2 Corinthians 4

The Light of the Gospel

Why doesn't Paul lose heart? (Verse 1) (2 Corinthians 3)

What ways have we renounced? (verse 2)

Do we refuse to practice cunning? (verse 2)

Do we refuse to tamper with God's word? (verse 2)

How do we commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God? (verse 2)

If our gospel is veiled, who is it veiled to? (verse 3)

What has the god of this world done to the minds of the unbelievers? (verse 4)

Why has the god of this world done this? (verse 4)

What light have the unbelievers been kept from seeing? (verse 4)

Who is the image of God? (verse 4)

Do we proclaim ourselves as Lord? (verse 5)

Who is proclaimed as Lord? (verse 5)

For who's sake are we servants? (verse 5)

Who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ? (verse 6)

What did God say in verse 6? 

Treasure in Jars of Clay

Why do we have this treasure in jars of clay? (verse 7)

Who does the surpassing power belong to? (verse 7)

How are we afflicted? (verse 8)

Are we crushed? (verse 8)

Are we perplexed? (verse 8)

Are we driven to despair? (verse 8)

Are we persecuted? (verse 9)

Are we forsaken? (verse 9)

Are we struck down? (verse 9)

Are we destroyed? (verse 9)

Since we have the same spirit of faith, what do we do? (verse 13)

He who raised the Lord Jesus, will do what? (verse 14)

As grace extends to more and more people, what increases? (verse 15)

For whose sake is this thanksgiving? (verse 15)

Who is glorified through this grace that extends to more and more? (verse 15)

Do we lose heart? (verse 16)

What is wasting away? (verse 16)

What is being renewed day by day? (verse 16)

17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 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.

Thoughts

Christ, who is the image of God - verse 4

 So God created man in his own image,
    in the image of God he created him;
    male and female he created them. - Genesis 1:27

“Show me a denarius.[a] Whose likeness and inscription does it have?” They said, “Caesar's.” He said to them, “Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.” - Jesus Christ (Luke 20:24-25)

Footnotes:

1. Luke 20:24 A denarius was a day's wage for a laborer

For God, who said, “Let light 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. - verse 6

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. - Genesis 1:3

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life,[a] and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. - John 1:1-5

1. John 1:4 Or was not any thing made. That which has been made was life in him

But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. - verse 7

Then I said to them, “If it seems good to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them.” And they weighed out as my wages thirty pieces of silver. Then the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the potter”—the lordly price at which I was priced by them. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord, to the potter. Then I broke my second staff Union, annulling the brotherhood between Judah and Israel. - Zechariah 11:12-14

But the chief priests, taking the pieces of silver, said, “It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, since it is blood money.” So they took counsel and bought with them the potter's field as a burial place for strangers. Therefore that field has been called the Field of Blood to this day. - Matthew 27:6-8

So I went down to the potter's house, and there he was working at his wheel. And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter's hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do. - Jeremiah 18:3-4

Then the word of the Lord came to me: “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the Lord. Behold, like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it. And if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, and if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will relent of the good that I had intended to do to it. Now, therefore, say to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: ‘Thus says the Lord, Behold, I am shaping disaster against you and devising a plan against you. Return, every one from his evil way, and amend your ways and your deeds.’

 “But they say, ‘That is in vain! We will follow our own plans, and will every one act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart.’

 “Therefore thus says the Lord:
Ask among the nations,
    Who has heard the like of this?
The virgin Israel
    has done a very horrible thing.
 Does the snow of Lebanon leave
    the crags of Sirion?[b]
Do the mountain waters run dry,[c]
    the cold flowing streams?
 But my people have forgotten me;
    they make offerings to false gods;
they made them stumble in their ways,
    in the ancient roads,
and to walk into side roads,
    not the highway,
 making their land a horror,
    a thing to be hissed at forever.
Everyone who passes by it is horrified
    and shakes his head.
 Like the east wind I will scatter them
    before the enemy.
I will show them my back, not my face,
    in the day of their calamity.” - Jeremiah 18:5-17

Do Not Go Down to Egypt

 “Ah, stubborn children,” declares the Lord,
“who carry out a plan, but not mine,
and who make an alliance,[a] but not of my Spirit,
    that they may add sin to sin;
 who set out to go down to Egypt,
    without asking for my direction,
to take refuge in the protection of Pharaoh
    and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt!
 Therefore shall the protection of Pharaoh turn to your shame,
    and the shelter in the shadow of Egypt to your humiliation.
 For though his officials are at Zoan
    and his envoys reach Hanes,
 everyone comes to shame
    through a people that cannot profit them,
that brings neither help nor profit,
    but shame and disgrace.”

