Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For we have no continuing city here, but we seek one to come.
Select a thought to read by choosing a collection, the month, and then the day:
Good afternoon.
Boy, I am having a blessed day today!
This afternoon I went to the coffee shop with my Greek New Testament book and started to read 2 Corinthians. Donna said you all got blessed at verse 10, in chapter 12. But I never got there! I was overcome by reading verse 9!
I don’t know anything really about the Greek language, but I can match up the words a little bit here and there - and here are some possibilities of what I read in verse 9:
“The power is perfected in weakness”
“My power is perfected in weakness”
“The power in weakness is perfected”
“My power in weakness is perfected”
“The power in weakness is made perfect”
“My power in weakness is made perfect”
“In weakness my power is perfected”
“In weakness the power (of God) is perfected” .... and so on.
I just could not get off of those words... re-reading and rearranging them. And then, I started to get all flushed, and feeling it. The feeling was, “I’ve been going about it all wrong all this time!”
The goal, we oftentimes hear, is to “be strong in the Lord”. That’s not what I was feeling. I was feeling that the goal is really, to be “weak”. How weak can we be? How genuinely humble can we be? I was nearly afraid to think and say the next thought - but I did pray it anyway before fear could stop me: “Jesus, send me opportunities to be ‘weak’. In insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in distresses. For this truth, God, give me the strength I do not have without you.”
All of the people that God touched were made weak. Abraham (went out), Moses (fled), Joseph (imprisoned), David (sinned), your father (failures and disappointments, persecutions).... who’s willing to go there?
God help us. I pray that God’s children will answer such a call.
Gary