Catalyst Castle

"The old personality" literally was written "the old man" - one is to put off the old "man" and become "a new man".. Knowing this helps us see that when the verse speaks of "his" deceptive desires, it's refering to our own desires, which we must battle with to avoid being led astray by them..

Okay, I have a lot of points I'd like to bring out. It's just from one chapter of our Bible reading so I'll apologize beforehand that it'll be so long. Anyway, we were reading chapter two of second Timothy. The first point I appreciated was in verses three and four:

"As a fine soldier of Christ Jesus take your part in suffering evil. No man serving as a soldier involves himself in the commercial businesses of life, in order that he may gain the approval of the one who enrolled him as a soldier."

This reminded me that we are at war with Satan and his demons. We're on Jehovah's side as his soldiers and we avoid the material things of Satan's system to gain Jehovah's approval. In an actual war, a person from one side has absolutely nothing to do with the opposing side. We have to do the same, it's what Satan does. He's doing everything, giving his all to tear us from Jehovah. But, we have to rely on Jehovah since he was the one who 'enrolled us as a soldier.' I just thought it was pretty neat, being a soldier for Jehovah. We are constantly fighting for him, taking our part in suffering evil, 'fighting the fine fight of the faith'. We're on Jehovah's side, we are his soldiers.

One of my other points is in the same chapter of second Timothy, verse fifteen:

"Do your utmost to present yourself approved to God, a workman with nothing to be ashamed of, handling the word of the truth aright."

This one hit really close to home with me. How good it feels to finally have nothing to be ashamed of! This now gives me the chance to 'handle the truth aright' as Jehovah commanded. We have to do our utmost to present our self approved to Jehovah. I looked up the actual meaning of "utmost" and it says: "of the greatest or highest degree, quantity, number, or amount." So, this requires putting Jehovah and doing his will first in our lives, putting it in the "highest degree." This was another one that just especially stood out to me. It's just really motivating.

Sorry for posting so many but there's one more. Once again, same book and chapter but it's in verse twenty-two:

"So, flee from the desires incidental to youth, but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace, along with those who call upon the Lord out of a clean heart.”

I looked up flee in the dictionary and here were the terms:
"1 a: to run away often from danger or evil
b: to hurry toward a place of security."
This makes most sense if you think about it. We hear "flee" so many times in the Bible. I like how it says to run away from danger or evil, which is most fitting if you ask me. It tells us to flee from the desires incidental to youth, or run away from the evil and dangerous things of youth and run to Jehovah for security. Even the dictionary says that associates fleeing with running away from evil things. It just makes more sense this way! Running away from those things and then going to Jehovah for security, to cultivate those qualities which are a part of the fruitage of the spirit. If we do that, we can become presentable to Jehovah with a "clean heart." It really goes along with my last comment too. Well, that's it. Sorry there was so much, but there were just so many points that I enjoyed so much I just had to share them. I hope you don't mind. ^_^

Hey guys, thanks for sharing your thoughts. I really like the point about fighting as a soldier for Jehovah. I really love epic stories about great heroes fighting against evil. It's cool to realize that in a spiritual sense we are doing just that. I also enjoyed your point about fleeing from evil.