A Whole New Creation
Note from Jesus Dear Beloved, What controls you? I don’t want you mastered by any substance, destructive habit, or sin — whether public or secret. You are meant to be free. The Father designed you and made you to live in this freedom. When you became My disciple and were re-made, you were given the Holy Spirit to liberate you to become all that you are meant to be (Romans 8:13-14; 2 Corinthians 3:17-18; Galatians 5:1; Galatians 5:13). I want love to be the guiding and controlling force in your life. I do not want fear or compulsion, and certainly not bondage to addictions, to control and destroy your life. I want to liberate you from those traps that lead to both spiritual and physical bondage. Your love for Us — Father, Son, and Spirit — along with your love for your neighbors can help you freely decide how to live a life that is both blessed and a blessing to others. This lifestyle has always been Our design for our people (Genesis 12:1-3). Living like this is what both the Old Testament and the New Testament teach (Matthew 22:36-40). I died for the forgiveness of your sins and was raised to bring you back into a right relationship with your Father (Romans 4:25). You shared in My death, burial, and resurrection as you called on My name in baptism because of your faith in Me (Romans 6:3-11; Acts 22:14-16; Romans 10:9-13). As Paul said, you were made into “a new creation”. To emphasize the point, he added: “The old life is gone — and see — a new life has begun!” You are now alive in Me to live for Me through My power at work in you. That means you should no longer view people from a merely human point of view. This gift of a new life comes from the Father. He didn’t sit idly hoping for you to return, but he “pursued” and “brought” you into a “restored… relationship” with Us. But My gift of new life is not just for you. I want you to share this new life with others. I want you to help people around you to realize that their broken relationship with Us can be healed. This healing comes through My sacrifice on the cross and my triumph over death when I rose from the dead and left behind an empty tomb. I want you “to proclaim the message that heals… broken relationships with God and each other.” As a new creation, you have been re-created in love and re-made to “embody the very righteousness of God.” You are my agent of grace and my missionary of love in your world. I gave you your circle of influence — the people you know and the relationships you share — to be a place of your redemptive work in the broken world that needs My healing. When you see people, I want you to see them through the eyes of the Father’s saving love. No longer view people from a merely human point of view. I want you to think about how you can share My grace with them and how you can invite them to find new life in Me. Verses to Live What controls your life? With the Father’s help, the controlling force and the inexhaustible and enabling power of the Father’s love can be yours through the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5). Use that love to be My agent of reconciliation! You see, the controlling force in our lives is the love of the Anointed One. And our confession is this: One died for all; therefore, all have died. He died for us so that we will all live, not for ourselves, but for Him Who died and rose from the dead. Because of all that God has done, we now have a new perspective. We used to show regard for people based on worldly standards and interests. No longer. We used to think of the Anointed the same way. No longer. Therefore, if anyone is united with the Anointed One, that person is a new creation. The old life is gone — and see — a new life has begun! All of this is a gift from our Creator God, Who has pursued us and brought us into a restored and healthy relationship with Him through the Anointed. And He has given us the same mission, the ministry of reconciliation, to bring others back to Him. It is central to our good news that God was in the Anointed making things right between Himself and the world. This means He does not hold their sins against them. But it also means He charges us to proclaim the message that heals and restores our broken relationships with God and each other. So we are now representatives of the Anointed One, the Liberating King; God has given us a charge to carry through our lives — urging all people on behalf of the Anointed to become reconciled to the Creator God. He orchestrated this: the Anointed One, Who had never experienced sin, became sin for us so that in Him we might embody the very righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:14-21) Response in Prayer O Father, thank You for re-creating me and working through me. I invite the Holy Spirit to complete His work of transforming me to be like Jesus. I open my heart to receive the love You pour into it through the Spirit. I release all of myself to the lordship of Jesus without reservation to be used to be Your ambassador and agent of grace and reconciliation. Use me to share Your grace and mercy. I pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen. ‘A Year with Jesus’ is written by Phil Ware. © 1998-2024, Heartlight, Inc. ‘A Year with Jesus‘ is part of the Heartlight Network.All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Voice™. © 2008 by Ecclesia Bible Society. Used by permission. All rights
Decaying into Glory
Note from Jesus Dear Disciple, Paul’s words in your verses today are as beautiful as they are powerful. They can help you deal with an inescapable reality of your existence: your body is mortal. Your body is in the process of decay. While you can strengthen it, fortify it, exercise it, and tighten parts of it, you cannot save it. Ultimately you will fail at your most basic human task — keeping your body alive. However, that task is not your most important purpose and not your ultimate problem. Since the rebellion in the garden (Genesis 3:1-24), death has stalked every single human who has walked the earth (Romans 5:12-14) — even Me when I walked among you as one of you (John 19:29-34). You must have a purpose more important than keeping your body alive or your purpose in life will end in failure. Paul’s resolve to live for My higher purpose for him makes these verses very important for you to understand and to make the foundation for your life. He speaks the truth very clearly when he describes your human purpose: Ultimately it does not matter whether we are here or gone [to be with Christ Jesus]; our purpose stays fixed, and that is to please Him [Jesus]. You have no reason for despair about your mortal body or your eternal future. Death cannot ultimately claim anyone who has entrusted her or his future into My hands. Even though moaning, groaning, and aching are natural for your decaying mortal body, you do not need to moan, groan, or