Though Rich, He Became Poor

PASSAGE FOR THE DAY:
2 Corinthians 8 (click the link)


KEY VERSES:
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich. (2 Corinthians 8:9, NIV)


REFLECTIONS:
The church in Jerusalem was in desperate need of financial support. Persecution, famine and food shortages, double taxation, and overpopulation were just a few of the things that led to their financial crisis. The situation was most likely aggravated by the church's voluntary pooling of assets in the early years of this existence (Acts 2:44-46; 4:32-37). On top of this, the Jerusalem church was considered the "mother church" and it undoubtedly felt the need to support the itinerant activities of its members and to extend hospitality to visitors from other churches. Because of the great need, the Apostle Paul and his companions spent close to 10 years soliciting funds in support of the Jerusalem church.

Apparently the Corinthian church was the first church not only to give but to desire to do so (verse 10). Paul's advice at the time was that each person should set aside a sum of money each week in keeping with his or her income. In this way, the church in Corinth would have a significant sum of income to contribute to the relief fund (1 Corithians 16:1-4). Somewhere along the way, however, the collection effort in Corinth fell by the wayside. In chapters 8-9 of this letter, Paul attempts to motivate the Corinthians to finish what they had pledged.

There are many guidelines and principles for Christian giving in these two chapters. But in reading this today, Paul's statement in verse 9 grabbed my heart.

………

Christ's humbling is what Paul holds up as an example of what it means to give. There was a time when Jesus was rich. He was not rich on earth, though he sometimes stayed with rich people. He had friends and neighbors who were rich; some who followed him were rich, but he himself had nothing at all. 

But, according to this verse, once Jesus was rich. When was that? On the night of his betrayal and arrest, Jesus prays to the Father (recorded in John 17). As part of that prayer, Jesus says: “And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began” (John 17:5)?

I do not know if Paul was aware of this prayer or not, but that is a very wonderfully insightful verse indicating that Jesus recalled a time when he was rich, when everything in the universe belonged to him. All the hosts of heaven bowed down in continuous worship of his name, and hundreds of thousands were ready to run at his bidding. He owned it all, everything was his, but he gave it up voluntarily. He deliberately impoverished himself. As Paul put it in his letter to the Philippians:  

Though he was God,

he did not think of equality with God

as something to cling to.

Instead, he gave up his divine privileges;

he took the humble position of a slave

and was born as a human being.

When he appeared in human form,

he humbled himself in obedience to God… (2:6-8)

Remember how he constantly borrowed everything? He had nothing of his own. He borrowed food, clothing, a coin to give an illustration, a donkey to enter into the city of Jerusalem, and he finally had to borrow a tomb in which to be laid. There was one occasion when it says the disciples all went to their own homes, but he went to the Mount of Olives. He had no home to go to, no place to lay his head.

 

Why did he do this? Why did he become poor? Paul's reminder is, in order that we might be rich. Have you thought about how rich the Lord has made you? Just the other day, in the midst of all the tumult that we see reported in the international scene, I was thinking what a terrible thing it would be to have to live today without the Lord. Would you like to do that, now that you have known him? Would you like to give up all the joy, all the peace, all the sense of forgiveness, all the lifting of the load of guilt? Would you give up the sense of his presence, of a power source available to you for whatever you need, of a continual supply of joy and gladness and restoration, of the continual enrichment of your life?

 

How rich Jesus has made us! He became poor in order that we might be rich. When you think about that, how wrong it seems to withhold our gifts from those who are in need around us. How can we clutch our affluence to ourselves when our brothers and sisters are in need?

 

 

APPLICATION:

Jesus is our priceless Treasure. Are we learning to worship him with all that we are and own? What may we be withholding from him this day?

 

 

PRAYER:

Thank you, Father, for the example of Jesus, who became poor that we might become rich. May we, by your grace, learn to extend that same grace to those around us who are in need.

 

 

WHO AM I?

I am Tres Sansom and, for the first time in my life, I'm experiencing joy at the thought of Christmas shopping. Kate and I have been making Christmas wish lists for our foster kids on Amazon, and I'm growing more and more excited at the thought of seeing the kids' faces light up as they open their gifts. If we don't get ahold of ourselves, we might end up becoming poor so that our little rug rats can become rich in presents.

 

The Good End to Godly Sorrow

PASSAGE FOR THE DAY:
2 Corinthians 7 (click the link)


KEY VERSES:
For even if I made you sorry with my letter, I do not regret it; though I did regret it. For I perceive that the same epistle made you sorry, though only for a while. Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing. For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death. For observe this very thing, that you sorrowed in a godly manner: What diligence it produced in you, what clearing of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what vehement desire, what zeal, what vindication! In all things you proved yourselves to be clear in this matter. Therefore, although I wrote to you, I did not do it for the sake of him who had done the wrong, nor for the sake of him who suffered wrong, but that our care for you in the sight of God might appear to you. (2 Corinthians 7:8-12, NKJV)


REFLECTIONS:
Have you ever pushed "Send" on an email, or even a text, that you immediately think to yourself was a mistake?  You knew that it would cause pain, maybe even irreparable damage to the relationship.  This is the place Paul is coming from as we pick up in verse 8.  He had written a letter to the Corinthians (some say it was First Corinthians, others think he wrote another “severe letter” that has been lost) to correct a wrong that had been done (maybe even towards Paul himself).  Whatever it was, it dampened the zeal of the Corinthians for Paul and Paul writes a letter to point out the wrong and stir their support for Paul once again.  Paul probably sends this letter with Titus, and then waits.  And waits.  Finally, verses 6 and 7 tell us that Titus returns and has encouraging news from the Corinthians.  The “severe letter” had worked.  So when Paul writes in verse 8 that he didn’t regret sending it, but he did regret sending it, he’s in that place of knowing that the people he cares about need some instruction, need to hear some hard truths, but not knowing how it will be received.  So what happened?  What came from Paul pushing "Send"?  

