Use Your Bible

I Know Whom I Have Believed

II Timothy 1:12

1. Knowing Jesus

A. He is our Friend (Matthew 11:19; John 15:13)
B. He is our Saviour (Luke 19:10)
C. He looks for doing good (John 9:1)
D. He will be our judge (John 12:48)
E. He is the Lord of our life:

1. Head of church (Ephesians 1:22)
2. King of the kingdom (I Timothy 1:17)
3. Our Shepherd (John 10:1-10)

F. We must learn to have personal knowledge of Jesus (Philippians 3:8)

2. Jesus is Able to:

A. Save believers (Hebrews 7:25)
B. Nourish us (Hebrews 4:15-16)
C. Get us access to the Father (John 14:6)
D. Raise us from the dead (Revelations 1:18)

3. To Keep What We Commit to Him

A. The most precious thing we have-our soul (Matthew 16:26)
B. Why do we commit our soul to Him? Because we know Him.

Imagine taking something we value most of all and letting a total stranger take care of it. Would we let a stranger, someone we don't know, babysit one of our children? Hopefully we would not. This is the essence of what Paul means in this verse. He knew His Lord so well that he felt very comfortable that Jesus could take care of his soul until the reward be given. How willing are we to commit our soul to Jesus?

Many are willing to commit their soul to someone other than Jesus. There are many man made creeds out there declaring things that Jesus did not say. Everyone is going to leave this life and go to eternity and we can't trust our soul to just anyone. Everyone should make absolutely sure that what they are doing in the name of Christ has scriptural authority to back it up. Jesus has the words of eternal life (John 6:68) and no religion has the right to change those words. Giving our soul to Jesus means putting our complete trust in Him and no one else. Have you committed your soul to Jesus yet?

Thanks

"Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!" (II Corinthians 9:15) One does not have to look far to see the gifts God gives us. Life itself is a gift from God and every day we live should be a cause of giving thanks (James 4:13-17.) Each day carries with it more blessings and gifts from our heavenly Father than we could possibly count. Certainly we should try and count them to keep a sense of perspective about God's goodness but we can hardly know them all. Life, health, comfortable homes, nice cars, computers, microwave ovens, dishwashers, jobs, money, family, good friends-the list could go on and on. Indeed, God is good to us.

More so than we deserve. God blesses us over and over but do we show Him the proper gratitude? When we sit down to eat our daily bread do we give thanks? When we recover from sickness, do we recognize God's hand in our recovery? God blesses us with transportation that is convenient and comfortable and we thank Him by not using it to come to church services. God blesses us with jobs to support our families but we spend all our time complaining about the company we've been blessed with and that we agreed to work for.

Nor is there just the physical aspects of God's goodness to consider. All spiritual blessing are in Jesus Christ (Ephesians 1:3.) Thinking about all the physical blessings we can see ought to cause us to appreciate the innumerable spiritual blessings from God. We see and experience God's love in this life and that should cause us to have a better understanding of just how much God loved us in sending His son to die on the cross for us. What does that mean to us? Are we just as guilty of taking God's spiritual blessings for granted? Do we pray as we should? Miss the opportunity to worship at the drop of a hat? Life and eternal life are an indescribable gift from God and He deserves our constant and daily gratitude in word and in deed.