ache because of the fear of death. In fact, as Paul said for himself, those who have entrusted their lives to Me may moan, groan, and ache with a yearning to set aside the mortal body and be clothed with the heavenly one: Currently, in this tent of a house, we continue to groan and ache with a deep desire to be sheltered in our permanent home because then we will be truly clothed and comfortable, protected by a covering for our current nakedness. Paul taught the Corinthians in another letter that they would receive their glorious resurrection bodies when I returned in glory (1 Corinthians 15:35-58). He told them that their new immortal bodies would be glorious like My resurrected body. He told them that their physical bodies were like seeds, and their immortal bodies would be like the flowers on the full grown plant that emerged from the seed. Once again, Paul was thinking of the following contrasting terms — mortal vs. immortal, seen vs. unseen, weakness vs. strength, naked vs. clothed, fleeting and fading away vs. eternal, earthly vs. heavenly, and a temporary tent vs. a permanent dwelling. Just as you have shared in a mortal body like the first human, you will certainly share in the heavenly body like Mine (1 Corinthians 15:49). In the verses today, Paul elaborates and helps the believers in Corinth understand a new truth: when they die, as My disciples they come to be with Me: [I]n the end we prefer to be gone from this body so that we can be at home with the Lord. Paul will elaborate a little more on this subject when he writes the Philippians from prison and is facing his own death (Philippians 1:19-23). For the Corinthians, this new information was enough to remind them of their purpose — to live to honor Me — and their future — to be clothed in their heavenly dwelling and be with Me and share in eternal glory. This conviction allowed them to live for Me by faith with “daring passion.” Like the Corinthian believers, you have to walk this path by faith without fully seeing the fulfillment of your hopes during your mortal existence. However, every time you sense a stirring of the Holy Spirit enlightening you as you read the inspired Scriptures, every time you rely on the Spirit’s intercession as you pray, every time you sense the comforting and reassuring presence of the Spirit in times of sorrow, and every time you find yourself strengthened by the Spirit in the face of temptation or trial, you can be assured of this: Just as surely as the Spirit is within you and works for you, you can also be sure that the Spirit is your guarantee that all of Paul’s promises about your glorious future with Me are true! (Ephesians 1:13-14) Verses to Live Please read these verses several times and let the promises found here settle into your soul and permeate your being. Use them to speak to your heart in times of grief and share them with those who need a comforting reminder about their future with Me, a future that transcends physical decay and death. Our future together will be glorious! Let Paul’s words reassure you of this truth! So we have no reason to despair. Despite the fact that our outer humanity is falling apart and decaying, our inner humanity is breathing in new life every day. You see, the short-lived pains of this life are creating for us an eternal glory that does not compare to anything we know here. So we do not set our sights on the things we can see with our eyes. All of that is fleeting; it will eventually fade away. Instead, we focus on the things we cannot see, which live on and on. We know that if our earthly house — a mere tent that can easily be taken down — is destroyed, we will then live in an eternal home in the heavens, a building crafted by divine — not human — hands. Currently, in this tent of a house, we continue to groan and ache with a deep desire to be sheltered in our permanent home because then we will be truly clothed and comfortable, protected by a covering for our current nakedness. The fact is that in this tent we anxiously moan, fearing the naked truth of our
Treasure in Fragile Clay Pots
Note from Jesus Dear Precious Follower, In Paul’s day, the Greek language had two words for two different types of pots. One was called an amphiphora. An amphiphora was a beautifully decorated pot that was sometimes fired to have a beautiful ceramic glaze. These kinds of pots were works of art and used decoratively and as part of a very special meal. The other word for a pot was skeuos. A skeuos was an ordinary clay pot used for just about anything. It was unimportant and insignificant. This kind of pot was used for routine things, could be easily discarded, and was without much consequence even if broken. When Paul described himself and his fellow gospel messengers, he didn’t use the word amphiphora. Instead, he emphasized the fragile and inconsequential nature of a skeuos pot to describe himself. He described himself as a simple vessel made of earth and clay for ordinary and everyday use. Paul emphasized that he and each person who ministered for Me was a simple, fragile clay pot whose purpose was to carry something significant. My messenger, My clay pot, is not necessarily fancy, flashy, or consequential in his or her personal importance or appearance. The true significance of My messenger is determined by the “treasure” he or she carries as My clay pot. Paul’s ministry was not about himself, but about declaring the good news of the Almighty Father. This good news was about My coming to earth, My going to the cross to pay the debt for everyone’s guilt of sin, My being buried in a tomb sharing your human mortality, and My triumph over death through My resurrection. The Father used Me to begin His new work of re-creation just as surely as We — Father, Son, and Spirit — created everything when We spoke, “‘Let there be light.’ And light flashed into being” (Genesis 1:3). I entrusted the message of good news about Me and God’s power of re-creation to My disciples who were ordinary people made extraordinary because of the good news they shared and because of the Holy Spirit Who empowered them. They were clay pots carrying glorious treasure! These ordinary people faced extraordinary challenges. They endured repeated abuses. They were often threatened and sometimes tortured. Some were martyred for sharing this good news about Me. However, nothing could stop them or the message that they shared about Me. The Holy Spirit within them empowered them to speak My good news. Their ordinariness as fishermen, tax collectors, those formerly possessed by demons, fathers, mothers, men and women, young and old made their courage and their impact all the more extraordinary. These ordinary people, these fragile clay pots, brought the treasure to the lost world. They brought the treasure of true life to those who feared death. They carried the treasure of light to those