Meaningful Good-byes

2 Corinthians 13:11 – 14
Finally, brothers, good-bye. Aim for perfection, listen to my appeal, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the saints send their greetings. May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

As we completed our home purchase a few days ago, we wanted to thank the seller and bless her but were unable to because of the multiple realtors that were in between and so the only thing we could do was to pray for her. However, our realtor, a believer, sent out a thank you email to her realtor and also shared a blessing to both the realtor and the seller and we were able to go and pray over the home. The Christian good-bye is such a special wish by itself. Every time we meet people and have to part ways, the secular world expectation is to simply say bye or we’ll meet again or an endearing hug and kiss. In the Christian realm, our wishes are so different because of the hope we have in Jesus.

As I read Paul’s final blessings to the Corinthian Church, I felt the same joy that we share when we say good -bye to others. We can state with full confidence that the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ which saved wretched sinners like us, the love of God the father who gave up His son for us and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit which resides in us would be with them and they would know the eternal joy of togetherness that can never be taken away. Is it not such a blessing we have and do we not wish others the same? Would it not be such joy to know that the person we meet might also be a part of God’s family through our words and life? Lets bless those around us and live out our joy that is complete in the Lord Jesus Christ. Lets be Paul’s and not Saul’s to the world!

In His Loving Service,
ServantBoy

Mark 9:50 “Salt is good; but if the salt becomes unsalty, with what will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”

Trying or Achieving

2 Corinthians 12:7-10
To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

I quite enjoy writing and feel comfortable expressing myself with pen and keyboard better than I might communicate verbally. I can write at the pace I want, chose my tone, correct my thoughts, erase mistakes and in effect present myself and my thoughts better. However writing about Christ is another matter completely. As hard as I try to write these devotionals I fail when I try. There is only success when I follow the leading of the Holy Spirit and for that I need to be walking with the Lord. I enjoy talking to people too but again when I am counseling someone, I am a failure when I try to do it on my own strength. However, I have seen how powerfully the Lord can work through us when we submit those conversations to God and ask for His leading.

As wise as Paul was, as eloquent as he was, as well thought as he came across, I do not think Paul would have such an impact on the world as he has had without the leading of God. Like Paul we are ineffective in our lives minus the working of the Lord in our lives. Minus Jesus Christ, we are always ‘Trying’ but with Christ in our lives, we are ‘Achieving’. The Lord has permitted Satan’s thorns in our flesh to show us our sinfulness but in Christ we have His grace which is sufficient for us to cope and in Him we have the power to rise above our failures to succeed for His glory. I write and speak and do all things now in Christ because even though I am weak in many areas, through Christ I am strengthened and I can now work for His glory alone. Are you trying or are you achieving?

In His Loving Service,
ServantBoy

2 Corinthians 5:15 and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.

Spiritual Drifting

2 Corinthians 11:2-4
I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him. But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough.

After days, I have been able to sit with the study again and the reason is laziness. Yes, laziness of mind and body which caused me to spiritually drift and lose my bearings for many days. This is such a strange feeling and I am not proud or glad for having slipped but I thank God for waking me up and placing me back on my feet. I tried to write yesterday and it was futile because I was doing it in my own strength and wisdom, not the Lord’s. What caused it I wondered and this morning, as I drove into work and talked with God, He revealed it to me.

As we go along in life, we tend to take things for granted and God is someone we most easily manage to take for grated because we don’t see Him and therefore reprioritize our time with God because we think He will understand. This is the same issue that God warned the Israelites about when He gave them the Ten Commandments. Jesus is real and truly alive and deserves our complete time and attention. When we take Him and God the father for granted, we lose our footing and suddenly we realize that we are in the middle of an ocean of meaninglessness and we are desperate to be saved from it. That is what I felt this morning and God threw me a lifeline to bring me back to him. Are you being led astray by the serpent’s cunning or do you have your feet on the solid ground called Jesus? 

In His Loving Service,
ServantBoy

Hosea 2:19 “I will betroth you to Me forever; Yes, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and in justice, In lovingkindness and in compassion

Waging A War

2 Corinthians 10:3-5, 17-18
For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ… But, “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.” For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.

