Equipped For Every Good Work
You must understand this, that in the
last days distressing times will come. For people will be lovers of themselves,
lovers of money, boasters, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents,
ungrateful, unholy, inhuman, implacable, slanderers, profligates, brutes,
haters of good, treacherous, reckless, swollen of conceit, lovers of pleasure
rather than lovers of God, holding to the outward form
of godliness by denying its power. Avoid them!
Indeed, all who want to live a godly
life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. But wicked people and impostors will
go from bad to worse, deceiving others and being deceived. But as for you,
continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned
it, and how from childhood you have known the sacred writings that are able to
instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is
inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and
for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be
proficient, equipped for every good work.
Beware of counterfeit reality.
Something that seems real may not be. And something that does not seem real, may be.
True godliness honors and obeys God
while its counterfeit seeks pleasure and personal gain. One pleases the Lord;
the other gratifies natural desire. Both are identified by their actions.
When people hear us say we are
Christians, they may wonder if our faith is real. Our lives will answer the
question by reflecting the reality of Christ.
A good tree
cannot bear fruit,
nor can a bad
tree bear good fruit.
Our Daily
Bread – October 11, 2005