The Corinthians felt godly sorrow.  

Godly sorrow is good, produces repentance, and leads to salvation.  Notice that Paul points out a difference between godly sorrow and worldly sorrow.  Godly sorrow is grief or regret over past sins—the uncomfortable feeling of guilt when the word of God (or some other person or thing that God uses) shows you that what you’ve done is wrong.  Godly sorrow is the sorrow of a God-saturated heart, not a world-saturated heart.  Paul says worldly sorrow leads to death. 

Paul tells us at the end of verse 7 and again in verse 9 that he rejoiced over what the Corinthians experienced.  Their godly sorrow was a good thing.  But it was also painful and uncomfortable and hard.  Pain and hardships in themselves are not good things, but the end result of the godly sorrow is good.  It produces repentance.  Verse 9 says that “your sorrow led to repentance” and verse 10 says “godly sorrow produces repentance.”  Repentance is not the same as feeling sorrow over sin.  It’s the result of the sorrow.  Repentance is the change of attitude or behavior that results from the sorrow over the sin.  So godly sorrow is the first step of repentance, and repentance follows and completes the change of heart.  That’s exactly what Paul tells us happens to the Corinthians. 

Verse 11 gives a list of all the ways the Corinthians changed.  Verse 10 in whole states, “For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.”  So our repentance, like the Corinthians’, means a turning back to God, who is Savior, and results in spiritual deliverance from our sin, or salvation.  More than likely you have already received salvation in Christ, just as the Corinthians had, but we still need daily salvation from our sins, and Paul lets us know that those uncomfortable feelings of godly sorrow is our first step to that salvation.  So we can ask ourselves, are we grieved by our sin with a godly sorrow and do we turn from it?  That is the test of our faith and the evidence that Christ is in us.  


APPLICATION:
I think we can take two things from these verses.  We need to be people willing to cause godly sorrow, and people willing to accept godly sorrow.  Help people recognize their sin when God is pointing you that direction.  This is never easy.  If Paul struggled with it, so should we.  But we should always be willing to help those we care about move toward repentance and salvation.  Likewise, we should always be willing to be moved to godly sorrow and repentance by others who care about us and call us on our sin.  Do I even need to say that this isn’t ever easy either?  All we can do is try to be like Paul and the Corinthians…we’ll have times where we need to be each.  


WHO AM I?
I’m Jennifer Babb, and the two crazy looking kids are mine!  Ellie just turned 9 and James just turned 6, and they are a wonderful handful.  The little guy in the middle is my super cute nephew, Cooper, and I have a niece on the way!  I love kids!  Mine, yours, any of them.  J  

Responding to Hardship

PASSAGE FOR THE DAY:
2 Corinthians 6 (click the link)


KEY VERSES:
We put no stumbling block in anyone’s path, so that our ministry will not be discredited. Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left; through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors; known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything. (2 Corinthians 6:3-10, NIV)


MUSINGS:
These particular verses ought to be required reading for anyone entering “full time ministry.” That’s the curious phrase often used to distinguish the clergy from the laity. While it is definitely true that God has called certain persons to serve the church and his kingdom as their “job,” making their living as ministers of the gospel, we have all been called as ministers in our own way.

So even though most of us are not going to become full-time pastors or missionaries or ministry leaders, we should all take note of Paul’s testimony of his ministry among the Corinthian church. What should we expect ministry to be like? How much should we put up with as we strive to serve the Lord? How hard should it really be?

Paul speaks of troubles, hardships and distresses; beatings, imprisonments and riots; hard work, sleepless nights and hunger. Quite the job description for ministry in the first century! And we thought that teaching children’s church once a month was a sacrifice or that sponsoring a youth trip was especially hard!

My son Jordan was privileged to work at Brackenridge hospital this summer as an anesthesiologist tech assistant. This was real grunt work where Jordan was able to see the hard work and long hours that go on behind the scenes of the crisis situations he may encounter one day. His goal is to be an anesthesiologist and serve in under-resourced areas both in the US and abroad. I am grateful for his summer experience, so he could get a close up view of what the job is really like… so he can replace the rose colored glasses about being a doctor with the real-life truth of what it actually involves.

In the same way, it would help us if we could somehow go back in time and intern with the Apostle Paul for a summer as a ministry assistant. Man, would our expectations of church and ministry change! People sometimes talk in glowing terms of life in the New Testament church, but it was hard, challenging, and dangerous back then; full of in-fighting, division, controversy, and persecution. Yet people act surprised when ministry involvement or church life is actually difficult in our day. 

