strength/weakness

How does what Paul says here apply to you?

2 Corinthians 12 

1 This boasting will do no good, but I must go on. I will reluctantly tell about visions and revelations from the Lord. 2 I[a] was caught up to the third heaven fourteen years ago. Whether I was in my body or out of my body, I don’t know—only God knows. 3 Yes, only God knows whether I was in my body or outside my body. But I do know 4 that I was caught up[b] to paradise and heard things so astounding that they cannot be expressed in words, things no human is allowed to tell.

5 That experience is worth boasting about, but I’m not going to do it. I will boast only about my weaknesses. 6 If I wanted to boast, I would be no fool in doing so, because I would be telling the truth. But I won’t do it, because I don’t want anyone to give me credit beyond what they can see in my life or hear in my message, 7 even though I have received such wonderful revelations from God. So to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud.

8 Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. 9 Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. 10 That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Marks account of Jesus & scum

Mark 2

13 Then Jesus went out to the lakeshore again and taught the crowds that were coming to him. 14 As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at his tax collector’s booth. “Follow me and be my disciple,” Jesus said to him. So Levi got up and followed him.

15 Later, Levi invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners. (There were many people of this kind among Jesus’ followers.) 16 But when the teachers of religious law who were Pharisees saw him eating with tax collectors and other sinners, they asked his disciples, “Why does he eat with such scum?”

17 When Jesus heard this, he told them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.”

2 things:

People considered scum were among the people who wanted to hang out around Jesus.

How many social outcasts want to hang out around you or me because we demonstrate an attitude toward them in line with the way Jesus connected with them?

How many of us would be followers of Jesus if the people who impacted us to follow Him had our attitude toward people considered scum?

Just a thought...

Lynn

I think I've had a perspective change as I've been dealing with the ongoing love & care of my wife Lynn & her bout with Alzheimer's.

My job, my ministry focus, my calling right now is to take care of her. Everything, & everybody, is secondary.

Our life together is the focus - it is what it is.

I don't know if I'll survive the task, but that isn't the issue, is it.

The things God calls us to are not things for which we have any guarantee of success, or of survival.

We are just mandated to obey.

At the beginning of the new year I'll be sharing the verses I feel God has given me for 2020.

I reminded myself right now of the verses I've held on to with a death grip for this past year of 2019.

These held me together this year.

I will keep on as long as I can.

That is the depth of my love & care for Lynn.



Don't be afraid or discouraged,

for the Lord is the One who goes before you.

He will be with you.

He will neither fail you or forsake you.

Deuteronomy 31:8 (NLT, 1st ed.)



Don't throw away this confident trust in the Lord,

no matter what happens.

Remember the great reward it brings you!

Patient endurance is what you need now,

so you will continue to do God's will.

Then you will receive all that He has promised.

Hebrews 10:35-36 (NLT, 1st ed.)



So take a new grip with your tired hands

& stand firm on your shakey legs.

Mark out a straight path for your feet 

so that those who are weak & lame will not fall

but become strong.

Hebrews 12:12-13 (NLT, 1st ed.)



You chart the path ahead for me

& tell me where to stop & rest.

Every moment you know where I am.

Psalm 139:3 (NLT, 1st ed.)

go

The mandate from Jesus is quite simple...

go...

Matthew 28

16 Then the eleven disciples left for Galilee, 

going to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 

17 When they saw him, they worshiped him—but some of them doubted!

18 Jesus came and told his disciples, 

“I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. 

19 Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, 

baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. 

20 Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. 

And be sure of this: 

I am with you always, 

even to the end of the age.”

onethreenine

Psalm 139

1 O Lord, you have examined my heart
    and know everything about me.
2 You know when I sit down or stand up.
    You know my thoughts even when I’m far away.
3 You see me when I travel
    and when I rest at home.
    You know everything I do.
4 You know what I am going to say
    even before I say it, Lord.
5 You go before me and follow me.
    You place your hand of blessing on my head.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
    too great for me to understand!

7 I can never escape from your Spirit!
    I can never get away from your presence!
8 If I go up to heaven, you are there;
    if I go down to the grave,[a] you are there.
9 If I ride the wings of the morning,
    if I dwell by the farthest oceans,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
    and your strength will support me.
11 I could ask the darkness to hide me
    and the light around me to become night—
12     but even in darkness I cannot hide from you.
To you the night shines as bright as day.
    Darkness and light are the same to you.

