“You've been given the innate power to shape your life...but you cannot just speak change, you have to LIVE change. Intent paired with action builds the bridge to God. You can't just want it; you have to do it, live it...BE it!

A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history. - Mahatma Gandhi: (1869 -  1948: was an Indian activist who was the leader of the Indian independence movement against British rule.) 

Scripture Text: (2 TM 1:1-3, 6-12)

Paul, an Apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God
for the promise of life in Christ Jesus,
to Timothy, my dear child:
grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father
and Christ Jesus our Lord.

I am grateful to God,
whom I worship with a clear conscience as my ancestors did,
as I remember you constantly in my prayers, night and day.

For this reason, I remind you to stir into flame
the gift of God that you have through the imposition of my hands.
For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice
but rather of power and love and self-control.
So do not be ashamed of your testimony to our Lord,
nor of me, a prisoner for his sake;
but bear your share of hardship for the Gospel
with the strength that comes from God.

He saved us and called us to a holy life,
not according to our works
but according to his own design
and the grace bestowed on us in Christ Jesus before time began,
but now made manifest
through the appearance of our savior Christ Jesus,
who destroyed death and brought life and immortality
to light through the Gospel,
for which I was appointed preacher and Apostle and teacher.
On this account I am suffering these things;
but I am not ashamed,
for I know him in whom I have believed
and am confident that he is able to guard
what has been entrusted to me until that day.

This is the same conviction that any Christian can have when he or she is convinced that Jesus Christ has not only died for his or her salvation, but that He has also called each one of us into a life of grace and mission as members of Christ’s Body, the Church.  The struggles and sufferings of life do not go away, but they fall into place as expressions of our mission, to witness to the life of Jesus and to draw all people to a life of grace in the Church of Jesus Christ.

1 Cor 2:9 (But as it is written: “What eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and what has not entered the human heart, what God has prepared for those who love him,”) reminds us that we are responsible for giving our hearts and minds over to God’s truth in this life; but we can not even begin to understand how our life with Christ will be realized in the eternal Kingdom of God.  What a joy and fulfillment lies ahead for each us.  We can respond with the words of 2 Timothy, “…I know him in whom I have believed and am confident that he is able to guard what has been entrusted to me until that day.”