Outstanding in Our Field
Today's Three-minute Bible Study
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Title: Outstanding in Our Field ------------------- Date: 5/1/2003
Keywords:
“work”
Welcome
to eXXit, the web site designed to help you stand strong in the face of sexual
temptation.
Passage: 2 Timothy 2:6*
The hard-working farmer ought to be the first to receive his share of the crops.
Questions
Paul is writing to his spiritual son in the faith, Timothy, and urges Timothy to consider the farmer as he lives for Jesus Christ.
1. What characterizes the farmer's work ethics?
2. What should motivate the farmer in his work?
Practical help
Farmers are known worldwide for their diligence and hard
work. The backyard gardener may choose to weed, water and fertilize or not
depending on the weather or his mood. A farmer, though, has no choice but to
work hard. If he doesn't, his family goes hungry! And he farms in hope of a
bumper crop. He works with a cause/effect relationship in mind. Seeds turn
to beans/corn/tomatoes/wheat.
Christians are to imitate the work ethic and the hope of the farmer. While
becoming a Christian has nothing to do with performing good works to earn
favor with God, we are to perform good works — and to work hard at them!
This speaks to eXXit readers who are struggling with pornography addiction.
No one said that ceasing a porn habit would be easy. Neither is farming.
But just as it is worthwhile to labor in the hot sun because of the harvest,
so it is worthwhile to resist temptation, adjust the settings on the
computer, install protection software, or do other things to stay away from
pornography.
The believer who pleases God is the one who believes that "He is a rewarder
of those who seek Him." (Hebrews 11:6) You and I can believe that He will
reward us for standing strong in the face of sexual temptation just as
surely as He rewards the farmer with a bountiful harvest.
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*"Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, © Copyright
The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by
permission."
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