Friends, I want to do an overview today of God’s Word to us from 2 Corinthians 5.  God generally works by instructing us on the Truth of our vertical relationship with Him, and then leads us to how that should affect our horizontal relationships with others.

2 Corinthians 5:6-9 – “We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, 7 for we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9 So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.”

In 2 Corinthians 5, God tells us that while we are apart from Him, because of His love towards us, we make it our aim to please Him.  First question then to ask yourself – is your aim to please God or to please yourself or please others?

2 Corinthians 5:14-15 – “the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; 15 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.”

Do you meditate on the love of God towards you?  Do you feel the weight of what it means for the infinite all-powerful, holy God to die the death for your sin, in your place?  Does the love of God compel you to die to yourself, and instead live for Christ?

2 Corinthians 5:17-19 – “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 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.”

If your aim is to please God, and if you are compelled by the love of God towards you, then here you go.  Your life will be a ministry of reconciliation.  Is your life marked by reconciliation?  Does the love of God compel you to not count others trespasses against you, and seek reconciliation if possible?  Does the love of God compel you to want to see others reconciled to God?

Christian, each day is a new day in the Lord and a new race to run.  We start each day with a choice to live according to what seems right to us, or to live in faith and follow after God.  Each day is a new day to allow the love of God to control how you live your life.  Each day is a new opportunity to give yourself to the ministry of reconciliation.  In all of these things we are dependent upon God and His grace, so run to Him knowing He is good and eager for our joy in following Him.  Know that you are loved and prayed for.

Grace and Peace,

Adam

If you want to have a better body, what do you do?  You eat well and work out, right?When we think about how we can change, we think about what we need to do in order to be changed.  God doesn’t change people like that though, we change not through our efforts, but simply by seeing God and His grace working in us.

2 Corinthians 3: 14-18 – “But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away.15 Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts.16 But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.18 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.”

This passage is referring to how many Jewish people were looking to the Old Testament law (rules) to establish their righteousness, and make themselves holy.  Following rules, can make you a good, moral person, but it doesn’t change anyone’s heart.  We’re changed because we see that no one is righteous by following the law, but in Christ we have defeated sin and the curse of the law, to be granted Christ’s perfect righteousness.  This promise of Christ’s righteousness is sealed by the Holy Spirit that indwells us.  Now, when we come to God’s Word, we no longer have to fear condemnation, because we are perfectly holy in Christ, now and forever.  Instead of fear, we are free to see and savor God’s perfections and glory.  Moreover, God even uses our sight of His glory from the Word to change us from the inside out; He changes our hearts and minds to become more like Him.  How amazing is our God!  My encouragement, is to not be fearful or reluctant in pursuing God in His Word, but devour it.  Let God meet you there, and ask Him to show you more of Himself and change you for your good and His glory.

Grace and Peace,

Adam

Often times God uses times of suffering and times of trials to remind us that this world is not our home, and every day we are in need of the grace of God. Every day, we need to be reminded that yes we sin, we are no longer bound to it because of the death of Jesus.  We no longer live under sin, but under the grace of God.  Likewise we are free to live a life of service and love towards others, an overflow of the joy we have in the love of God and delighting in His perfections – our inheritance in eternity, secure through the work of Jesus to the praise of His grace.  My encouragement today is to remember that our treasure is Jesus.  This is world is not as it should be because of sin – my sin, your sin, and the world’s sin.  But Jesus has died, and conquered sin, and overcome the world.  We have been reconciled to God, and the power of God in the resurrection of Jesus Christ in victory over sin and death lives in us, so that we can walk in freedom and joy.  Look to Jesus, and meditate on how He is better, more glorious, than anything the world could offer – our eternal reward, and rest in Him.

2 Corinthians 4:5-10 “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. 7 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.” 

Grace and Peace,

Adam

1 Corinthians 9:24 – “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.”

Today’s message hits home for me.  I was reading this passage earlier, and recounting experiences in my own life.  The Lord was gracious to call me at a young age, but by no means have I lived a perfect life.  God has used times of pain and suffering to grow my faith, and sanctify me.  The good news of the gospel is that Jesus accomplished for me, what I could never accomplish for myself, He defeated the power of sin, and covered me in His righteousness.  That is the grace of God to me and all who have believed.  Without fail, every time I have faltered in my race with Christ, it has been two-fold 1) I have neglected Godly disciplines/wisdom and 2) I have taken my eyes off of God and His will to put them on myself

