2 Corinthians 11-13

N 2 Corinthians 10-11 Paul is giving the Church warnings about false prophets that can deceptively lead us away from what The Lord truly says and away from what The Lord truly has for us.In giving these warnings Paul is describing not only what to look 4 n those we listen to or look to for instruction & guidance,but also what to look 4 n ourselves...so we may have discernment about “incoming information”,as well as the attitude of our own heart/mind/life being “tuned properly” so we are less susceptible to “erroneous/spiritually dangerous information/leading”! Of the things Paul describes,in 2Cor11:20 he says,”If I must boast,I will boast of the things that show my weakness”.After this Paul tells about something(s)that happened n his life to keep him from becoming conceited,BECAUSE OF how The Lord was greatly using his life in the lives of others!(2Cor12:7,”So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations,a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.”).Paul had been the personal witness to and even “participant of” some awesome “revelations” from The Lord,which are the very things that could lead to his ego and pride swelling, and making him feel “spiritually special”/conceited in some way.This “spiritually special/conceited status” is what Paul is warning us about! Not only to make us aware of “warning signs” about others that could be misleading us,but also of an internal attitude that could numb us to the Truths that The Lord desires to reveal to us for our own GOOD!This boils down to any kind of arrogance(an attitude of superiority manifested in an overbearing manner or in presumptuous claims or assumptions).Any time we witness and/or hear “presumptuous claims or assumptions”(or make them ourselves!)we must check them with God’s Word and His Spirit!N Paul’s life The Lord placed a thorn in his flesh that brought his attention to this>2Cor12:7-9,”So to keep me from becoming conceited because of surpassing greatness of revelations,a thorn in the flesh was given to me....,to keep me from becoming conceited.Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me.But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”The Lord tells Paul,and us,to look for and embrace weakness(leading to humility)in others AND in our own lives....,and in this humility look for and seek a dependency on Christ(“so that the power of Christ may rest upon me”)->the FAITH that Paul encourages n 2Cor13:5-6 is found in his call for us to “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!I hope you will find out that we have not failed the test.”We must test ourselves and those that lead&teach us...,for any conceit(excessive appreciation of one's own worth or virtue) that may be in our hearts/minds/lives...and then personally turn from any of these things,and toward a dependency on the power of Christ made perfect in our weakness!The Power of Christ is only found when through humility we turn to/depend on Jesus as revealed through His Word and through His Spirit,and through Prayer!Dear Lord Jesus,I confess conceit n my life of many kinds...help me to be more aware of it and then help me to get rid of it...and grow increasingly dependent on Your Power...n every area of my heart/mind/life.

2 Corinthians 10

A primary weapon that the enemies of God use is any “argument and pretension” that seek to discount and/or discredit any Truths of God;what HE has done;and/or HIS Promises.In other words, the primary “targets” of God’s enemies are God’s Word;The Truths of the Life of Christ;The Sufferings of Christ;The Death of Christ;The Resurrection of Christ;The Ascension of Christ;The Promises of God;The Great Mercy&Grace&Love of God;God’s Personal Desires for our good;& more- 2Corinthians10:3-5,”For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”So,these verses make it clear that those of us who turn to Christ to save us from our sin and seek to have a vibrant relationship with Him...,we have enemies that seek to do us grave harm!These enemies of God have as their first line of attack our thoughts and our thought life!These thoughts will carry any “virus” of falseness about God and His Ways, that the membranes of our heart/mind/life may be susceptible to n one way or another.Just as a deadly biological disease enters our bodies through vulnerable areas of our bodies,so do “deadly/diseased thoughts & ideas” enter our being through vulnerable areas of our heart/mind/life.Just as our bodies rely on a healthy ability to produce antibodies that wage war against dangerous biological diseases,so we must have a healthy ability in our heart/mind/life to produce the antibodies that wage the war against deadly/diseased thoughts & ideas that target harm&destruction to our heart/mind/life.The “antibodies” of our heart/mind/life “take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”Just as our biological antibodies capture disease that enters our bodies and submits them to the rigors of healthy physiological standards that identify them as dangerous...and then rids our body of them - so we must also capture every thought that sets itself up against the knowledge of God and submit them to the rigors of healthy heart/mind/life standards that Christ gives us through His Word & His Spirit.And,just as our bodies are dependent on a healthy diet & lifestyle for a vibrant defense system of antibodies,so are the defense systems of our heart/mind/life dependent on a healthy diet of Every Word from the Mouth of God (Jesus says n Matthew4:4,”Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”),and a lifestyle that honors every word that comes from the mouth of God - if not,my heart/mind/life will suffer harm from arguments and pretension that set themselves up against the vibrant relationship that God greatly desires for me to have with Him....The One that secures my Eternal Security In Christ.Dear Lord,help me to be more aware of the condition of the spiritual defenses in my life - where there are vulnerabilities and how to shore these up with Your Truths.And may Your Spirit enable me to honor Your Truths n my heart/mind/life.