trapped in Satan’s darkness. They delivered the treasure of hope to those lost in monotonous mortality. They brought the treasure of re-creation to those too old or too set in their ways to expect new things. Paul insisted in the verses for today, and again and again in other places in 2 Corinthians, that the Father’s strength and wisdom are made perfect through human weakness. The Father’s “transcendent character” was at work within these normal people. This power at work within them was not human power, human wisdom, or human charisma. It was Holy Spirit power. It was the Father’s power released through the Holy Spirit’s presence within My disciples. This power was available to all people who follow Me. It was the power that could transform every human life it touched. That same power is available to you, today! Verses to Live Don’t depend on the charm, charisma, and persuasiveness of public Christian personalities. The world needs to discover real treasure, not focus on the person who is the vessel to bring My treasure to the lost world. This lost world needs to see the Father’s grace delivered into the world through ordinary people made extraordinary by the Spirit’s work through them. This transcendent power is also at work in you as another ordinary and fragile clay pot made extraordinary by the treasure that you carry. Listen carefully as Paul teaches about this treasure that is now alive in you! We do not preach about ourselves. The subject of all our sermons is Jesus, the Anointed One. He is Lord and Master of all. For Jesus’ sake we are here to serve you. The God Who spoke light into existence, saying, “Let light shine from the darkness,” is the very One Who sets our hearts ablaze to shed light on the knowledge of God’s glory revealed in the face of Jesus, the Anointed One. But this beautiful treasure is contained in us — cracked pots made of earth and clay — so that the transcendent character of this power will be clearly seen as coming from God and not from us. We are cracked and chipped from our afflictions on all sides, but we are not crushed by them. We are bewildered at times, but we do not give in to despair. We are persecuted, but we have not been abandoned. We have been knocked down, but we are not destroyed. We always carry around in our bodies the reality of the brutal death and suffering of Jesus. As a result, His resurrection life rises and reveals its wondrous power in our bodies as well. For while we live, we are constantly handed over to death on account of Jesus so that His life may be revealed even in our mortal bodies of flesh. So death is constantly at work in us, but life is working in you. (2 Corinthians 4:5-12) Response in Prayer O Almighty Father, there are times when the devil abuses and batters my sense of significance. Sometimes, dear Father, I feel too inconsequential to make a difference in Your work. As I read Paul’s words, I was reminded that Jesus
Transformed!
Note from Jesus Dear Disciple, How does one of My ministers prove his or her legitimacy, worth, and right to serve and lead? Paul will return to this question over and over again in 2 Corinthians. His answer in today’s verses is important because it is built upon the coming of the Holy Spirit to each Christian as a sign of God’s glorious and transforming presence inside each believer. The Holy Spirit is at work transforming those who are My disciples into something the law of the old covenant could never do. Later, in his letter to the Roman Christians, Paul will state this point with these words: Therefore, now no condemnation awaits those who are living in Jesus the Anointed, the Liberating King, because when you live in the Anointed One, Jesus, a new law takes effect. The law of the Spirit of life breathes into you and liberates you from the law of sin and death. God did something the law could never do. You see, human flesh took its toll on God’s law. In and of itself, the law is not weak; but the flesh weakens it. So to condemn the sin that was ruling in the flesh, God sent His own Son, bearing the likeness of sinful flesh, as a sin offering. Now we are able to live up to the justice demanded by the law. But that ability has not come from living by our fallen human nature; it has come because we walk according to the movement of the Spirit in our lives. (Romans 8:1-4) In Paul’s day, it was common for people to carry letters of recommendation to prove their trustworthiness and legitimacy. Also, the reputation of the sponsor was extremely important. This practice was in place in early churches so that when a guest arrived, My assembled disciples would know the guest was trustworthy (Romans 16:1-2; 1 Corinthians 16:10-11; 3 John 1:5-8). Paul was dealing with criticism from some opponents in the Corinthian house churches. They were saying that he was not much of a minister, especially when compared to the “super apostles” who were making strong demands for support by the Corinthian churches (2 Corinthians 2:17; 2 Corinthians 12:11-13). These critics were wanting Paul to show letters of recommendation proving the validity of his ministry even though he was the one who first planted these house churches in Corinth. Paul’s answer was clear: You are our letter, every word burned onto our hearts to be read by everyone. You are the living letter of the Anointed One, the Liberating King, nurtured by us and inscribed, not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God — a letter too passionate to be chiseled onto stone tablets, but emblazoned upon the human heart. …any competence or value we have comes from God. Now God has equipped us to be capable servants of the new covenant, not by authority of the written law which only brings death, but by the Spirit Who brings life. He didn’t need a literal letter of recommendation; the Corinthians were his letter written by the Holy Spirit! Paul then spoke emphatically to the difference between the old covenant and the new covenant based on the work of the Holy Spirit. The old covenant was chiseled into stone tablets at Mount Sinai with Moses (Deuteronomy 5:1-24). The new covenant was written on human hearts by the Spirit and brought to the Corinthians through Paul’s ministry. This new covenant was foretold in the promises of the great prophets Ezekiel and Jeremiah. They promised a new covenant with the coming of the Holy Spirit — a time when God’s will would be written on human hearts and not stone tablets (Ezekiel 11:19-20; Ezekiel 36:26-27; Jeremiah 31:31-34). Paul’s competence came from his being equipped by God to be a capable servant of the new covenant. That competence was validated by the coming of the Holy Spirit Who brought life to the Corinthians. While the old covenant given to Moses on Mount Sinai came with great glory, this glory was outshone by the far greater glory of the new covenant. Moses’ face reflected the glory of