Knowledge and Understanding

Happy is the man who finds wisdom; and the man who gains understanding. Get wisdom; and get understanding. In reading and studying the Word; we get to know and understand the Father's GRACE. Our Lord desires for us to know Him and He wants to know us.

Thus says the Lord:
That I am the Lord, exercising loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth.
For in these I delight,” says the Lord.

Thursday, 31 March 2022

Give un thanksgiving (2 Corinthians 9)

 

The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. As it is written,
“He has distributed freely, he has given to the poor;
his righteousness endures forever.”
He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God

We are urged to give and encouraged as we benefit from giving from our hearts.

Tuesday, 29 March 2022

Called to repentance (2 Corinthians 7)

 

For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.

But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus, and not only by his coming but also by the comfort with which he was comforted by you, as he told us of your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced still more. For even if I made you grieve with my letter, I do not regret it—though I did regret it, for I see that that letter grieved you, though only for a while. As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us.

Our greatest privilege is that our Father loves us. Because he loves us He corrects or chastises us, But we are not left abandoned or rejected but encouraged or corrected. We should be eager to repent and change our ways because when we gain peace in our journey.

Monday, 28 March 2022

Called to honour the Father (2 Corinthians 6)

 

I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing;
then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me,
says the Lord Almighty.”

Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.

 

What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God;

 

Called to a life that honours the Father first. Called to honour our Father in behaviour speech thought and lifestyle.

Friday, 25 March 2022

Called to reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5)

 

For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

We have been reconciled and been called to carry the gospel to all so that many many many more may also just like us be reconciled,

Thursday, 24 March 2022

Called to be the light (2 Corinthians 4)

 

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 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.

But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.

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. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. 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.

 

Our Lord is the light for all mankind, we carry His gospel so that many may come to see that light and hope. It may not be an easy journey but great is the reward.

Wednesday, 23 March 2022

Called to be ministers of the new covenant (2 Corinthians 3)

 

And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.
Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. 

Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

As we carry the gospel to all around us we are ministers of righteousness we are called to be ministers of the new covenant. Ministers of hope and grace.

 

Monday, 21 March 2022

An aroma of Christ (2 Corinthians 2)

 


But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God's word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.

This chapter begins with a call to be compassionate and forgive one another. As gospel carriers nothing is better than carrying the aroma of our Lord to those in the dark. We become a beacon of light (our Lord) and bring life to those who are dying.

 

Abundantly comforted (2 Corinthians 1)

 

For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

 

Paul does not hide the suffering they have gone through but God comforts us through. He encourages the church to find rest in the Father. We also have the same privilege of our Father’s comfort.

For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.

Wednesday, 16 March 2022

Love one another (1 Corinthians 16)

 

Now concerning the collection for the saints: as I directed the churches of Galatia, so you also are to do. On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come. And when I arrive, I will send those whom you accredit by letter to carry your gift to Jerusalem. If it seems advisable that I should go also, they will accompany me.

Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.

I rejoice at the coming of Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus, because they have made up for your absence, for they refreshed my spirit as well as yours. Give recognition to such people.

Love one another.

Love one another in encouraging one onother and giving to the advancement of the Kingdom.

Tuesday, 15 March 2022

Victorious in His resurrection (1 Corinthians 15)

 

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,

The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.

I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labour is not in vain.

Monday, 14 March 2022

Called to build and strengthen one another (1 Corinthians 14)

When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation.

Let all things be done for building up. For God is not a God of confusion but of peace.

If any speak in a tongue, let there be only two or at most three, and each in turn, and let someone interpret. But if there is no one to interpret, let each of them keep silent in church and speak to himself and to God.

 Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others weigh what is said. If a revelation is made to another sitting there, let the first be silent. For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all be encouraged, and the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets.

So with yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church.

Saturday, 12 March 2022

A family in Christ (1 Corinthians 13)

 

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way;

 it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends.

As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.

 

This is a picture of a family in Christ, its not perfect but it is willing to learn and seek to be like Christ. Remember this was a family full of jealousy, fights and bitterness, This even made then disorderly in their meetings. But Paul shows the better way, to seek the abiding the unperishable.

What will make us different is the way we respond to one another. We respond in love humility and unity.

 

So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Thursday, 10 March 2022

Made in His Image (1 Corinthians 12)

 

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.

But God has so composed the body, giving greater honour to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honoured, all rejoice together.

Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues.

At the beginning Paul gave thanks for them and the gifts that were bestowed on them in Christ. As gospel carriers we carry the image of our Father to all around us. With all the gifts bestowed upon us all we have the privilege of showing Him to those who have yet to know Him. No character or side of our Father is better than the other but all reveal Him.

Wednesday, 9 March 2022

Called to The Lords Supper (1 Corinthians 11)

 

For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another— if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home—so that when you come together it will not be for judgment.

Called to honour Him first (1 Corinthians 10)

 

Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.

All things are lawful,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful,” but not all things build up.

Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God, just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be save.

Monday, 7 March 2022

Called to a surrendered life (1 Corinthians 9)

 

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we, an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

 

I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.

 

The first part of this chapter is dedicated to Paul defending needing assistance from his fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.

Lifting one another up, caring and looking out for one another is part of our journey as we carry the gospel to those around us. We carry to one another as well. Living a gospel centered life is not a testimony to the unbeliever only but to our fellow brothers and sisters.

 

We are called to a life surrendered to the gospel. A life dedicated to sharing the gospel and sharing in the blessing and joy of a life surrendered to Jesus our Lord.

Thursday, 3 March 2022

Encourage one another (1 Corinthians 8)

 

For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol's temple, will he not be encouraged, if his conscience is weak, to eat food offered to idols? And so by your knowledge this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died. Thus, sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.

Now concerning food offered to idols: we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” This “knowledge” puffs up, but love builds up. If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. But if anyone loves God, he is known by God.

Look out for one another; find ways to strengthen and encourage one another.

Live as you are called (1 Corinthians 7)

 

Live as You Are Called


Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him.

This is my rule in all the churches.

Was anyone at the time of his call already circumcised? Let him not seek to remove the marks of circumcision.

Was anyone at the time of his call uncircumcised? Let him not seek circumcision.

 For neither circumcision counts for anything nor uncircumcision, but keeping the commandments of God.

 Each one should remain in the condition in which he was called.

Were you a bondservant when called? Do not be concerned about it. (But if you can gain your freedom, avail yourself of the opportunity.)

 

For he who was called in the Lord as a bondservant is a freedman of the Lord. Likewise he who was free when called is a bondservant of Christ.

You were bought with a price; do not become bondservants of men. So, brothers, in whatever condition each was called, there let him remain with God.

 

Tuesday, 1 March 2022

Called to unity (1 Corinthians 6)

 

Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to settle a dispute between the brothers, but brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers?

And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?

Paul continues to urge the Corinthian church to dedicate; set themselves apart; and act differently in the world they lived in. He reprimands them about infighting taken to outsiders.

 In this family of God we will have differences and challenges but we are called to act protectively and to work towards unity.