Great heart

2 Corinthians 4.1— 1Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart.

Paul wrote this with his own personal experience in mind. He had just come from Ephesus, and things were not looking good. His friendships in tatters, the churches he led no longer wanted him and he felt like giving up. The mighty man that we know as Paul was pretty much reduced to a retired life in Tarsus where he could write a few books in his older age. But that’s not the ending the Bible demonstrates.

Paul knew that his calling, his ministry, his new life in Christ was given to him by the mercy of God— and therefore he will not lose heart. He sets his face like Middlesbrough steel and does not lose his focus. He remarks, ‘we are not crushed or overwhelmed by the present evil we face’ [that’s a more literal understanding of the Greek in these verses].

When we know that what we are doing is a commission from God and not some fanciful idea, we do not have the liberty to simply hang up our coat and retire. As God in his mercy has given this call, so faithfully we must continue to the action but also the words of the Bible.

Similar to Paul’s context, his words were not always the politically correct message the people of the first century wanted to hear, and neither will ours. We must continue to speak and act in love and the grace of God, but without compromise.

Stop and breathe

Loving Father, help me to hold true to your word, true to your calling and true to your service. May I demonstrate patience, love and grace to the people around me that they too may experi- ence Christ the way I also have.

Great boldness

2 Corinthians 3.17— 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

Paul continues to explain to the church in Corinth the incredible greater glory that we have since the rev- elation of the Spirit has been given. You can recall in yesterday’s reading that Moses had to cover his face because the people were afraid of the reflection of God’s glory on him. Now, Paul introduces the
word, ’boldness’ [v.12]. The meaning in Greek is ’to be open-faced’ or as we might interpret, ’bare- faced’. Effectively, Paul was able to say it as it is without fear of judgement.

The hope and life we receive through the revelation of the Spirit enables us to be bold not only in the proclamation of the gospel through our words, actions and lives but also in relation to our com- munion with God. Paul explains to the church that the Hebrews had a veil between them and God but our veil is lifted because of what Christ achieved through his death and resurrection.

We do not need to hide our glory because it is His. We reflect it. Therefore, because the Spirit has given us freedom, let us be real with each other. We don’t need to dress up with fancy language or pretence. But rather, let us bare one another’s burdens, let us prefer one another to ourselves, let us be the kind of community where broken people can be honest and bold—for this is what it means to have the law written upon our hearts.

Stop and breathe

Loving Father, it is incredible to know that where your Spirit is, there is freedom. Today, I pray for my church, that we would be a community of bold, bare-faced people. A community where peo- ple see integrity and open hearts. A place where the weak are made strong, a place where the broken are made whole, a place where the friendless are placed in families.

Greater glory

2 Corinthians 3.7-8— 7 Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glo- ry, transitory though it was, 8 will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious?

In his letter to the Corinthian church, Paul attempted to explain to them something that even today can sometimes muddle our thinking. As Moses stood upon the mountain, an incredible encounter with God took place. In fact, the Bible records that his face was shining, so much so, that he cov- ered it with a veil. Paul went onto explain that the gift of the law was a revelation of God’s glory but now, the revelation of the Spirit is an even greater glory.

Paul was challenging their understanding of what an apostle should look like, not dancing around performing miracles, but a man with bruises, war wounds, and even affliction. It was these marks, stated Paul, that were proof of the Spirit’s work in his ministry, not glamour and a social media fol- lowing. It is important that we not only bare the successes of what the world would recognise as success but also the wounds of suffering that have arisen through the church doing what it was des- tined to do. Standing in the gap, where the world is in pain and sorrow, a visible representation of the suffering Christ in our community.

Stop and breathe

Loving Father, thankyou for my church family that continue to serve you and love you and be a presence in this world. Thankyou for ministries like The Message, Foodbank, Credit Union and others who are visibly bringing light and life in the heart of Middlesbrough. Help me in my work- place, my family, my street to do the same.

Great expectations

2 Corinthians 3.5-6 — Such is the confidence that we have through Christ towards God. Not that we competent of ourselves...our competence is from is from God, who has made us competent to be min- isters of the new covenant.