When I talk about “The Discipline of Grace”, it is meant to be a contradiction.  Grace cannot be earned, it is a gift of God.  What I do mean is that God, who loves us, has spoken to us through His Word about ways to abide in Him, and make our joy complete in our fellowship with Him.  Every day, we have choices to make – we can pursue joy in ourselves/the world, which offers immediate happiness, but leads to brokenness, or we can pursue a race with Christ, which does not offer immediate joy usually, but does give peace, and an abiding joy and happiness.  So we prepare ourselves.  We recognize that we’re living today in light of eternity.  We discipline our lives to be careful who we surround ourselves with in close fellowship.  We love all people, but we accept counsel only from those who will point us to God and His will.  We love our non-believing neighbors and friends, but we are careful in how we walk, not to put ourselves in temptation.  We intentionally read our Bibles not to just learn more, but to delight our hearts in the knowledge of the glory of God, and all that He is for us in Jesus.   We pray, as those who realize they cannot take another step unless God is with them.  We look for brothers and sisters in Christ who will grow our affection for God, and schedule time with them.  We also ask those people into our lives to hold us accountable, knowing our weakness.  

Above, I said there were two things that have caused me to fall away from close fellowship with God.  If our hope is to grow more joy in God and more like Christ each day, everything above are disciplines that will guard that goal.  These you will find will be a great burden unless you discipline yourself to one thing – In light of the gospel, decide to set our purpose each day to pursue God wholeheartedly.  Seek God in the morning.  Seek God throughout the day.  Seek God in the evening.  Brothers and sisters, I have fallen as many times as any of you, but I am encouraged in the Lord that we should never let what has happened in the past determine today or tomorrow.  Moreover, God will never leave you or forsake you, He is for you, and wants the best for you always.

Philippians 3:12-14 – “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”  

Know as you read this, you have been prayed for, and are loved by God.

Grace and Peace,

Adam  

I created this blog to replace and supplement “Word for the Day” (WFTD) emails that I’ve sent out over the past 10 years or so.  Those began primarily as a means of sharing what God was showing my own heart with close brothers in Christ around me.  My writings will always be from this perspective – I will never share a message to others that God has not first shared/challenged my own heart with.  My hope for this blog is that it would be a place of rest and encouragement in God.  My own story is one of wandering from God and God’s redeeming work in my own heart and life.  I am not a vocational pastor, I’m just one broken sinner, telling other broken sinners where they can find life and joy in Jesus.  I have become convinced of this, that there is no good in me apart from God in me, and that the greatest joy we can have in this life and beyond is to follow Jesus.  In the early new testament church, Christians were called “Followers of the Way”, which is where this blog’s title comes from.

Christians, we are sinners saved by the grace of God, reconciled to God through the death and resurrection of Jesus.  This is true of us vertically, how should our heart overflow this truth into our horizontal relationships with one another in love?

2 Corinthians 5:16-21 – “From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer.  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.”

Because of the gospel – because we in our hearts have known God and His great love towards us, we should carry that heart to others.  In love we should desire others to be reconciled to God.  First we must preach the gospel to our own hearts – our first task of each day is to do this, and seek to get our hearts happy in God.  To unbelievers, we demonstrate forgiveness, patience, and love, and are bold to declare the gospel.  To our brothers and sisters in Christ, we forgive, show patience, and love, giving reminders of the gospel truths, and who we are in Christ.  I love, we remind our brothers and sisters that our sin has been crucified, that we are not to live to our flesh, but to run to where true joy can be found, in Christ’s righteousness, submitting ourselves to God who loves us more that we can ever know.  In all these things, we are constrained by the love of God towards us, to love others towards Jesus, maintaining a spirit of reconciliation.  His grace is greater than anything the world would offer.

Grace and Peace,

Adam

Our Lord Jesus, died, that we might live. He made an end of sin, so that we would be purified.  Every breath we take is the grace of God, undeserved.  What then should we do when someone neglects so great a salvation?  What if we ourselves find ourselves in a season of being far from God, at peace with our sin, rather than trusting in God and pursuing freedom from it?

1 Corinthians 5:9-13 “I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world.  But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one.  For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge?  God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”

Paul here is referencing a situation in which someone “has” his father’s wife.  It’s very important to note that the verb tense “has” vs. “had” tells us that this is not a previous event that has been repented of, but this is ongoing, unrepentant sin.  All of us have sin in our past, all of us have sin today, but we should fear an unrepentant heart that is at peace with sin.  I’m writing this message specifically after a message about the love of God, because what I want us to see is both the fear we should have of God as righteous judge, but also the love of God in the hope of salvation.  