the Father after being in the Father’s presence. But that glory dimmed as Moses was away from the Father’s glorious presence. The far greater glory of the second covenant never grows dim. Paul said: In fact, what seemed to have great glory will appear entirely inglorious in the light of the greater glory of the new covenant. If something that fades away possesses glory, how much more intense is the glory of what remains? Because God sent the transformational power of the Holy Spirit to Paul to empower his ministry, he had great confidence to speak and act as a minister of God’s new covenant. Unlike Moses, who hid his face as God’s glory began to disappear from him, Paul shared a message and ministered through the power of the Holy Spirit Whose glory doesn’t diminish or depart. Instead, the Spirit’s power transforms you to increasing glory to become more and more like Me (2 Corinthians 3:18)! Verses to Live As you read these verses, please take the time to read the bold highlighted sentence at the end of today’s verses especially carefully. The new covenant, the covenant of the Holy Spirit, brings life and transformation. As you seek Me, the Spirit transforms you — you “are being … metamorphosed” is what Paul literally says! Are we back to page one? Do we need to gather some recommendations to prove our validity to you? Or do we need to take your letter of commendation to others to gain credibility? You are our letter, every word burned onto our hearts to be read by everyone. You are the living letter of the Anointed One, the Liberating King, nurtured by us and inscribed, not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God — a letter too passionate to be chiseled onto stone tablets, but emblazoned
Aroma
Note from Jesus Dear Disciple, As Paul gets ready to talk about the new covenant of the Spirit in 2 Corinthians chapter 3, he pauses long enough to make an important point about his authority as My messenger. He uses the image of a conquering warrior or king returning with the spoils of war. This image includes the prisoners who follow along in the victory procession. Those who are the victors enjoy the sweet aromas of incense burned in celebration as well as the sweet smell of perfumes worn by the women welcoming their warriors home. Behind the victors came the prisoners of the defeated enemy. They were dying, on their way to death, or on their way to being imprisoned or becoming slaves. For these vanquished warriors, an awful stench permeated everything. The horses ahead of them were defecating and urinating on the road they had to travel. Their body odor from hand-to-hand combat was awful and mingled with the dreadful smell of rotting and dying flesh from their war injuries. Mingled with all of this stench was the smell of fear which permeated their sweat as they marched in shame toward their death, imprisonment, or enslavement. Paul uses these powerful images to talk about his authority to minister for Me. He says that I have conquered him. He has yielded his heart without reservation to serve Me and follow Me. I am the triumphant King of Kings. As a vanquished warrior, he is happy to be part of My victory procession and celebration of life. As one vanquished, he had gladly given up his old life to live a new one in subjugation to Me. For people who do not know Me as their Lord and Savior, Paul’s voluntary service to Me seems crazy and wrong-headed and a huge waste of his life. These skeptics cannot see how surrendering to Me as Lord brings them any gain. They look on those who have yielded to Me with disdain or pity. They do not recognize the truth of what I taught My disciples in My earthly ministry: Jesus warned his disciples not to tell anyone who he was. “The Son of Man must suffer many terrible things,” he said. “He will be rejected by the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He will be killed, but on the third day he will be raised from the dead.” Then he said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross daily, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but are yourself lost or destroyed? If anyone is ashamed of me and my message, the Son of Man will be ashamed of that person when he returns in his glory and in the glory of the Father and the holy angels.” (Luke 9:21-26 NLT) Paul believed My promise. Paul surrendered his heart, his life, and his future to Me to do My work. Those who do not believe in Me cannot understand Paul’s behavior. However, for those who have come to love Me and who call on Me as their Lord, Paul’s service in My kingdom has the aroma of life — everlasting life that cannot be overpowered or taken away! Paul placed himself in bondage to Me, but I empowered him and liberated him to do My work, the work he was made to do. His surrender to Me as his Lord didn’t mean that he lost out on life, but that his life was caught up into something bigger and better with a future that is forever glorious. For those who believe, Paul may have entered My triumphal procession as a captive, but he is not marching to death; he is marching to life, purpose, and triumph. Verses to Live Paul is open with the Corinthians about his struggles and his doubts and concerns about them. He talks about the challenges he faced in places all over the world where he served Me and My people at great risk and endured great hardships. Despite his challenges, what emerged was the life that only I can bring — meaningful life for Paul and new life for all who were impacted by his words and turned to Me! So in this letter to the Corinthians, he repeatedly focuses on the source of his sufficiency. This sufficiency was not found in himself, but in the power only I can give (2 Corinthians 2:14-17; 2 Corinthians 3:4-6; 2 Corinthians 4:1-16; 2 Corinthians 9:8; 2 Corinthians 12:6-12). So Paul boasts in his weakness because My power is revealed in his weakness. He wants the Corinthians (and you) to know that this is truly the procession that leads to life because I am leading the procession! When I [Paul] came to the city of Troas to preach the Good News of Christ, the Lord opened a door of opportunity for me. But I had no peace of mind because my dear brother Titus hadn’t yet arrived with a report from you. So I said good-bye and went on to Macedonia. But thank God! He has made us his captives and continues to lead us along in Christ’s triumphal procession. Now he uses us to spread the knowledge of Christ everywhere, like a sweet perfume. Our lives are a Christ-like fragrance rising up to God. But this fragrance is perceived differently by those who are being saved and by those who are perishing. To those who are perishing, we are a dreadful smell of death and doom. But to those who are being saved, we are a life-giving perfume. And who is adequate for such a task as this? You see, we are not like the many hucksters who preach for personal profit.
