Perfect in Weakness
Read: 2 Corinthians 12:1-10 He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you.” (v. 9) Members of my congregation occasionally express frustration with Christians who claim God will answer every prayer, “As long as you have enough faith.” At the same time, they ask, “If God has the power to grant our requests, why doesn’t […]
Boasting in the Lord
Read: 2 Corinthians 10:1-6, 13-18 Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord. (v. 17) The wife of a well-known, brilliant professor once recounted to me a conversation with her future mother-in-law, who gave this advice: “Make sure you don’t compliment him too much. It will go to his head, and he’s already too boastful.” […]
October 2023 Prayer Guide
ALBANIA — The Words of Hope team in Albania seeks to develop biblical content that is produced by Albanians for Albanians. Because of this, they are focusing on training emerging authors. Last spring a special workshop was held for Albanian devotional writers. Now the team is working to keep in touch with the participants, collect […]
The Indescribable Gift
Read: 2 Corinthians 9:6-15 God loves a cheerful giver. (v. 7) In the classic film It’s a Wonderful Life, George Bailey spends his life serving others, often at the cost of his dreams. George believes his efforts have been wasted, but a heavenly messenger gives George a glimpse of his irreplaceable impact on the world. This […]
Good Grief
Read: 2 Corinthians 7:2-13 Godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation. (v. 10) In recent years, protests have erupted across America. Depending on which side of an issue you identify with, you’ll consider a given protest needlessly destructive or justifiably disruptive. But at its best, protest takes on the shape of lament: honest assessment […]
Unequally Yoked
Read: 2 Corinthians 6:11-7:1 We are the temple of the living God. (v. 16) When I was growing up, I heard the term “unequally yoked” used to warn against marrying a partner who wasn’t a Christian. But Paul’s caution against being unequally yoked applies to much more than marriage. While committed Christians are wisely encouraged, when […]
No Time Like the Present
Read: 2 Corinthians 6:1-10 Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation. (v. 2) When I was growing up, my family observed an annual Saint Nicholas Day celebration in early December. We gathered with friends, sang, and feasted. Then, Saint Nick himself (one of the dads in costume) appeared. We kids […]
The New Creation
Read: 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. (v. 17) When he made his first foray into television, Fred Rogers hated that medium. He saw it as a platform in which human degradation was turned into entertainment. Instead of merely co-opting this inherently corrupt mechanism to do good, Mr. Rogers […]
Home Awaits
Read: 2 Corinthians 5:1-10 We have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. (v. 1) In college, I took a course that included watching Citizen Kane which, due to my youth and inexperience, I failed to appreciate. I thought, Why would the richest man in the world go to […]