2 Corinthians 4: Don't Look At My Sad Story

Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 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.

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.

It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.” Since we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to himself. All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. - 2 Corinthians 4

We have to make sure that we are not a distraction. Like the picture frame that draws more comment than the picture. This is true in our succeeding, but even more subtly in our failing. Our being hard pressed, perplexed, persecuted, struck down can drawn unwanted attention to our self. "Look at my struggle, look at my hard life, look at my addictions and bad habits" or their alternate "Look at my overcoming my bad situation, look at my recovery, loot my perseverance." all contain the key poison: the word "my" That is why Paul has to quickly turn the focus off of himself. "For what we preach is not ourselves," he says. "...but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake" 

Then he goes one step further: "we believe that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will ... present us with you to himself."" He says that there is nothing really special about him: both he and the Corinthians have the same command and the same expectation. I don't want my sad story to be for Jesus, I just want to be for Jesus.

1 Peter 5:1-11: Second Place

To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder and a witness of Christ’s sufferings who also will share in the glory to be revealed: Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, watching over them—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not pursuing dishonest gain, but eager to serve; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.

In the same way, you who are younger, submit yourselves to your elders. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.”

Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.

And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.  - 1 Peter 5:1-11

In every situation, we are second place. Second to God and second to the people we serve. It always go wrong when we want our needs and desires to be first priority in a church. Shepherds never are praised for prioritizing themselves over the health and well being of the sheep.

Peter was told to feed Jesus' sheep and he feels compelled to tell other church leaders to have the right attitude about being a leader in a church. 

First, don't do it out of a sense of obligation, because you will be letting everyone down or because someone needs to do it or because everyone is looking to you. Do it because you really want to.

Second, don't do it because you are going to get something out of it, but because you want to give yourself away.

Third, don't do it because you want to control how things ought to be done, but because you want to do the same thing: not because they must, but because they want to, not because of what you can get out of it, but because you want to give, not because you can be in control but because you want to show that Jesus is really the one in control.

That's why he reminded them to humble themselves and that would give an opportunity to be raised up, not by standing on the shoulders and backs of other people but because God lifts them up.

Jeremiah 23: Living Like God Needn't Be Taken Seriously

“Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of my pasture!” declares the Lord. Therefore this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says to the shepherds who tend my people: “Because you have scattered my flock and driven them away and have not bestowed care on them, I will bestow punishment on you for the evil you have done,” declares the Lord. “I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them and will bring them back to their pasture, where they will be fruitful and increase in number. I will place shepherds over them who will tend them, and they will no longer be afraid or terrified, nor will any be missing,” declares the Lord.

“The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. This is the name by which he will be called: The Lord Our Righteous Savior.

“So then, the days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when people will no longer say, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the Israelites up out of Egypt,’ but they will say, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the descendants of Israel up out of the land of the north and out of all the countries where he had banished them.’ Then they will live in their own land.”

Concerning the prophets: My heart is broken within me; all my bones tremble. I am like a drunken man, like a strong man overcome by wine, because of the Lord and his holy words. The land is full of adulterers; because of the curse the land lies parched and the pastures in the wilderness are withered. The prophets follow an evil course and use their power unjustly. “Both prophet and priest are godless; even in my temple I find their wickedness,” declares the Lord. “Therefore their path will become slippery; they will be banished to darkness and there they will fall. I will bring disaster on them in the year they are punished,” declares the Lord. “Among the prophets of Samaria I saw this repulsive thing: They prophesied by Baal and led my people Israel astray. And among the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen something horrible: They commit adultery and live a lie. They strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that not one of them turns from their wickedness. They are all like Sodom to me; the people of Jerusalem are like Gomorrah.”

Therefore this is what the Lord Almighty says concerning the prophets: “I will make them eat bitter food and drink poisoned water, because from the prophets of Jerusalem ungodliness has spread throughout the land.”

This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Do not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you; they fill you with false hopes. They speak visions from their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord. They keep saying to those who despise me, ‘The Lord says: You will have peace.’ And to all who follow the stubbornness of their hearts they say, ‘No harm will come to you.’ But which of them has stood in the council of the Lord to see or to hear his word? Who has listened and heard his word? See, the storm of the Lord will burst out in wrath, a whirlwind swirling down on the heads of the wicked. The anger of the Lord will not turn back until he fully accomplishes the purposes of his heart. In days to come you will understand it clearly. I did not send these prophets, yet they have run with their message; I did not speak to them, yet they have prophesied. But if they had stood in my council, they would have proclaimed my words to my people and would have turned them from their evil ways and from their evil deeds.

“Am I only a God nearby,” declares the Lord, “and not a God far away? Who can hide in secret places so that I cannot see them?” declares the Lord. “Do not I fill heaven and earth?” declares the Lord.