As a child, I always wanted to serve in the army and I loved reading books related to wars. My Dad had a collection of books that I would often take and read and picture myself in those situations. I dreamt of being a member of the winning side and our victories were hard fought but well won. Superheroes were great too but the fun of being a part of a group of men fighting side by side was a lot more appealing to me. As I grew up, I realized that I was not the athlete I dreamt I was and my strength was more in the area of encouraging others and building relationships, not fighting battles. Then I was saved by the grace of God and now I’m in the army, albeit a different one!

As Paul states so rightly, we are fighting a battle but not one that is fought on the battlefields with weapons that cause physical harm to anyone. Our battle is fought against the forces of evil that seek to devour every man, woman and child and keep them away from the saving grace of God. What the world does not see is how they are held captive by Satan who might be unseen but is very real. Everyday I adorn the armour of God (Ephesians 6:10-20) and step out in battle and my joy is in knowing that my Lord Jesus Christ has won the battle when He rose from the dead. My strength lies in the Lord and so is my confidence. Are you in the same battle with me or are you living under the grips of sin in Satan’s kingdom?

In His Loving Service,
ServantBoy

Ephesians 6:14-18 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.

Giving In Love

2 Corinthians9:6-8
Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.

Last evening, a friend that I recently made in the public transit called me to share a marital challenge he was facing. On the face of it, the issue was severe and the expected result was a divorce. My friend was broken inside and did not know what needed to be done and was kind enough to call me. We spoke about the issue at length and being married myself for 12 years to a wonderful woman, I related to the challenges he was facing and by God’s grace was able to advice him. Marriages and giving do not have much in common or so we think and I hope you wonder where I am going with this?

God created woman to be a support to her man, gave her the grace to cope with the many roles she plays in support of her family, gave her the wisdom to counsel her husband without making him feel less of a man, and made her the perfect companion to a man. God also ordained for man and woman to be one after marriage and therefore to act as one and give as one. When we are able to sow in love at home into our marriages, we will reap the fruits of it in every area of our lives, especially in our walk with the Lord. This will bring out the oneness that God desires in us. We can then go out and sow and the blessing will be manifold. When we cheerfully give of ourselves as Christ gave of himself for his bride, the church, we are blessed abundantly and more importantly God is glorified. I hope your giving does not stop with finances?

In His Loving Service,
ServantBoy

Ephesians 3:20-21 Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.

Godly Sorrow

2 Corinthians 7:1, 9-11
Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God… yet now I am happy, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance. For you became sorrowful as God intended and so were not harmed in any way by us. Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. See what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done. At every point you have proved yourselves to be innocent in this matter.

Start of another new week here in Vancouver and as time flies, so do missed opportunities to serve God and I thank God for His patience with us even as we sluggishly serve Him. This morning, my passage of scripture was a confirmation yet again about the purpose of suffering in our faith walk. Many will disagree with me and I ask the many to seek God in His fullness just as I am learning to. First Paul talks about what our faith walk must be like by saying that we should cleanse ourselves mind, body and spirit of everything that prevents us from doing so and we should become holy in reverence for God. This is quite the ask and is impossible for us to do on our own. How then does God accomplish this in us?

Suffering is something we have always looked down upon, prayed against, and begged God to take away from us. Yet God permits suffering in our lives and we wonder why? Paul in his 1st letter to the Corinthians was very harsh and in doing so brought about a revival in the church that glorified God. For God, purifying us to become like Him is what counts as we are going to share eternity in His presence. For Christ to live in God’s presence every moment, He has to be holy and has to love God beyond everything else. This is the same for us and to change us, God uses trials and tribulations because this life is the training grounds for the wonderful life after. Are you sorrowful, hurting, suffering? Get on your knees now and ask God to reveal what changes He wants in you to make you more like Him. Stop looking at suffering as an issue but instead look at suffering as an opportunity to learn and grow in the Lord.

In His Loving Service,
ServantBoy

Romans 6:19 I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification

God Centered Relationships

2 Corinthians 6:14-16
Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.”

Finding the right life partner seems like the hardest thing for us today. The institution of marriage has become a joke to the world because a significant portion of all marriages end up in divorce, separation, pain, frustration and disappointments. Non-committal relationships are the norm where people do not have a marriage covenant to live by and therefore enjoy the comforts of being in a relationship without the strings of attachment. In this day and age, where is the room for us believers to find our husbands or wives among other believers? Is this concept even relevant today?

