Growin' Up Gregory

"First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way." - 1 Timothy 2:1-2 I looked more into v1 yesterday so if you want to read up on the need of salvation to be taken to the lost people of the world it's there.  But I felt you had to read v1 to better flow into v2. In v2, Paul asks the church to pray for "kings and all who are in high positions."  They didn't have as many political leader titles as we do now so I'm glad he added the part about all in high positions.  Many rulers in Paul's day had made the mistake of becoming arrogant in their own strength after becoming ruler, and that turned them hostile towards God.  Given their negative feelings toward our Lord, you can imagine this mustered quite a bit of ill will between the church and many kings and leaders of...

I'm not sure who all else struggles at times in their prayer life.  Sometimes it feels like I'm just in a repetitive rut saying the same thing day in and day out with little thought about what's really coming out of my mouth.  Then there are times where the communication between God and me is so clear it feels like we're sitting face to face talking.  Those are times that praying just feels as though it strengthens me, and I can really feel the Holy Spirit during those times.  Those somewhat dry times of prayer have been a burden for me so I finally looked where I should have started looking for help in prayer, the Bible, and found 1 Timothy 2:1-8 which actually led me to seven distinct prayers that I felt were needed at this time. V1:  "First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people." Prayers of supplication are prayers that arise out of a need.  Our basic needs a...

I decided last week to take a closer look at the Tower of Babel.  I'm not real sure why, I just started looking through Bible stories and the Lord seemed to lead me to this one so here is what I took from my reading of it in Genesis 11:1-9. After the Great Flood, God commanded the people of earth to "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth" (Genesis 9:1).  But as the people began doing so, they had a change of plans.  As they were traveling out, they realized they were happy with the lives they were living and where they were.  So they decided to build a great city there and a tower that could reach to heaven.  They wanted to make a name for themselves by building such a might tower, and wanted to keep their people together in the city so they wouldn't be sent all over the world.  While the city and tower were being built, God came down to see what the people had accomplished.  But God could see the people's hearts, and he know that their tower t...

As Jesus was being asked questions by some of the scribes, one of them asked him, "What is the greatest commandment?"  To which Jesus replied, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.".  He then goes on to tell them what the second greatest is, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."  Now isn't that one of the sweetest rules in all the Bible, love others like we love ourselves?  It sounds really easy to love our neighbor when we're at church or with our family and friends.  But what about when "your neighbor" is different?  What about when it's someone you don't talk like, look like, or even agree with over certain topics?  Do we have to love those neighbors too?  Absolutely!  This verse doesn't say that people who are different aren't our neighbors, deserving of love too.  We are to follow the Lord's teaching and love ALL of our ne...

Our country is in a sad state during these days.  There is so much to learn about recent happenings, then to process and understand.  I feel there are many areas that we the people must begin to address and this does not start at the national level, it begins in the home where families teach children values.  As I try to process it all and understand more, these verses come to mind: "Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.  Show hospitality to one another without grumbling." - 1 Peter 4:8-9 To love people earnestly, means to be stretched to our limit, putting others' good ahead of our own.  In our selfish, me focused society, that's a very difficult thing for us to do.  But as Christians, we should offer others grace, what they don't deserve, even when we've been treated wrongly.  Why should we do that?  Well, don't we happily receive grace from God that we as sinners do not deserve?...

About a month ago I began following a new running plan that is supposed to allow you to run less, but faster.  The first few runs were going well and I was beating some of times by almost 20 seconds per mile, which if you run you know is a pretty good bit.  I was feeling good, so when I was asked a couple weeks ago to participate in a half-marathon I decided I could handle it.  Well I finished it and felt pretty good afterwards.  Then that next week of training came, and it was terrible.  I had to cut one of my runs 1/4 of a mile short and was 8 seconds off pace.  I felt like I was failing, like it must have been beginner's luck or excitement that had carried me through the first few weeks of training.  I was getting discouraged, upset, and a little mad about my workouts.  But yesterday morning, I beat my goal time by 13 seconds per mile, a full 21 seconds faster than the run I had to cut short 2 weeks ago.  Had a I discovered a new workout p...