1 John 3:9 – “No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God.”

Christian, every one of us has sin in 1 Corinthians 5:9-13.  If we’re honest, we have all of the sins listed.  We should never rest in our sin though, we should be resting in God.  So when we approach sin, especially seemingly unrepentant sin in others, we must do so humbly, with tears of concern, in love and honest desire for the person to be reconciled to God in repentance.  Each of us must be honest with ourselves and God as to whether there is a legitimate ongoing fight against sin through repentance (turning from sin to God in 100% submission/dependence) and faith (trusting in the goodness of God through Jesus Christ to free us from sin through His death, and provide a greater promise of joy in Him for eternity in His resurrection).  This is how all of us were saved, and this is how all of us walk with God daily and are “being saved” in sanctification.

My exhortation is that we all take serious the freedom we have in Christ from sin, and not neglect or trivialize how great a salvation we have in Him.  Moreover, this passage is a reminder of how desperately we all need Bible saturated, God-loving, servant-minded brothers and sisters in Christ in our lives.  Get involved with your church, be involved with a small group of fellow believers, and start running the race with people who God will use to strengthen your joy in Him.  The people of God are God’s ministry for us, and God’s grace towards us.  If you have no idea how to start, let me know, and I’ll give you easy suggestions.  Sin is always crouching at our door, trials/suffering are always just around the corner – no one stands alone, but we are meant to be helped by and a helper for our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Grace and Peace,

Adam

Friends, Before I jump in, I want to share how I was rebuked in a healthy way recently.  I, like many of us, have been going through a season of suffering/trial.  I began by doing a good thing – looking into God’s Word for guidance on what His will for this situation was.  Having come to a peace about what God’s Word said, I was eager to see that guidance applied to my situation, which involved others.  A couple brothers in Christ, in differing ways, called me to question my heart.  Could I be right about my theology/doctrine, but wrong in my motivation/application?  If my motivation is anything other than love, a gentle, humble desire to see the other person grow in their love for God, I have taken the good counsel of God and bastardized it from the living Word of God to become a weapon of my own selfish desires.  One even reminded me that even the demons know scripture (Jam 2:19, Luke 4).  The difference between us and the demons is love – everything we do should be out of a right understanding of God’s love towards us, and a desire to manifest God’s love towards others for His glory.  I share this both as a testimony of how gracious and good God is to us through our brothers and sisters in Christ, and also how much we all are in need of prayer and dependence upon God in all things – because apart from God, we are always prone to self-worship rather than the worship of God – God help me if I can even use His Word to sin, I am in need of grace every moment of every day.  We all are, and so in all my writing, in all my exhortation, we are all in this together.

I’ll tell you up front that I’m going a bit long today.  As a Christian, there is no greater help to our soul than to see and savor the love of God towards us.  It is in seeing God’s love that we are freed not only to love and find joy in God, but to love others.  Love is the end of Christianity, the overflow of a soul saturated by the Spirit of God; the end result of a heart that is secure, at peace, and in need of nothing beyond God who has already given Himself fully to us.  All that He has is ours, and thus we give all that we have in Him to others in love.

Friends, consider first what the love of God means.  You and I, in our flesh are incapable of the depth of love that flows from God.  We love people who love us, it’s a contract – if they treat us well, we will treat them well, but it is centered on us.  Even if we treat others well it is because in general we expect something in return either from that person, or to be praised by others.  God’s love is nothing like this.  1 Corinthians 13 (quoted at every wedding almost) describes all of the qualities of love – (verses 4-8) – “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.”  God’s love is extended to us not because of anything we have done for God, but simply because God is love, and His love has overflowed to us as mercy, grace, and lovingkindness in Jesus.  Romans 5:8 – “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

I wish all of us who have been broken, who have maybe never experienced selfless love towards us, would just sit here and dwell on the glory of the love of God.  Christian – if you are so loved by God, that He would die for you while you from your heart and your actions denied God, and rejected Him over, and over, and over again – if you were so loved by God as a sinner, how much greater must the love of God be towards you that you are now and adopted son or daughter, clothed in the righteousness of Jesus, our Savior.  He loves you, right now, right in the midst of all your sin, anxiety, struggles, regret – He declares to the world through Jesus, this is my beloved son, this is my beloved daughter.  I say we should rest here, because if your heart is not full of the love of God towards us in Jesus, you will never be able to truly love someone else, which is our calling as sons and daughters of God.

1 John 4:7-12 – “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.  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.  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.  Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.  No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.”  