Correct and Restore!
Note from Jesus Dear Beloved, Occasionally in an earthly family, a family member can lose his or her way. That person’s behavior can become bizarre, erratic, hurtful, rebellious, sinful, or dangerous. The same is true in My spiritual family. Occasionally one of My disciples will rebel and run after another lifestyle and become enmeshed in sin. Others can stumble or wander away from the truth ensnaring themselves in a life of sin and depravity. And some simply let their hearts grow cold to My way of life and lose passion for Me and the life of faith. In the church as in any family, discipline sometimes must be exercised for the good of the person who has a problem and also to protect other family members who might be easily led astray by a rebellious brother or sister. Discipline can also be useful in preventing shame from being brought on the family of believers because a rebellious person is identified as one of My followers but is living in hypocrisy with blatant disregard for My way. This discipline is also important as a loving strategy to bring the sinful person back into the family fellowship. Today’s verses speak to these kinds of issues in My family of believers. In the first two passages, Paul addresses specific situations in the Corinthian church. The third passage is My teaching during My earthly ministry. Spiritual discipline is for someone who has become entrenched in a lifestyle of sin. This loving discipline is practiced when that person has refused to change his or her lifestyle even after being privately, lovingly, and carefully approached about the sin (Matthew 18:15-17). This kind of discipline must not be done carelessly or selfishly, but lovingly and carefully in an effort to bring that person back into full fellowship with Me and My spiritual family. The approach to this person should never be done arrogantly, but in humility and with deep compassion. One must recognize that any of my disciples could succumb to numerous sins and be dragged away into a lifestyle of destruction (Galatians 6:1-2; James 1:13-15). Discipline in My spiritual family has two goals for the sinful person: correction and restoration. I want My rebellious followers to change their behaviors and return to Me. I want each person who has wandered away, for whatever reason, to be brought back into full fellowship with Me. Spiritual discipline is a recognition that someone is far away from Me and needs to return to Me and My way of life. Spend time in prayer for the one who has wandered from My way and who has been captured by the allure of sin. Ask the Father to be at work in this person’s life to provide an opportunity to come to his or her senses and return to Me (Luke 15:11-24). Work to restore this lost person to your fellowship. After exercising discipline, seek to bring him or her home to My family (Luke 15:1-10). I don’t want you to push people farther away from Me, but to call each person back to grace and to restore each person to active and faithful fellowship. Restoration is the ultimate purpose of all spiritual discipline! Verses to Live The first passage today is from 2 Corinthians and is about a person the Corinthian Christians had spiritually disciplined. The second passage is from 1 Corinthians and is about a problem that the church needed to address and about the needed discipline. As you read these passages, remember the principles I have shared with you today. Read both of Paul’s messages to the Corinthians, and then read My words from My ministry in the third passage. Feel the deep emotions of Paul’s words and also his deep concern for the person who has been disciplined. Your group has great power to lead someone to repentance and forgiveness, so please use this power by demonstrating your love for all those who have wandered away from Me and restore these precious children of the Father. Be certain to notice the goal of spiritual discipline as shown in bold in this first passage; this is a theme that runs through each of these passages. Please bring My lost sheep home to Me! I [Paul] finally determined that I would not come to you again for yet another agonizing visit. If my visits create such pain and sorrow for you, who can cheer me up except for those I’ve caused such grief? This is exactly what I was writing to you about earlier so that when we are face-to-face I will not have to wallow in sadness in the presence of friends who should bring me the utmost joy. For I felt sure that my delight would also become your delight. My last letter to you was covered with tears, composed with great difficulty, and frankly, a broken heart. It wasn’t my intention to depress you or cause you pain; rather, I had hoped you would see it for what it was — a demonstration of the overwhelming love I have for all of you. But if anyone has caused harm, he has not so much harmed me as he has — and I don’t think I’m exaggerating here — harmed all of you. In my view, the majority of you have punished him well enough. So instead of continuing to ostracize him, I encourage you to offer him the grace of forgiveness and the comfort of your acceptance. Otherwise, if he finds no welcome back to the community, I’m afraid he will be overwhelmed with extreme sorrow and lose all hope. So I urge you to demonstrate your love for him once again. I wrote these things to you with a clear purpose in mind: to test whether you are willing to live and abide by all my counsel. If you forgive anyone, I forgive that one as well. Have no doubt, anything that I have forgiven — when I do forgive — is done ultimately
Depending on God
Note from Jesus Dear Precious Child of the Father, My people have had to face hostile trials for their faith all throughout history. I’m not talking about the challenges, agonies, and suffering that sometimes go with being mortal or about loving broken people who can disappoint you. These difficulties are part of being human. These burdens of mortality are part of the reason I came to earth and lived among you as one of you (Hebrews 2:14; Hebrews 4:14-16). The trials I am addressing today are ostracism, the seizure of property, the loss of jobs, imprisonment, beatings, persecutions, and martyrdom because you entrust your life to Me. I want you to read and be changed by what Paul wrote to the Corinthian Christians. I want you to notice what is in today’s verses as well as in the parts of 2 Corinthians you will be reading over the next several days. Paul faced many difficult challenges in his life of ministry (2 Corinthians 11:16-30). Some of these difficult challenges nearly cost him his life (Acts 9:22-31; Acts 14:19-20; Acts 23:12-35) years before his actual death (2 Timothy 4:6-8). There are things in 2 Corinthians that Paul wrote after having faced severe challenges in Asia Minor, especially in Ephesus (2 Corinthians 1:8-11; 1 Corinthians 15:32). He was close to losing his life and endured many hardships that are not reported to you in the book of Acts. But if