Why did God choose you? Have you ever stopped to think about that. I have, many times, and every single time I wind up totally awed at how kind God has been to me. When I think of His love, His perfection, His power, His completeness, I cannot help but wonder what He would have ever wanted in a relationship with me. I am sure you feel the same way about yourself.
In today’s portion of scripture we see a phrase that reminds us of the gap between how fragile we are and how amazing God is, “we have this treasure in jars of clay”. What a phrase! Heaven’s glory, and I get to be a part of it? Wow! Today, remember how amazing it is that we even get to know God, much less carry the eternal treasure in our earthly vessels.
-Pastor Conley
2 Corinthians 4:1–6:2 (MEV)
1 Therefore, since we have this ministry through the mercy we have received, we do not lose heart.
2 But we have renounced the secret things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by expressing the truth and commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.
3 But if our gospel is hidden, it is hidden to those who are lost.
4 The god of this world has blinded the minds of those who do not believe, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.
5 For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake.
6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, the excellency of the power being from God and not from ourselves.
8 We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;
9 persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;
10 and always carrying around in the body the death of the Lord Jesus, that also the life of Jesus might be expressed in our bodies.
11 For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that also the life of Jesus might be manifested in our mortal flesh.
12 So then, death works in us, but life in you.
13 We have the same spirit of faith. As it is written, “I believed, and therefore I have spoken.” So we also believe and therefore speak,
14 knowing that He who raised the Lord Jesus will also raise us through Jesus and will present us with you.
15 All these things are for your sakes, so that the abundant grace through the thanksgiving of many might overflow to the glory of God.
16 For this reason we do not lose heart: Even though our outward man is perishing, yet our inward man is being renewed day by day.
17 Our light affliction, which lasts but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory,
18 while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
1 We know that if our earthly house, this tent, were to be destroyed, we have an eternal building of God in the heavens, a house not made with hands.
2 In this one we groan, earnestly desiring to be sheltered with our house which is from heaven.
3 Thus being sheltered, we shall not be found unsheltered.
4 For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we wish to be unclothed, but to be further clothed, so that what is mortal might be swallowed up by life.
5 Now He who has created us for this very thing is God, who also has given to us the guarantee of the Spirit.
6 Therefore we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord.
7 For we walk by faith, not by sight.
8 Instead, I say that we are confident and willing to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.
9 So whether present or absent, we labor that we may be accepted by Him.
10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive his recompense in the body, according to what he has done, whether it was good or bad.
11 Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men. But we are revealed to God, and I trust we are also revealed in your consciences.
12 For we are not commending ourselves again to you. Instead, we give you occasion to boast on our behalf, that you may have something to answer those who boast in appearance and not in heart.
13 If we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you.
14 For the love of Christ constrains us, because we thus judge: that if one died for all, then all have died.
15 And He died for all, that those who live should not from now on live for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.
16 So from now on we do not regard anyone according to the flesh. Yes, though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet we do not regard Him as such from now on.
17 Therefore, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things have passed away. Look, all things have become new.
18 All this is from God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation,
19 that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their sins against them, and has entrusted to us the message of reconciliation.
20 So we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us. We implore you in Christ’s stead: Be reconciled to God.
21 God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
1 As workers together with God, we ask you not to receive the grace of God in vain.
2 For He says: “In an acceptable time I have listened to you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you.” Look, now is the accepted time; look, now is the day of salvation.