Ready for departure?

NORSK
For Magna and me, traveling has become part of our routines. Occasionally I say that I am tired of traveling. It is a statement that needs modification, because it is not the journey itself and certainly not the destination of the journey I am referring to, but rather the process of getting ready for departure. It can be tiresome to prepare for a travel. This includes everything from planning and booking tickets, to packing all I need for the journey and making sure that the passport is valid. 

The term ‘ready to go’ is also used metaphorically for our final journey. Yesterday evening, we received notification that Magna's aunt Tutta has ‘gone’ to be with the Lord. Tutta was well prepared for departure. Her 'passport' was valid, her 'ticket' paid and she left everything behind when she went. At the destination, the place was prepared for her (1).

The message about aunt Tutta came just as I was reading today's greeting from Paul to Timothy:

For I am already being offered, and the time of my departure is come. 2 Timothy 4:6

Paul indicates that he had already been through a court-trial and that he was “delivered from the lion’s mouth” (2). Now it appears that he is waiting for a new trial, but this time he is ready to “be offered”. Therefore, he wants to have his ‘successor’ Timothy close at hand on the final leg (3).

Paul possessed a strong hope, a hope shared by all believers:

Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.
2 Timothy 4:8

‘Manna’ for today:

Paul’s hope is also my hope and assurance

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(1) John 14:2
(2) 2 Timothy 4:17b
(3) 2 Timothy 4:9

It is a matter of choice

NORSK
Yesterday I quoted two testimonies to the experience of "the Lord being with them through it all". Paul and Andrae Crouch were witnesses to this being true in their lives, and very many can testify to the same. 

Not everyone has experienced persecution to the same degree as Paul did, but there are many forms of persecution and hardship. Paul knew this:

In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
2 Timothy 3:12

I have mentioned persecution several times in this series, so today I want to concentrate on the first clause of the verse. To live a godly life in Christ Jesus is constantly a question of wanting. ‘Everyone who wants’, Paul wrote, and it is part of the proclamation that the gospel is for the whosoever. 

The fact that God gave me a free will is perhaps the most precious gift that is embedded in God's image in which I was created. It is an expression of love that is almost as big as the love manifested when he gave his life to give me the option to choose to return to Him. 

I have chosen, yet every day it is choice to live a godly life in Christ Jesus. It is an easy choice, because even though it may prove to be costly, it is the best choice "through it all".

‘Manna’ for today:

My choice is made, yet I will choose it over again.