Daily Inspirations

Good morning. Continuing: For if the ministry of condemnation (The law could only condemn you for not obeying it; it could not help you to obey it.) has glory, much more does the ministry of righteousness abound in glory. For indeed what had glory, in this case has no glory because of the glory that surpasses it. For if that which fades away was with glory, much more that which remains is in glory. Therefore having such a hope, we use great boldness in our speech, and are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face so that the sons of Israel would not look intently at the end of what was fading away. Moses would go into the tent of meeting to talk with God. When he came out, his face would be glowing after being in the presence of the glory of God. Everyone would be amazed. But after a while, the glow would fade away (which symbolized the eventual fading away of the law of Moses). To keep them from seeing the glow fade away, Moses would put a veil over his face until the glow ...

  Good morning. Continuing with “our adequacy is from God“: who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills but the Spirit gives life. Now the 10 Commandments were written by God on tablets of stone; but the law of Moses was written with ink on parchment. Throughout the centuries, the priests’ job was to make sure that everyone obeyed “the letter of the law“. One can obey the law outwardly while despising it inwardly. The law does not invoke life in the doer of the law. But if the ministry of death, in letters engraved on stone, came with glory, so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, fading as it was, how will the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory? The law in itself could not give life, but could only show you how you did not measure up. Father help us to allow Your Spirit to control all that we say or do.

  Good morning. But in actuality, Paul did have a letter. You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men; being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. Letters are nice, but they are not permanent. Ink can fade or run, and paper/parchment can be torn or destroyed. What is written can only be seen by those people with whom you share the writing. But what is written on the heart by the Holy Spirit lasts forever and can be seen by all people that you come in contact with, whether or not you desire for them to see it. Such confidence we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God. Father thank You for another beautiful day. Help us to show what You wrote on our hearts to those around us.

  Good morning. For we are not like many, peddling the word of God, but as from sincerity, but as from God, we speak in Christ in the sight of God. The word peddling invokes the imagery of a movie about the old west where you have a man in a wagon traveling from town to town selling various items to people. These so-called preachers would travel from town to town “selling“ the word of God to people in the churches. Do we need, as some, letters of commendation to you or from you? Apparently these peddlers of the word as they went from town to town would get someone from the church in the town to write a letter of recommendation that they could take with them to the next town. By the time that person discovered the truth about the “preachers”, it was too late, they had already bilked the people in the next town out of their money. Paul said “I don’t need no stinking letter“, I’ve got you as my letter of recommendation to others. Father go with the reader and help him/her to have a gr...

  Good morning. Skipping some verses: but thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph (my Bible says that the imagery is that of a Roman triumph in which the victorious general would lead his soldiers and the captives they had taken in festive procession, while the people watched and applauded and the air was filled with the sweet smell released by the burning of spices in the streets) in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life. And who is adequate for these things? So non-Christians are the “walking dead“, with toe tags on their feet; while Christians are “walking bags of potpourri”, bringing a sweet smell wherever they go. Father help us to bring the sweet smell of Christ wherever we go.

Good morning. It is possible that the “sorrow“ that Paul was talking about was from First Corinthians where he talked about someone having his father’s wife (stepmother), and them being complacent about it. He scolded them and said that he had already judged him, and had decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Continuing where we left off in Second Corinthians: if any has caused sorrow, he has caused sorrow not to me, but in some degree to all of you. Sufficient for such a one is this punishment which was inflicted by the majority, so that on the contrary you should rather forgive and comfort him, otherwise such a one might be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. Wherefore I urge you to reaffirm your love for him. For to this end also I wrote (this makes it seem like the writing we talked about yesterday was First Corinthians instead of some unknown letter), so that I might put you to the test, w...