Brannon Howse: August 3, 2015

Guest: Abner Chou. Today we begin a series on the study of the book of 2 Timothy. This book will help us know how to respond to persecution from governments as well as from family or friends that reject us or criticize us for obeying God and holding fast to His Word and the gospel. Paul knew all too well about both persecution from government as he wrote the book of 2 Timothy while chained to a prison wall. Paul is writing to encourage Timothy as well as you to not leave the faith when times get tough. He also knew what it was like to have no one stand with him but to forsake him. In this letter Paul is encouraging young Timothy on how to stand for truth under such circumstances and to do so with peace. Paul knows that he is very likely to be murdered for the faith in very short order. Yet, Paul invites young Timothy to come to see him in prison so that he might see how God is faithful and has given him peace. In this broadcast Abner will challenge us to make sure that we do not seek to make the Word of God relevant to our life but to make our life relevant to the Word of God. Abner also challenges us to not seek for being relevant in the moment only to end up irrelevant for eternity. This program gives us the backdrop of 2 Timothy and sets the stage for our verse by verse study in this series with Abner Chou.