Be With Me: 7 Minutes of Biblical Wonder

If you are in the family of God and are suffering, you are not abnormal.  Christianity is a hard call.  The Corinthians preferred otherwise.  They wanted the "rainbows and puppies" of what we call the prosperity gospel.

Paul reminds them of his suffering. He reminds them to expect suffering.  A walk with God that doesn't suffer in bearing with temptation, bearing burdens, and bearing in sufferings is not a real walk with God.  

He then charges them with two big tasks:

• watch ME as I rely not on ME; as I entrust myself to the Lord in the mess
• HELP ME; demonstrate that you too are relying on the Lord by joining me and voting with your soul in praying for me, for us, for right knowledge about suffering, for right reliance in suffering and in receiving comfort from God amidst the pains.

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3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 5 For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.

Chain of comfort S11E#2 2Cor1:3-5

 We have a “God of Comort” but not a comfortable God.  The good news is that He’s in it with us.  He sees our trouble.  We have His attention, care, and action.  Your life matters to you and it matters to Him.  

He’s made people His primary Ambassadors of Comfort.  He’s given us abilities for comfort; He’s equipped us for comfort and to comfort.  This is all good so far.

Here’s the tricky part: We are enabled to be good comforters by sharing in Christ’s sufferings. It is in copying the behavior of Jesus, specifically the afflicted Jesus, that our comfort and comforting blossoms.  Jesus bore burdens. Jesus resisted temptations. Jesus endured physical things. As we share in those, we participate in God’s comfort.

Join me for a 7 minute podcast here and available for free on Spotify, Google Podcasts, Pocket Casts, Podcast Addict and Apple Podcast.  I’m not saying it won’t come at a bit of a cost.  Thank you for your courage. Bewithme.us

Spiritual formation is a messy process.  We see this over time, with multiple "touches" by Paul.  He started with evangelizing and establishing the church at Corinth in 51AD.  He lived and worked there for 18 months while on his 2nd missionary journey.

By the time we get to this letter of 2 Corinthians in 56AD, he's written 1 Cor, visited them again on his 3rd missionary journey and followed up with a "grievous letter" that we don't have.

They are still asking about what kind of a God we serve and what kind of leaders does He use.  Paul will use himself as the example of the "anti-super-apostle" that Corinth seems to favor.

Christ is formed with difficulty; over time; by people; and with tears. Let's appreciate the pastors that do this challenging  work.  Listen 7 minutes and ask if God would have anything here that I might learn.  If the Lord grants another day, subscribe at bewithme.us to get another thought for tomorrow.  Spotify, Google, and apple podcasts would also be happy to have your subscription.

I've been accused of being more of a "lumper than a splitter." Here is the ultimate expression of those summary powers.  I've chosen 16 words, one each for the 16 chapters, that summarizes 1 Corinthians.  I know this might work best only in my little mind, but try with me:

• Divisions
• Trembling
• Growth
• UnPuff
• Judge
• Ownership
• Marriage
• Stumbling
• Rights
• Examples
• Despise
• Common
• Bear
• Limits
• Vain
• Service

Listen 7 minutes (actually today goes 8 minutes which is against all the rules!) and see this fleshed out.  This last day of "Season 10" is a good day to listen and visit bewithme.us to subscribe or on apple podcasts, google, deeper, pocket casts, instagram, YouTube  etc.

7 sets of hugs & kisses are sent from Paul as he concludes 1 Corinthians:

• The churches in Asia (you can read about them in Revelation 1-3) sends Hugs & kisses
• Your old friends Aquila and Prisca sends Hugs & kisses
• The Ephesian house church sends Hugs & kisses
• The whole brotherhood sends Hugs & kisses
• Paul sends Hugs & kisses (twice for good measure)
• The Lord sends Hugs & kisses
• and while we are at it, Hug and kiss yourselves there in Corinth.