“I have heard what the prophets say who prophesy lies in my name. They say, ‘I had a dream! I had a dream!’ How long will this continue in the hearts of these lying prophets, who prophesy the delusions of their own minds? They think the dreams they tell one another will make my people forget my name, just as their ancestors forgot my name through Baal worship. Let the prophet who has a dream recount the dream, but let the one who has my word speak it faithfully. For what has straw to do with grain?” declares the Lord. “Is not my word like fire,” declares the Lord, “and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?

“Therefore,” declares the Lord, “I am against the prophets who steal from one another words supposedly from me. Yes,” declares the Lord, “I am against the prophets who wag their own tongues and yet declare, ‘The Lord declares.’ Indeed, I am against those who prophesy false dreams,” declares the Lord. “They tell them and lead my people astray with their reckless lies, yet I did not send or appoint them. They do not benefit these people in the least,” declares the Lord.

“When these people, or a prophet or a priest, ask you, ‘What is the message from the Lord?’ say to them, ‘What message? I will forsake you, declares the Lord.’ If a prophet or a priest or anyone else claims, ‘This is a message from the Lord,’ I will punish them and their household. This is what each of you keeps saying to your friends and other Israelites: ‘What is the Lord’s answer?’ or ‘What has the Lord spoken?’ But you must not mention ‘a message from the Lord’ again, because each one’s word becomes their own message. So you distort the words of the living God, the Lord Almighty, our God. This is what you keep saying to a prophet: ‘What is the Lord’s answer to you?’ or ‘What has the Lord spoken?’ Although you claim, ‘This is a message from the Lord,’ this is what the Lord says: You used the words, ‘This is a message from the Lord,’ even though I told you that you must not claim, ‘This is a message from the Lord.’ Therefore, I will surely forget you and cast you out of my presence along with the city I gave to you and your ancestors. I will bring on you everlasting disgrace—everlasting shame that will not be forgotten.” - Jeremiah 23

What if you lived like God did not really exist? Or perhaps that details didn't matter to him? Or maybe that he was too busy to be mindful of unimportant daily occurrences? Sometimes it is hard to verify that God is actually listening and paying attention, because he moves and reacts in ways unlike the ways that we would move and react. So it is possible to live our lives as if God doesn't matter for quite a while before God stops us and reminds us that he has other plans.

That's what Jeremiah hears from God: that people are treating him he's a localized God who doesn't see the bigger picture or the details. "Am I only a God nearby?" he asks "and not a God far away?" God sees his people being scattered through the inattention of their leaders ("you have scattered my flock and driven them away") and through the exile. If God is only a local God, then all of those scattered are really out his range because other nations' Gods control those other lands. So leaders had failed their jobs.

So had the prophets: God points out that they treat his wods like they weren't true and weren't really from God. They even steal words that were supposedly from God from each other, passing around the lies in the company of prophets, each time saying that they are God's words. This has the potential of drowning out the voice of God with all of the mindless chatter. God reminds them that his words are different: "For what has straw to do with grain?” declares the Lord. “Is not my word like fire,” declares the Lord, “and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces? God's words are not to be trifled with because they are powerful and they do not miss their mark.

This gives me two thoughts: 1) it is too easy to forget that God is right here and think that he might not be interested in how I handle myself and my responsibilities. But that's not true. He gave me my responsibilities. 2) God's words should not be minimized. It is easy to twist words and ideas around as if they were rubber children's toys and that their configuration is a mental exiercise. But God's words are "fire" and "like a hammer" We must recognize in them the full force of the speaker: God and take them as more important than other words and ideas-giving them their rightful place of preeminence in our thoughts.

Leviticus 26:1-13: I Am The Good Life

“‘Do not make idols or set up an image or a sacred stone for yourselves, and do not place a carved stone in your land to bow down before it. I am the Lord your God.

“‘Observe my Sabbaths and have reverence for my sanctuary. I am the Lord.

“‘If you follow my decrees and are careful to obey my commands, I will send you rain in its season, and the ground will yield its crops and the trees their fruit. Your threshing will continue until grape harvest and the grape harvest will continue until planting, and you will eat all the food you want and live in safety in your land.

“‘I will grant peace in the land, and you will lie down and no one will make you afraid. I will remove wild beasts from the land, and the sword will not pass through your country. You will pursue your enemies, and they will fall by the sword before you. Five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand, and your enemies will fall by the sword before you.

“‘I will look on you with favor and make you fruitful and increase your numbers, and I will keep my covenant with you. You will still be eating last year’s harvest when you will have to move it out to make room for the new. I will put my dwelling place among you, and I will not abhor you. I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt so that you would no longer be slaves to the Egyptians; I broke the bars of your yoke and enabled you to walk with heads held high. - Leviticus 26:1-13

The sense I get from this passage is God saying to his people: everything that you are looking for in the "good life" is found with me. The passage starts with not setting up idols, images or sacred stones: gods that you establish yourself. The passage then continues by reminding his people to give attention to the places and times that were uniquely God's, sabbaths being a weekly time away from the work week and the sanctuary as a place away from the work places. The author is saying: don't let things worm their way into the spaces that were designed only for the worship of God. This is the first three commandments restated.

