The Plumbline

So we’re not giving up.   How could we!  Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace.  These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us.  There’s far more here than meets the eye.  The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow.  But the things we can’t see now will last forever.  (2 Cor. 4:16-18) If we are believers, having invited Christ to take control of our lives, we "house" the gospel message within us.  That message is not housed within us simply to affect us alone.  It is there to be shared.  It is often most effectively shared when times are difficult or new graces are needed.  Paul knew that this message had a deep impact on its hearers, bringing new grace each time it was considered and allowed to do its work.  That which ...

If you only look at us, you might well miss the brightness.  We carry this precious Message around in the unadorned clay pots of our ordinary lives.  That’s to prevent anyone from confusing God’s incomparable power with us.  As it is, there’s not much chance of that.  You know for yourselves that we’re not much to look at.  (2 Cor. 4:7-9) Paul was speaking to the Corinthian church in the plainest of language he could find to describe the fact that both he and his partners in ministry had been through much for the cause of Christ.  They had faced various trials and persecutions, just because of the message of the Christ that he had preached.  All the while, he wants them to know that the message he carried is simply housed in an “earthen pot” or “jar of clay” – to keep those who heard the message from seeing the disciple who was bringing that message and to focus their attention on Christ instead.  In the King James Version, this text is translate...