The 260 Journey

Day 161

Today’s Reading: 2 Corinthians 12

In today’s chapter we see a set of red letters, which come alive in a place that we don’t expect. Do you know what I mean when I say red letters? For those of us who grew up in the church when KJV was just about our only option of Bible translation, we know that all of Jesus’ words were in red letters to distinguish them from all other letters. We knew those red letters were all in Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and the very beginning of Acts. Those were the books of the Bible that covered when Jesus was on the earth. But red letters in 2 Corinthians 12?

Paul needed an answer to his prayer, and he got red letters:

Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me—to keep me from exalting myself! Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:7-10, emphasis added)

Paul said he was given a thorn in the flesh. No one knows exactly what the thorn was. Many have speculated everything from a physical handicap of eye sight to epilepsy. But as men fight over what the thorn was, it’s easy to miss the big point of Paul’s prayer. He asked God three times to take away the thorn. And out of nowhere come red letters!

Jesus responds to Paul’s prayer to remove his thorn. His response, though, is not what Paul expected. To me it was a yes-or-no question. Jesus answered better. Jesus said to Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you.”

To divorce these words from their context is an unpardonable atrocity. It is one of the most touching pieces of Pauline autobiography in the New Testament. It was from the ascended, throne-sitting, righthand of God—Jesus. And it was given to a pain-racked, baffled, questioning, no-answer-to-prayer apostle. These words turned him around in an instant.

Read the beginning of what Paul said: thorn in the flesh; messenger of Satan to keep me from exalting myself; entreated the Lord three times for it to leave; nothing happened.

Then Jesus spoke—the red letters. “And He has said to me . . .” The “He” was Jesus.

And right after the red letters, the change came to Paul.

He went from “I got a thorn in the flesh, and God won’t answer my prayer about it” to “Not only can I handle the thorn, but because Jesus spoke to me, I can handle a lot more.” And Paul added to the thorn list more issues:

Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong. (verses 9-10)

One word from Jesus and Paul was able to take on five more challenges.

Jesus may not say what you want, but He always says what you need. Paul was looking for a thorn answer and received a grace supply.

Jesus did not say, “I will remove the thorn.” But He did say, “I will give you a great grace, which is better than a thorn being removed.”

Did you get that? Sufficient grace with a thorn is better than no grace without a thorn.

Day 160

Today’s Reading: 2 Corinthians 11

Click on Google.com and you’ll find a predominantly white screen with less than forty words on it. That’s it. Compare it to other search engines where the user is confronted with hundreds of words. More than 75 percent of all web searches are done on Google. They are simple, so they appeal.

As we look at today’s chapter, we find that Paul is calling us to go “Google” with our Christianity: “I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:3).

I love that word simplicity. The goal of Satan is to lead you from that. Simple is in, complex is out. Paul is telling us that Satan is a complicator of things. His goal is to move you from simplicity to complexity. And the most important thing Satan wants to complicate is how to become a Christian. And yet Christianity is very Google-ish. Consider Romans 10:9, which has only twenty-six words: “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”

Religions want to add to the big twenty-six. Carry a briefcase, go on a mission trip, die as a martyr, cut your hair, wear this dress, don’t eat this, the list goes on and on.

Confess Jesus with your mouth and believe God raised Him from the dead and you will be saved. Add anything else to those twenty-six Google-ish words and you have been led astray from simplicity, as Eve was. God makes it simple for us.

I love the name of Jesus. So simple. Maybe not to us today, but back then, definitely. It was one of the most common names of the first century. It was like someone naming their child John or Scott or Joe. God did not give Jesus some space-age name—Moonstruck, Alphaman, or Zorg. God picked a common name and then gave Jesus a job as a carpenter. A common occupation of that time. Not something as spectacular as technology director for Jerusalem. It was simply a job to build stuff like a table out of wood. He wasn’t creating things as He did in Genesis, but He was building tables like we do. God is simple, Satan is complicated.

Jesus boiled down 613 commandments to two. Why? That’s what Jesus does. He doesn’t complicate life, He uncomplicates it.