you carefully read Acts and 1 and 2 Corinthians, you get a glimpse of his living through very difficult ordeals while faithfully serving Me and My people. Paul came to realize that he had no power to protect his own life or to deliver himself from death. He had no choice but to rely on Us — Father, Son, and Spirit — to deliver him from death and deliver him back to ministry. In the middle of his horrible ordeals and in spite of the long time he had spent in Corinth, Paul felt the need to explain and defend himself to the Corinthians. He explained how the money for the church in Jerusalem was being handled (2 Corinthians 8:10-24) “so that no one can claim that we [Paul and those with him] are mishandling the funds we’ve collected” (2 Corinthians 8:20). He explained the change in his plans to visit Corinth and that he was sincere in wanting to be with the Christians there again (2 Corinthians 1:12-24). He defended himself as being really as good of an apostle as those who were claiming to be “super apostles” — also called “great emissaries” (2 Corinthians 11:5 The Voice). In particular, he explained that his message and God’s power were the important things. It was not important that he was not an imposing physical presence, not as accomplished an orator, or not as successful by human standards as these “super apostles” who demanded support from the Corinthians (2 Corinthians 10:1-12; 2 Corinthians 11:4-20). Paul demonstrated in 2 Corinthians the character of a true Christian leader. This person finds his or her sufficiency in Me by serving like Me, depending upon Me, and living for Me. A leader’s outward appearance, charisma, and worldly success are not indicative of being My chosen instrument. Too often, because of the representations of Me in your movies and paintings, people forget the great prophet Isaiah’s statements about Me as the Suffering Servant of the Lord: He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. (Isaiah 53:2-3 NIV) When Paul spoke of his qualifications as an apostle, he pointed to Me as the Suffering Servant of the Lord. The Corinthians were being lured away by those who appeared to be very talented and charismatic leaders. These false leaders called themselves “super apostles.” Paul challenged the Corinthians to see that their “super apostles” did not measure up to My life and ministry as the Suffering Servant of the Lord. My strength is made perfect in those recognizing their weaknesses, those who know that their strength is found in trusting in My power and relying on Me as their all-sufficient Lord! Verses to Live As you enter into the world of 2 Corinthians in the third passage below, I want you to understand the path that Paul had endured. He had walked a very difficult path as he journeyed through Ephesus, other parts of Asia Minor, and Macedonia, as noted in the first two passages. In the end, Paul realized that there was only One on Whom he could truly depend. He discovered that he could trust “solely in God, Who possesses the power to raise the dead”! As soon as the uproar ended [in Ephesus], Paul gathered the disciples together, encouraged them once more, said farewell, and left on foot. He decided to pass through Macedonia, encouraging believers wherever he found them, and came to Greece. He spent three months there, and then he planned to set sail once again for Syria. But he learned that a group of Jewish opponents was plotting to kill him, so he decided to travel through Macedonia. (Acts 20:1-3) And as for us, why do we endanger ourselves every hour? I [Paul] face death every day — yes, just as surely as I boast about you in Christ Jesus our Lord. If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus with no more than human hopes, what have I gained? If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” (1 Corinthians 15:30-32 NIV) Paul, an emissary of Jesus the Anointed pressed into service by the will of God, and our brother Timothy to God’s church that gathers in Corinth and all the saints in the region of Achaia. May grace and peace from God
Spiritual Power
Note from Jesus Dear Friend, To understand your verses today from the book of Acts, you need to be aware of two challenges facing My early followers in Ephesus. The first issue involved disciples of John the Baptist and My apostle Paul. John was both My cousin and My predecessor in preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God. John had gained a huge following before I started the primary part of My earthly ministry. Many people were baptized by John as they turned their lives from sin (as they repented) and got ready for My coming. Many who never heard the full story of My coming and the full good news about Me were baptized (Mark 1:4-8). In Ephesus, Paul met a group of these disciples who had been baptized by John. They had a fundamental gap in their understanding: they knew nothing about the Holy Spirit and the Spirit’s connection to spiritual rebirth, to the gospel, and to baptism (John 3:3-7; Acts 2:36-39; Titus 3:3-7). Paul taught the importance of the Spirit: But you do not live in the flesh. You live in the Spirit, assuming, of course, that the Spirit of God lives inside of you. The truth is that anyone who does not have the Spirit of the Anointed living within does not belong to God. (Romans 8:9) So Paul taught these disciples of John in Ephesus the truth about Me and the Spirit and then baptized them. Paul then laid his hands on them, and they received the Spirit in a demonstrable way just as Jews did at Pentecost (Acts 2:14-21; Acts 2:32-39), Samaritans did after Philip’s ministry (Acts 8:14-17), and Gentiles did with the conversion of Cornelius and his household (Acts 10:34-48). In this same way, the Holy Spirit also made clear that the people in Ephesus who had been baptized by John had become My disciples. A second issue was the challenge that demonic power represented for faithful disciples in Ephesus. Not only was Ephesus one of the Mediterranean world’s four largest cities and an important port, but this city was also the most important banking center in the Mediterranean world. When you think of banking centers in your world today, you think of financial institutions. However, Ephesus was an important banking center for Asia Minor because of the many temples, the places where money was exchanged, held, and connected to religions. Ephesus was a huge place where eastern cultures, western cultures, and ancient magical spiritual practices collided. Pilgrims came from all over the world to receive healing, to have demons cast out of people they loved, and to connect to spiritual powers of all kinds. In addition to preaching and teaching, Paul did all sorts of miracles showing My power at work through him. The people of Ephesus needed to know I was more powerful than the false gods and demons they worshiped. If Paul’s great miracles were not enough to convince them, the confrontation of demons with the sons of Sceva demonstrated that My power was