When I was a goof teenager, maybe 17 years old, I discovered a little bit about the Bible. And I briefly attended a Campus Crusade for Christ study, just long enough to memorize I Corinthians 13, about the still more excellent way, which is love.
From Campus Crusade for Christ, 1970
(No, I didn't understand it. But, at least I was exposed to it.)
Decades later, I discovered the riches in what we have recorded as the second letter Paul wrote to the church at Corinth. I had life experience by then that allowed me to see truth in the words.
"...we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life;
9 indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead;
10 who delivered us from so great a peril of death, and will deliver us, He on whom we have set our hope. And He will yet deliver us..." (II Cor 1:8b-10, NASB)
In September of 2007, when I realized I could no longer do my job, I clung to verse 7:
we had the sentence of death within ourselves, so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead.I even spoke that verse to my boss, as we were arranging for my termination. Don't know if it meant anything to him at that point, but it sure meant something to me. It was what got me through those awful days at the very end.
This morning, I was faced with IRREFUTABLE evidence of His redemptive, resurrection power in my life, disclosed via, of all things, a gift made by my gift-from-God, happily-ever-after trophy wife Vanessa, the elegant, foxy, praying black grandmother of Woodstock, GA, to a friend in need.
This is NOT Vanessa, but it is the image she has chosen to represent herself.
In September 2007, I could only walk blindly, in hope; today, I walk in hope realized.
Peace be on your household.
It's ASSURANCE of things hoped for, and CONVICTION of things not seen.
ReplyDeleteYes, a mis-quote, which is what happens when I am in a rush. BUT: we weren't late for church!