Sin complicates your life. Have sex outside the boundaries of the covenant of marriage and watch how life gets complicated for you. God is really simple. Satan complicates.

Finally, think how simple the playlist of heaven is. Today in churches around the world, think of all the songs people are singing, and all the lyrics we have to put on the screen. Now think of heaven and the angels. They are singing one song with three words: Holy, holy, holy.

Why do the angels sing the same song? Wouldn’t you think that after four millennia some angels would say, “Okay we got it. We don’t even need words on the screen any more. Holy, holy, holy. Can’t we do some Elevation or Hillsong music?” Why do they sing the same song? My simple take is that every time the angels look at Jesus, they cover their eyes when they see Him, and I think they forget the words, so that all they can say over and over is, “Holy, holy, holy.”

The closer you get to the living God, the simpler things become. God helps simplify things, and Satan complicates things.

Let’s get Google with our Christianity.

Day 159

Today’s Reading: 2 Corinthians 10

I wrote someone a prescription the other day. Don’t get nervous and don’t report me just yet. The condition the person had was deilia (day-lea).

Ever heard of it? A lot of people I talk to and counsel with face deilia and are in desperate need of a prescription. There are times I’ve even have had this condition myself.

For this person, I prescribed three things: sophronismos (you may not recognize this, but it is very powerful), dunamis, and agape.

These are not chemicals, these are Greek words.

Deilia is the Greek word for fear. Fear can be debilitating. And the Bible clearly gives the prescription for us in 2 Timothy 1:7: “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind” (NKJV).

We live a culture of fear today. We have names of fear for everything. Consider just a few:

Peladophobia: fear of baldness and bald people

Gamophobia: fear of marriage

Levophobia: fear of objects on the left side of the body

Aphenphosmphobia: fear of being touched

There is a phobia that has 38 letters, and it’s the fear of long words.

Euphobia: fear of hearing good news

Syngenesophobia: fear of relatives

Fear is so paralyzing to people today because there are so many things to be afraid of. Fear can make us do things that are not even sensible. In fact, fear can kill someone.

I had a person tell me one time that she and her family wanted to come to our church, but because it was located in the inner city, they were too afraid. They actually came to the church building one Sunday, and while parking, faced the fear that someone would rob them. They drove all the way there and fear made them turn around. “Was that the Lord speaking to me and protecting me?” My response was absolutely not!

God is a Father. He does not lead us by fear, because we are His children. He leads us by wisdom and by speaking to us. Fear is not a way God guides us. I gave her the 2 Timothy 1:7 prescription of fighting fear with love, power, and a sound mind.

So what does all of this have to do with 2 Corinthians 10? Here it is: we don’t fight the spiritual with the natural. If we are faced with a spiritual enemy, we need a spiritual weapon. At times I’ve been afraid of getting cancer, because my father died of it. That isn’t a fear we break with barley green, wheat grass, and essential oils. That helps, but fear is a spirit. And that spirit wants to control us. Once we are cancer free, we will face some other thing to be afraid of.

We have to fight spiritual enemies with spiritual weapons. That is today’s challenge. Listen to what the apostle Paul tells us about fighting:

Although we live in the natural realm, we don’t wage a military campaign employing human weapons, using manipulation to achieve our aims. Instead, our spiritual weapons are energized with divine power to effectively dismantle the defenses behind which people hide. We can demolish every deceptive fantasy that opposes God and break through every arrogant attitude that is raised up in defiance of the true knowledge of God. We capture, like prisoners of war, every thought and insist that it bow in obedience to the Anointed One.

(2 Corinthians 10:3-5, TPT)

So let’s go back to our fear story. Because there are other prescriptions we can give from the Bible. Remember, God has not given us a spirit of fear. Fear is a supernatural enemy and needs a supernatural prescription to fight it. So here’s another prescription. What is our weapon against the spirit of fear?

The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

(Romans 8:15-17, NIV)

This is incredible. Paul tells us that we don’t have to live in fear again—of cancer, of being robbed in the inner city, of . . . Why? Because we have been adopted by God. He’s our Father and He cares for His children.

