Today's Sermon: II Tim. 2:22

There was a lot I liked about this sermon, and not just the numerical symmetry of it. Although, that did appeal to me....
The text reads:

"So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart"

Chris talked about how Paul did not clarify what it was exactly Timothy should flee from. My NLT version makes the vagueness more explicit:

"Run from anything that stimulates youthful lusts. Instead, pursue righteous living, faithfulness, love, and peace. Enjoy the companionship of those who call on the Lord with pure hearts."

The word 'anything' is not definite at all. This is in contrast to what Paul tells Timothy to pursue. The point of Osborne's sermon was that when we focus on what our struggles are, how Satan is attacking us, or what is drawing us away from God, we are not focusing on what is really important. To paraphrase what he said: "The way to defeat satan is not to fight him, but to pursue God."

Now how this applies to me, huh?

Where I lose focus on Christ is on what thoughts enter my head. Now, I am sure they are a mix of spiritual attack on me, and my own ideas, but that doesn't make them any less of a distraction. I constatnly try and find the logical solution or reason for or against what I think. For instance, this morning on my way to church, the thought that entered my head was, "do I really believe?" Maybe it started as "do you really believe?" but origin is unimportant as far as this example is concerned, and so this morning and all through church I was stuck battling this thought. My point is even in church, when my focus should be on Christ glorified, it was me. Me and my belief. I am discussing this under the axiom that I DO believe. But this is only as to show how following Christ for me tends to revolve a lot around myself. So all through the sermon, I was thinking of the facts that prove I believe God in my life, rather than accept it and be done with it. Kirkegaard talks a lot about faith in his book 'Fear and Trembling' (actually, all he talks about in that book) and one of his main positions on it, is how difficult it is for him to accept and believe, when he looks around and sees so many people doing it so easily. (This specifcally to abraham and isaac and his understanding in the sacrifice and person of Abraham.) I would say I have a similar problem, however I do accept and believe, but my mind constantly tries to revert back to "are you sure?" Maybe that's everybody though, and the 'everyone does it so easily' image is only a façade.

I obsess over nothing. I want to obsess over Christ.