Seeds of New Growth
Praying for One Another
2 Corinthians 6:1-13 The Message
Staying at Our Post
6 1-10 Companions
as we are in this work with you, we beg you, please don’t squander one
bit of this marvelous life God has given us. God reminds us,
I heard your call in the nick of time;
The day you needed me, I was there to help.
The day you needed me, I was there to help.
Well,
now is the right time to listen, the day to be helped. Don’t put it
off; don’t frustrate God’s work by showing up late, throwing a question
mark over everything we’re doing. Our work as God’s servants gets
validated—or not—in the details. People are watching us as we stay at
our post, alertly, unswervingly . . . in hard times, tough times, bad
times; when we’re beaten up, jailed, and mobbed; working hard, working
late, working without eating; with pure heart, clear head, steady hand;
in gentleness, holiness, and honest love; when we’re telling the truth,
and when God’s showing his power; when we’re doing our best setting
things right; when we’re praised, and when we’re blamed; slandered, and
honored; true to our word, though distrusted; ignored by the world, but
recognized by God; terrifically alive, though rumored to be dead; beaten
within an inch of our lives, but refusing to die; immersed in tears,
yet always filled with deep joy; living on handouts, yet enriching many;
having nothing, having it all.
11-13 Dear,
dear Corinthians, I can’t tell you how much I long for you to enter
this wide-open, spacious life. We didn’t fence you in. The smallness you
feel comes from within you. Your lives aren’t small, but you’re living
them in a small way. I’m speaking as plainly as I can and with great
affection. Open up your lives. Live openly and expansively!
This
is the promise of God. In the early church, the focus was on living
the life that Christ taught. What attracted people was not an
alternative belief, but rather, an alternative life style, a life style
rooted in building and sustaining a loving community. It was a community
so subversive that it threatened the established common power.
Christians were persecuted and murdered not because of their faith but
because of the way they lived.
Pray
Pray
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