Paul says the spirit of fear is seeking to blind us and hide the fact that we have a heavenly Father who sees us and protects us. Every time we let fear control us, then we are blinded to our adoption papers. And instead of crying, “Abba Father,” we cry to other people. We take away the relationship of God as our Father and make Him smaller in our eyes.

A plane was en route to Boston and because of bad weather, the plane was being battered around profusely. Everybody onboard was in a panic, wondering if they would even reach Boston because of such forceful turbulence. Everyone, that is, except for one lady who sat quietly knitting a sweater. One of the passengers by her noticed how calm she was, so he leaned over to her to ask her how she could be so peaceful at a time like this.

“Young man, I am on my way to visit my son in Boston, but I have another son who died and went to heaven. It doesn’t matter which one of them I visit. My Father knows which son I will see today.”

This woman realized that her Father was greater than any turbulence threatening a plane. That’s using a spiritual weapon to fight a spiritual enemy.

Day 158

Today’s Reading: 2 Corinthians 9

Some people are thermostats and some are thermometers. Thermometers just register the temperature of the room, while the thermostat controls the temperature of the room. This is not just for hot and cold but for hot and cold attitudes. The people who are thermostats try to control a room with their attitudes. If they are happy, we all get to be happy. If they are quiet and sad, no one gets to be exuberant and laugh. The thermostat just dictated how the room will be. This is both good and bad. Good with good attitudes. Bad with bad attitudes. Second Corinthians 9 is a good attitude from the Corinthian Christians. It’s so good that the apostle Paul boasts about them. Listen to what Paul says about the Corinthian thermostat:

I keep boasting to the churches of Macedonia about your passion to give, telling them that the believers of Corinth have been preparing to give for a year. Your enthusiasm is contagious—it has stirred many of them to do likewise. (2 Corinthians 9:2, TPT)

Their good contagious attitude showed itself through generosity and giving. The Corinthians' enthusiasm to give was a thermostat and started an epidemic of giving among other Christians. They seemed to follow what Sir Winston Churchill said: “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” The Corinthians not only made a life, but made a life worth emulating and imitating.

I love Paul’s phrase, Your enthusiasm is contagious. I want to be a good thermostat. I want to live a life worth imitating. I want my giving to inspire people. I want my life to inspire other people. I want my love for Jesus to inspire other people.

Do you?

Paul tells the Corinthians how wide their influence has been on other Christians. He tells them that their generosity didn’t just meet a need, but inspired people to be better. The dividends on their gift far exceeded their expectations of simply meeting a need. The result? Paul says much more happened to the church than having a need met.

So two good things happened as a result of your gifts—those in need are helped, and they overflow with thanks to God. Those you help will be glad not only because of your generous gifts to themselves and to others, but they will praise God for this proof that your deeds are as good as your doctrine. And they will pray for you with deep fervor and feeling because of the wonderful grace of God shown through you. (2 Corinthians 9:12-14, TLB)

J. L. Kraft (the head of Kraft Cheese Corporation) said this about giving to God’s work: “The only investments I have ever made which have paid constantly increasing dividends is the money I have given to the Lord.” The apostle Paul is about to tell us about those increasing dividends. Paul says your gift inspires people toward gratitude and praise. There are some times in which praise can come through an offering not just an instrument.

He also says, their gift was proof that their “deeds are as good as [their] doctrine.” That is powerful. Their generosity fleshes out what they believe. It’s one thing to say we believe a doctrine but a whole other thing to live it out. Generosity is the proof. Donald Miller says it like this: “What I believe is not what I say I believe; what I believe is what I do.”

And finally, their generosity got them on the prayer list. Verse 14 says, “They will pray for you with deep fervor and feeling because of the wonderful grace of God shown through you.” Generosity made people praise, gave them proof, and inspired them to pray.

Praise, proof, and prayer. All from a generous offering.

Why is it so hard to give away money? Why is it difficult not only to tithe but to be available to be generous when we hear of a need? It’s because Satan has found a way to block praise, proof, and prayer from coming our way by stopping generosity.