There is a real temptation when there is a lull in your life or life is a bit boring to look for something more exciting than God--something to spice it up, whether it is relationships, accumulation or accomplishment. But the wisdom of this passage is really saying: live your ordinary life and stick close to me and that will be enough to have the good life--not the spicy life that you concoct in your imagination as desirable. I'll take care of the big stuff, God says, like the harvests, the wild animals, the  armed enemies. You stick close to me.

As Solomon wrote:

I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God. - Ecclesiastes 3:12:13

 

Romans 8:1-11: The Mind Governed By the Spirit is Life and Peace

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.

You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. 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. - Romans 8:1-11

There are three problems: we are condemned because we fail to meet the righteous requirements of the law, we are in debt because we cannot pay for the sin that resulted from that and we are decaying and dying because of the death that result from that sin.

But Jesus could meet the requirements of the law. Jesus said, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the law and prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them." (Matt. 5;17) 

But Jesus could pay the debt of sin for us as the sin offering. If we are "in Christ" then his payment for sin is also our payment for sin.  

But Jesus could give life and escape death. If we are "in Christ" then we share his Spirit dwells in us and the Spirit will outlast the decay and death of our body.  "...if the Spirit ... is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies."  

Paul says, "The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace." I feel that I am of two minds and each moment I get to choose under whose governing I am living. Jesus made a new mind possible and a new life possible. Why do I live in fear that I am still condemned and in chaos.

Acts 13:44-52: Speaking to A Different Audience

On the next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy. They began to contradict what Paul was saying and heaped abuse on him.

Then Paul and Barnabas answered them boldly: “We had to speak the word of God to you first. Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles. For this is what the Lord has commanded us: “‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’”

When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honored the word of the Lord; and all who were appointed for eternal life believed. The word of the Lord spread through the whole region. But the Jewish leaders incited the God-fearing women of high standing and the leading men of the city. They stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them from their region. So they shook the dust off their feet as a warning to them and went to Iconium. And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. - Acts 13:44-52

God gives you the audience to whom you should tell his story. Sometimes we miss the right audience because we're so busy looking over their shoulder for the audience that we think we should be sharing God's love to. So me miss it.

Then there's the other problem: clinging to an audience and not recognize God's timing to try something different. We get stuck, sometimes out of an unwillingness to admin failure or a misplaced sense of perseverance-as-virtue or taking loyalty to your original audience too far. It is not always clear to know when to move on.

In Paul and Barnabas' case, they felt that they were obliged to start with their first audience: the Jews. They were both Jewish. Jesus was Jewish. But unlike those who had fled Jersualem with the persecution of Stephen, they were not interested or-even more bluntly-they were opposed to this message.

Now Paul was a good debater and he could have said that he wanted to stick it out and try to convince his fellow countrymen about the good news of Jesus the Messiah. But he and Barnabas took it as a sign to move on to the second audience: the Gentiles. They were aware of God's long-term care for the Gentiles, but had not necessarily considered their part in it.

Their first audience still didn't like them. But the second audience felt "glad" and gave God's word through them respect for God and, in some cases, faith in God. And the second audience grew. 

Sometimes God has give us something to say, about him and about life. We start with the audience we are given, but we also need to be alert for God giving us a chance to speak on his behalf to some we hadn't even considered. Maybe we'd even disqualified ourselves, or not paid enough attention to them, but God had.

2 Corinthians 5:1-10: Groans Inward and Outward

For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 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.

Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. For we live by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad. - 2 Corinthians 5:1-10

When I've worked a little too hard in the yard, take a pause and then try to get going again, there are groans both silent (from my muscles) or out loud. The older I get, the more frequent the occasions to groan. When we groan, we could despair over our greater inability to get things done, or the greater pain which those things seem now to require. But Paul gives us another approach, which is see the groaning as a signpost of what is coming but we do not yet have. 

How do we know? Paul said that God has "fashioned us for this very purpose". What purpose? To recognize this burden and this groaning as signs we desire to live on but that our bodies are  not up to it. How strange it is that God should give us a body that will ultimately frustrate us by not being to deliver that which it and us long for. God knows that this is frustrating, which is why the Spirit came, as a deposit, a guarantee that what is coming-what God has promised is coming-is real because the Spirit is proof that something beyond death, decay, entropy-the natural order of things-will be overcome by God.

Here's the catch-we will spend that eternal life with God. Whether that is a good thing or a bad thing depends on our relationship with him. If Jesus is not palatable, then spending an eternity with him is not a reward but the most devilish of punishments. If Jesus is our heart's desire, when spending an eternity with him is the answer to the groaning and the burden.