1 Timothy 1-4

Went to the funeral last nite, not the funeral...the visitation of a ‘contemporary’. When I say 'contemporary' I mean old friend...someone very important to my past....both of us same stage of life contemporary...out of each others lives as friends contemporary....friend who I had lost touch with because.....And a contemporary that to my mind…was lost …..and that stunned me and I don’t know why? And now I don’t know what to do with all the ‘stuff’ that is floating around in me about ‘lostness’…and I was struck with how do I think I can talk to my friends about God when I don’t even talk to God about my friends…a quote I have had forever but like most quotes just words until…….
And then reading in Timothy this morning after of course wondering what I can DO.....
1Timothy 2: 1 I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone— 2 for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. 3 This is good, and pleases God our Savior, 4 who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6who gave himself as a ransom for all men—the testimony given in its proper time.

So nothing I can do…..fuhgetaboutit….I can pray…I can stand in the gap…I can talk to God about my friends and family…..What an amazing God you know?!!!

Message Translation 1 Timothy 2: 1-3 The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know. Pray especially for rulers and their governments to rule well so we can be quietly about our business of living simply, in humble contemplation. This is the way our Savior God wants us to live.
4-7 He wants not only us but everyone saved, you know, everyone to get to know the truth we've learned: that there's one God and only one, and one Priest-Mediator between God and us—Jesus, who offered himself in exchange for everyone held captive by sin, to set them all free. Eventually the news is going to get out. This and this only has been my appointed work: getting this news to those who have never heard of God, and explaining how it works by simple faith and plain truth.
8-10 Since prayer is at the bottom of all this, what I want mostly is for men to pray—not shaking angry fists at enemies but raising holy hands to God. And I want women to get in there with the men in humility before God, not primping before a mirror or chasing the latest fashions but doing something beautiful for God and becoming beautiful doing it.