2 Corinthians 5:13 Insanity?

I was looking through my old notes in 2 Cor 5 when i noticed I wrote something in pencil. It was really hard to read, but it was long. I decided to rewrite it in pen and what I saw a gem of conviction. It’s crazy how I ended up writing this and never had too much thought about it. The notes are so good that I’ll just write it straight from it (with a little additions and clarifications).

2 Cor 5:13
If we are out of out mind (insane), it is for the sake of God; if we are in the right mind, it is for you.

People call Paul mad or insane. Acts 26:24, he was called insane for Christ, doing His will, even in the midst of crap (2 Cor 4:7-12) and always referencing his mind on Christ and God (Acts 26:22). In reality, if you live a life that’s not insane, are you really with Christ? Think about it, you’re in a relationship with a guy whose sole purpose was to serve, never thinking of Himself (Phil 2:6-8). If you had an inkling of Christ, wouldn’t your life seem “insane” to those outside of Him? Would a “sane” person give up all he has to follow Christ (Matt 16:24)? Would a “sane” person give up making his life work for the sake Christ and others (Matt 16:25)? That’s insane…but that’s who Christ is and that’s what He wants. This is why (1 Cor 1:18-21) it’s foolish to the world…  Are you, in the eyes of the “sane,” insane in what you do for the sake of Christ? If not…there might be something wrong with your faith…….

Ouch..

Job: Is heaven enough?

I’ve been really inspired by “You Hold Me Now” by Hillsong from their new cd Faith+Hope+Love album (free advertisement, maybe I can get something from them..haha…just joke)

In the song, it talks about heaven (rev 21) and I got to thinking, is heaven enough for me?

Look at the story of Job for a moment. This is a man blessed by God for his righteousness. He was wealthy and everything and Satan comes in and says, “Dude, the only reason why he loves you so much is because of the gifts you give him. Get rid of them and I’ll show you that he’ll curse you.” Job, in one day, loses his livestock, his servants, his wealth and his children. The next day, he loses his health and his wife tells him to “curse God and die!” However, Job perseveres without the gifts that were given to him.

Is this how we’re willing to live? I was thinking to myself, “everything given to me besides salvation is a gift that God doesn’t need to give me (well, this goes along side with the salvation, but you know what I mean, hopefully…). The family, the car, the friends, the church, the electronics I have, the life I have…..everything is a gift from God. With this in mind, what if God took it all away? Would I still be as responsive to who He is with my life?

How about this, is heaven enough for you? The salvation you gain here is for the life we will live with Christ after we depart. Is that enough for us? I was referenced to Matt 6:33 where God will give us what the pagans run after if we seek first His kingdom and His righteousness. What do you hear non-christians saying when they talk about after death? “Oh, I’ll be in heaven.” “Oh I know he’s in heaven.” etc…. You see, even they think of heaven and want it. What if God tells you that everything you do will be rewarded to you in heaven, not on earth…would you still follow?

Look at the example of Christ. Phil 2:6-8. He humbled Himself, making Himself nothing, becoming a servant….for what? To be killed….on a cross…His reward? Heaven…

Overall, are you willing to work for the Lord with everything you had EVEN if God gives you nothing on Earth?

Mark 9:24 Help my unbelief!

Mark 9:24 Immediately the boy’s father cried out, “I do believe; help my unbelief!”

The story is about a father who has a really bad demon possessed boy. Like the kid is pretty messed up. When Jesus comes, the father says this (v22) “It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But IF YOU CAN do anything, take pity on us and help us.”

Everything points to this guy not truly believing that Jesus can do anything, even with all the stories of other healings.

Is it just me, or is this us? I mean, we don’t have any possessed children (well, I hope not…), but aren’t we like the father? Always second guessing what God can do? I mean, we know that He can do everything and we know that He’s done many things for others, but what about us? They great thing about this story is this and it spoke to me a lot. The father didn’t hold back his son. In fact, he asked Jesus to help him with his unbelief by giving Him what was seemingly unbelievable. Did that make sense? Here let me try that again. He gave Jesus the one thing that the father thought was impossible. He took that leap of faith in giving God what was “unbelievable” and let God use that to work on his unbelief.