The famed psychiatrist Karl Menninger said, “Generous people are rarely mentally ill.” He’s right! They know the rewards of generosity—the rewards for them and others. As we mentioned earlier, but it’s a good reminder, Jim Eliot said it best, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”

What a great gain for those generous Corinthian givers. Help us, Lord, to inspire people like that.

Day 157

Today’s Reading: 2 Corinthians 8

Today’s chapter may hurt as we unpack it because it deals with money, generosity, and giving. Listen to these powerful words:

We want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the Lord’s people. And they exceeded our expectations: They gave themselves first of all to the Lord, and then by the will of God also to us. (2 Corinthians 8:1-5, NIV)

What makes this so cool is who was doing the giving. The Macedonian church. Remember this Macedonian church? It was the first church in Europe. This church was only eight years old and it was birthing other churches and giving. The events of Acts 16 took place around AD 49, when this church started, and despite its own struggles, it was helping other believers and other churches to start.

How they gave is an example to all of us. I see three elements in their generosity, which is a challenge to us all.

First, their economic position did not determine whether they would be givers or not. Paul says in “their extreme poverty.” Giving is not for the rich, giving is for the believer. Never say, “I don’t have anything to give.” That is just not true, especially for the Macedonian church. We must all give to learn how to be givers wherever we are financially; just as we must all pray to learn how to pray.

Giving is learned by doing not by reading about it or watching others. The wealthy John D. Rockefeller Sr. said, “I never would have been able to tithe the first million dollars I ever made if I had not tithed my first salary, which was $1.50 per week.” This silly piece of prose is packed with truth: “It’s not what you do with the million if fortune should ere be your lot, but what are you doing at present with the dollar and quarter you got.”

Second, obedience is never convenient. There is never an easy time to obey. The Macedonians gave “in the midst of a very severe trial.” They were not only battling extreme poverty but spiritual battles. Things were hitting them from all sides but still they gave. Although Paul did not mention the details of their severe trials or the cause of their poverty, his letters to the Christian communities in this province confirm these hardships.

If you are looking for an easy time to give, it won’t come. Bills arrive, expenses happen. You must give despite or in spite of. That is the trust moment.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones told a story about a farmer who went into the house one day to tell his wife and family some good news. “The cow just gave birth to twin calves, one red and one white,” he said. “We must dedicate one of these calves to the Lord. We will bring them up together, and when the time comes, we will sell one and keep the proceeds and we will sell the other and give the proceeds to the Lord’s work.”

His wife asked him which he was going to dedicate to the Lord.

“There’s no need to bother about that now,” he replied. “We’ll treat them both in the same way and when the time comes, we’ll do as I say.”

A few days later one of the calves died. The man entered the kitchen looking unhappy. “I have bad news,” he said. “The Lord’s calf is dead.”

It’s always the Lord’s calf that dies. Never ours.

Third, though they gave during extreme poverty and severe trial, Paul said they gave with overflowing joy. The hard part of giving is getting out of the starting block. Once you have done it, a joy comes on you—because you have just done a Kingdom thing. God honors givers.

One of the parts I think brought joy was giving two ways—what they could do and what they had to trust God to help them do. Look at verse 3: “I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability” (niv). The “beyond ability” giving crosses from the discipline of giving to the joy of giving. One is by sweat, hard work, and discipline that they “gave as much as they were able.” That is getting your paycheck and writing your tithe check. The other giving is by faith—they gave “beyond their ability.” That is a step of faith. And that brings overflowing joy.

The pastor stood before the congregation. “I have bad news, good news, and more bad news.” The congregation grew quiet. “The bad news is: the church needs a new roof!” The congregation groaned. “The good news is: we have enough money for the new roof.” A sigh of relief rippled through the gathered group. “The bad news is: it’s still in your pockets.”

Based on the Macedonian-2 Corinthians 8-model, that should be the good news! We have money to give, let us go Macedonian on the need. That’s why verse 4 says, they (those giving) begged for the opportunity to give. It wasn’t the preacher begging but the givers begging for the opportunity. Wow, we really messed up this giving thing.