So, what can we learn from this poignant section of scripture? How did Paul respond to the hardships? With purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left. Wow, this is so challenging and encouraging at the same time! May God give us the same grace and maturity whenever we face difficult situations in our service of the Lord or in the fellowship of the body of Christ. Let’s use these verses as the measure of our response. 

As we are privileged to serve alongside one another in the body of Christ, we inevitably bump into each other and endure the rigors of living out the kingdom of God in the midst of this broken world full of broken people. There’s no getting around it. Just like marriage and family life is hard, church and ministry is just as challenging. And just like family is worth fighting for (with weapons of righteousness, not destruction!), Paul modeled for us that ministry in the body of Christ is worth our best efforts.

Let me paraphrase that last section of these focal verses… make this your declaration. Whether we receive glory or dishonor, bad report or good report; whether people regard us as genuine Christ-followers or impostors; whether we are well known or serve in the background; even if it appears to others that we are dying, we live on; even if we are beaten down, the life of Christ is still in us; even in our sorrow, we rejoice; even though we give our money and lives away, we know that we are making many rich; though we have nothing that the world values, we possess everything that truly makes life matter.


THINGS TO PONDER:
Just like many people can enter a job or marriage or profession with unrealistic expectations, do you have any unrealistic expectations of ministry? Have you been surprised by the hardships and challenges of a life serving the Lord?

The vast majority of people that I went to seminary with are no longer serving in ministry. Though our professors tried to warn of the challenges ahead, it’s hard to prepare for all of the difficulties. The same sometimes happens with lay people who get involved in church and ministry. They are surprised at the hardships, and many just drop out altogether. Remember that our work to promote the kingdom of God does not go unopposed. We have an enemy (plus we are just plain sinful and broken). There will be challenges and hardships to overcome. May God give us the grace to endure as we serve as the body of Christ in the world.


WHO AM I?
This is a picture from the championship game of the 35+ men’s baseball league in Austin. (Not a flattering pic, I know… it was a rough inning!) We lost the deciding game, but it was still a blast playing at the Dell Diamond. To play somewhat high quality baseball in your forties requires a certain level of hard work and dedication, especially as I get older. I think it is instructive that the New Testament often equates serving Jesus with being a soldier or an athlete. Dedication, commitment, and sacrifice are required. No way around it if you plan to stay in the game and fight the good fight. 

Fashioned For This

PASSAGE FOR THE DAY:
2 Corinthians 5 (click the link)


KEY VERSES:
Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. (2 Corinthians 5:5, NIV)


REFLECTIONS:
What fleeting lives we live. As children, all we want is independence. As teens, we long for confidence. As young adults, we crave recognition. Middle age wants connectedness, and mature life wants… well, the energy to enjoy what measure of independence, confidence, recognition and connectedness we’ve gained through the years. Americans, especially, avoid aging sometimes literally at all costs. The thought of death is distressful, yet Paul talks about it as stepping from a temporary state into a permanent and secure dwelling. How is that? 

I believe the key is in verse 5: We were fashioned for this very purpose. With our temporary, but still spiritually attuned senses we see, feel, smell, hear and taste both decay and rapturous goodness. Decay, when we realize our bodies, relationships and personal accomplishments are subject to our own frailties and brokenness. Goodness, when we recognize that anything we enjoy now is simply a deposit… a promise (the Greek word translated “guarantee” has the same root as “engagement ring”) of what awaits us in the day to come when we are gone from this life but fully alive in the presence of God. 

As good as life here on earth can be, we were ultimately made for more, and that more will only be satisfied in heaven. That beautiful painting? The entire sky of heaven has deeper colors and richer texture. The deep connection you have with a brother or sister upon sharing your heart and being accepted? You and he/she will one day swim together in the overflowing acceptance of the creator of both your hearts. Suddenly that concept you could never quite grasp here in this body will seem quite natural and elementary to you. All the gracelets we enjoy now won’t go away, they’ll simply mature into full-blown glory.

Have you ever thought of what you want your resurrected self to be like? You will be that, at the very least and you will be entirely pleasing to God. But before we throw up the white flag and huddle in the church basement singing “In the Sweet By And By” consider this: there are some opportunities for pleasing God that we will only have while present in these ridiculous bodies of ours.  When we get to heaven, there will be no more need for faith, no more need for enduring through trials, no more need for courage and boldness in representing Jesus.  Now, while we are in these bodies is our only shot to please God in these areas. 

I don’t know about you but sometimes I take myself too seriously. I behave as if people’s opinions of me matter much more than they do. That’s what the world does, but I now have the ability to live a new way, as one promised, guaranteed, even “engaged” to heaven. I forget that “to fear the Lord” means to care more about what God thinks of me than what others think. While I am here in this body I can live as a citizen of heaven. What’s more, Jesus gives me the authority to invite others into the same kind of life… to invite people to His party! That changes the way I see myself and the way I see others.


PERSONAL APPLICATION:
This passage reminds me of a fantastic book I read a few years back called Journey of Desire (recently retitled Desire) by John Eldredge. Its premise is that anything we enjoy here on earth is meant to make us desire more, the more that will only be satisfied in heaven, and that desire is a good thing. I love the idea of “holy discontent,” because we often settle for so much less than what God wants for us. May it be that we have a holy discontent for our own lives and for those we intersect.