What is your “child” in this case? For me, it’s the thought of money. I’ve been placed in a situation where money seems to be my “child.” My parents don’t have much and I’ve been pretty much living off of them, but now it’s to the point where a) I don’t want to depend on them and b) I don’t think I can depend on them anymore with all this “new stuff.”

I heard this once and it really stuck to me. How can we see God’s faithfulness if we don’t allow Him to show it? How can our faith be proven right if we don’t put our faith out there? How can I allow God to help me with my money situation if I don’t put myself out there in faith? How can God show you He’s faithful if you don’t allow Him to?

What’s great is this… Faith, even if you don’t a lot of it, God will still respond if you step out. The father, who was still weak in his faith, gave his son to Jesus and He proved Himself faithful by healing His son.

Remember this (and I’m speaking to myself mostly) Matt 6:33 Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and He will give you what you need (or what the pagans run after).

Mark 9:23b “Everything is possible for him who believes.”

Philippians 2:5-8 WWJD

Phil 2:5-8

⁵Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
⁶Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
⁷but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
⁸And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross!

These verses had been stuck on me for quite some time and now are one of those verses I constantly say in my head.

I also thought randomly, one day, about those WWJD bracelets everyone, at one time, seemed to have. At time, I even thought that people wore them as a fad rather than a reminder of what Jesus would do in certain situations (and I’m starting to think that with the whole He>i thing too).  So….what would Jesus do?

I think these 4 verses state them beautifully. They are simple and to the point. Jesus came, obviously, not to be served, but to serve (Matt 20:28), and here’s how.

He never took a hold of who He was when things got nuts. Think about it, He is God. He could’ve done whatever He wanted, but did He? No, He did what everyone else wanted Him to do in terms of service. For example. when people wanted to be healed, He healed them. One thing that always gets me, and I know I’ve said this many times before, is the Luke 9:10-17. He withdrew, meaning He wanted to be alone with His disciples, but the crowds came. Did He run faster? Did He summon walls of dust to shoo them away? No, He welcomed them, healed them, fed them, etc. Is that what we do? When we want to be by ourselves, yet people come to us, do we welcome them or not? Lastly, think about the crucifixion. Dude, if I was God (and thank Him that I’m not), I would’ve turned everyone to frogs when they hit me or something. Watching Passion of the Christ wrecked me. How can He have sooooo much self control not to knock any of these guys down?

Verse 7 wrecked me. He made Himself NOTHING. I don’t know how else to explain this except that He never thought of Himself as too good to serve. He was nothing in His mind and everyone else was everything. He took the very nature of a servant. HE TOOK. Not, “It was forced on Him.” No, He took the identity. He served. That’s who He was and that’s how He lived.

(Here’s a secret to serving. Make yourself nothing and it’ll be much easier.)

He became obedient even to death. Is that us? Do we serve even when it hurts? Jesus did. He did it to the point where it killed Him. Do you?

If you have one of those WWJD stickers or bracelets, and you decide to put it back on, always remember this. What would Jesus do? Not refer to His rights, made Himself nothing and became a servant who was obedient even to His death. Now verse 5 gives us our application. Is this our attitude in life?

James 2:18 & 22 Faith

¹⁸But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”
Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.
²²You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did.

This is going to be more of thought rather than a command or insight. I’ve been really hit with the thought of faith. The first thing I saw was the fact that faith always has actions. I’ve heard many people in my lifetime (which isn’t long) say they have faith, but their life and their decisions don’t show it. What I mean by that is their life decisions are purposely not on God’s word because a) they don’t know it or b) they’re too scared. Saying you have faith and not acting on it is not really faith, but knowledge. You have knowledge of God. Knowledge doesn’t get you into heaven (It doesn’t say “Well done my good and knowing son”) nor does it show you the blessedness of God (If you lose your life for His sake, you will gain life).

As v22 shows, action is the “completer” or the “perfector” of faith. So the question to us is….. do we have faith? Do we believe in the word of God and what God has promised us? All of these questions stem from 2 verses, Matt 6:33 (But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things (that the pagans run after) will be given to you as well.) and Matt 16:25 (For whoeverwants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.) These two verses are verses of faith not necessary for salvation but to show the true blessedness of God. Life in the latter verse symbolize satisfaction. You gotta have the biggest faith in the world to let your own life take a backseat while placing God in the front. Seek first, lose life for His sake, Be still (ps 46:10), etc, but all these promises have something crazy at the end. He will give you everything you want (Ps 37:4, Rom 8:32). The question is, do we have enough faith to actually go through with it because it says in 2 Cor 1:20 that all of His promises are a yes.

