Did you know that Thanksgiving is Thursday? Where in the world does time go? It just seems like yesterday Marge & I were packing up a shipping container in Maui and starting the long journey back to Texas. That was April. They say that time flies when you’re having fun. I think when your walking closely to the Lord it can move even faster. Maybe the saying could be more like time flies in a harmonious, purpose-filled life.
This past Saturday night the Potter family got together at Mom & Dad’s for Thanksgiving. This is the first time the family has all been together since we’ve been back in Texas….a whopping 2 ½ years. What a great time to hang out with family. To see my nieces and nephews all grown up and living real ‘big people’ lives is weird. Since Marge & I had no kids, this growing up process seems very foreign. Kids grow up so fast, I can’t imagine how it seems to the parents! We snapped some pics of the fam, so I’ll be posting some of those with the 5MC over the next week.
This morning we’re going to finish up 2 Corinthians by looking at chapter 13. As we’re talking about time flying, we are flying through God’s Word! Especially considering we’re taking it at only 5 minutes a day! (I started out the 5MC by timing it exactly to 5 minutes but I realized reading a chapter was about 5 minutes and it made it much easier to track our progress by staying with chapters) I started the 5MC on May 27 while in Destin, Florida working with the young adults and we started in the book of Matthew. So that’s been roughly 6 months and we’ve gone through Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans and 1 and 2 Corinthians. Wow, 8 books in 6 months by only reading 5 minutes a day. That’s amazing progress.
What really amazes me is how daily time in God’s Word has transformed me. I am changed. I’ll be brutally honest, before the 5MC I was not spending daily time in God’s Word. I would binge read a few times a week. I realize now that just won’t cut it. My trials don’t come just a few times a week. The attacks from Satan don’t just come a few times a week. Those come daily. My time in God’s Word allows me to defend these attacks, it needs to occur daily as well. It only makes sense right? I have no idea why it didn’t make sense before. I always joke with Marge, I claim to be a lot of things, but smart was never one of them..ha!
Chapter 13 is a short one as Paul closes his 2nd and final letter to the church in the city of Corinth. Even in his valediction, the wisdom of God amazes. God gave me 2 specific points this morning. The first is quite the weighty topic, but one we cannot afford ourselves to lose sight of. Truth.
“For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth.” (2 Cor 13:8 ESV)
The truth. I can just picture some Greek philosopher standing in an amphitheater in a long white robe, pondering with other scholars as he asks the question, “What is truth?” I think it’s still a question that eludes man. To me its pretty clear. Man left to his own devices and understanding cannot fully perceive the depth and breadth of genuine truth. You see to absolutely understand truth you need to have a perfect starting point. The truth cannot just exist, to truly understand you must strive to understand its inception.
If you study a subject you need to understand its lifeline. It’s timeline. The same for truth. As a Christ follower, I firmly believe that the Word of God is just that, the basis of all truth. “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” Believing in God’s Word by faith allows me to skip the rhetoric, debate and philosophy about the truth and not just ponder it or study it, but live in it.
Our world seeks the truth. The truth is everlasting, never changes and will always reign. I had a wise mentor tell me one time. “the great thing about the truth is that no matter how many times you tell it, it never changes.” How true. I think we’ve all been tied up in a ‘web’ of lies before. It’s just crazy how one single lie can evolve so quickly into many. The truth can stand on its own, but lies need others lies to prop it up.
God’s Word uses the word truth 235 times in 222 verses. It’s one of the most used words in the Bible (not counting prepositions.) God wants us to know what the truth is. He wants us to firmly know the truth, where it starts. He wants us to dwell in the truth, live in it. There is a truth and we can know it. But here’s the real question, if it’s told to you will you recognize it? It’s quite the conundrum but without the truth can you know the truth? You see faith in Jesus Christ invites His Holy Spirit into our lives and things change. We change. Our hearts change. We can see the truth. So what is the truth? It’s in one of the most powerful, life changing, verses in all of God’s Word:
“Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6 NIV)
God is the truth. The truth starts with God. He created it. There is no truth without God. God is outside of time, He was before the beginning, He was truth before time. Without God we have no truth. We’re told clearly in John 14:6, Jesus says that He IS THE Truth. My friends if you want the truth today, you can have it. The gift of absolute truth is free to you today. But its not head knowledge. It’s not something to be learned. The truth comes through resting in the truth. The truth comes through acknowledging the truth. The truth comes through Jesus. If you have never accepted Jesus as your Lord, then the truth has eluded you and will continue to do so. I pray today that you come to know the truth.
Wow, pretty deep stuff, huh? Indeed, life changing, in fact world changing stuff. Lets look at the second point and something with more application as far as us dealing with others in our daily walks. It’s in Paul’s final paragraph of the letter:
“Finally, brothers, rejoice. Aim for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.” (2 Cor 13:11 ESV)
This is one of the most beautiful, loving and complete valedictions in God’s Word. First, he says rejoice. Rejoice in the Lord. Because of Jesus your soul is saved and you will live forever in the presence of the Lord. I would say this is a cause to rejoice! Next he says, ‘Aim for restoration and comfort one another.’ 2 lofty commands. I specifically want to look at the next two though.
“Agree with one another and live in peace.”
Oh, my brothers and sisters. Oh, my sweet, sweet friends. This is something that our world needs so desperately today. Agree with one another. Coming off this recent election cycle its never been so apparent. We are losing the ability to agree with one another and live in peace.
In one of my teaching elements at work, ‘Cultural Intelligence’ we deal with what is means to be able to build effective business relationships that bridge multiple cultures and their intricacies. In one section we discuss strategies for improving personal interactions and one of the points rose in my mind when I read this passage this morning. What is the teaching point? Choose not to be offended. Let me say that again, and make the application a little broader because I think it’s extremely relevant. If you want to be effective in building relationships across cultural lines, generation gaps, economic divides, social classes and even in your own family….we need to CHOOSE to not be offended.
1,961 years ago this was a problem in the church at Corinth and it is still a problem today, agreeing with one another. You see we think that agreeing with one another is a very simple process…if you agree with everything that I think and that I believe, then we’ll get along great! Ha, not quite. Others have different views and different thoughts. Does that make them wrong? So what is the solution. Well, first you have to be in Christ. Paul finishes these commands with ‘the God of love and peace shall be with you. Without Christ acceptance of others can be very elusive.
But remember the teaching point above, CHOOSE not to be offended. The key word in that sentence is ‘choose.’ We have to make a choice, it cannot be made for us, we can't be forced to choose. We need to choose to not be offended. It’s hurts my heart but most of our world today is just the opposite. So many choose to BE offended. Daily I see people that make a choice to let others offend them. In fact I see people that get offended REALLY quickly and easily! As a result, the offense breeds anger, resentment, intolerance and discord. None desireable Godly characteristics. In fact I would flee from these not rest in them.
As brother and sisters in Christ, I urge you today to heed the Word of God and set the example wherever you may be, so that the world can see how God intends His children to live…in agreeance and peace with one another. It’s a choice, choose peace.
If you’re reading this, you are being prayed for. I pray that the truth of God’s Word permeates your heart and brings a level of peace and joy to your day that you will recognize,
can only come from Him.
Peace to you.
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