Contrasted with this hug & kiss party is a group committed, set, and decided to have NO LOVE for the Lord.  In a sense they have "asked" to be cut off from the hug and kiss party. Paul prays for JUSTICE. He prays they get exactly what they asking for.

Listen 7 minutes and join the party.  Subscribe please. visit bewithme.us or instagram, Meta, LinkedIn, etc.

I don't mean that service should be secret.  In many ways, it is the furthest thing away from secret.  I do mean that it is one of the great secrets of Christianity.  It is a key to fellowship, encouragement and spiritual growth.  

We serve because of what Christ did for us.  
We serve devotionally.  That is we put our heart's desires practically into the order of our lives. 
We serve the saints.  Our primary duty is to love the church.  First things first.
We are subject to the servers. That is, we more than honor them and model them. We place ourselves under them, we subjoin and attach ourselves to them.  We do like they do for real.

Join me for a 7 minute podcast here to learn the great secret of SERVICE. please subscribe at Apple, Google podcasts or at bewithme.us 

Be Watchful. Be Strong. Act like men! Put your spiritual BIG-BOY-PANTs on!

Here's an uncomfortable thought. First, be watchful over YOURSELF. There is a lot of places we can get this spiritual walk wrong: in our thoughts, our habits, our outreach, etc.

Oh and BTW, there are LIONS OUT THERE. Imagine if your favorite hiking park was also frequented by real-life LIONS.  It would certainly change the way you hike! It would change the way you walk, how you keep watch, how you keep in step, and who you'd walk with. 

And this whole thing is going to require some strength, standing firm and "acting like men." How long? all the way to the end.  Listen 7 minutes as we hear the call to wear our BIG-BOY-SPIRITUAL-PANTS.  Then, courageously subscribe at bewithme.us or [email protected]

If you could sketch out the remained of your life on the back of a napkin, what would it look like.  What places, people and purpose would you plan?

Today, we get this glimpse of Paul's plans.  He is on this massive physical journey from Ephesus Turkey, to Corinth, Greece back to Jerusalem and then on toward Rome.  HE DOESN'T SURVIVE THE JOURNEY.  Newsflash: you won't survive yours either.  That is, we all have limited time here before entering eternity.

So then the question is: what shall I be involved in? For Paul it was the work of mentoring Timothy and the young Christians near him.  Watch him make decisions and commitments and desires for them.  Then, for us: be involved in stuff that matters; stuff that lasts.

Consider visiting bewithme.us and dropping an email so this blurb and podcast with come to your box tomorrow.  It is a great way to use 7 minutes of the time you have left.

The Bible gives some very direct answers to practical question the Corinthians had.  They wanted to know about Sex and Marriage and got straight answers. #2 on just about everybody's list is MONEY.  What should I be doing about giving?

Paul teaches it should be saved by everybody, laid aside on Sunday, and given in an orderly, planned way.  (Is it wise stewardship to give to the poor in your community via the guy with a cardboard sign?) It should be proportional to the prospering the Lord has blessed you with.  It should be accounted for and protected as it meets the needs of the local and worldwide church.  

Today's passage doesn't say all there is to say about giving, but if this was all you had, you'd be in pretty good shape.  Listen 7 minutes with me and subscribe at Bewithme.us  or subscribe at your favorite podcast, instagram,  or on the FB bewithme  7 minutes of biblical wonder page.

In a little while, "Death is swallowed up in victory".  So what?  That day doesn't look like today for me at least, so how should I live?  This is what we call SPIRITUAL WAITING.

But waiting doesn't mean sitting around doing nothing.  In fact, there is stuff to do with our hands AND our heads.

Our hands should be busy in the work of the Lord. It means abounding, with work left-over. Work should be your spiritual superpower. Spiritual waiting = excelling at working.  Lord, please give me a heart for doing too much.

Why all the work? It is because we know something. We are to be letting our HEADS inform our hands that work for the Lord is not IN VAIN.  

Here is your first "work" assignment.  Subscribe on bewithme.us or write at [email protected].    Or subscribe on the YouTube channel be with me.