I know that some would think, “God doesn’t give me the things I want!”  Well, the question is, did you “seek first” or “lose your life for His sake?” Meaning, did you stop trying to make your life work for God? Seemingly, the way Jesus “didn’t make His life work” was by serving the people around Him. Is that what you do? Did you stop trying to make your life work for the sake of making other people’s life work? If you haven’t done that, then of course God didn’t give it to you yet.  If you owned a store and you hired a person, would you pay them before they did their hours? I bet not, so if we use this logic, why would God give you those things? You did not fulfill your duties so why does God have to fulfill His? But the crazy thing is God still gives you some of things you want…. It shows His true grace and true love for you.

I’m beginning to see the blessedness of God through my serving. Even though I suck at it and I fail consistently, God seems to hold true to His promise. I’m beginning to receive things that I want AND need. I’ll tell you now, those verses, they are true. God is faithful to His word. Follow it. Faith, it’s the only thing that pleases God and the only thing that can “astonish” Him.

So once again, the big question is:

Are you willing to stop your life for the sake of Christ whose ultimate ambition was to serve others?
Just remember His promises…

2 Corinthians 2:17 Where art thou motives?

2 Cor 2:17
Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity like men sent from God.

It seems that the “Christians” in Paul’s time was preaching for gain rather than to do God’s will. In my head, I hear a conversation like this. “Eh, what can you tell me about this verse?” The “Christian” would say, “What’s in it for me?” You look at that phrase and say, “dude, that’s so messed up. Are you serious? Why would you do that?” Now hold that thought and lets continue with the interpretation.

We have to look at ourselves and say, “Do we do that?” I bet you that you do. Maybe not in the way that I stated through that little impromptu conversation, but think about it. God tells us to preach the word, but seemingly, actions speak much louder words. 1 John 3:18 tells us to show love through actions (the goal of the word is to love Matt 22:37-38) and 1 Peter 2:12 tells us to live such beautiful lives amongst the nonchristians.  I heard this once and my pastor quotes it a lot. “Preach the word and speak it sometimes.”

So the way we act, the way we serve, is it all for the God? Have you ever served for “profit?” Not just monetary gain, but gain in anything? Did you ever serve in order to get praise (thank yous, that’s awesome!, you’re awesome!), material things (money, gifts, food, etc), and anything else other than God? Well, “Dude, that’s so messed up. Are you serious? Why would you do that?”

So when you serve or preach the word, where are your motives?  Are they upwards or elsewhere? Gal 1:10 tells us that if we do it for man (including yourself…..Phil 2:3) we’re not Christians (or servant of Christ, meaning He’s not our master). The question you gotta ask yourself now is, “Can I present my motives in front of God and not be embarrassed?” Paul did just that. (“..we speak before God with sincerity”). The word sincerity literally means tested by sunlight, which basically means pure. His motives were pure BEFORE GOD. Can you do that? Probably not, so how can we? The two words before that phrase, “In Christ.”

How have your motives been lately? Can you share them before God? Are they pure?

Matthew 4:5-6 Satan or God?

Matt 4:5-6
⁵Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple.
⁶“If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:
” ‘He will command his angels concerning you,
and they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’ “

After becoming more familiar with His word, I was really startled to see that even Satan uses it. It’s interesting that the picture of Satan as the ugly red devil with a pitchfork is the complete wrong picture that’s painted in the bible. 2 Cor 11:14 tells us that Satan “masquerades as an angel of light” meaning he’s brilliant.

Now think about it, how scary is that? Satan, the guy we’re trying to fight against, walks around as an angel of light who can and does use scripture. I found it intimidating and scared for some time. How can I tell the difference between God and Satan?

To answer that question, read Matthew 4:5-6. You see that Satan uses scriptures for self gain. “Throw yourself down to prove that you’re the Son of God because it says in the bible He’ll save you.” You begin to see that when you start hearing scriptures in your head that are for your benefit, it’s Satan masquerading as the angel of light. The junk thing about it is that our natural tendancy is to be selfish and to promote ourselves so the verses he gives us to do such things, we have a tendancy to act on it.