13 You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body
    and knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!
    Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.
15 You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion,
    as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.
16 You saw me before I was born.
    Every day of my life was recorded in your book.
Every moment was laid out
    before a single day had passed.

17 How precious are your thoughts about me,[b] O God.
    They cannot be numbered!
18 I can’t even count them;
    they outnumber the grains of sand!
And when I wake up,
    you are still with me!

23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;
    test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 Point out anything in me that offends you,
    and lead me along the path of everlasting life.

word

Don't know who this is for...



So don't get tired of doing what is good.

Don't get discouraged & give up,

for we will reap a harvest of blessing

at the appropriate time.

Galatians 6:9 (NLT, 1st ed.)

least

Our attitude stinks toward all the kinds of people mentioned here.

We should be ashamed.

But we have no shame these days.

We have justified our selfishness & self righteousness.

Remember that as you read the last sentence in this passage.

Matthew 25

31 “But when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit upon his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered in his presence, and he will separate the people as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will place the sheep at his right hand and the goats at his left.

34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. 36 I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.’

37 “Then these righteous ones will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? 39 When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?’

40 “And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’

41 “Then the King will turn to those on the left and say, ‘Away with you, you cursed ones, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his demons. 42 For I was hungry, and you didn’t feed me. I was thirsty, and you didn’t give me a drink. 43 I was a stranger, and you didn’t invite me into your home. I was naked, and you didn’t give me clothing. I was sick and in prison, and you didn’t visit me.’

44 “Then they will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and not help you?’

45 “And he will answer, ‘I tell you the truth, when you refused to help the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help me.’

46 “And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous will go into eternal life.”

a gift

2 Corinthians 5:14-21 New Living Translation (NLT)

14 Either way, Christ’s love controls us. 

Since we believe that Christ died for all, 

we also believe that we have all died to our old life. 

15 He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. 

Instead, they will live for Christ, 

who died and was raised for them.

16 So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. 

At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. 

How differently we know him now! 

17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person.

 The old life is gone; 

a new life has begun!

18 And all of this is a gift from God, 

who brought us back to himself through Christ. 

And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. 

19 For God was in Christ, 

reconciling the world to himself, 

no longer counting people’s sins against them. 

And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. 

20 So we are Christ’s ambassadors; 

God is making his appeal through us. 

We speak for Christ when we plead, 

“Come back to God!” 

21 For God made Christ, 

who never sinned, 

to be the offering for our sin, 

so that we could be made right with God through Christ.

just this

Here's all I've got today...


So take a new grip with your tired hands

& stand firm on your shakey legs.

Mark out a straight path for your feet

so that those who are weak & lame will not fall

but become strong.

Hebrews 12:12-13

LGLO

Matthew 22

34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees with his reply, they met together to question him again. 35 One of them, an expert in religious law, tried to trap him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?”

37 Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”

There you have it...

Jesus boils the whole of life down to 4 words...

Love God, love others.

LGLO

Everything else is just window dressing.

so...

Psalm 49

1 Listen to this, all you people!
    Pay attention, everyone in the world!
2 High and low,
    rich and poor—listen!
3 For my words are wise,
    and my thoughts are filled with insight.
4 I listen carefully to many proverbs
    and solve riddles with inspiration from a harp.

5 Why should I fear when trouble comes,
    when enemies surround me?
6 They trust in their wealth
    and boast of great riches.
7 Yet they cannot redeem themselves from death
    by paying a ransom to God.
8 Redemption does not come so easily,
    for no one can ever pay enough
9 to live forever
    and never see the grave.

10 Those who are wise must finally die,
    just like the foolish and senseless,
    leaving all their wealth behind.
11 The grave is their eternal home,
    where they will stay forever.
They may name their estates after themselves,
12     but their fame will not last.
    They will die, just like animals.
13 This is the fate of fools,
    though they are remembered as being wise. 

14 Like sheep, they are led to the grave,
    where death will be their shepherd.
In the morning the godly will rule over them.
    Their bodies will rot in the grave,
    far from their grand estates.
15 But as for me, God will redeem my life.
    He will snatch me from the power of the grave. 

16 So don’t be dismayed when the wicked grow rich
    and their homes become ever more splendid.
17 For when they die, they take nothing with them.
    Their wealth will not follow them into the grave.
18 In this life they consider themselves fortunate
    and are applauded for their success.
19 But they will die like all before them
    and never again see the light of day.
20 People who boast of their wealth don’t understand;
    they will die, just like animals.