stronger than the demons and could not be manipulated! This story, both humorous and sad, should serve as a reminder to you of what Paul said to the Ephesians when he wrote to them later: Finally, brothers and sisters, draw your strength and might from God. Put on the full armor of God to protect yourselves from the devil and his evil schemes. We’re not waging war against enemies of flesh and blood alone. No, this fight is against tyrants, against authorities, against supernatural powers and demon princes that slither in the darkness of this world, and against wicked spiritual armies that lurk about in heavenly places. (Ephesians 6:10-12) I want you to realize today that when I sent the Holy Spirit to you at your conversion, I sent you Our — Father, Son, and Spirit’s — presence and power. My victory over sin, death, and demons was won in the cross and the resurrection and gives you spiritual power. While you live in a world where sin, death, and demons influence many things, these forces no longer have power over you and can no longer control you if you follow Me (Colossians 1:9-13). Verses to Live The challenge for believers in Ephesus revolved around Our spiritual power — My disciples had it and there were impostors aligned with demons who didn’t have that ultimate power. My disciples demonstrated through their lives and their actions that I have the power over all demonic forces and that the Holy Spirit gives My disciples confidence not to live in superstition and fear. While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul’s overland journey brought him back to Ephesus. He encountered a group of about a dozen disciples there. Paul: Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers? John’s Disciples: We’ve never heard about the Holy Spirit. Paul: Well then, what kind of ceremonial washing through baptism did you receive? John’s Disciples: We received the ritual cleansing of baptism that John taught. Paul: John taught the truth — that people should be baptized with renewed thinking and turn toward God. But he also taught that the people should believe in the One Whose way he was preparing, that is, Jesus the Anointed. As soon as they heard this, they were baptized, this time in the name of our Lord Jesus. When Paul laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them in the same way the original disciples experienced at Pentecost: they spoke in tongues and prophesied. For three months, Paul continued his standard practice: he went week by week to the synagogue, speaking with great confidence, arguing with great persuasiveness, proclaiming the kingdom of God. Once again, some members of the synagogue refused to believe and insulted the Way publicly before the whole synagogue community. Paul withdrew and took those with him who had become disciples. For the next two years, he used the public lecture hall of Tyrannus, presenting the Word of the Lord
Caring for the Family of Believers
Note from Jesus Dear Child of the Father, You live in an interconnected world more than any other human beings in the history of planet earth. You can travel quickly by air, sea, and land. You can speak to people on the other side of your planet by phone or over the internet. You can rally people for great causes through social networking, special funding tools, and circles of online friends. For you, the world is an interconnected place. So I will share with you a great disappointment that I have: those of you who have much seem so reluctant to share it with your brothers and sisters who have so little. Please remember what My apostle John said so many years ago: We know what true love looks like because of Jesus. He gave His life for us, and He calls us to give our lives for our brothers and sisters. If a person owns the kinds of things we need to make it in the world but refuses to share with those in need, is it even possible that God’s love lives in him? My little children, don’t just talk about love as an idea or a theory. Make it your true way of life, and live in the pattern of gracious love. (1 John 3:16-18) One problem is that you have not put in the effort you should to learn about the needs of others. Unfortunately, your preachers, elders, pastors, and other leaders have not been as diligent as they should in informing you of the needs that exist. They also have not been as diligent as they should be in calling you to share with and care for your brothers and sisters who are in need in your own area and in other parts of the world. But today, I want you to know that I have called you to share My message and care for others! You have brothers and sisters who are enduring great atrocities because of their faith. They have been tortured, beheaded, crucified, mutilated, sold into sexual slavery, raped, and imprisoned. Help them. Use your governmental system to cry out for justice and protection. Research organizations that help those in My church who are persecuted. In addition, well-trained and passionate evangelists and church planters have opportunities to take My message to many places all over the world. Support these messengers. You can encourage and build up churches in other areas and in other nations when you go on vacation or travel for business, so don’t forget to assemble with believers when you travel. Bless them and encourage them by sharing your offering with their congregation. Go on mission and service trips. Connect with other churches wherever you go and give them encouragement and financial support. You have brothers and sisters who are hungry and who need medical care. Support programs and people that are ministering to these needs and get involved yourself. When you see the elaborate and comfortable places rich Christians have built for themselves, I want you to remember two things. First, I want you to think about your poor and suffering brothers and sisters in other places and how monies that have gone into buildings could have been used to bless them. Second, while some of these buildings can be marvelous tools of outreach, I want to remind you that every building will one day be nothing more than rubble. However, every lost person who is saved and every brother and sister in need who is helped is eternal. Each is someone who will share with you in My glory. Think about these things and invest wisely in growing My kingdom! My earliest followers were generous with each other and offered hands-on care to each other. Today the final reading from Paul’s letter you call 1 Corinthians is among the passages below. As you read these verses, let them remind you of the generosity of the early Christians. I want you to let the Holy Spirit touch your heart with great generosity for those in need in your own spiritual family — both those who are geographically near and those who live in places far from you. Verses to Live Your verses today come from several places in the New Testament. The first verses are from Galatians and relate to Paul’s meeting with key leaders