2 Corinthians 8

2Corintians8:7-8 says,”But as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all earnestness, and in our love for you see that you excel in this act of grace also.I say this not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine.”At the time Paul is writing this to the church people n Corinth,there are many that have learned all the “right words to say” and the “right prayers” to pray...,the right groups to attend,the right issues to voice support of,etc.But these things they were DOING was not defining them to be the faithful believers all of the above things would indicate. A message of these verses is that it is how we truly think and how we live our everyday lives that defines us,and none of these other things that we may regularly do at isolated times during the week.Sure,these other things can be all good & well for us to be a part of,but when we trust THEM to define who & what we are, and we do not have our hearts/minds/lives transformed by the Gospel of Christ & the Word of God...we are fooling ourselves into a false religious belief system that is deceptive to ourselves,& to those around us.The way we think & live through our every day lives is what truly defines WHO & WHAT we are! And not what few hours a week we spend going to Church,Sunday School,Bible Studies....,not even the time we spend n personal Bible Study and Prayer!If these “things” are not having life changing impact in our lives that transform our hearts/minds/lives to be more like hearts/minds/lives that honor our Creator&Savior,then we are just like the “Churchy/Religious people n Corinth.Just as their lives continued to look just like the lives of the world around them,our lives are not significantly different from the world around us....with the exception of what we do on Sunday’s,what we read/study,and what some our “social events” may be during the week.Unless our lives are being transformed by all the “good things” we do,we are really not much different because of Christ being our Savior...and we may continue to make the same mistakes we have always made...& we may personally have many of the same doubts about about our faith & about the trustworthiness of God. Romans 12:2 addresses this-“Do not be conformed to this world,but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”Unless our lives are  being transformed by the “good things” we participate in,we are tragically missing the blessings that only The Creator God,our Father in Heaven,& our Lord &Savior Jesus Christ can offer.But,as the way we “think”&”live” is being transformed away from the way the world “thinks”&”lives”,& toward the way The Lord “thinks”&”LIVES”, only then are our lives are transformed toward “redefining” us to be true followers of Christ,and not the followers of the world that we used to be.Dear Lord,my life is so much like the “churchy” people that Paul writes to n Corinth.Forgive me...and make me more and more aware of this...and may my life get on the path of transformation that Your Great Love/Grace/Mercy so desires for me...so my heart/mind/life would become increasingly more like Yours every moment of ever day.

2 Corinthians 5

If we are to truly appreciate the fact that we are ETERNAL,as the Bible teaches, then our perspective on life would change/the way we live would change,& our concern for the people around us would change-especially the people we love the most.Truly Knowing that this life has ETERNAL IMPACT,and that everyone is going to spend ETERNITY in Heaven with The Lord,or in Hell away from The Lord...our lives should be different from the lives of those that do not have this Knowledge of ETERNAL TRUTHS,and our concerns should be different also! This is what Paul talks about in 2Cor5:16-21(“So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:The old has gone, the new is here!All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”).Instead,our lives are usually not that different from the worlds,& our concerns about life and the lives of those around us are much like everyone else’s...instead of being different because of the realities of ETERNITY that the Bible teaches!Especially the horrible state of life without the Gospel of Christ being a personal life changing TRUTH in our life,& the lives of the people around us.The Gospel of Christ is not meant to be “fire insurance” that protects us from Hell...,but a life changing TRUTH that makes us a “new creation”(2Cor5:27).Dear Jesus,these verses beg me to survey my life to see where I am being made a “new creation” by Your Gospel,& where I am not?Lord...,forgive me for where I am not,& May Your Spirit & Your Word identify those areas & make those areas a “new creation” in me...so I may truly become “new” in all of me...and be the true Ambassador for Christ that these verses in 2Corinthians call me to be.

2 Corinthians 4:16-18

Why we “lose heart” can be from many reasons,but the Bible says that these all boil down to our lacking an Eternal Perspective for life...and therefore we see/realize only the “transient” of life,which is loaded with all sorts of discouraging and disheartening things(2Corinthians4:16-18,”So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”).Our Discouragements and Defeats come when we lose sight of the FACT that we ARE Eternal...that we do have ETERNITY in our future!This means that the “transiency” we are experiencing now does have purpose...boiled down to the Eternal Purposes for the Life we are living!At the top of “the list” is to know the ONE that gave us life,and to know “the what’s&why’s” about our life...things that only the ONE that creates&gives life can know!Because there is an enemy of God that desire to steal us away from knowing these truths,one of the enemy’s primary tactics is to fool us into being unaware of the Eternal Truths of life!This is THE REASON that the enemies of God connive to lessen the SIGNIFICANCE of Gods Word-every letter of IT being The Word of God!These enemies come up with “myriads of strategies” to gather dust on Bibles...to the extremes of removing God’s Word entirely from significance in our lives in one way or another...or ultimately denying the RELEVANCY of God’s Word for our lives....and even the AUTHENTICITY of God’s Word!Either way,the enemies of God will overwhelm us with “the transiencies” of life,and/or lies about Eternity!The only way we can defend ourselves against these ploys is to seek to know the Truths about LIFE & it’s “what’s&why’s”! (the difference between Life & LIFE is that Life is limited to the here and now/transient,& LIFE is the here and now AND INTO ETERNITY!).To escape from the ploys of the enemies of LIFE that threaten to reduce us to nothing but the traps of “transiency”...their is only one TRUE WAY...seeking to know and follow the AUTHOR AND CREATOR of LIFE through Christ, and HIS answers for all the “what’s&why’s”! HE has given us HIS Word&His Spirit which have all the answers to the “what’s&why’s” for LIFE,and instructions/lessons to lead us into the realms of living our Lives with the significances of LIFE!Significances that lift us from the Discouragements&Disheartenments that Life lived “transiently” will bring.Living Life from the perspective of Eternity/God’s Plan for Life will give us LIFE that lives above and beyond the discouragement & disheartening that transiencies undoubtedly bring!Dear Lord Jesus,so much of my life is lived with little to no appreciation for the fact that ETERNITY is real,and that I have ETERNITY in my future!Help me to be more and more aware and appreciative of ETERNITY in my life as I go through every moment of every day...& may this lift me above the things that seek to discourage me and make me disheartened.May Your Word & Spirit lead me to the JOY & PEACE You desire me to have in all of Life for my LIFE!