Are you blind?

Perhaps some of you receive the same Compassion Magazine that I do from Compassion International.  It is a great monthly magazine about the work Compassion is doing around the world.  I think Compassion is a great ministry, but that is a conversation for another day.  In my last magazine there was an interesting article about a boy in Kenya that was born blind.  He joined the Compassion program, received surgery, and is now on the road to recovery with “new eyes.”  Not really new eyes, but eyes that actually work.  The article got me thinking.  Do we need new eyes?  The boy in Kenya was born blind and had no idea what he was missing.  Because of his blindness the rest of his development was delayed; he didn't crawl, he didn't respond to stimulus, he didn’t react like other babies.  Are we born blind?  If we were born blind do we even know what we are missing out on?  Let’s read today’s passage to see what we don’t see.  (see what I did there…)

2 Corinthians 4

Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. ² But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God. ³ And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. ⁴ In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. ⁵ For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. ⁶ For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. ⁸ We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; ⁹ persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; ¹⁰ always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. ¹¹ For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. ¹² So death is at work in us, but life in you.

¹³ Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, “I believed, and so I spoke,” we also believe, and so we also speak, ¹⁴ knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. ¹⁵ For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.

¹⁶ So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. ¹⁷ For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, ¹⁸ as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

Things to think about:

·         Read verse 3 again.  How is the gospel “veiled?”  What does that mean?  Has it always been veiled?  Is there a way to unveil it? 

·         What is it that causes blindness?

·         If the world is blind to the gospel truth what is our role as believers?  Read verse 6 again.

·         What is Paul’s point for this chapter? 

·         How can we “look to the things that are unseen?”

Love Love Love

Dear everyone,

The other day another pastor here at church sent me an article called 10 Gospel Verses to Keep Warm.  It was a good article about some passages in the Bible that are really specific gospel focused verses.  There are more than 10, but these 10 were picked out as good verses to memorize.  They contain truth about Christ and what he has done to save us from our sins.  I thought for today’s Bible Time with Josh we could look at one of these passages in detail.

1 John 4:7-12

⁷ Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸ Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹ In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. ¹⁰ In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. ¹¹ Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹² No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

Things to think about:

·         What an amazing truth in verse 10 – God sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins.  Propitiation means a “wrath averting sacrifice.”  Basically what it means is that God poured out all of his wrath for our sins onto Jesus on the Cross.  Jesus absorbed all of our wrath on the cross so that there is no judgment left for our sins.  God loved us so much he declares us not-guilty because Jesus was declared Guilty!

·         What is John’s plea for us as believers in this passage?  What does he want us to do?

·         Take some time today and ponder the love of God.  Verse 11 uses that same word “so” that John used in John 3:16…For God so loved the world…God doesn’t just love you, he SO loves you! 

·         This past week was Valentine’s day when everyone talks about love.  What is different about God’s love/our love and the way the world defines love?  Look at verse 9 again – the love of God was made manifest among us in Jesus.  Jesus was the exact representation of the love of God…literally love walking around with skin on. 

Praise God Love itself took on flesh and died in our place to become the wrath averting sacrifice for our sins!

  

The Ups and Downs of Life

If you ever read through the Psalms in the Bible they contain a wide range is emotions.  Even in the same Psalm you can get moments of great joy, mixed with sorrow, confusion, and pain.  We like to pull quotes out of the Psalms when they fit our need and they can be incredibly encouraging.  I encourage you to continue to use them in that way.  But, today I want to look at an entire Psalm, not just a small portion of one.  I want us to feel the complexity of life and the emotional roller coaster that David experienced.  We don’t need to live in a false world that rejects the uncomfortable and inconvenient.  We don’t exist by quoting meaningless platitudes that don’t really help anyone, instead they make them feel like they are misunderstood and as if they are the only one that has experienced this issue and God has forgotten about them.  So, let’s read the entire Psalm and see what David expressed through song so many years ago.

Psalm 31

 In you, O Lord, do I take refuge;
    let me never be put to shame;
    in your righteousness deliver me!
² Incline your ear to me;
    rescue me speedily!
Be a rock of refuge for me,
    a strong fortress to save me!

³ For you are my rock and my fortress;
    and for your name's sake you lead me and guide me;
⁴ you take me out of the net they have hidden for me,
    for you are my refuge.
⁵ Into your hand I commit my spirit;
    you have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God.

⁶ I hate those who pay regard to worthless idols,
    but I trust in the Lord.
⁷ I will rejoice and be glad in your steadfast love,
    because you have seen my affliction;
    you have known the distress of my soul,
⁸ and you have not delivered me into the hand of the enemy;
    you have set my feet in a broad place.

⁹ Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am in distress;
    my eye is wasted from grief;
    my soul and my body also.
¹⁰ For my life is spent with sorrow,
    and my years with sighing;
my strength fails because of my iniquity,
    and my bones waste away.

¹¹ Because of all my adversaries I have become a reproach,
    especially to my neighbors,
and an object of dread to my acquaintances;
    those who see me in the street flee from me.
¹² I have been forgotten like one who is dead;
    I have become like a broken vessel.
¹³ For I hear the whispering of many—
    terror on every side!—
as they scheme together against me,
    as they plot to take my life.

¹⁴ But I trust in you, O Lord;
    I say, “You are my God.”
¹⁵ My times are in your hand;
    rescue me from the hand of my enemies and from my persecutors!
¹⁶ Make your face shine on your servant;
    save me in your steadfast love!
¹⁷ O Lord, let me not be put to shame,
    for I call upon you;
let the wicked be put to shame;
    let them go silently to Sheol.
¹⁸ Let the lying lips be mute,
    which speak insolently against the righteous
    in pride and contempt.

¹⁹ Oh, how abundant is your goodness,
    which you have stored up for those who fear you
and worked for those who take refuge in you,
    in the sight of the children of mankind!
²⁰ In the cover of your presence you hide them
    from the plots of men;
you store them in your shelter
    from the strife of tongues.

²¹ Blessed be the Lord,
    for he has wondrously shown his steadfast love to me
    when I was in a besieged city.
²² I had said in my alarm,
    “I am cut off from your sight.”
But you heard the voice of my pleas for mercy
    when I cried to you for help.

²³ Love the Lord, all you his saints!
    The Lord preserves the faithful
    but abundantly repays the one who acts in pride.
²⁴ Be strong, and let your heart take courage,
    all you who wait for the Lord!

Things to think about:

·         Read through the Psalm again and in your mind list out all the emotions you see David experiencing.

·         What are David’s prayers in this Psalm?  Do you pray for similar things?  Why or why not?

·         Are there times when we have to “trust in the Lord,” but feel like the situation around us cries out “God is untrustworthy?”  What do you do during those times?

·         What part of this Psalm do you identify with more; “my life is spent with sorrow” or “Oh, how abundant is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you…”  Have you had seasons in your life where both of those statements identified you?

·         What are the commands David gives to all of us who follow in his footsteps? 

May we love the Lord and persevere to the end trusting God our strong and faithful Lord who comforts our hearts and restores our souls!