Category: 2 Corinthians

  • Is self-help the answer? What does the bible say?

    "Self-Help ?" superimposed

    The self-help industry is estimated to generate over $50 billion a year worldwide, with about 40% of that in North America. That tells me people know they are a mess. I have no doubt that some of that money brings at least temporary results for some people. I’m all in favor of better people.

    The problem is that very little, if any, self-help material addresses our key problem. Our problem is sin, and the effects of that sin.

    The Bible is not a self-help book, and the gospel is not a self-help program. The Bible tells of our need for God and His plan of rescue. The gospel is that plan.

    The gospel tells us that when we become believers, we are no longer the same person.

    Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. 2 Corinthians 5:17

    That person no longer exists. The new creation still has problems, but we are reconciled to God and transferred into the Kingdom.

    … giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. Who rescued us from the authority of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Colossians 1:12-24

    That doesn’t immediately clear up all of our other problems. For that, the Holy Spirit works in us. As we draw closer to God, our behavior and character change. Our ideas about what is and isn’t truly important transform over time.

    Other than Jesus, no one has been born without sin. Adam and Eve were sinless for some short period of time, but they fell in a most spectacular way. You and I were born with a sin nature and a propensity to sin. We cannot defeat it on our own, no matter how many good works we do or how many self-help books we read.

    The Lord is our helper. The Lord is our healer. He created us in His image, and His desire is for us to be more like Him.

    We are works in progress, but we are His workmanship.

    For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. Ephesians 2:10

    He will not fail to finish what He started in us.

    For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:6

    Get help where you need it, but never forget that your true help and healing is supernatural. The God of the Bible is the ultimate helper.

    Trust Him.

    Hallelu Yah (Praise God) 

    Be blessed 

    Kevin 

    You might enjoy: A progressive revelation of Heaven. Seeing Jesus more clearly every day.

    Summary:

    The self-help industry may offer temporary improvement, but the Bible teaches that humanity’s deepest problem is sin, and true transformation and healing come only through God through Jesus Christ.

    • The gospel is not a self-improvement program but God’s rescue plan that makes believers a new creation reconciled to Him.
    • Human effort alone cannot overcome sin; lasting change comes through the work of the Holy Spirit shaping believers over time.
    • Christians are God’s workmanship, and He faithfully continues the work He began in them until it is complete.

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    Self – the source of our problems

    Adrift? Find your way back

    Two old farmers ask where is God in a broken world?

  • Newborns

    Newborn infant - newborn Christian

    All the ladies of the small church and not a few of the men were gathered in one corner. It was easy to see why… One of the women of the church had brought in her newborn baby, born just days before. Everyone was oohing and aahing over this little miracle.

    You know the scene. You’ve seen it many times in many locations when a newborn appears. The same thing happens when the new grandmother pulls out the photographs of the latest addition to the family lineage.

    I have a confession to make. I’m not much of a newborn baby fan. I’m getting better as the years go by, but I’m still not very comfortable around them.

    Babies are small, and they used to terrify me. I was that afraid I was going to drop them or hurt them. Babies seem so very fragile to me. 

    Babies are wrinkly and funny colored. Often, heads are misshapen, and their coloration is funny. There is just something spooky about them. Now, I know none of that is rational; in fact, it is quite silly, but it’s true.

    I was present when both of my sons were born. Even though I’m not much of a baby fan, there was something beautiful about them. There was something beautiful about my wife. She had just been through hours of labor and wasn’t looking quite like a supermodel, but she and my sons were the most beautiful things I had ever seen.

    Now I’ll admit I was biased, because after all, they were my sons and my wife. Still in my eyes, they were beautiful beyond description. I still worried about dropping them or hurting them in some way, and I wasn’t as comfortable as perhaps others in the same situation might have been.

    I was also present within minutes or hours of many of my grandchildren’s births. I love them dearly, and they were almost as good-looking as my own boys.

    I’m a lot more comfortable when babies reach the age when they are moving around better, talking a bit and have insatiable curiosity. They look more like people, and I’m not so worried about hurting them.

    There is that precious age when they think you know things and ask you questions. You get adoring smiles when you can answer them. I don’t get a lot of those when I tell things to teens or other adults.

    There is a newborn baby that I love to be around, though. When someone comes to know Jesus, when they are born again, they are a new creation.

     Therefore, from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer.Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. 2 Corinthians 5:16-17

    New Christians have a zeal, a passion for Christ that many older saints seem to have lost. They hunger for the Word and they long to know Jesus more.

    Newborn believers actually want to go to worship services. They don’t go because someone told them that they had to attend.

    Newborn believers tell everyone about Jesus whether they want to hear about it or not. I don’t have numbers to substantiate it, but I believe that for the bulk of the faithful, they talked to non-believers about Jesus far more as new creations than they do as battle hardened saints.

    I know I am generalizing, and you may well be the exception to the rule. We can probably all thing of a believer who never lost that zest for Jesus.

    Still, my hearts desire is for people to know Him more deeply and to be transformed into His image. That’s one of the reasons I love to write about Him; to preach and to teach Bible studies.

    It isn’t that I have somehow “made it”, I am a long way from being a fully sanctified believer. I have my struggles like everyone else and my own sin to wrestle with. It isn’t that I know more than everyone else. 

    It’s simply that I know the zeal of someone who could never have been redeemed under his own merit who has been set free by Jesus. I know it isn’t going to happen but I want everyone to have that moment of freedom, of rebirth.

    If you haven’t yet been born again, I pray you would come to know Jesus. If you have been born again, my prayer is that your fire for Jesus never be extinguished and that you grow ever deeper in your relationship with Him.

    Be blessed

    Kevin

    Kingdom Diversity

    Summary

    A newborn baby at church prompts reflections on both the beauty and fragility of new life and the excitement people naturally feel around it. The piece then shifts to the spiritual parallel of being “born again,” celebrating the passion, joy, and eagerness that new believers often have in their relationship with Jesus.

    Takeaway

      New life, whether physical or spiritual, carries a sense of wonder, hope, and transformation.

      New Christians are often marked by enthusiasm for worship, Scripture, and sharing their faith with others.

      The closing message encourages people to come to know Jesus and to continue growing spiritually without losing their zeal.

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