Our walk with the Lord is a relationship, not a religion and the basis of our relationship is love, God’s perfect love. When God accepts us as His children, He sanctifies us and transform us into His likeness and make us His own. As God made us men and women, He has also ordained for us life partners in this world, if that is our need, and these partners are not just partners of choice but partners in the gospel. Our spouses are a pillar of support in our relationship with God and therefore God commanded us to be married to believers. Today is Mother’s Day, celebrated here in Canada on Sunday May 9, and I am reminded of the character of a noble wife in Proverbs 31:10-31.

A wife of noble character who can find?
She is worth far more than rubies…
Her children arise and call her blessed;
her husband also, and he praises her:
“Many women do noble things,
but you surpass them all.”
Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting;
but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.

Lets remember to honor God in our relationships, specially with relation to marriage. As Christ loves the Church, we are called to love our spouses and therefore lets yoke ourselves with believing spouses and Glorify God through our families.

In His Loving Service,
ServantBoy

Against The Grain

2 Corinthians 5:13-15, 17, 21
If we are out of our mind, it is for the sake of God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again… Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!… God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

A few weeks back, the youth pastor in our church shared God’s word and the theme of his message was ‘Acting Crazy’! Yes, you read it right and I kid you not. He and a team of youth had just returned from Costa Rica where they went to paint and fix up a church in a remote village and then make a kids park near the village soccer field. Nothing too overt and yet a big deal for the young men and women who went along for whom the reality of life in a developing country was an eye-opener. His point was that in our new God transformed selves, we are called to be ambassadors of Christ and we should try to be different from the broken world, whether in word or deed. Is that what Paul is also saying here?

As a Christian, one of the challenges we face is to convince people that we are not of this world. Anyone who cannot understand what we are saying laughs at our beliefs because we look, act and react like anyone else. I was a mocker once but now after I realized what Christ’s death and sacrifice meant to me, I am the mocked and I praise God for it. The question we need to ask is are we living in the world as a part of it or walking against the tide? If we are one with the world and call ourselves transformed or ambassadors for Christ, anyone would laugh, but when we stand up for our faith and live for Christ and not for the world, the world sees the difference. Many will mock and taunt us but our God sees and uses our lives to touch the many needy around. We count it joy to die to the world and to live for Christ! Let’s stand up and celebrate the one who died for us and saved us from death.

In His Loving Service,
ServantBoy

Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.

Fragile New Creation

2 Corinthians 4:7-10
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.

Have you ever tried moulding clay pots using a potter’s wheel? I’ve seen it several times but never attempted it myself but I have tried using clay to make things and not been very successful. The wonderful thing about clay is that when baked, it is a strong container but a slight drop and it breaks into little pieces. Paul refers to us as jars of clay because we are delicately and beautifully made but break with the course of life itself. However, when we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we are filled with his Holy Spirit that pieces us back together into a creation purposed by Him and for His glory.

This new creation deals with the drops of life, the discouragements, accidents, battles, but because it is now held together by God’s own spirit, it is not destroyed but glorifies God through the hardships. When we are down and out, God is up and able and in so living, we become his voice in this dark world. Are you carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders and unable to carry on? If so, you need Jesus, the lover of our souls who waits with arms wide open to carry our burdens and to transform us into His ambassadors. What are you waiting for?

In His Loving Service,
ServantBoy

Proverbs 24:16 For a righteous man falls seven times, and rises again, But the wicked stumble in time of calamity.

Freedom Unveiled

2 Corinthians 3:6, 15-18 He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life… Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

My hair stands on end when I read each new chapter in this letter of Paul because of how clearly the wisdom of God is shown to us through it. Paul was but a broken person transformed by the Holy Spirit that spoke God’s words through him and I hope we do not worship Paul but rather worship the one Paul glorified, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. As you read this passage above, I hope you ask the questions, what is this letter that kills and what freedom do we actually gain?

The Israelites were give the 10 commandments by God and it was impossible for anyone then and even today to fulfill these commandments and meet God’s basic requirement for righteousness because of our carnal sinful nature. This law was given new life through Christ because through His death, we now have a secure hope of being found righteous in God’s eyes and are not held back by trying to fulfill the law. We are filled with the Holy Spirit when we turn to the Lord and are freed from the captivity of sin, being now transformed by the Holy Spirit into the likeness of Jesus Christ so that we can live forever in His presence glorifying Him with our all. We are purposed to showcase God’s glory in us to give hope to the lost and to transform humanity from the captivity of sin to an eternal freedom in Christ!

In His Loving Service,
ServantBoy

Galatians 5:13 For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.