I know that Satan has done this to me and unfortunately, I fell into the trap. I became super angry at someone because that person wouldn’t follow a certain verse that was in the bible, but when I look back at it, it was only to benefit me. I was blinded by my own self and Satan’s use of the word.

Now you gotta look at yourself. Do you do these things? Do you listen to the voices in your head when they tell you scriptures that benefit you? You are being deceived. Even scarier, are you the one spitting out scripture that benefits you? You have become the deceiver or just worked on the agenda of Satan.

1 Tim 1:8 But we know that the Law is good, IF one uses it lawfully.

James 2:1-4 Who are you living for?

James 2:1-4
¹My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don’t show favoritism. ²Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in. ³If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the poor man, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,” ⁴have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

In my life, I see the men with gold rings and fine clothes as people that can give many things and the poor as those who can’t give anything. The “good seat” are things of prestige or things that are more than usual.

With that in mind, do you look to people who can give things to you with more attention, more time, more….of anything while looking at those who can’t give back with less attention, less time, less…of anything? When serving, do you serve those who can benefit you more than those who can’t benefit you? It’s an interesting thought. Why would you do that?

I was really thinking about it…..and I realized the selfishness of it…

The question is, where is your reward when it comes to serving? Is it in the mouths of people (words, praise, the thank yous) or the material things (food, money, etc), or in heaven? Well, I guess the better question to ask is, are you willing to serve if you know that there’s going to be no thank yous, no words or recognition, no gifts, no etc? Are you willing to serve knowing that the only person that’s going to see it is God? If that’s the case, you would show no favoritism.

Gal 1:10 says that if your audience is men not God, you are not a servant of Christ, or simply put, not Christian.
In Matt 5:21, it says where your treasures are, your heart is also.

So you gotta ask yourself now with the overall question. Who are you living for?

Mark 12:41-44 It’s the sacrifice, not the gift.

I’ve heard this story many times and I’ve known this application for years…..but for some reason, it only hit me hard today.

⁴¹Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. ⁴²But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a fraction of a penny.

⁴³Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. ⁴⁴They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”

When it comes to service to the Lord, it’s not how much you give to God, but rather how much you sacrifice FOR HIM that he cares about. In this story, you see how the rich come and give a whole lotta money to the church, but they gave out of their wealth, probably meaning that if they were put in the same situation with less wealth, they wouldn’t do the same thing.

The poor widow, on the otherhand, gave up her two copper coins which don’t even add up to a penny, yet this is the women that God said placed more money in the treasury than all the other offering givers.

When you look at the sacrifice that the wealthy gave up, it was nothing. They still had plenty of money to live comfortably, securely, and get what they want. The widow gave up her comfort, her security, they things she wanted for the sake of the church and Jesus said that she gave more to the church than any of the other people.

So the real question you have to ask yourself is, are you willing to give up everything you have for the church and for God? Your comforts, your security, your wants?

They are not without reward though. Matt 6:33, Luke 9:24, Ps 37:4, Gal 6:9, these all have the condition statement that if you do God’s will and His work for His sake, you will be given everything you need. Do you believe it?

Truly, do you believe that?

Matt 6:19-21 Where your heart stay?

Matthew 6:19-21
19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

How do we gain treasures in heaven? From the verses before, doing things selflessly. Why would you do anything not secretly (v 4, 6, 18)? Probably to gain something in return, whether it be physical resources or praise from others. That’s the wrong intention (1 cor 10:24 or Phil 2:3). The idea of selflessness (selfless giving, selfless serving, selfless actions), these things seem to gain you rewards in heaven.

Now the real question is, where does your heart lie? Is it in the world or is it in heaven? We know where it should be (our citizenship is in heaven Phil 3:20), but is it really there? What do we look for? What are our treasures? Things of Earth (money, other worldly pleasures) or in Heaven (God, the Word)? What comes out when you speak? Worldly things or Godly things (Matt 15:8 Out of the overflow of your heart, your mouth speaks).

Where is your heart? With God or with men? Ask yourself that and think upon it…