in Jerusalem. Those leaders recognized his ministry to Gentiles but requested that he and his fellow missionaries help the poor in the Jerusalem church. The other passages show Paul responding to this request and encouraging Gentile churches to participate. The last passage, from a later letter to the Corinthians, holds up the Macedonian churches as an example to the Corinthian church and to you: be generous, excel in the grace of giving to the needs of your brothers and sisters in Christ. This kind of generosity offers tangible love to those in need who are part of your spiritual family. As a result of a revelation, I returned to Jerusalem 14 years later; and this time Barnabas and Titus accompanied me. When I arrived, I shared the exact gospel that I preach to the outsiders. I first shared God’s truth privately with those who were people of influence and leadership because I thought if they did not embrace the freedom of my good news, then any work I had done for Jesus here and any in the past would be spoiled. … When James, Cephas (whom you know as Peter), and John — three men purported to be pillars among the Jewish believers — saw that God’s favor was upon me to fulfill this calling, they welcomed and endorsed both Barnabas and me. They agreed that our ministries would work as two hands, theirs advancing the mission of God among the Jews and ours toward the outsider nations, all with the same message of redemption. In parting, they requested we always remember to care for the poor among us, which was something I
Our Glorious Future
Note from Jesus Dear Follower, Resurrection is coming. I will return for those who belong to Me. At My coming, everyone who belongs to Me will be given an immortal body. Just as you have carried the body that has been part of your human existence and that is mortal because of Adam’s rebellion against the Father, you also will be transformed because of My victory over death. You will have an immortal body far more glorious than you can fully imagine. My resurrection from the dead is the assurance of your resurrection. My glorious body after My resurrection is the assurance of your glorious body after your resurrection. I know you would like to know all the details about life after death. Let it be enough to know that when you are My disciple, the Holy Spirit Who is alive in you ensures that you will never be separated from Me and that your resurrection is assured (Romans 8:32-39; 1 Corinthians 15:21-26). When death claims your physical body, you come to be with Me (Philippians 1:19-24; 2 Corinthians 5:1-8). Then, when the Father says it is time, I will return and change all who belong to Me to have immortal bodies to share in the resurrection and reunion (Philippians 3:20-21). You will share in the glory of all that the Father has promised you. Your future existence in this immortal state is impossible for you to grasp fully now. Paul helps you catch a glimpse of this glorious future by using an example from your earthly existence. A seed that you place in the ground is not particularly beautiful. It is simple and earthy. But when it is placed in the ground and dies to its current existence, a transformation happens that is a part of a new life. The seed germinates, grows, and becomes something glorious. The seed is not glorious when compared to the flower of the fully-grown plant. Your physical bodies, though marvelously made, are just a seed compared to the glory of the new bodily existence that you will enjoy with Me when we share in glory together. Death is an intruder that wounds hearts. However, when someone you love and who is My disciple is separated from you by death, remember that death is not only My enemy but that I also have ultimately defeated death and its power. While death may separate you for a short time from those you love, My resurrection ensures your resurrection and your reunion with all those who are Mine! So, no matter what your earthly life throws at you — how it disappoints you, wounds you, beats you down, or discourages you — I have defeated death. Death will not have the ultimate victory over you. Death will not determine the ultimate outcome of your life. You are Mine! Your future glory beyond death is in My hands! Transformation, reunion, victory, and a life in glory are your future! Verses to Live The following words come from what many people have called the resurrection chapter of the Bible. Paul wanted the Corinthian Christians to know that because I was raised from the dead, they will also be raised from the dead. Please, take the time to savor Paul’s words. Dwell on them. Let them give you hope. Commit the phrases that mean the most to you to memory for those times when you need them most. Remember, your faith in Me is not wasted, and your hope in Me is not in vain! Now if we have told you about the Anointed One (how He has risen from the dead and appeared to us fully alive), then how can you stand there and say there is no such thing as resurrection from death? Friends, if there is no resurrection of the dead, then even the Anointed hasn’t been raised; if that is so, then all our preaching has been for nothing and your faith in the message is worthless. And what’s worse, all of us who have been preaching the gospel are now guilty of misrepresenting God because we have been spreading the news that He raised the Anointed One from the dead (which must be a lie if what you are saying about the dead not being raised is the truth). Please listen. If you say, “the dead are not raised,” then what you are telling me is that the Anointed One has not been raised. Friends, if the Anointed has not been raised from the dead, then your faith is worth less than yesterday’s garbage, you are all doomed in your sins, and all the dearly departed who trusted in His liberation are left decaying in the ground. If what we have hoped for in the Anointed doesn’t take us beyond this life, then we are world-class fools, deserving everyone’s pity. But the Anointed One was raised from death’s slumber and is the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep in death. (1 Corinthians 15:12-20) Now I know what some of you are thinking: “Just how are the dead going to be raised? What kind of bodies will they have when they come back to life?” Don’t be a fool! The seed you plant doesn’t produce life unless it dies. Right? The seed doesn’t have the same look, the same body, if you will, of what it will have once it starts to grow. It starts out a single, naked seed — whether wheat or some other grain, it doesn’t matter — and God gives to that seed a body just as He has desired. For each of the different kinds of seeds God prepares a unique body. Or look at it this way: not all flesh is the same. Right? There is skin flesh on humans, furry flesh on animals, feathery flesh on birds, and scaly flesh on fish. Likewise there are bodies made for the heavens and bodies made for the earth. The heavenly bodies have a different kind of glory or