WHO AM I?
I’m Leigh Anne Bland and this picture, though not very flattering, represents a moment of extreme bravery for me. I’ve always been afraid of heights… my legs turn to jelly at the thought of tall cliffs. But in this instance I conquered that fear and jumped from South Point, Hawaii, the southernmost tip of the US. It’s about a 45ft drop into clear blue water. How did I conquer it? I didn’t tell anyone I wanted to do it, and simply walked off the cliff.

Hearts Enlightened

PASSAGE FOR THE DAY:
2 Corinthians 4 (click the link)


KEY VERSES:
For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ. (2 Corinthians 4:5-6, NIV)


REFLECTIONS:
It seems that Paul is constantly being put on the spot by the Corinthians. They want him to speak about himself, to defend his own ministry, his own person, his own character. But he refuses to do this. At least, he refuses to do it in anything like the way that they would regard as valid. Instead, he offers himself, like John the Baptist offered himself, simply as a voice, a witness, a signpost.

Paul is who and what he is because he is a messenger, a herald, of the King, the Messiah. The word "Christ," of course, means "Messiah," which itself means "King." We should sometimes remind ourselves of that, perhaps by using a phrase like "King Jesus." Paul is a herald of King: he travels around the ancient world, telling unsuspecting pagans that there is another King, namely Jesus (Acts 17:7). So Paul himself is simply a slave, a servant. He essentially says to the Corinthians: We are your slaves for Jesus' sake. We are simply here to serve you, to bring you the gospel, working as the go-betweens for yourselves and Jesus. When that encounter has taken place, we can stand back and let you simply be yourselves—the people of God in Christ. 

What has been going on in Corinth through this whole process is nothing less than the outworking of God's new creation, and, as a result, the shining of God's glory. In verse 6, Paul quotes from Genesis 1: God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. This same God who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," Paul declares, has now "made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God's glory displayed in the face of Christ."

What's going on here? For Paul, it is absolutely vital that what has happened in the gospel of Jesus is the beginning of God's new creation. The new creation began, as far as Paul was concerned, when Jesus of Nazareth came out of the tomb on Easter morning. The new creation will finally be fulfilled when the reign of Jesus in the present age is complete, and sin and death are fully overcome, so that, "God will be all in all" (1 Corinthians 15:28). The life of the church runs from that beginning of the new creation to the completion of the new creation.

This is enormously important for a number of reasons. To begin with, Christian spirituality is not an escape from creation. It is not a way out, a way of declaring the present world and our physical existence to be simply evil, dark, gloomy and bad, dragging our immortal souls down into the mud and mire. On the contrary, God intends to redeem the present creation. He has begun that operation in Christ, and now continues it in the Spirit, in the hearts and lives and behavior of those who are now in Christ. And, as he does so, this means for Paul that God has shone into people's lives the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Every element in this rich statement needs to be unpacked and laid out. Without Christ, people are in the dark. They don't know who they really are as human beings. They don't know who God really is. In particular, they cannot make any sense of the strange story of Jesus. But when God works through the preaching of the gospel, through the work of the Spirit, people come to understand all these things about themselves, about the world, about God and about Jesus. And supremely they come to the knowledge of the glory of God.

God's "glory"—the phrase means, no doubt, that when people eventually see God the sight is astonishingly bright and dazzling. But beyond that, it also means that it is supremely lovely and beautiful. We don't talk as much about the beauty of God as we do about the glory of God, but glory surely embraces beauty, and a sense of awe and delight, as well is simply a sense of utterly dazzling light. And this is because God's glory, ultimately, is the revelation, the shining of who God actually is. In the gospel we discover that God is at heart the God of total self-giving love.

I don't do a whole lot of traveling, and I've never traveled alone. But I can imagine that this whole "enlightening" experience is a bit like traveling alone—we are separated from the people we love, away from those with whom we can relax, with whom we can be friendly. But then somebody we know comes to meet us, in an airport or at the bus station, or when we finally arrive back home. Our hearts are warmed, deeply comforted, by this sudden presence of somebody with whom we can be truly ourselves, someone who will give themselves to us.

That is a pale illustration of what it's like when you are away from God, not knowing who you are, not knowing who God is, and then you discover that the God who made the world is the God of utter self-giving love who longs to be there for you, to give himself to you, and to help you discover who you are. All of this is contained in the remarkable claim that God has "made his light shine in our hearts to give us the knowledge of God's glory displayed in the face of Christ." We can know God deeply inside ourselves, in the face of Jesus Christ, the crucified and risen one.

When Paul says the word "Jesus," he never forgets that this is the Jesus who died on the cross. If we want to know who God really is, we don't discover it by forgetting that Jesus died on the cross, by skipping past that and going on to what seems to us more obviously like "glory." We discover it as we look at the face which is crowned with the crown of thorns.

Standing back from this whole passage, we find that what Paul is trying to say to the Corinthians, and for that matter what we need to hear in the church today, is this: If we are to know God in Christ, and if we are to be the people that God wants us to be in Christ, we must learn the painful lesson of recognizing the glory of God, the god-ness of God, as we look at Jesus on the way to Calvary, and then finally on the cross itself. 

