[Originally posted in a WhatsApp group (SSEU) as a daily reading update (reflection) from each chapter of the Bible]
𝕀𝕀
ℂ𝕆ℝ𝕀ℕ𝕋ℍ𝕀𝔸ℕ𝕊
𝟙:𝟙𝟘
"Who rescued us from so great
a peril of death, and will rescue us, He on whom we have set our hope. And He
will yet rescue us."
Wow! What an assurance! Should not
that be our confession at all times?
Paul looks back, recalls the
faithfulness of God, sees the faithfulness of God in preserving him till the
present, and sees the faithfulness of God in the future too. God's grace is a
present help, as Ps. 46:1 echoes!
He is our hope. "He"
(God) is the reason. Not because we are smart, lovely, or whatever.
𝕀𝕀
ℂ𝕆ℝ𝕀ℕ𝕋ℍ𝕀𝔸ℕ𝕊
𝟚:𝟙𝟝-𝟙𝟞
"For we are a fragrance of
Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are
perishing; to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from
life to life. And who is sufficient for these things?"
Wow! What a passage! The message of
the Gospel is consequential: leading to justification, or to condemnation. If such
power is in the Gospel, who is adequate to preach it?
When I was a young boy, somebody
gave me a bundle of ₹50, 000 and instructed
me to be careful until I reach home and safely deliver it to my dad. I was
scared.
I may be old or young, wise or simple,
prepared or unprepared, but the preaching of the Gospel is a fearful thing. After
all, preachers are just earthen vessels with heavenly treasures.
𝕀𝕀
ℂ𝕆ℝ𝕀ℕ𝕋ℍ𝕀𝔸ℕ𝕊
𝟛:𝟜-𝟞
"And such confidence we have
through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to consider
anything as coming from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who also
made us sufficient as ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the
Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life."
Why am I a Pastor? Because of God.
Why am I a teacher of God's word? Because of God. Why am I a Christian? Because
of God.
Even if I give up my body for a
burnt sacrifice, I cannot earn God's salvation. Even if I were to be richer
than Jeff Bezos and give up everything, I cannot buy Salvation nor a position
to teach or preach God's word.
Even as a redeemed Christian, on my
own I cannot become a minister of the Gospel. Even as a minister of the Gospel,
I cannot stay qualified, adequate, sufficient on my own. It's God who calls,
who sanctifies, who qualifies a minister of God. It's God who let him remain
qualified for the ministry.
It's like Moses, who saw the face
(glory) of God and lived. It's like the disciples who saw the transfiguration
of Christ and lived. They should have died for no sinner can withstand the
glory of God, but God preserved them.
God's calling to preach the mystery
of the Gospel, qualifies a minister of God, or else, there will be no preacher
on earth except the Preacher Christ.
𝕀𝕀
ℂ𝕆ℝ𝕀ℕ𝕋ℍ𝕀𝔸ℕ𝕊
𝟜
This chapter has a lot of sobering
truths, especially for a minister of the Gospel.
Repeatedly it says, "we
do not lose heart" because Christian ministry is not cool as some
people think so. Some people came to know that I am in the Gospel ministry and
would often say, "Wow! That's great! It's the coolest profession in
life!"
While ministers are ordinary,
unprofitable, and made up of base things of the world — mud, an earthen vessel,
a muddy vessel, we are given the heavenly treasure. Yet, this treasure certainly
does not worth anything to those who are perishing.
And Paul renounced all hidden
things of shame to be a worthy vessel for this treasure, which by the way is a
mercy of God. No double life. No secret life. No hidden life. No Non-Disclosure-Agreement.
No Dark Deeds. No Compromise.
Oh! The Mercy of God! The Mercy of God!
𝕀𝕀
ℂ𝕆ℝ𝕀ℕ𝕋ℍ𝕀𝔸ℕ𝕊
𝟝:𝟙-𝟚
"For we know that if the
earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a
house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For indeed in this we 𝕘𝕣𝕠𝕒𝕟,
longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven."
Call me judgmental if it relieves
you for saying that if a self-respecting Christian does not know v21 of this
chapter, he should surely die. 😬😂
Having said that it relieves me to meditate on other verses from this chapter
at last!
I am so glad to confirm from
Apostle Paul about our Christian walk before the day of glory happens. Certainly,
Paul wasn't laughing around. He used the word "groan," as he
thought about life on earth and yonder. Surely, he was an old man, almost
accomplishing all the works one can ask of a missionary, but far be it to say
Paul was an escapist to think of an escape from physical pain or to say he was
suicidal in wanting to be with Jesus.
And certainly, he struggled with
sins in his own life (Romans 7), and he along with all the saints await for our
body to be transformed, but he rejoices in his weakness because of the
sufficiency of grace.
Thus, he was hard-pressed in
Philippians 1, but he chose to live and suffer not only for the cause of Christ
but also for the cause of the people whom he loved.
If I am living comfortably with
what's going on in my heart, life, and the world, certainly my life is nowhere
close to what Paul would expect of us. And interestingly, he doesn't write
"I" but "we."
𝕀𝕀
ℂ𝕆ℝ𝕀ℕ𝕋ℍ𝕀𝔸ℕ𝕊
𝟞:𝟛-𝟜
"Giving no cause for offense
in anything, so that the ministry will not be discredited, but in everything
commending ourselves as servants of God, . . ."
We live in a time when almost
everything is recorded digitally. Every word we speak, write, type, and even
what was deleted can be recovered. Every place we go, GPS knows. Google knows
almost everything about our habits, patterns, likes, and dislikes.
Last time, I read somebody
testifying that Google knew about him more than he knew about himself to the
extent of predicting a break-up with his girlfriend accurately. 😆😂
People can misconstrue our careless
words, actions, etc. Oh! How we ought to be careful! Not to give any cause for
offense in anything. What a minister builds over the years can be utterly
shaken on the night of his fall!
Once, a minister of the Gospel is
discredited, so is the ministry. If Paul warns us about discredited ministry, a
minister of the Gospel must discipline himself to be a commendable servant!
𝕀𝕀
ℂ𝕆ℝ𝕀ℕ𝕋ℍ𝕀𝔸ℕ𝕊
𝟟:𝟙𝟘
"For godly sorrow produces a
repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world
brings about death."
It's beautiful to see Christian weeping,
sorrowful over sin! It's a virtue. I would go on to say the most spiritual
people are most sorrowful about their sins. In Psalms, I see David panting for
God, crying for God, day and night for God's forgiveness! That's the man after
God's own heart!
And causing sorrow in people's life
by means of rebuking, reproving, and even confronting is really not easy. But
Paul did it, and didn't regret it (though he regretted it also 😶), and rejoiced
for the sorrow he had caused them.
I haven't remembered crying day and
night in repentance over anything! Well, I don't want to, in a sense, but I
must sometimes. James 4:9 is serious: "Be miserable and mourn and cry. Let
your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom."