Verse of the Day 7/29

Verse of the Day 7/29

2 Corinthians 5:6-8

The Message

6-8 That’s why we live with such good cheer. You won’t see us drooping our heads or dragging our feet! Cramped conditions here don’t get us down. They only remind us of the spacious living conditions ahead. It’s what we trust in but don’t yet see that keeps us going. Do you suppose a few ruts in the road or rocks in the path are going to stop us? When the time comes, we’ll be plenty ready to exchange exile for homecoming.

The events in our lives can change our perspective on things and can change how we interpret things. Reading through the Bible this past year while going through the grieving process of losing my wife Jean to cancer has done so. It has caused me to look at faith differently, to look at what hope is differently and i'm sure that I'll understand a lof of things differently from this point on.

We are probably more familiar with this passage from 2 Corinthians 5 from other translations and the words from verse 7 "For we live by faith, not by sight."

What struck me from The Message paraphrase this morning was "It’s what we trust in but don’t yet see that keeps us going. Do you suppose a few ruts in the road or rocks in the path are going to stop us? When the time comes, we’ll be plenty ready to exchange exile for homecoming."  

Looking back over this past year I could see where this has been the case.  It is faith, who I trust in, Jesus, that has truly kept me going, trusting in what I did not see but believing in what God has in store for me here and for eternity that has kept me going.

Pastor John Piper writes, "(Paul) 2 Corinthians 5:7, he says, “We walk by faith, not by sight.” This doesn’t mean that he leaps into the dark without evidence of what’s there. It means that for now the most precious and important realities in the world are beyond our physical senses. We “look” at these unseen things through the gospel. We strengthen our hearts — we renew our courage — by fixing our gaze on the invisible, objective truth that we see in the testimony of those who saw Christ face to face. "

Until we see HIm face to face, we live by faith, we live by grace.

lessings,

Mike

Folllow the Verse of the Day blog at http://mikesvotd.blogspot.com

Ephesians 1:7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace.  NIV

2 Corinthians 5:1-8

New International Version

Awaiting the New Body

5 For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. 2 Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, 3 because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. 4 For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5 Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.

6 Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. 7 For we live by faith, not by sight. 8 We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.