2 Corinthians 8 What an appropriate passage for this week! If you read the chapters leading up to this chapter, Paul is making the case that we are to live in a different economy than the rest of the world. Our economy recognizes that our being poured out now - Paul's affliction, anguish, death, and being perplexed, persecuted, struck down, delivered over to death, beat...

2 Corinthians 7 Therefore, since we have these promises... - 2 Corinthians 7:1 Anytime you're reading the Bible and you see the word, "Therefore," if you want to understand what you're about to read you must check to see what the "therefore" is there for. What is about to follow is a direct follow up to what came before. If we look at the verses which came right be...

2 Corinthians 4 I'm sure we can all relate to feeling, at times, like things that we agree to or commit to, start to feel burdensome and too much work to endure. No one would be more justified in those feelings than the apostle Paul; but I don't think that's how he felt. In Verse 1 of Chapter 4 he writes: "Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not l...

From The Message Bible: 2 Corinthians 3:1-6:Does it sound like we're patting ourselves on the back, insisting on our credentials, asserting our authority? Well, we're not. Neither do we need letters of endorsement, either to you or from you. You yourselves are all the endorsement we need. Your very lives are a letter that anyone can read by just looking at you. Christ h...

2 Corinthians 1 (2 Cor 1:20) For all the promises of God find their "Yes" in Him! Paul's statement in verse 20 is one that every believer should commit to memory. What an amazing promise! Everything the Father has committed to us find their fulfillment in Jesus and their confirmation in Him. We can trust what He is going to do in the future by His track record in t...

To mix it up, all I am going to do today is give you a brief list of observations on 1 Corinthians 15 and encourage you to make some observations of your own and then reflect on them. 1 Corinthians 15: Paul calls people back to the gospel (v1) Paul was preaching the gospel to people who were already saved The gospel doesn't just justify us, it is God's primary tool i...

1 Corinthians 14 Ecclesiastes 3:1 says that there is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven. Don't we know this! As we do life together as a church, I see times for mourning, times for rejoicing, times for listening, times for speaking, times to sit quietly and let a brother pour out his heart. All of these are appropriate an...

1 Corinthians 13 If you've ever been to a wedding, you're familiar with this chapter! While love is a central theme of the entire Bible, no chapter in all of scripture paints such a clear picture of what love is in action. As a result 1 Corinthians 13 has been labeled the "LOVE CHAPTER" of the Bible. Action Without Love is Nothing The chapter starts off with a series...

1 Corinthians 12 There is something in each of us - something deep in our hearts - that leads us to rank ourselves in comparison with others. You would think we would have learned by now that this rarely plays out well. I know that for me personally, I am either (1)leftdespondent - feeling inferior or (2)I attempt to "one-up" those in my "category," or (3) I eitheridolize...

1 Corinthians 11 Today's reading is from 1 Corinthians 11 and it has two major sections -- one dealing with the expectation that women would wear head coverings when praying or prophesying in the church, and the other dealing with the abuse of the Lord's Supper. Women, Headcoverings, Authority, and Prayer The passage from verse 1 to 16 is among the most difficult in...