Headstrong Part 2

260, - Today's Prime Time Devo comes from 2Ti 3:4, But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: 2 For men will be.... headstrong, (2Ti 3:4,) I want to spend one more day on the problem of being headstrong. There is a certain “rashness” to the headstrong. Their interpretation of the Scriptures is written in stone and they zealously defend what they believe and if you disagree with them, well, it's my way or the highway! It's not that zeal for the Lord and doctrine is a bad thing, in fact we are given the example of Phineas in Num 25:11, “Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned back My wrath from the children of Israel, because he was zealous with My zeal among them, so that I did not consume the children of Israel in My zeal.” Ro 12:11 charges us: “Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord!” The problem is MISGUIDED zealousness fueled by false teaching! Many such false teachers arose in the early New Testament church one such zealous false teacher was Diotrephes written of in 3 John, 9,10, “but Diotrephes, who loves to have the preeminence among them, does not receive us. 10 Therefore, if I come, I will call to mind his deeds which he does, prating against us with malicious words. And not content with that, he himself does not receive the brethren, and forbids those who wish to, putting them out of the church.” This was one headstrong, my way or the highway dude! People who know me, know that I can be very zealous, and though I hate to admit it, sometimes my zealousness was misguided! But by the grace of God I have learned to unlearn some of my wrong thinking. I won't go into details but there have been times when God brought me into situations where my beliefs were rightly challenged, and I was forced to see things in a different, more biblical light. It was one of the best things that has happened to me in my spiritual journey, because as I looked at the issue with a teachable spirit, and took the correction from the Lord, it opened up so many other portions of Scripture to me! Mt 13:12 "For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. Bottom line is I choose to admit that I don't know it all and won't this side of heaven, therefore I will seek to ever be teachable, knowing that God corrects those whom He loves! The Aramaic Bible in Plain English puts it this way: For whomever the Lord Jehovah loves, HE instructs, and draws aside His children with whom He is pleased.” Lord help me to have a teachable spirit!