The life that really is life speaks for itself...

I like to share great quotes in this blog. I'm a fairly voracious reader, and consequently find inspirational stuff from a number of good sources. But, more often than not, it will be a verse or two from the Bible. I don't do this to be moralistic, or to impose my religious agenda on readers. I simply share these words because they have touched me, inspired me, or fed me in some way.

Today I have a fairly long passage for you. I'll start with the key concept, the verse that I meditated on this morning - but the selection is so awesome I'm going to have to paste in the whole thing at the end.

[You] are to do good, be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share, thus storing up for [your]selves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that [you] may take hold of the life that really is life. (1 Timothy 6:19)

I appreciate the idea "The life that really is life." It resonates with the way I've been thinking this year. Paul is suggesting - and this is clear in the complete passage, below - that what we tend to call life, much of the time, really isn't.

Often, when I'm out on the road speaking, I like to put up a slide taken at Naomi and Craig's wedding (almost three years ago, now). It's our church fellowship hall (there's the picture, to the right), teeming with people. There's dancing, hands up in the air, groups at tables or in intimate conversation... It's not a video, it's a still - and there's no sound track. Yet, somehow, the photograph does a great job of capturing the spirit of the occasion.

Underneath the slide, in bold print, I include the following statement. "Christian Community tells the truth about the Gospel."

The way we live together as a faith community communicates what we believe. Maybe the slide should read this way: "The way we are together (as a body) is an honest commentary on the type of gospel we preach."

Fact is, the "life that really is life" speaks for itself.

Hmm. I like that. So I'll repeat it and let my post for this morning be this simple statement. THE LIFE THAT REALLY IS LIFE SPEAKS FOR ITSELF.

So let's grab hold of it - DEREK

• Here's the entire passage. It really is a good read:

Timothy 6:6-19 (NRSV) - Of course, there is great gain in godliness combined with contentment; for we brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it; but if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these. But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.

But as for you, man of God, shun all this; pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life, to which you were called and for which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. In the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you to keep the commandment without spot or blame until the manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will bring about at the right time--he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords. It is he alone who has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see; to him be honor and eternal dominion.

As for those who in the present age are rich, command them not to be haughty, or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but rather on God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share, thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life.