I want all of us to feel something here – God does not choose to love us at times and not at others.  God IS love.  If God has set His love upon you, and adopted you as a son or daughter through faith in Jesus, you can know that everything in your life has been wrought from the love of God.  Every thought, every act of God in ordaining everything in our life is done in love.  It may not feel like it, especially when we encounter loss, suffering, trials, or even the monotony of life, but God in every moment of every day overflowing in love towards us.  We may not see it moment to moment, but we can always look to Jesus and know that even suffering is used by God to demonstrate His love and draw us toward Him.  The love of God should be a warm blanket that you can wrap yourself in when things in your life are not as you would have them be – you can know that God is in control, and He loves you more than you can fathom.

Again, I would say, it would be good to stop here, and rest in that – consider your life, all that you have come from, and set your heart to know that the love of God has always been and will always be for you in all things.  Sometimes – often times, the love of God is greatest when he calls us to endure hard times and loss.  Having rested there, consider also your motivations in life in your interactions with others.  Knowing the love of God, how can you manifest the love of God to your brothers and sisters in Christ?  How can you manifest it to those who are far from God?  All of the commandments of God, all of His calling on our lives is done in love.  He will never leave or forsake us, and whatever plans God has for our life, we will walk day by day in the love of God towards us.

Grace and Peace,

Adam

Friends, This will be a struggle for me, because when I speak about God, there is no end to how much could be said about His greatness, His mercies, His grace towards us, and all of His glory in His perfections.  That said, I also want these messages to be accessible, a quick encouragement rather than a discourse, so I am going to try my best to keep most of these short, and maybe only go long once a week or so.

1 Corinthians 2:1-5 – “And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom.  For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.  And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”

I was reading the passage this morning, and felt it’s message to be very timely.  Is this not what each of us is called to as Christians in simplicity?  To be weak, with reverent fear and trembling before our holy God, yet joyful knowing only Christ Jesus and Him crucified.  Christians by God’s grace have been given eyes to see their sin, they have by God’s grace been given ears to hear God’s Word and the message of Truth that Jesus took their sin upon Himself and died in our place, so that we would be free from the bondage of sin, and free to live in fellowship with God in joy.  My encouragement today, is simply that, consider the depth of what it means to know Jesus Christ.  Consider the depth of what is means to know him as crucified – what does that say about your sin?  what does that say about how you’re living?  what does that say about how you should love/interact with others?  Let us be weak in ourselves, but boastful in Jesus.  We are no longer enemies of God, but sons and daughters, called to live out the gospel in boldness as brothers and sisters in Christ.  Let our hope never rest in our “abilities” but in the power of God through Jesus.

Grace and Peace,

Adam

All of us are sinners by nature.  By our flesh’s nature, we desire affirmation, affection, pleasure, comfort, and happiness through what this fallen, broken world can offer rather than finding those things in God.  Apart from God’s intervention, we are not only prone to sin, but we are told we are actually slaves to it.  This is tragic news for those of us who have experienced the consequence of sin in our lives, both our sin against others, and others’ sin against us.  We do things that lead to pain to others, and we do things that lead to pain for ourselves.  God in His mercy, and great love towards us, did not leave us in this hopeless state, but in love, he came and died in our place, paid the price for our sin in His blood, to free us from our bondage to sin.

Even after we turn to Jesus for salvation, I and every other Christian, although now free to choose to worship God and find our joy in Him, still have sin that desires to lie to us and lead us away from God.  As your brother in Christ, who has walked both well with God and apart from God, my encouragement is to reject the lies of sin.  They are pleasant for a short time, but in the end, they lead to brokenness, destruction, emptiness, and death.  Long fellowship with God is much sweeter than anything the world could offer.  God dwells in us, His righteousness has become our righteousness, and rather than slaves to sin, we are now slaves to righteousness, bringing freedom, light, and the joy of God to our own heart and others.

Romans 6:16-18 – “Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.” 

My exhortation to my own heart every day, and to all of you as my brothers and sisters in Christ is to keep looking to Jesus and the freedom from sin you have in Him.  If you are struggling with a specific sin area, and it is known to you, lay it down and keep laying it down at Jesus’ feet.  It may be a challenge for a while, and will require support from your brother’s and sister’s in Christ, but God will be gracious to you as you seek Him.  He loves you, and wants you to be joyful.  God also knows that the greatest source of joy is in a relationship with Him, so He will always seek that for you.  Remember, as you pursue God daily and encounter trials and temptation, remember that in Christ, the battle has already been won.  Remember that Jesus has purchased for you something better, a better life of freedom as you walk with Him.

Know you’re all loved and prayed for.

Grace and Peace,

Adam