Thiemann Life

“…nourished in the words of faith and of the good doctrine which you have carefully followed.”  1 Timothy 4:6

I want to pose a question for application in light of this statement here – Are you constantly nourished in the words of faith and good doctrine? Would you  describe your life as constantly being nourished by the Word of God? Is that how you see your life? Think about that questions/statement for a minute. Think about the word “nourished.” It means simply to provide what is necessary for growth, health, and a good condition. Are you a person that is nourished constantly by the Words of God?

We are in a battle. There is an enemy that is looking to inflict damage upon our lives, our family and our ministries. And I am afraid that far to often we seek nourishment from things that will only produce death. We ingest poison instead of the life giving nourishment of the Word of God.

As believers their should be an unquenchable hunger within us for the nourishment that the Word of God provides. Do you have that hunger? Far to often we only get our nourishment during Sunday mornings message and we starve the rest of the week. Any doctor would say it is unhealthy and unwise for you to eat one meal a week. They will worn you of the realities that you will quickly deteriorate to the point where you need to be admitted into a hospital for emergency care. At which time they will pump your body full of nutrients. Everybody knows that in order to live a healthy lifestyle you need an appropriate balance of a healthy diet and exercise. Well, the same is true for the Christian. We need to draw our nourishment constantly from the Word of God and we need to exercise what we have learned. Notice the second part of Pauls statement, “which you have carefully followed.” I love how Paul chose his words. The truths of the Word of God needs to be carefully followed. We should be digesting every truth and seeking to follow it constantly in our lives.

Does this describe you? Are you nourished in the words of faith and of the good doctrine and are you carefully following them? The Word of God is the only thing we have. You cannot lead your family apart from being constantly nourished by the Word of God. You cannot raise your kids apart from being constantly nourished by the Word of God. You cannot love your wife or submit to your husband apart from being constantly nourished by the Word of God. You cannot seek to do any ministry unless you are constantly being nourished by the Word of God. You cannot be an instrument of God and you cannot grow unless you are nourished constantly by the Word of God. It is an absolute necessity!

My encouragement for the healthy is keep getting nourished and growing. My encouragement for the anemic is to plug that IV bag in and turn the drip on high. Read your Bible every day. Memorize scripture. Go to Bible study. Join a small group. Get accountability and discipleship. Start building muscle.

So I will close with this question – what kind of relationship do you have with the Word of God?

God Bless,

Pastor Mike

I wanted to share this video because I think it is shockingly truthful. It is hard for a comfortable American Christian whose faith is based upon their comforts and not the sheer grace of God to listen to the truth proclaimed here.

I have had the privilege of traveling all over the world and visiting more churches then I can remember. In fact when I was in Bible College I joined choir and we were blessed to be able to travel every weekend to sing in a different church. I got to see and experience a LOT of different ministry styles. One thing that often stuck out to me in a lot of “older churches” we visited was the lack of young people. I would look out across the congregation as we were on the stage and I wouldn’t see any young faces. Only older believers. I started to realize that in just a few short years these churches would die off. Not because of a lack of love for the Lord but simply because everyone in them was pushing hard against heavens gates (if you will) and in just a few short years the people would die off and their would be no younger generation there to take the reigns. They failed to pass the baton. In fact, I notice that often is the reality. Churches and people get (quote) stuck in their ways and are not willing to change and adapt to reach a new and changing younger generation. Now I am not suggesting the message change (the pure Gospel of Jesus Christ) but maybe the methods by which we get that message out.

I remember being highly involved in a church when I was younger and the ongoing SHARP debate revolved around the question: are going to allow acoustic guitar in the worship or are we going to switch from pews to chairs? It shocked me how difficult it was for the church to change for the sake of reaching out and adapting to the rapidly evolving culture around them. And the result was the youth of the church disappeared almost totally. The older generation was comfortable with their pews, piano and hymns and they demanded that the youth conform to their (the older people’s) definition of what an honoring church service should look like.

Well, times have certainly changed exponentially since then and the culture is evolving faster then ever before. And there is great opportunity for Satan to drive and even bigger wedge between the older and younger generations. The scary reality is that the younger generation today needs the godly influence of the older generation more then ever before.

