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NASB | 2 Timothy 2:15 Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | 2 Timothy 2:15 Study and do your best to present yourself to God approved, a workman [tested by trial] who has no reason to be ashamed, accurately handling and skillfully teaching the word of truth. |
Bible Question: I heard that in some countrys if you quote a verse that the gay lifestyle is wrong you can be arrested for hate crime if it causes a bad reation toward those of that life style and this is coming to this country. Does anyone know if this is so. The world is an evil place!! Romans 1:27 thru 32 |
Bible Answer: God's Elect - You say that the world is an evil place and this is so. ..... You ask what is coming to this country. What is coming to this country, the United States, or any other country on earth, my friend, is known only to God. Those of us who believe in God and His absolute sovereignty have no reason to fear the evil one, for "we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28,KJV). ..... This is not ostrich-in-the-sand escapism nor is it Pollyanish or Micawberesque wishful thinking. It is the immutable promise of God to His called in Christ. ..... It is possible, perhaps even reasonable, to suppose that Christians may in time be arrested and severely persecuted in this country for standing up for their faith in Christ and His word. Persecution is not an unknown entity. Disciples of Christ were persecuted in the days of the young Church, and persecution continues still in various parts of the world. But "what shall separate us from the love of Christ?" Paul asks in Romans 8:35. "Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?" ...... "For I am persuaded," Paul wrote in Romans 8:38,29, "that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor pincipalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creation, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord." ...... Brother, I've lived on this earth for more than three score and ten years and have in that time seen many changes, and changes continue still at an accelerated pace. And out of my 58 years as a Christian I have learned to trust only Him who loved me ere I knew Him and shed His precious blood on the cross so that I might have life eternal. We all of us who know Him have victory in Him. We don't have any reason to fret or lay waste our lives in fear, shaking in our boots like craven cowards, worrying about what might happen to us, or to this country, or to any other country, in the future. We Christians not infrequently tend act as though the burden of the world were upon our shoulders. It is not. God is in control. He runs His universe. We don't. And we'll never succeed in robbing God of his sovereignty! ....... The Preacher of Ecclestiastes, having explored all the avenues available to him in search of pleasure and wisdom, happiness and contentment, ended his book with these centuries-old words, "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man" (Ecclesiastes 12:13). And it still is. ...... To sum up your question: Scripture does not tell us precisely what is coming to this country. But it does tell us something that I deem infinitely more important. It teaches us to trust in the Lord. And it teaches us how to live to His glory in spite of any adversity that may come upon us. Soli Deo Gloria! --Hank |