Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Be a Messenger of Jesus Christ. 9/8/15

Day 249- Reading the New Testament in one year.

https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/dramatized/niv/2Cor.1

2 Corinthians 1 Amplified Bible


1 Paul, an apostle (a special messenger) of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy [our] brother, to the church (assembly) of God which is at Corinth, and to all the saints (the people of God) throughout Achaia (most of Greece):

2 Grace (favor and spiritual blessing) to you and [heart] peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One).

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of sympathy (pity and mercy) and the God [Who is the Source] of every comfort (consolation and encouragement),

4 Who comforts (consoles and encourages) us in every trouble (calamity and affliction), so that we may also be able to comfort (console and encourage) those who are in any kind of trouble or distress, with the comfort (consolation and encouragement) with which we ourselves are comforted (consoled and encouraged) by God.

5 For just as Christ’s [[a]own] sufferings fall to our lot [b][as they overflow upon His disciples, and we share and experience them] abundantly, so through Christ comfort (consolation and encouragement) is also [shared and experienced] abundantly by us.

6 But if we are troubled (afflicted and distressed), it is for your comfort (consolation and encouragement) and [for your] salvation; and if we are comforted (consoled and encouraged), it is for your comfort (consolation and encouragement), which works [in you] when you patiently endure the same evils (misfortunes and calamities) that we also suffer and undergo.

7 And our hope for you [our joyful and confident expectation of good for you] is ever unwavering (assured and unshaken); for we know that just as you share and are partners in [our] sufferings and calamities, you also share and are partners in [our] comfort (consolation and encouragement).

8 For we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about the affliction and oppressing distress which befell us in [the province of] Asia, how we were so utterly and unbearably weighed down and crushed that we despaired even of life [itself].

9 Indeed, we felt within ourselves that we had received the [very] sentence of death, but that was to keep us from trusting in and depending on ourselves instead of on God Who raises the dead.

10 [For it is He] Who rescued and saved us from such a perilous death, and He will still rescue and save us; in and on Him we have set our hope (our joyful and confident expectation) that He will again deliver us [from danger and destruction and [c]draw us to Himself],

11 While you also cooperate by your prayers for us [helping and laboring together with us]. Thus [the lips of] many persons [turned toward God will eventually] give thanks on our behalf for the grace (the blessing of deliverance) granted us at the request of the many who have prayed.

12 It is a reason for pride and exultation to which our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world [generally] and especially toward you, with devout and pure motives and godly sincerity, not in fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God (the unmerited favor and [d]merciful kindness by which God, exerting His holy influence upon souls, turns them to Christ, and keeps, strengthens, and increases them in Christian virtues).

13 For we write you nothing else but simply what you can read and understand [there is no double meaning to what we say], and I hope that you will become thoroughly acquainted [with [e]divine things] and know and understand [them] accurately and well to the end,

14 [Just] as you have [already] partially known and understood and acknowledged us and recognized that you can [honestly] be proud of us, even as we [can be proud] of you on the day of our Lord Jesus.

15 It was with assurance of this that I wanted and planned to visit you first [of all], so that you might have a double favor and token of grace (goodwill).

16 [I wanted] to visit you on my way to Macedonia, and [then] to come again to you [on my return trip] from Macedonia and have you send me forward on my way to Judea.

17 Now because I changed my original plan, was I being unstable and capricious? Or what I plan, do I plan according to the flesh [like a worldly man], ready to say Yes, yes, [when it may mean] No, no?

18 As surely as God is trustworthy and faithful and means what He says, our speech and message to you have not been Yes [that might mean] No.

19 For the Son of God, Christ Jesus (the Messiah), Who has been preached among you by us, by myself, Silvanus, and Timothy, was not Yes and No; but in Him it is [always the divine] Yes.

20 For as many as are the promises of God, they all find their Yes [answer] in Him [Christ]. For this reason we also utter the Amen (so be it) to God through Him [in His Person and by His agency] to the glory of God.

21 But it is God Who confirms and makes us steadfast and establishes us [in joint fellowship] with you in Christ, and has consecrated and anointed us [[f]enduing us with the gifts of the Holy Spirit];

22 [He has also appropriated and acknowledged us as His by] putting His seal upon us and giving us His [Holy] Spirit in our hearts as the security deposit and guarantee [of the fulfillment of His promise].

23 But I call upon God as my soul’s witness: it was to avoid hurting you that I refrained from coming to Corinth—

24 Not that we have dominion [over you] and lord it over your faith, but [rather that we work with you as] fellow laborers [to promote] your joy, for in [your] faith ([g]in your strong and welcome conviction or belief that Jesus is the Messiah, through Whom we obtain eternal salvation in the kingdom of God) you stand firm.

Supplied Life Devotional by Bill Freeman

Our continuous point of reference September 8th

“My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you.” GALATIANS 4:19

To understand the exact sense of this verse, it is important to see its context. The Galatian believers had fallen into a state of legality. The words “again” and “until” tell us something. At one point in the believers’ experience, Christ had already been formed in them. Then they lost Christ as the One who was everything in their hearts. Now Paul is travailing again until Christ is formed in them. This substantiates the truth that Christ being formed in them was not a process; otherwise, they would be waiting indefinitely for this to take place and would not need Paul’s “again” prayer. Christ “formed” is Christ restored instantly in our hearts as our center, our focus, our point of reference for relating to all things. Paul was travailing again until this would happen in the believers.

To know the meaning of Galatians 4:19, it is also important to understand the significance of the verb “formed” as it was used by Paul. In elementary school, we all learned that verbs are action words. In our English language, verbs emphasize the time in which the action takes place, whether past, present, or future. Thus, in English the time of the action is what is important. However, in the Greek language, the emphasis with the verb is on the kind of action taking place, rather than the time of the action. The action takes place either in an instantaneous way or in a progressive way. Instantaneous action is called punctiliar, and progressive action is called linear.

For Christ to be formed in us means that He is instantly poured out into our hearts, so that He becomes our relationship with everything from that moment on. He is now our continuous point of reference. He is the source from which we live. He is the way we handle everything in our lives. He is the way we relate to ourselves. He is the One in whom we constantly abide. He is the Christian life living His life in us. In short, He is our life. Christ formed in us means that He is formed within our hearts as our all in all!

Pray Until Something Happens (PUSH)

Anna, Ariana, Ariel, Dexter and Shameka,  Wes, and Zoe.

Health and Healing

Vonetta's mom 

Support and Comfort

Praise Alert
Vonetta's mom health improved

National
Conflict between citizens and  police officer. 

International
Israel and Palestine
Iraq

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