Daily Bread Pastor Mike Anderson

Click Here to Read or Listen to 1 Timothy 3 Qualifications for Overseers and Deacons 3 Here is a trustworthy saying: Whoever aspires to be an overseer desires a noble task. 2 Now the overseer is to be above reproach, faithful to his wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, 3 not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. 4 He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him, and he must do so in a manner worthy of full respect. 5 If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church? 6 He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil. 7 He must also have a good reputation with outsiders, so that he will not fall into disgrace and into the devil’s trap. An overseer is the same word for " bishop " or " overseer " or " elder ".  You see the high bar Paul sets for this kind of

Click Here to Read or Listen 1 Timothy 2 Instructions on Worship 2 I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people— 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 people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all people. This has now been witnessed to at the proper time. 7 And for this purpose I was appointed a herald and an apostle—I am telling the truth, I am not lying—and a true and faithful teacher of the Gentiles. Since Timothy was a young pastor, Paul gave him very practical instructions on how to run a worship service. At the heart of the service is prayer. Although preaching, worship, and communion are all important parts of a worship service, prayer is at the hea

Click Here to Read or LIsten to 1 Timothy 1   1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope,  2 To Timothy my true son in the faith:  Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. This is the first of what are called the pastoral letters. Rather than being written to a church, this letter is written to a person, in this case Timothy. We know that Paul mentored Timothy, as Timothy followed Paul in his second missionary journey. Timothy matured to the point where Paul left him to pastor the church at Ephesus. Paul needed others to pastor the churches he planted, or he could have not continued his calling to be an apostle. An apostle is someone who is sent as an ambassador of Christ and a messenger of the gospel. They usually plant new churches.  Click Here to Read an Introduction to the 1 Timothy Timothy Charged to Oppose False Teachers 3 As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you

Click Here to Read or Listen to 2 Thessalonians 3 Request for Prayer 3 As for other matters, brothers and sisters, pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored, just as it was with you. 2 And pray that we may be delivered from wicked and evil people, for not everyone has faith. 3 But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one. 4 We have confidence in the Lord that you are doing and will continue to do the things we command. 5 May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance. Whenever Paul asks for prayer, he almost always asks for it in connection with spreading the Good News. You might say this was Paul's singular focus. He not only wanted it to spread but spread rapidly. While Paul is delivering the Good News, he encounters " wicked and evil " people. If you were the devil the last thing you would want is for a person to come to Christ and be delivered from sin, death, and his

Click Here to Read or Listen to 2 Thessalonians 2 The Man of Lawlessness 2 Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers and sisters, 2 not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by the teaching allegedly from us—whether by a prophecy or by word of mouth or by letter—asserting that the day of the Lord has already come. 3 Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. 4 He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God. Like many people today, the Thessalonians were very concerned about Jesus' second coming. There were some false teachers who said that Jesus had already come. They even called it "prophecy. It is a very dangerous thing to say, "Thus sayeth the Lord" , when you are ultimate

Click Here to Read or Listen to 2 Thessalonians 1   Today, we start Paul's second letter to the church at Thessalonica. It has many of the similar themes in his first letter to them.  Clink on this link for an excellent summary of the context for this letter. It is short.  Background on Paul's 2nd Letter to Thessalonica One of the important aspects of this letter was it was written around 51 A.D., only 18 years after Jesus' resurrection. How long after an event happened is one of the most important factors in determining whether a historical book can be trusted. The fact that this letter is written so soon after Jesus died and was resurrected gives the bibe great credibility. It also rules out the notion that this is a fanciful tale or the stuff of legend. It is written too soon after the event for legend to develop.   Because it was so close to the events, if it was just made up, it could have quickly been dismissed as fraudelent. This is yet another reason we can trust th