And part of this is learning that when, often to our dismay, we find ourselves called to follow in the way of the cross—in the way of painful suffering—that doesn't stop us from learning who God is. It doesn't mean that God has forsaken us. Times like these are the moments when we are privileged to be led by the Spirit, as Jesus himself was led by the Spirit, into the wilderness and along the way of the cross, away illuminated by the knowledge of the glory of God.


PRAYER:
Thank you, Father, for flooding our hearts with light, enabling us to see and know the glory of God in the face of Jesus. Your mercy and grace and abounding love overwhelm us! Enlighten our hearts afresh and new so that we might have a fuller understanding of your glory, particularly the glory of God as seen in the suffering Christ.


WHO AM I?
I am Tres Sansom and I have (slowly) been gaining an appreciation for traveling. I've always been a homebody, perfectly content to spend my vacation in the backyard of our house. But when Kate and I were dating, she repeatedly emphasized her love for traveling. I told her that I didn't think we'd be doing much traveling together because I had heard all sorts of horror stories about airlines losing wheelchairs and stuff. Little did I know. Before long, we made our first trip to Maine so I could meet her family (which, by the way, is a pretty crazy story). Since that time we've made half a dozen trips to Maine, taken a Caribbean cruise, and made a few quick jaunts to a number of places in Texas—all without a hiccup. This has given Kate boldness to talk of us taking trips to Hawaii, Europe, and a number of places on our nation's coasts. I'm just along for the ride with my wife, the world traveler.

Unveiled

PASSAGE FOR THE DAY:
2 Corinthians 3 (click the link)


KEY VERSES:
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:17-18, NIV)


REFLECTIONS:
The key verse punches so much power that, until now, I had missed a powerful, but subtle, message in the beginning of the chapter.  Would you pause and read the key verse again? Wow!  Of course this message overshadows some subtle messages!  This tells me where my freedom comes from!  And reassures me that I’m a work in progress—being transformed into His likeness.  It tells me this transformation is being done by the Lord, who is the Spirit—not by me somehow digging in deeper and trying harder.  Take a look again at who is being transformed. Those with “unveiled faces reflecting the Lord’s glory.”  We all long for full and complete freedom and to be transformed… but what’s this about unveiled faces? I’m not a theologian but I suspect it has something to do with the veil being torn when Christ died.  But I wonder if Christ followers still wear veils?

Growing up in East Africa, I was immersed in a Moslem environment.  The Moslem ladies wore the BuiBui, called Burkas in other cultures.  I would be sweltering in the thick humid African coastal air and see these ladies covered completely in black cloth except for their eyes and their sandals.  Being a girl, there were times I was invited into their homes and they would remove their head covering to reveal the most beautiful faces and personalities.  A girl not much older than I, let me try on her BuiBui.  I was suffocated and could only see straight ahead.  So people couldn’t see the real me and I couldn’t see much of the world around me.

Verse 3 is the subtle verse: "You are a letter from Christ, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts."  So it’s the Spirit’s work that transforms us and it is His work in our hearts that is a letter from Christ to others. Is our letter open for others to read?  Or is it veiled?  A veil that keeps us from seeing God, others or the world clearly?  Or a veil that keeps others from seeing us clearly or from reading God’s letter, to them, that the Spirit has written on our heart?


POINT OF PONDER, ACTION, AND PRAYER:
A veil is called by many names in different cultures.  Do you wear a veil?  If so, what is it called?  Is it a veil of past wounds, unforgiveness, fear, guilt, control, anger or skepticism?  Is your veil a mask—on the outside all is well and looks good but inside there is… what… doubt, turmoil, fear… What keeps you from dropping the veil and being real and vulnerable, keeping God’s glory from reflecting to others… keeping the letter to them, that He has written on your heart, unread.


WHO AM I?
Hi!  I’m Cinda Brooks and we’re home!  23 states, 14,000 miles and four months.  It’s HOT here!!  Glad I don’t have to wear a BuiBui but working on dropping the veil is a work in progress.

Passing the Love Test

PASSAGE FOR THE DAY:
2 Corinthians 2 (click the link)


KEY VERSES:
For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you with many tears; not so that you would be made sorrowful, but that you might know the love which I have especially for you. (2 Corinthians 2:4, NASB)


REFLECTIONS:
The background of this passage is a church in the throes of a major contention surrounding one man or one group of people.  The commentators that study this stuff all have different takes on who was involved and what exactly happened.  One thing is certain, Paul stirred up someone or some group in the church thru his teaching, and consequently his apostleship and leadership as a founding father of the church in Corinth was questioned.  In response, the elders of that church did not come to Paul’s rescue and did nothing to stop this person from attacking Paul and stirring up division in this church.  Paul called them on it and instructed them to follow through in disciplining the person responsible.  The leadership did not even agree on wanting to do this, but the majority prevailed.  They responded… the man repented… but they went further than they needed to.  The discipline was for redemption not punishment.  Paul’s father heart for these people at Corinth was showing.  He now calls for complete forgiveness for the man. 

Paul had poured all he had into these people and they had hurt him, but even that did not hinder Paul from hearing the wisdom of God from his beloved Jesus and acting just as He would have.  I am not a scholar, but it doesn’t take deep learning to see that Paul loved these people and he saw the best in them.  He wanted them to BE the best.  He also knew that you can’t make someone DO the right thing.  You have to instruct them and back away and let them make a choice to do it… give them time for the Holy Spirit’s voice to sink in.   So he delayed his coming to them to give them some space to repent and “stand the test” (verse 9), all the while being anxious for these he loved so dearly… and not having “peace of mind” until Titus gave him the good news that the discipline had the desired effect.  Now, it was time to restore this person… to restore him back to the fellowship.  

