Saturday, March 24, 2018

Paul’s Ministry and Suffering for the Church

1 Corinthians 4:9-13

For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men.  We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. 
To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless,  and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure;  when slandered, we entreat. We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things.

2 Corinthians 6:3-10

by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love;  by truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left;  through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true;  as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed;  as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything.

2 Corinthians 11:23-27

Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one—I am talking like a madman—with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death.  Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one.  Three times I was beaten with rods.

Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea;  on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers;  in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.

Read:  2 Corinthians 4:8-18

Spiritual Thoughts 

Every Sunday school teacher is just as much called of God as a missionary to the heart of Africa.  He needs to prepare just as diligently-he needs to labor just as earnestly-as if he were carrying the Gospel to the most remote spot on the globe. - Billy Graham

The Western dream is to have a lot of money, and then you can lead a life of leisure and happiness.  Nothing in my experience could be further from the truth. - Michael Phillips

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