I had one of my busiest Sundays in several months. This weekend I was able to share about my book before the four weekended services at Timberline Church. It was great to connect with people and to sow into the ministry of Serve 6.8. After getting home and taking a nap, I traveled to Littleton for a political event with some of my friends there. Overall, it was a big day and one I manged without getting overly fatigued. For me that is a good day!<\/p>\n
BIBLE VERSE FOR TODAY…\u00a0<\/strong>“Diotrephes, who loves to have first place among them, does not receive us.\u00a0<\/span>This is why, if I come, I will remind him of the works he is doing, slandering us with malicious words.<\/span>..<\/em>Demetrius has a good testimony from everyone…”<\/em> 3 John 9-10,12 HCSB<\/span><\/p>\n It was true in the first century and it is true in the 21st century, some “saints’ don’t act like saints. Any one who has served as a pastor in a ministry role probably has a greater appreciation for this short letter from the Apostle John.<\/p>\n Gaius is the believer to whom John’s letter is addressed. His name was a common name for his day, so it is uncertain if he is the same individual referred to in other letters. We see John draws a sharp contrast to those who are acting in love and truth and those who are not.<\/p>\n Traveling teachers and believers were common in the first century. They would look for fellowship among any Christ follower they could find in their journeys. John commends Gaius for his open heart, “…<\/em>you are showing faithfulness by whatever you do for the brothers, especially when they are strangers….we ought to support such men so that we can be coworkers with the truth.”<\/span><\/em> (3 John 3,8 HCSB)<\/span><\/p>\n In contrast to Gaius, John condemns Diotrephes, for his authoritarian arrogance. We don’t know the reason behind his attitude and actions, other than he wanted to exert his own authority and felt threatened by others. He even was showing contempt for the Apostle John! His attitude toward others is described in these words, “He not only refuses to welcome the brothers himself, but he even stops those who want to do so and expels them from the church.”<\/span><\/em> (3 John 10 HCSB)<\/p>\n John’s caution was, “don’t imitate what is evil.” <\/em>John also is prepared to being apostolic correction, “if I come, I will remind him of the works he is doing, slandering us with malicious words<\/span>…”<\/em> (3 John 10 HCSB) Those who are acting contrary to Christ’s love and truth, should be corrected, not coddled.<\/p>\n John goes on and affirms the character of Demetrius, “<\/em>Demetrius has a good testimony from everyone, and from the truth itself…”<\/em> (3 John 12 HCSB) We don’t know if Demetrius was another member of the church, or one of the visiting brothers. But we see John affirming those who are acting properly and condemning those who are harming the unity of the church and the work of the gospel.<\/span><\/p>\n Each person must choose to be a “Gaius” or a “Diotrephes.” To be those with open arms or arms crossed against their bodies. To be open and encouraging or to be closed and threatened. There will always be those who believe they have a ‘corner on the truth.’ But we see the truth is lived, more than it is proclaimed. John says to Gaius, he had heard of his,\u00a0 “faithfulness to the truth\u2014how you are walking in the truth.”<\/span><\/em> (3 John 3 HCSB) May that be said of us all who call ourselves by the name of Christ.<\/span><\/p>\n Prayer for today….<\/strong> “Lord, help us not be surprised or discouraged by those who do not show Your love or walk in Your truth. Instead, give us courage to confront and a commitment to live by Your example and truth. Help us to imitate what is good, not what is evil.”<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I had one of my busiest Sundays in several months. This weekend I was able to share about my book before the four weekended services at Timberline Church. It was great to connect with people and to sow into the ministry of Serve 6.8. After getting home and taking a nap, I traveled to Littleton […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3342"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3342\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3343,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3342\/revisions\/3343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}