Word of God daily online Bible study From the Living Bible
From the Living Bible.
April 15, 2009
Scripture verse of the day Romans 12:2
Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but be a new and different person with the freshness in all you do and think. And you will learn from your own experience how his ways will really satisfy you.
Scripture reading of the day 2 Corinthians 4
It is God himself, in his mercy, who has given us this wonderful work of telling his good news others, and so we never give up. We do not try to trick people into believing – we are not interested in fooling anyone. We never try to get anyone to believe that the Bible teaches what it doesn’t. All such shameful methods we reject. We stand in the presence of God as we speak and so we tell the truth, as all who know us will agree.
If the good news we preach is hidden from anyone, it is hidden from the one who is on the road to eternal death. Satan, who is the God of this evil world, has made him blind, unable to see the glorious light of the Gospel, or to understand the amazing message we preach about the glory of Christ, who is God. We don’t go around preaching about ourselves, but about Christ Jesus as Lord. All we say of ourselves Is that we are your slaves because of what Jesus has done for us. For God, who said, “let there be light in the darkness has made us understand that it is the brightness of his glory that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ.
But this precious treasure-this light and power that now shine within us–is held in a perishable container, that is, in our weak bodies. Everyone can see that the glorious power within must be from God and is not our own.
We are pressed on every side by troubles, but not crushed and broken. We are perplexed as we don’t know why things happen as they do, but we don’t give up. We are hunted down, but God never abandons us. We get knocked down, but we get up again and keep going.
These bodies of ours are constantly facing death just as Jesus did; so it is clear to all that is only the living Christ within and keeps us safe.
Yes, we live in constant danger to our lives because we serve the Lord, but this gives us constant opportunities to show forth the power of Jesus Christ within are dying bodies. Because our preaching we face death, but it has resulted in eternal life for you.
We boldly say what we believe trusting God to care for us, just as the Psalm writer did when he said “I believe and therefore I speak.”
We know that the same God who brought the Lord Jesus Christ back from death will also bring us back to life again with Jesus, and present us to him along with you. These sufferings of ours are for your benefit. And the more of you who are won to Christ, the more their heart to thank him for his great kindness, in the more the Lord is glorified.
That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our inner strength in the Lord is growing every day. These troubles and sufferings of ours are, after all, quite small and won’t last very long. Yet this short time of distress will result in God’s richest blessings upon us forever and ever. So we do not look at what we can see at the moment, the troubles all around us, but we look forward to the joys and have been which we have not yet seen. The troubles will soon be over, the joys to come will last forever.
Sam’s response
In reading the Scripture above we see three times, that’s as we never give up.
When we are filled with the Spirit and we press in closer to God, the things of this world become much less interesting when we know the truth. We can look forward to an eternal life that I am sure will be beyond all of our current capacity to even realize how awesome it would be.
The ruler of this earth, Satan, will constantly tempt us to believe the lies he is feeding us. As a follower of Jesus Christ, our vision and focus needs to be on heaven, and what is to come, not what we see with our eyes here on earth.
As you continue to follow the Lord, your spirit and recognition of the spirit will become your guide. No longer do you need to conform to what you see, as the Holy Spirit breathes life into you that is renewed and full of hope.
This renewed strength by nature is spiritual and the battles that we face are not based in the natural, but in the spiritual realm. This is the place Jesus gave us all authority over Satan. Here is where the real battle is.
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