When the gospel is faithfully preached, taught, and lived, its your affections that restrict you

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn DevotionalsLeave a comment

“You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted in your own affections.” (2 Cor 6:12)

When the gospel is faithfully proclaimed, taught, and lived it’s not the person proclaiming, teaching, and living that restricts others from following God’s Word. Instead, it is the person’s affections that restrict them from turning to the Lord.

Affections refer to what we love. They determine what we are drawn to and what captures our attention. When we refuse to turn to the Lord, our affections are captured by something or someone else.

If we claim to be Christian, we must allow Jesus and Jesus alone to capture our attention. We shouldn’t be drawn to anyone or anything else but Him.

When the gospel is being faithfully proclaimed, taught, and lived, that which restricts someone from coming to Christ or following Him in obedience is their own affections. To what are your affections given? Are they given to the world? Are they given to something or someone more than to Jesus? God desires our heart, our affections, our love.

Be a minister of reconciliation in the power of the Spirit.

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“Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God,” (2 Cor 3:5)

We think a lot of ourselves, but should we? Are we solely responsible for our accomplishments? Especially our accomplishments as it relates to the kingdom of God?

Paul, writing to the Corinthians, has a different take than many of us. He didn’t believe himself to be sufficient for the task of winning people to Christ. He was not eloquent like the Super Apostles. He didn’t have a huge following. He didn’t have wealth or status. By all accounts he was inadequate for the task. Paul knew he was inadequate. He knew he didn’t have what it takes in and of himself.

But Paul was sufficient for the task. He was sufficient because God made him sufficient. In verse 6, he goes on to say,

“who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” (2 Cor 3:6)

He is sufficient because the Lord made him sufficient. Sufficient for the task of changing people, not from the outside in, but from the inside out. In order for true heart change to occur, the Spirit must be at work in the individual. We can’t manufacture heart change. But the Spirit can. He will and does use us for the task at hand.

As we approach the New Year, make it a point to reach out to others. But don’t do so in your own strength. Instead, trust in the Lord. Allow Him to empower and use you for the task at hand. You are not sufficient in and of yourself, but you are sufficient as the Spirit empowers you. Depend on Him in prayer, asking that He direct and guide your path to those He would like to reach with the good news of Jesus. Be a minister of reconciliation in the power of the Spirit. He makes you sufficient.

What is God’s purpose in allowing us to suffer and face difficulties?

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“Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.” (2 Cor 1:9)

Why doesn’t God take the pain away? Why doesn’t He free us from all difficulties? Is it because we don’t have enough faith? Some would want you to believe your difficulties are correlated with your lack of faith, but that is not the biblical answer.

Paul had faith. He worked for the Lord tirelessly, traveling around the known world at the time preaching the gospel. He, however, was ridiculed, arrested, beaten, and left for dead. He experienced difficulty not in one city but in several. In the verse preceding the above Paul relays to the Corinthians that he was “so utterly burdened beyond [his] strength that [he] despaired of life itself.” (2 Cor 1:8).

What was God’s purpose in allowing Paul to suffer? What is God’s purpose in allowing us to suffer and face difficulties?

Deep down we believe we can do life on our own. That we are capable of handling anything that comes at us. Our culture — the books we read and the movies we watch — drill that idea into our heads. We are told we can be like Mike. No mountain is to high for us to climb. No task to difficult. That we need only to pull up our boot straps and get to work. We are the master of our own ship. We can sail that ship wherever we want in our own strength and ingenuity.

While these mantras are popular, they aren’t true. Life doesn’t work that way. Most all of us will never play like Mike. There will be mountains too high to climb and tasks too difficult for us to do. While we might be able to sail some places in our ship, we can’t sail around the world. Sometimes our boot straps break!

What is God’s purpose in allowing us to suffer and face difficulties? It is so we might rely on God and not ourselves. God is all-powerful, all-capable, all-sovereign. There is nothing too much for God. We must depend on Him to accomplish what we can’t. To help us with our tasks. To use us to accomplish our mission and purpose in the world to make disciple-making disciples for His glory.

When we live in prayerful dependence on the Lord, we experience joy, meaning, and purpose.

Death is the great equalizer but there is hope

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn DevotionalsLeave a comment

“But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” (1 Cor 15:20)

Death is the great equalizer. No matter how rich or poor all will face the same fate. We will all die one day. We cannot in and of ourselves escape the grip of death. It’s grasp is too strong for us to break.

There is one, however, who broke death’s grip. That person is Jesus. He died at the hands of the Romans on request of the Jews. Beaten to a bloody pulp, a crown of thorns pressed into His scalp, nailed to a cross, spear pierced His side once His last breath was breathed. Jesus was dead when He was removed from the cross.

Instead of being throne in the city dump, He was laid in the grave of a rich man. Even though a massive stone was rolled in front and guards were stationed at the tomb, Jesus walked out after three days. He defeated death.

Jesus’ victory provides hope. Not just hope for this life, but for the life to come. All those who believe in Jesus will be raised from the dead to eternal life. Death is not the end for Christians. Death is just the beginning of life in a perfect world ruled by a perfect King.

Jesus is the first fruits. He is the beginning. The first to be raised. Will you follow Him? Will you be among the fruit that is gathered into the Kingdom to Come?

God is not a God of confusion

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“For God is not a God of confusion but of peace.” (1 Cor 14:33a)

Indeed our God is not a God of confusion. He desires His people have order and understanding. God’s desire is one reason we have His Word. It provides us understanding as well as it helps us know how we are to operate so that there is order.

As Paul begins to bring his letter to the Corinthians to a close, he deals with order in the church. He specifically highlights prophecy over tongues because prophecy provides understanding whereas tongues has a high potential to confuse.

When the church gathers together, understanding and order should be at the top of the list. We are not gathering together to make much of ourselves, rather we gather to make much of Jesus. Nor do we gather to confuse one another and hinder outsiders from understanding the gospel. Instead, we are to teach, encourage, reprove, and rebuke with God’s Word. In other words, we are to build one another up in the Lord. Disorder and confusion do not lead to building up of the body of Christ nor does it lead others to an understanding of the gospel and salvation. In most instances, disorder and confusion leads to stagnation and even decline.

May we be a church that seeks to build one another up in the Lord by intelligently speaking the Word of the Lord to one another in an orderly fashion when we gather.

Proclaim Your Salvation through the Supper

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn DevotionalsLeave a comment

“For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” (1 Cor 11:26)

The Lord’s Supper is an opportunity for those who are believers to proclaim the salvation they have experienced in Jesus to the world. It is a way for a group of people to not only come together to remember what Jesus has done, but it is also a way for a group of people to show their unity in belief.

As a church, we are to believe the same thing in regard to what Jesus’ sacrifice accomplished. The Supper is an opportunity to learn, remember, and proclaim a unified position in regard to Jesus’ death.

Since the Supper is a proclamation of salvation in Jesus it is reserved for professing believers. Because it shows unity, those who partake in it should be unified with one another. Unity should progress past belief to life lived in community with one another. In other words, when we come to the table, we should come unified in understanding as well as action.

We should also be in right relationship with the Lord when we partake of the Supper. Those living in unrepentant sin should allow the Supper to remind them that they have been freed from the bondage of sin by Jesus’ sacrifice. They need not bow to sin and its demands any longer. Instead, they are free to cast off its chains. As well as they should be reminded that when when they came to Christ, they repented of their unbelief and professed trust in Him as their Lord and Savior. They turned from an unrepentant rebellious life to follow and serve the Savior. They should now daily continue to turn from their unbelief to follow the Lord.

The Supper should not only draw us together as a community, it should also draw us to God in worship and practice.