Bible Wednesday- 1 Timothy 1:5-7

 “The aim of our charge is LOVE that issues from a PURE HEART and a GOOD CONSCIENCE, and a SINCERE FAITH. Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into VAIN DISCUSSION, desiring to be TEACHERS OF THE LAW, without understanding either WHAT THEY ARE SAYING or the things about which they make CONFIDENT ASSERTIONS.”

I don’t want to be a Bible scholar, and I don’t want to be like many of those mega church pastors who thrive on the fame that comes from their teaching. I want to love others.

I had a discussion with Fred (the senior pastor) about how it’s really easy to say “I want to help people who are in poverty” but it’s a lot harder to put a name and a face to that poverty. Isn’t that like saying you love someone that you only talk to over the Internet. God knows that I’m not saying that you can’t have genuine feelings for people you meet on the internet (Kate and I met on eHarmony) but my true feelings for Kate didn’t come until about a month after I saw her in person and suddenly loving her wasn’t just talking to her through e-mails, but it was washing her dishes and picking up her house, driving to meet her at work for lunch on days that were hard or even days that were easy. I could fall head over heels for a concept of Kate that I made in my head but I couldn’t LOVE Kate til’ I was there next to her showing her love.

Who do you know who lives in poverty right now? Can you see their face? Do you know their name?

The aim of our charge is LOVE that issues from a PURE HEART but I am swerving from these and wandering away into vain discussions. How ugly of a word is VAIN? I mean seriously. It embodies all sorts of self-centered indulgence in just four simple letters. VAIN discussions. But I don’t understand what I am saying of the things about which I make confident assertions unless I’ve put down myself, and with a pure heart, placed a name and a face to someone who is in need.