The church at Corinth had a difficult time weighing out what is discipline in love and abuse.  The church today is no different.  I’m not sure we have figured it out yet.  But the scripture is clear; Jesus sets those in the body to minister loving admonitions and disciplines.  We must learn to speak words of truth to one another and then back away and let the Holy Spirit work thru those words.  We all have blind spots that need to be brought to the Light.  It is not comfortable for the giver or the receiver… and as Paul says “grief,” but it brings about the “peaceful fruit of righteousness.”

I have been in several churches during my lifetime and I believe this is the hardest thing to walk in.  I think the modern church has grown so tolerant that sin can abide easily in us.  Sometimes more than a nice sermon is needed.  Words of correction and discipline are needed.  Recently Greg had a sermon about Solomon’s wisdom to rule the Kingdom and how God had granted that to him.  I think that today we need this kind of wisdom to know what to do in many situations.   We live in a much more complex world than Paul’s day, but his words are very poignant.  We need fathers and mothers to arise in the body that will love the next generation into powerful repentance… Ones who walk in the wisdom of God to bring can bring about swift repentance in LOVE.  The next generation need not suffer some of the things we had to go through because no one loved us enough to stop us from playing in the traffic… that is not love, that is neglect. 

In the study to prepare for writing this, I came across this awesome thought by Bob Utley:

God had created all humans with free will, which is both a precious and a dangerous thing. It holds the potential of joy and restoration or embitterment and continuing rebellion.

 

POINT OF ACTION:
Examine your heart to see if you are one of those “moms or dads” to the body.  Let the Holy Spirit begin to teach you how to “give and receive” words of admonition.  Most of us are physical Moms and Dads at home and God has worked many holy designs in us.  Let him mature your heart to LOVE those in the body.


PRAYER:
Lord, you above all, are the master of encouragement, discipline, and love.  Please pour into me these traits of yours.  I know that I am a fallen person, just as my brothers and sisters are.  Fill me with your Holy Spirit and help me to have a heart of wisdom and understanding to know the Truth and to be able to speak it as you do.  Let me not cower back when truth is needed as well as to be ready to forgive any grievance and to not record wrongs against me.  Help me to walk in REAL love.  The kind you have for me.  


WHO AM I?
I’m June Criner and I am really enjoying this brief period of cool weather as well as the rain.  My flowers in the front of the house are sooooo happy! 

The God of All Comfort

PASSAGE FOR THE DAY:
2 Corinthians 1 (click the link)


KEY VERSES:
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.

We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many. (2 Corinthians 1:3-11, NIV)


REFLECTIONS:
It seems I need comfort often, even when things are going fine.  I seek it in many ways, some “healthy” some less so—food, movies, sleep, activity, the approval or affection of others.  I recently gave away one of my favorite comfort sources.  Some of you will totally understand, others will think I am weird, but my little dachshund, Annabelle, I have realized, provided a surprising measure of comfort.  I didn’t really know how much until she was no longer around to happily receive my presence, curl up in my lap, excitedly skitter her little paws up to my car when I arrived home, or sneeze with delight when I scratched her tummy. (Okay, weird maybe, I know, but I’m exposing my heart here to illustrate a point and at the risk of being misunderstood and judged, so give me a break.) 

One of the unexpected results of missing my little comfort source is that I find my heart feeling its need for intimacy with The Comforter.  I find my heart longing in a more intense way for connection with Him.  I guess to that extent, giving Annabelle away was a good thing.  This experience and this chapter of Corinthians has me thinking about how little we really rely on The Comforter for comfort.  How rarely we earnestly seek Him out to meet us where our hearts are needy.  When we are afraid, lonely, tired, sad, anxious…What do you do for comfort?  Honestly.  Think about it for a sec. 

The Word here says that God is “the Father of mercies and God of all comfort.”  All. Comfort. Hmm.  It also says that I will comfort others with the comfort I receive from God. 

Something about the God-comfort that gets passed on to others, maybe in a way my dog-comfort or donut-comfort does not.  

I have experienced this God-comfort.  I have passed it on—seen it work comfort in someone who was in a hard parenting situation—a situation similar to one that I had found myself in not too long ago.  A situation for which, like Paul in verses 8-11, I had no hope other than God himself as my answer.  So I prayed knowing that the “God who raises the dead” was my ONLY hope.  He came through for me as He did for Paul.  I could comfort and encourage my friend with confidence that as we prayed that He would help them as well.  I had seen Him take care of a situation that I had no ability within myself to improve. 

As I continue to contemplate comfort, I am actually wondering if some of my comforts are, in reality, idols.  I know I bring idolatry up a lot, but I think I am prone to thinking Jesus is Lord of my life when really I am lord and my comfort requirements tend to dictate my choices in life rather than the Lord.  I want the capital L Lord to rule my life.  I want the Comfort that is real, lasting, and transferable to my friends, life-giving rather than cheap substitutions that do nothing to connect me more deeply to God or to others.


