In 66 LL, Crabb says: "One thing that I got out of Your first thirty-nine letters was the idea of relational sin. Every time I don't love You or anyone else perfectly, I'm relationally sinning. I don't need to have an affair or kill someone or lose my temper to violate real love." He goes on to say that he breaks Your moral law every day and so do I! But instead of receiving judgment, God will never be angry at us again---there is forgiveness of our every sin because of what we read in His 66 Love Letters.
II Cor 4:16 -18 "So we're not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There's far more here than meets the eye."
More than meets the eye...when we go through suffering...
II Cor 1:6 -7 "When we suffer for Jesus, it works to our benefit. If we are treated well, given a helping hand and encouraging word, then that spurs us on, face forward, unflinching. Your hard times are also our hard times. When we see that you're just as willing to endure the hard times as to enjoy the good times, we know you're going to make it, no doubt about it." There have been times I didn't think I would make it! In those times, "we all are forced to trust God totally—not a bad idea since he's the God who raises the dead!" (1:9-10). ... You and your prayers are part of the rescue operation—I don't want you in the dark about that either. I can see your faces even now, lifted in praise for God's deliverance of us, a rescue in which your prayers played such a crucial part.
More than meets the eye...God is carving into our human lives...
II Cor 2:14 -16 "In the Messiah, in Christ, God leads us from place to place in one perpetual victory parade. Through us, he brings knowledge of Christ. Everywhere we go, people breathe in the exquisite fragrance. Because of Christ, we give off a sweet scent rising to God—an aroma redolent with life." God opens doors and manifests life through clay pots. 2 Corinthians 3:3 Your very lives are a letter that anyone can read by just looking at you. Christ himself wrote it—not with ink, but with God's living Spirit; not chiseled into stone, but carved into human lives—and we publish it.
More than meets the eye...Incomparable Power is within you...
II Cor 4:7 -12 "We carry this precious Message around in the unadorned clay pots of our ordinary lives. That's to prevent anyone from confusing God's incomparable power with us. ... We've been surrounded and battered by troubles, but we're not demoralized; we're not sure what to do, but we know that God knows what to do; we've been spiritually terrorized, but God hasn't left our side; we've been thrown down, but we haven't broken. ... While we're going through the worst, you're getting in on the best!"
Promises to Claim, Joys to Celebrate from Today’s Readings: A perpetual victory parade, we’re part of the rescue operation, we’re a letter penned by Christ, God has never left our side; even though on the outside things are falling apart, God is making new life, not a day goes by without His unfolding Grace!
ReplyDeleteSome of my favorite verses:
2 Cor. 2:14 ~ In the Messiah, in Christ, God leads us from place to place in one perpetual victory parade. Through us, he brings knowledge of Christ.
2 Cor. 1:8-9 ~ We felt like we'd been sent to death row, that it was all over for us. As it turned out, it was the best thing that could have happened. Instead of trusting in our own strength or wits to get out of it, we were forced to trust God totally—not a bad idea since he's the God who raises the dead! And he did it, rescued us from certain doom. And he'll do it again, rescuing us as many times as we need rescuing. You and your prayers are part of the rescue operation.
2 Cor. 3:2 ~ Your very lives are a letter that anyone can read by just looking at you. Christ himself wrote it—not with ink, but with God's living Spirit;
2 Cor. 4:7 ~ We carry this precious Message around in the unadorned clay pots of our ordinary lives. That's to prevent anyone from confusing God's incomparable power with us. As it is, there's not much chance of that. You know for yourselves that we're not much to look at. We've been surrounded and battered by troubles, but we're not demoralized; we're not sure what to do, but we know that God knows what to do; we've been spiritually terrorized, but God hasn't left our side; we've been thrown down, but we haven't broken.
2 Cor. 4:16-17 ~ So we're not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace.
I love the passage where the promise of God is stamped with the Yes of Jesus!
ReplyDeleteII Corinthians 1:20 -22"Whatever God has promised gets stamped with the Yes of Jesus. In him, this is what we preach and pray, the great Amen, God's Yes and our Yes together, gloriously evident. God affirms us, making us a sure thing in Christ, putting his Yes within us. By his Spirit he has stamped us with his eternal pledge—a sure beginning of what he is destined to complete."
3:3 "Your very lives are a letter that anyone can read by just looking at you. Christ himself wrote it—not with ink, but with God's living Spirit; not chiseled into stone, but carved into human lives—and we publish it."
4:16 -18 "So we're not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us."