Title: Learning, Confidence, Abiding (2 Timothy 3:14-17)
Contents
Most of our church's summer educational events are concentrated this week and next week. The Children's Department is on the 26th and 27th, and the Youth Club is on the 29th and 31st. And the Ordained Deacon will hold a retreat from the 30th to the 31st, and the middle and high school students will have a retreat from August 2nd to the 4th. I think there will probably be a Kwonsae retreat. And when all these retreats are over, we will have a session retreat to close the summer event.
I know that every retreat in each department already has a topic. May you faithfully learn, convince, and abide by that subject.
1. learn
Paul said to Timothy, "You must learn." If Paul was a teacher, Timothy was a learner. Our members are learners of the Word. Some teach, but first of all, we must not forget that we are all learners.
Among the poems of the runners is this poem.
Boys are easy to grow old, but it is difficult to achieve learning
[少年易老 少年易老 少年易老 少年易老
Don't let time go to waste
[一寸光陰不可輕]
The spring grass by the pond before I even wake up from my dreams
[未覺池塘 春草夢]
Paulownia leaves in front of the stairs herald autumn
[階前梧葉 已秋聲 (Gyejeon Ohyeop Lee Chuseong)]
Learning should never be delayed. We have to learn from old horses and cows, we have to learn from ants.
It was during the Spring and Autumn Period, during the Qi Dynasty, Huan Gong (reigned 685-643 B.C.), who was one of the five clans. In the spring of one year, Prince Huan, along with Myeongjae-sang Guanzhong (管仲:?∼645 B.C.) and the godfather Xubfung (?朋), went to conquer Gochuk. However, the war ended unexpectedly in the winter of that year. So I found a shortcut in the cold weather and returned home, but I ended up getting lost. As the whole army was trembling in the dilemma of advancing and retreating, the audience said: "At times like this, we need the wisdom of an old horse." Immediately, an old horse was released. And not long after the whole army marched after them, a major road appeared.
Once again, while we were marching on a mountain road, we ran out of drinking water and the entire army was thirsty. Then, this time, he said, "Ants usually build their houses on the north side of the mountain in summer, but in winter they build and live in a sunny spot on the south side of the mountain. If there is an ant nest with an inch of soil, there is water about seven feet deep in the ground."
When the soldiers searched the mountain to find an ant nest, and then dug down there, a spring of water really came out.
Following this story, Bija Han (Korean non-子: ?∼ B.C. 233) writes this in his book 《Bija Han》.
“What the audience didn’t know, even with the intelligence of the audience and the wisdom of habit, was learned by taking old horses and ants as teachers. However, they did not regard it as a shame. However, today, people do not try to learn the wisdom of Seong-hyeon as their teacher despite their own stupidity. Isn't that wrong?"
Timothy first learned many facts from his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice, and then from Paul, the Bible, faith, and truth.
We Christians feel the need to learn more than the world, and we must become learners. So, we need to save time and material so that we can use our energy more in serving God. But more than that, we must learn the Bible, the Word of God. We must learn and understand the gospel of Jesus Christ. If you learn well, you can become a good teacher, and if you learn well, you can live in the truth. Those who neglect to learn will not progress.
Being a Christian is not easy. Being a Christian is probably one of the easiest things to become. However, the role of a Christian, being a good Christian, is by no means an easy task. How many non-Christians are there in the church? It's because I didn't learn well.
When a young cow is tamed for the first time, one person holds the cow's bridle and the other plows the field from behind.
A brother lived in a mountainous area, the younger brother holding the cow by the reins and the older brother plowing the field with a plow from behind. The brother took the young cow by the reins and tamed it, saying, "Brother, go here" and "Brother, go there." After a while, my older brother tried to plow the field by himself.
didn't even go. So, when my younger brother thought about it, when he was taming his brother and his cow, he thought, “Brother, go here” and “Brother, go there.”
Church education is important. School education doesn't teach you to go to heaven. However, church education is to teach the way to heaven.
2. Confidence
Among believers living in faith, believers who do not have confidence are always drawn to other people's words or public opinion, so their faith is shaken and their faith is shipwrecked. In the last days, we believe that the saints and servants of the Lord must know the Bible, believe it, and live a life of faith with confidence.
On one occasion, when Paul was being escorted to Rome, the ship encountered a storm called Euraculo, to the point where the people on the ship gave up all hope of survival. At this time Paul got up and said to the people in the boat. “Fear not, everyone. Even if the ship is lost, not one of the people here will die. Last night an angel of God whom I serve appeared and do not be afraid, Paul, for you will surely be tried before the emperor of Rome. You said you will save all these people. So be courageous. Soon you will reach an island."
Paul was sure of God's word of guidance and protection. In the end, as Paul said, no one died and we know that they arrived safely on the island of Melide (Acts 27:20-26).
Paul was a man who knew how important certainty was in the life of faith. That is why he told Timothy, the son of faith, to abide in the things of conviction. Be sure of your salvation. Be certain of heaven. Be sure of revival.
3. dwelling
John said, "Whoever goes too far and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God." And he exhorted believers, "Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you, and if what you heard from the beginning abide in you, you will abide in the Son and in the Father" (2 John 9; 1 John 2:24). Similarly, the apostle Paul is admonishing Timothy to abide in what he has learned.
In the worldly, summer is a time of rest, and vacation is also a time when many opportunities to learn and train are provided, both church and spiritual. I hope that through the educational events of each department this summer, all the members of the congregation will try their best to be an opportunity to "learn, become convinced, and stay firmly there." And please pray for that to happen.