September 1, 2011

9-1-11 Thursday, 5:06 am Springfield, 78 warm degrees.

Welcome September! A brand new month to serve Christ and advance the kingdom of God! I always enjoy change and progress, even when it is ordinary and routine, such as the progression of the months. This morning at Wesley the staff will work on calendaring dates into the spring. Careful planning is so important to the church and the ministry of the saints.

II Corinthians 5

The apostle Paul reminds us that our earthly bodies are weak. He compares them to a tent, compared to the building, the heavenly dwelling prepared by God. In verses 6-10he describes the tension of being at home in the body (this human life) as being “away from the Lord” (i.e. not in heaven). He concludes this paragraph with the clear reminder: “For all of us must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive recompense for what has been done in the body, whether good or evil.” It is profitable to daily meditate upon this coming judgment before Christ, so that daily each of us can choose to invest this temporal life in doing good.

Verses 11-21 is a section containing some of the most vivid, applicable truth in this epistle. “For the love of Christ urges us on, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died. And he died for all, so that so that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them.” In these two sentences lie the heart of the Gospel – Jesus died for all, and was raised from the dead, so that living for him we might no longer live for ourselves.

Verse 17 is one of my favorite verses in all of scripture: “So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!” I am a new creature in Christ, and in Him I live, and move and have my being. Every day I have the opportunity to experience this newness, to explore its possibilities and to enhance the ministry of reconciliation that Christ has given to each of us who live in this newness. Just as “in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them,” so now he has entrusted “the message of reconciliation to us.” (verse 19)

Guide me today Lord as I experience this new month as a new creature, entrusted with the ministry of reconciliation. I thank you for each opportunity to share and demonstrate the message of reconciliation in this lost and broken world. I thank you for those who “trespass against me” that I might forgive them, and die more to self, living fully unto You.