Paul's confidence was never in polished speech or impressive language. His confidence rested in the power of the gospel. The message is what saves people, not the messenger's ability to sound eloquent. That should be the desire of every shepherd and every believer sharing the gospel. We are not called to impress people. We are called to feed people….
At 56 years old, here I thought I knew pain. Ha! Um...no. Let me tell you, this has been the absolute most painful and difficult time in my life. Ever.
I'm so sorry for ever dismissing, in my mind and without prayer, anyone who told me they had or have shingles, as if it was just a simple "painful" rash.
I'll be perfectly open and honest with you: this situation caused my depression and anxiety to surface. All I could hear was my own voice. Why me? How could God let this happen to me? What did I do to deserve this? Me, me, me.
Ever wondered why our Bible contains just sixty-six books? Why do we have Genesis through Revelation? Why not the Apocrypha or other ancient religious books? That is a good question, and it deserves a good answer. The answer is not that a group of men sat around a table one day and decided what books they liked the best. Neither did a church council create the Bible. God did, and that is where we must begin.
We live in the age of exposure. Lives unfold in public view, privacy has come to seem quaint, and authenticity reigns as the highest virtue. Post by post, like by like, we have embraced a culture that equates transparency with honesty and self-expression with truth. Be yourself. Speak your truth. These function now as first commandments.
Beloved, have you ever thought about the difference between God preserving us and our perseverance? When we understand the difference, this can bring great comfort to the Saints, because our perseverance does not rest in our own strength. Or the ability to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps. It rests in the faithfulness of God. The Bible teaches us that every true believer is preserved by God. And, because God preserves His people, they will persevere to the very end. We remain faithful because our God is faithful. Our perseverance is not the cause of our salvation; it is the evidence that God is preserving us.
Of the seven deadly sins, sloth is the one we are surest we understand. We picture laziness, idleness, the avoidance of work. Yet that picture barely reaches the surface of what Scripture and the church fathers named. The sin they warned against runs deeper and lies closer to home than most of us suspect.