In my pockets I generally carry an assortment of tools that (pack rat that I am) I think I might need at some point in my day: Swiss Army knife, fingernail clippers, pencil stub, pocket flashlight, lip balm, pocket Kleenexes, dollar bills and change (if I have them!). I may add a pocket notebook and mechanical pencil if my shirt has a pocket. My pockets are lumpy, but I am ready. Ready for what? What did you have in mind? I don’t know either. That is why I want to be ready for almost anything.
Paul writes to his disciple and emissary Timothy, “Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season.” (2 Timothy 4:2, NKJV) And the context, before and after, indicates that this concerns the right handling of the scriptures, the word of God, the Bible (such as he had at the time: today we have the completed canon). Timothy must handle it carefully, accurately, boldly, obediently, and as one who must give an account for his use of it to God.
The preacher’s task is like Timothy’s, and his responsibility is great. And the key to the task is the burden to make disciples, reproducing, as God enables by the Holy Spirit, people who will likewise take up some version of that burden of both being and making disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, people who willingly trust Him and obediently follow Him, growing in grace and abounding in a Christlike life, confidently waiting for the ultimate fulfillment of their earthly journey, eternal life in the presence of their risen Lord and Savior.
And so the preacher first needs to be “ready in season and out of season” to walk out his responsibility in forwarding this great adventure, not only in his own life, but in that of those whose lives he touches, especially with the Word of God. His “pockets” are to be full of scriptural tools so that he can be continually ready for every contingency, both “always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you” (1 Peter 3:1, KJV), and to empower his hearers (or readers) to do the same. For his heart’s burden is to be able to agree with John when he writes, “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth…” (3 John 4,KJV).
This portion of Grace Bible Fellowship’s blog will be dedicated to forwarding this walk of scriptural truth, both “in season and out of season”. Hopefully you will find something challenging, edifying, and relevant. God bless you as you walk with Him.