I desire to send a message of encouragement to the older generation to be willing to step out and reach into the lives of the younger people around them. Learn the things that are influencing their lives. Things like Facebook and Twitter. And don’t be scare to meet them on those levels for the sake of the Gospel.

In missions we talk a lot about cross cultural evangelism and the importance of learning the culture and the language of the people you are seeking to reach so that you can present the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the clearest manner possible. Well, the same principles need to apply in cross generational evangelism. Older believers need to become learners themselves for the sake of reaching the younger. Just as a missionary in Africa learns the culture of the tribal village in order to bring the Gospel to light before the people.

We need to not be afraid of change. We can’t be afraid to change the way we “do church” and conduct ministries. There is a cyber generation that is up-and-coming that we will completely lose if we don’t make a conscience effort to step out of our comfort zone and reach them now. I wanted to give you some statistics that shocked this reality even further into my mind. I am not saying that these statistics are good or bad… they are just the reality.

• In the last year 17% of couples who married met on a dating site
• 1 in 5 singles have dated someone they met on a dating site
• An estimated 50% of American’s have smartphones
• There are 31 billion searches on Google every month
• In 2006 it was only 2.7 billion
• It’s estimated that there are over 6 billion text messages sent per-day. More then the population of the earth.
• The average teen sends/receives about 3,300 text messages per-month
• There are more then 800 million users on Facebook
• 50% of those users log on at least every day
• Twitter just released that it now has over 100 million users
• If Facebook and Twitter were a country… it would be the third largest population in the world

I was asked a very interesting question recently. Basically, I can sum it up like this – “Is salvation easy to obtain.” This is a tricky question indeed. But I hope to pack some meat on the bones so that we can have something substantial to chew on. First, I am going to highlight the side of the argument that says, “No salvation is not easy.”

Jesus said it very well when he said, “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. (Matt 7:13)” We must recognize those are some strong words given by Jesus. “The way is hard…” & “those that find it are few.” I think that sums it up nicely. But Jesus goes on many more times in the Gospels to say statements like – “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” Self-denial to this level is a very rare thing. It takes real repentance that will be instantly and permanently clear and visible in a new believers lives.

I will close this side of the argument by pointing out one more verse. Matthew 7:21-23 says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ This is an absolutely devastating verse that should cause our hearts to tremble before the Lord. The statement here given by Jesus isn’t directed at random people. This is a declaration and warning to those people who “prophesy, cast out demons, and do many mighty works…” These are people that think they are (quote) “in the faith.” But as He closes His sentence he says, “you workers of lawlessness.” Which basically means, “you who lived your lives as though there was no stander to live by.” Christianity isn’t a simple thing. Salvation isn’t a simple thing. In fact it is an impossible thing. Salvation is always a supernatural and sovereign work of the Holy Spirit. For it is impossible with man but possible with God.

Now to balance it out a little. Salvation is and always has been a free gift of God. And for this side of the argument I will turn to the epistles because Paul declared the free gift of salvation so beautifully over and over again in his many letters. These are all the verses we are all very familiar with because they are easy to digest. These are the verses we read in the “God promises books.” But I do want to stress this point… don’t forget the first section of this article when you read these verses. There are some strong warnings given that we need to take heed to in order to grasp the whole council of God.

The Epistle of Romans is naturally the first stop on our list in addressing this topic. Paul declares, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom 6:23).” What a precious verse. We deserve death but God has given the gift of life in Christ Jesus. Notice, that that gift is free for us but it wasn’t free for Him. It cost Him a great deal. Never cheapen that.

Paul goes on to say, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,  not a result of works, so that no one may boast (Eph 2:8-9).” Salvation is nothing of our own doing but it is solely a gift of God that is freely given. Salvation is not something we can work towards or somehow through our own efforts obtain. It is a gift.

And to sum this side up, one of the most precious statements of all, Paul declares, “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved (Rom 10:13).” It is an open-ended invitation. If you call upon His name He will hear and He will answer. But be ready. Be ready to deny yourself and take up your cross and follow Him wherever He chooses to lead you and don’t expect the road to be easy because He declared Himself that it is going to be hard (Matt 7:13). But don’t fear… with Jesus Christ our Lord as the leader we will always be blessed above all that this world can offer.

God Bless,
Pastor Mike