establishes that his authority is from Christ Himself, for one issue in the 1st century church was a debate of whether to consider Paul an apostle since he was not among the original 12 disciples. We are to heed Paul's instructions as authoritative and from God.

Paul intended this letter to be distributed "to the churches (plural) of Galatia." (1:2)

Verse 1:3, sounds like a standard salutation:

3Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,

4who gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of ^(J)our God and Father,

5to whom be the glory forevermore. Amen.

Paul immediately launches into the gospel and reduces it down to just two verses- 1:4, 5

After the greeting, Paul launches directly into the central issue with the Galatians, they are "so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel." (1:6) "A different gospel" is an oxymoron as Paul explains in 1:7 that it is "really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and what to distort the gospel of Christ."

There is a sad irony in these first few verses of Galatians. Paul opens the letter by briefly procaiming the gospel in 1:3-5, which is the true gospel. Yet, in Chapter 1, the word "gospel" appears five times all within the first 11 verses:

1. 1:6 "a different gospel"
2. 1:7 "distort the gospel of Christ"
3. 1:8 "a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you"
4. 1:9 "gospel contrary to what you received"
5. 1:11 "gospel which was preached by me is not according to man"

In the first four appearances of the word "gospel" it is in the context of being contrary or perverted to the true gospel (1:3-5). Further, Paul clearly points out that the false gospel is from man (1:7, 9) as opposed to being from God and says twice in successive verses that any man who preaches a gospel that is contrary to what he has preached should be accursed! This is really important when we see something repeated two times like this.

Paul then poses the rhetorical question which may seem a little oddly placed. He says in 1:10-

10For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ.

Paul was talking about the true gospel being from God versus the false gospel from man. Suddenly Paul is talking about seeking favor from God or men. Imagine that Paul is the messenger carrying the gospel. In modern times, perhaps this is a spokeperson, or in Washington D.C. this would be the White House Press Secretary who conveys the Administration's message to the press. The messenger's job is to deliver the message, but who is the judge of whether that message is delivered accurately and well? Who is the messenger trying to please? The sender makes all the difference- is the gospel of God or of man? Paul of course is preaching the true gospel which is from God, hence he is seeking the favor of God and not of man.

This is a very important point for all of us to heed, for we all carry the gospel message wherever we go. And I hope you are praying for oppourtunities to preach the gospel wherever you are. We must remember that we are seeking to please God as we carry forth His message, and not men. "Men" could our parents, our pastor, our Christian friends, our manager at work- it could be anyone other than God! The gospel is not of man, but of God, so let us please the true Sender.

In 1:11 does Paul finally refer to the true gospel is "not according to man," "received it from man," "nor taught it" and then proceeds to explain that it is from God (1:12). Note how Paul talks about the gospel. We(man) do not give the gospel, nor teach it, but others received the gospel by revelation by Jesus Christ Himself!

Following, Paul recounts-

1. His life before Christ as a persecutor of Christians (1:13-14).
• "My former manner of life" 1:13
  
• Note the "I" pronoun.
  
2. How he became a Christian by God's calling through grace and by the revelation of Christ (1:15-16)
• Subject is God, not "I" - God is the active participant in a person's salvation.
  
• Pronoun is now "me"
  
3. His life after becoming a Christian: preaching the faith (1:16b-23)
• "I" pronoun again.
• Parenthetical statement ("Now in what I am writing to you, I assure you before God that I am not lying") likening to 1:1.
  
4. What it means to be a Christian (1:23-24)

• "They" pronoun
• Others would glorify God because of you!
  

In short, Paul is giving his testimony!

Note that Paul says that he was called to the Lord "through His grace." (1:15) Grace is receiving things you do not deserve. Grace is central to the salvation of Christ. "Not by works so that no one can boast." Notice that when Paul talks about his personal salvation story, the focus is not what he did to be saved, rather the focus is on what God did. In verses 1:15-16, God is the subject and the verb clauses are "set (me apart)", "called (me)", "was pleased to reveal." God is setting us apart (another way to say being made holy), calling us to Him through His grace and not by our works, and revealing His Son in us so that we might do what God's called us to do. For Paul that would be to preach Him among the Gentiles. Paul could have phrased it differently, but he says "to preach Him." (1:16) Very interesting. This kinda of recalls John 1, where the Word refers to Jesus. So Paul is to preach Jesus, the Word!

In 1:16-24, Paul recounts his early days as a Christian and makes a point to say that he was nor influenced by man-

1:16 "I did not immediately consult with flesh and blood"
1:17 "nor did I got to Jerusalem to whose who were apostles before me; but I went away to Arabia, and returned once more to Damascus(Acts 9:2?)"
1:18 "The three years later I went up to Jerusalem to become acquainted with Cephas, and stayed with him fifteen days.
1:19 "But I did not see any other of the apostles except James..."
1:21 "Then I went into the regions of Syria(Acts 15:23, 41) and Cilicia(Acts 6:9?)"
1:22 "I was still unknown by sight tot he churches of Judea which were in Christ"

Paul seems to be saying that he spent very little time with other Christians in his early days and even when he did they were apostles(Cephas) or an early church leader (James). This isn't revisionist history by Paul either. Looking back in the book of Acts, after Saul's conversion in Acts 9, Luke writes very little about Saul. Is whisked away from Jerusalem for the Hellenistic Jews there were seeking to kill him. We don't hear anything of him until Acts 11, when Barnabas brings him back from Tarsus to help with the church in Antioch.

I belive Paul is making a point of this "gospel of God vs. Man" thing because this establishes the foundation for the rest of this letter. And so he must establish that he is sent from God as an apostle and not sent by man.

Remember the innocuous salutation at the beginning of the chapter? In 1:3-

3Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,
4who gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,
5to whom be the glory forevermore. Amen.

Paul is in fact greeting the Galatians with the whole point of his letter. The thesis is to live by the true gospel of Jesus Christ, a gospel of grace, liberty and freedom, which is from God, as opposed to living a gospel from man which is of the flesh, bondage and the Law.

No-Slip Socks

At home, I prefer to go barefoot or just my socks. G reminds me to wear slippers, but I keep telling her that she can remind till we're in our 80's and I'll probably still resist wearing slippers.

Yesterday I was running around the house playing with little G and at one point cradled him my arms and was about to jump onto the sofa. Wearing socks, I slipped on the hardwood floors and took the brunt of the fall on my hip and right elbow; the latter to protect little G's head from hitting the hardwood floor, underneath which is the concrete slab foundation.

Still sore this morning, I joked that I wish there were socks for adults with rubber on the bottom like they sell for kids. For toddlers, that rubber is usually just text to note the company (i.e. "Old Navy") and the size (4T-5T), but that little traction really helps them from slip sliding all over the place.

A quick Google for "no slip socks" came up w/ this: How to Make Slip-Proof Socks
Seems pretty simple to just put rubbery fabric paint on the bottom of regular socks. I've seen no-slip socks in hospitals but they're usually very bulky- mine have to be able to function like regular every day socks. Anyways, when I have time (haha) I'll try it out. Maybe I'll stencil my name with glow in the dark colors.