POINT OF ACTION:
Ask God to show you the things and ways in which you seek comfort that may be taking the place of the Comfort He would otherwise provide.  Ask Him to show you any ways that you may be maintaining lordship over your choices.  Repent. 

Also, prayerfully remember the times and situations where you have experienced the comfort of the Comforter.  Ask the God of All Comfort to help you to comfort others with the comfort you received. 


PRAYER:
Oh Jesus, I need you.  I need you even to want to be comforted by you.  My heart is lonely, anxious and tired so often.  Keep moving my heart to long for your presence, your comfort, your Lordship more than any other thing.  


WHO AM I?
I am Lisa Kirby, lover of animals, people and Jesus… but not necessarily in that order.

Maranatha!

PASSAGE FOR THE DAY:
1 Corinthians 16 (click the link)


KEY VERSES:
If anyone does not love the Lord, he is to be accursed. Maranatha. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Amen. (1 Corinthians 16:22-24, NASB)

 

 

IDEAS:

Paul writes the last verses of 1Corinthians in his own hand. Maybe this part was dicey enough that Paul wanted the church in Corinth to understand he really meant what was in the first 15 chapters. We are called to love like Christ Jesus… or be separated. 

 

Verse 22 holds some unusual text that harkens to Jewish roots and also to an early Christian church word.

 

 

FINDINGS:

The first word “accursed” originates from the Greek word anathema (in Hebrew it is herem). In the New Testament anathema is translated to mean banned or cursed, greatly reviled or loathed, denounced… accursed. In ancient synagogues there were three levels of disciplining a Jew within a congregation.

• First 30 days spent away from the community of the synagogue—a separation to come to reconciliation.
• Then if there is no reconciliation, another undetermined period of time is given to repent.
• Then only if no reconciliation and no repentance among the community of the synagogue, then the Jew was banished from the community of Jews. This was anathema. 

 

The accursed that Paul is speaking of is for those in the church proclaiming belief and proclaiming Christ, but not living nor loving in the way of Christ—casting off their said belief. This statement was for those of the church and not for those outside of the church. 

 

Adam Clarke, a Bible commentator from the early 1800s wrote, “The anathema of the apostle is denounced against him only who gives the anathema to Christ.”

 

Then, Paul immediately declares, “Maranatha.” This is an Aramaic word—the native tongue of Jesus. There is evidence that Maranatha was used in the very beginnings of the church and it is translated, “O {our} Lord come!” 

 

 

QUESTIONS:

Was Paul calling out to Jesus to come in the midst of this situation where one is accursed? Come Lord and make this right. Was it a plea? Was Paul calling out for mercy? Was he calling out to the Lord’s divine judgment? Was Paul making a one word statement that meant, “Hey you people, are you paying attention? Jesus Christ, our Lord has come and He is coming again! Wake UP! What are you thinking?”

 

Maranatha only appears once in our New Testament right here in verse 22. And it is Paul’s call out for us to pay attention. Paul is writing to all the you’s in Corinth and I believe his Love letter is to the current you’s of the world  and I know he’s talking to me too.

 

 

CALL TO ACTION:

A 1600s Scottish theologian, Samuel Rutherford wrote on how to grow in love to Jesus. I tried to get my heart feelings on paper, but every time I read this quote I felt like this is the call to my personal action and I just couldn’t make it any better. Please join me in striving to be “over head and ears in Christ’s sweetness and know the delights of spiritual love.”  

“Strive to make prayer, and reading, and holy conference, your delight; and when delight cometh in, you shall, little by little, find the sweetness of Christ, till at length your soul be over head and ears in Christ’s sweetness. Then shall you be taken up to the top of the mountain with the Lord, to know the delights of spiritual love, and the glory and excellency of a seen, revealed, felt, and embraced Christ; and then you shall not be able to loose yourself off from Christ, and to bind your soul to old lovers; then, and never till then, are all the paces, motions, and wheels of your soul in a right tune and spiritual temper.” S. Rutherford

 

PRAYER:

God, thank you for sending the ones that come before us. Whether they shine big neon lights with arrows pointing to your way or they gently extend grace to us like your precious whispers. Thank you. Forgive me Father when I decide to separate from You and choose to ignore your teaching and the sage wisdom of those that have come before me.

 

 

WHO AM I?

It seems to be that the simple things in life are the best examples of love. Can I borrow verse 23 and simply say, “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you.” <3 gayle norris

 

Our Resurrection Body

PASSAGE FOR THE DAY:
1 Corinthians 15 (click the link)


KEY VERSES:
So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. (1 Corinthians 15:42-44, NIV)


REFLECTIONS:
The chapter we read today is one of the greatest sustained discussions of a topic which Paul ever wrote. The theme is the resurrection—the resurrection of Jesus, and the future resurrection of those who believe in him. The chapter is long and winding and deals with a whole variety of issues regarding the resurrection. If you're looking for an interesting book about heaven, resurrection, and our mission as God's followers, I'd encourage you to read NT Wright's Surprised by Hope. It gives a much fuller treatment of this chapter and other biblical passages that discussed the resurrection.

I struggled mightily to find a single point on which to focus, but finally settled on the thing which I assume all of us are interested in: our resurrection body. In reading this chapter, almost everyone wants to know the answer to the question: What will our resurrection body be like?