Paul had a difficult job in writing this letter to the church in Corinth. In many ways he was walking a tight-rope. There were expectations that Paul was needing to be a mega-church leader (ie. Look who leads our church) and then conversely, he is having to explain himself to those who think he should have been more present in Corinth. Paul didn’t need to present to them his credentials, they came from God. His authority, leadership skills, ability to teach and speak truth came from God. Hence he says, that his message is not written on tablets of stone but on tablets of the heart.

There maybe occasions when you simply do not feel up to the job, where you feel there is a better person, more intelligent, eloquent or just simply more charismatic.

But God called you.

I want to encourage you to take a few moments to consider where God has placed you, in your family, workplace, community and church. God has made you competent to be a minister of the new covenant in those places. This truth is not written on stone but in your heart; it is a living mes- sage, a message formed by the Spirit.

Stop and breathe

Loving Father, thankyou that my confidence and competence are deeply rooted in you. It is not because of who I am but because of who you are. It is because of how you are working through me in every circumstance.

The great aroma
2 Corinthians 2.14—14 But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession and

through us spreads the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere.

The sense of smell is one of the first senses to develop in human beings, the cells that enable us to smell, renew approximately every 30 days and 75% of our emotional responses are driven by smell. You
might go into a bakery and the smell of freshly baked bread evokes a myriad of memories and im-
ages of home baked bread. Similarly, a high quality perfume will fill a room. Here in this scripture

there is a deliberate image created that you and I are to be partners with Christ in His great proces- sion of kingdom values and therefore spreading His fragrance.

In 2 Corinthians Paul lays bare his weaknesses and fragility. He has fear and tension in his own life, he is being attacked by others both from those who he thought were loyal and those who were just out to get him.

In the opening to his letter, also known as the orientation, the focus is on how Christ suffered and therefore is able to sympathise both with our challenges but also our weaknesses. Moreover, that in some way we are able to share in his sufferings through our own experiences and in so doing, we can help those who are also suffering. I wonder what a perfume designer would make of that aroma?

But this is our story. This is our song.

Through his sufferings, we are made whole. Through his sufferings we are able to face challenges, persecution and infirmity, in the knowledge that the aroma that we permeate is unlike any other.

Stop and breathe
Loving Father, may the words of our mouth and meditations of our hearts be pleasing and fragrant offering to you. May I use my thoughts, words and actions to the glory of your name.

Ross finishes off our series looking at the book of Ephesians.

The coronation

I am who You say I am

Psalm 8.5

1 Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
5 You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honour.

It is incredible to reflect upon Psalm 8 that commences with the greatness of God, his splendour, majesty, authority and combine this with the fact that God has chosen to crown you and I with glo- ry and honour. Yet, as we contemplated our origins in the dust of the ground and yet by Divine providence we are made alive in Him. The glory and honour is you and me—the Divine dirt that we are; we are fragile, yet we are His.

Today, what is filling your head space?

What is causing you to lose your balance?

What is burdening you?

What do you need to breathe out?

The Bible teaches us that God gives His Spirit without limit [John3.34] As you breathe Him in, breathe out those things that no longer take up your head and heart.

Stop and breathe

Father, help me to recognise those things that are crow+ding my thoughts and my head space. Help me to release those things to you. Like a new born baby that cries out for the first time so enable me to cry out to you and breathe you in.

Holy ground

Take off your shoes - this is holy ground

Exodus 3.4-5

4When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called out to him from within the bush, “Moses, Moses!” “Here I am,” he answered. 5“Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”

God heard the cry of his people to be liberated from slavery. God chose Moses, a shepherd, to lead His people to freedom. And whilst Moses was out in the arid ground of Midian, God called to him from a burning bush. Moses had been walking that ground many years and so it is not so much that the ground suddenly became different but rather, that Moses became aware of the presence of someone far greater than himself. Moses asks God what his name is, God replies to him, ’The LORD sent you’. In Hebrew God’s name is made up from four letters: YHWH, (yodh, hay, voe, hay). In or- der to pronounce these sounds in Hebrew, you have to breathe as you say them. Many rabbis in the early centuries believed that these sounds were literally like you were breathing in God or even that this extraordinary name of God is simply the sound of divine breathing.

As you start your day, or end your day why don’t you take a moment to utter the four sounds that make up God’s name.

Stop and breathe

Father, amidst the many things I have to do and accomplish today, may I stop, pause and not miss the burning bush in front of me. May I be the kind of person that hears your voice, recognis- es your call and follows your lead.

Stop, breathe and receive