We may as well go to the heart of the passage, to the verse that has puzzled people many times in the past, and still does. In verse 44 Paul contrasts the two types of bodies, the present one and the resurrection one. The words he uses are technical and tricky. Many versions translate these words as "natural body" and "spiritual body," but this has led to a lot of misconceptions over the years. Many people have assumed that Paul is making a contrast between a physical body and a spiritual body—that he's saying we currently have a physical body but our resurrection body will be spiritual, in the sense of "non-physical." But that is exactly what he is not saying.

The contrast he's making is between a body animated by one type of life and a body animated by another type. The difference between them is found in what the two bodies "run on," in what empowers them. Our present body is animated by the normal life which all humans share. The word Paul uses for this often means "soul"—he means it in the sense of the ordinary life-force on which we all depend, in this present body, the ordinary energy that keeps us breathing and our blood circulating. But the body we shall be given in the resurrection is to be animated and empowered by God's own Spirit. This is what Paul says in a similar passage, Romans 8:10-11: 

But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you. 

The Spirit of Jesus dwells within us at the moment and God promises to give life to your mortal bodies through this Spirit who lives inside of us. And when the Spirit creates a new body, it won't wear out.

 

Paul does in fact think that the resurrection body will be a different kind of thing to the present one, because in verses 51-52 (and in Philippians3:20-21) he declares that Christians who have not died at the moment when Jesus returns as Lord will need to be changed. The contrast between the present and future bodies in themselves is stated in verses 42-43. It is the contrast between corruption (our present bodies become ill, parts of it wear out, we decay, die, and return to dust) and incorruption (the new body won't do any of those things). It is the contrast between shame (we know we were made for more than this decaying, corrupting life, and we are ashamed of frailty and death) and honor (the new body will be splendid, with nothing to be ashamed of). It is the contrast between weakness and power.

 

With this in mind, we can now stand back and see how Paul's whole argument works.

 

In verses 35-38, Paul introduces the idea of the seed which is sown looking like one thing and which comes up looking quite different. Paul doesn't, of course, mean that when you bury a body in the ground, a new one "grows" like a plant from its seed. The point he's making is simply that we understand the principle of transformation, of a new body in continuity with the old yet somehow different. And he emphasizes particularly that this happens through the action of God: "God gives it a body as he has determined." That's the first thing to grasp: the resurrection is the work of God the Creator, and it will involve transformation.

 

In verses 39-41, Paul establishes a different point: that we are all used to different types of physicality, all the way from the fish in the sea to the stars in the sky. When Paul speaks of some of these physical objects as having a "splendor," he's not necessarily preparing us for the idea that people raised from the dead will shine like electric light bulbs. Instead, when he describes the new body as having "glory," it's in contrast to "dishonor" or "shame" or "humiliation" (verse 43, and Philippians 3:21). His point is simply to note that there are different types of created physicality, each with its own properties.

 

Throughout the entire passage, Paul has been echoing Genesis 1—where God creates the sun, the moon and the stars, and particularly trees and plants that have their seed within them. The underlying theme of the whole chapter is new creation, new Genesis—God will complete the project he began at the beginning, and in the process he will reverse and undo the effects of human rebellion, especially death itself.

 

Next, Paul moves on to the climax of Genesis 1—the creation of human beings in God's own image (Genesis 1:26-28). As with Jesus' resurrection, so with ours—our new resurrected body will not be a strange distortion of our original humanity, but will be the very thing we were made for in the first place.

 

Verses 42-49 bring Paul to the crunch. The ultimate contrast between the present body and the future one is between two basic types of humanness. God already has the new model in store, waiting to put it out on display at the proper time—though, of course, the prototype, the resurrection body of Jesus himself, has already been launched.

 

When Paul speaks of the "earthly" humanity and the "heavenly" humanity, he doesn't mean that we will all "go to heaven" to become the new type. Rather, God will bring this new type of humanity, our new bodies, from heaven to earth, transforming the present bodies of Christians who are still alive, and raising the dead to the same kind of renewed, deathless, glorious body.

 

That is the hope set before us in the resurrection; and it is all based, of course, on the fact that Jesus himself, the Messiah, already possesses the new type of body. He is "the heavenly man"; and, just as we have borne the image of the old, corruptible humanity, so we shall bear the image of Jesus himself (Romans 8:29; Philippians 3:20-21).

 

The overall point of the chapter is that in the resurrection of Jesus himself the power of the creator God was at work to bring about the renewal of the world, and that through the work of the Spirit this same creator God will give new, glorious, deathless bodily life to all his people.

 

 

PRAYER:

Father, thank you for raising Jesus from the dead. We praise you for defeating sin and death and all the forces of darkness in and through the resurrection of your Son. We long for the day when he returns in his resurrection glory and puts all things in order. Strengthen us today to remember that we have been given the promise of resurrection. We, today, are new people in and through Christ. And we know that one day our bodies will be transformed to reflect the glory of your Son. Fill our hearts with hope and strengthen us to walk in victory this day.

 

 

WHO AM I?

I am Tres Sansom and I long for the day when my body will be renewed and restored. But even more, I long for the day when my body will be fully animated and empowered by God's Spirit. I look forward with great expectation to the day when it is easy and natural to walk in righteousness and obedience to God.