 An oracle on the beasts of the Negeb.

Through a land of trouble and anguish,
    from where come the lioness and the lion,
    the adder and the flying fiery serpent,
they carry their riches on the backs of donkeys,
    and their treasures on the humps of camels,
    to a people that cannot profit them.
 Egypt's help is worthless and empty;
    therefore I have called her
    “Rahab who sits still.”

 And now, go, write it before them on a tablet
    and inscribe it in a book,
that it may be for the time to come
    as a witness forever.[b]
 For they are a rebellious people,
    lying children,
children unwilling to hear
    the instruction of the Lord;
 who say to the seers, “Do not see,”
    and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us what is right;
speak to us smooth things,
    prophesy illusions,
 leave the way, turn aside from the path,
    let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.”
 Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel,
“Because you despise this word
    and trust in oppression and perverseness
    and rely on them,
 therefore this iniquity shall be to you
    like a breach in a high wall, bulging out and about to collapse,
    whose breaking comes suddenly, in an instant;
 and its breaking is like that of a potter's vessel
    that is smashed so ruthlessly
that among its fragments not a shard is found
    with which to take fire from the hearth,
    or to dip up water out of the cistern.”

For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel,
“In returning[c] and rest you shall be saved;
    in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.”
But you were unwilling,  and you said,
“No! We will flee upon horses”;
    therefore you shall flee away;
and, “We will ride upon swift steeds”;
    therefore your pursuers shall be swift.
 A thousand shall flee at the threat of one;
    at the threat of five you shall flee,
till you are left
    like a flagstaff on the top of a mountain,
    like a signal on a hill.

 Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you,
    and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you.
For the Lord is a God of justice;
    blessed are all those who wait for him.

For a people shall dwell in Zion, in Jerusalem; you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. As soon as he hears it, he answers you. And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left. Then you will defile your carved idols overlaid with silver and your gold-plated metal images. You will scatter them as unclean things. You will say to them, “Be gone!”

And he will give rain for the seed with which you sow the ground, and bread, the produce of the ground, which will be rich and plenteous. In that day your livestock will graze in large pastures, and the oxen and the donkeys that work the ground will eat seasoned fodder, which has been winnowed with shovel and fork. And on every lofty mountain and every high hill there will be brooks running with water, in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall.  Moreover, the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day when the Lord binds up the brokenness of his people, and heals the wounds inflicted by his blow.

 Behold, the name of the Lord comes from afar,
    burning with his anger, and in thick rising smoke;[d]
his lips are full of fury,
    and his tongue is like a devouring fire;
 his breath is like an overflowing stream
    that reaches up to the neck;
to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction,
    and to place on the jaws of the peoples a bridle that leads astray.

You shall have a song as in the night when a holy feast is kept, and gladness of heart, as when one sets out to the sound of the flute to go to the mountain of the Lord, to the Rock of Israel. And the Lord will cause his majestic voice to be heard and the descending blow of his arm to be seen, in furious anger and a flame of devouring fire, with a cloudburst and storm and hailstones. The Assyrians will be terror-stricken at the voice of the Lord, when he strikes with his rod. And every stroke of the appointed staff that the Lord lays on them will be to the sound of tambourines and lyres. Battling with brandished arm, he will fight with them. For a burning place[e] has long been prepared; indeed, for the king it is made ready, its pyre made deep and wide, with fire and wood in abundance; the breath of the Lord, like a stream of sulfur, kindles it. - Isaiah 30

Footnotes:

1. Isaiah 30:1 Hebrew who weave a web
2. Isaiah 30:8 Some Hebrew manuscripts, Syriac, Targum, Vulgate, and Greek versions; Masoretic Text forever and ever
3. Isaiah 30:15 Or repentance
4. Isaiah 30:27 Hebrew in weight of uplifted clouds
5. Isaiah 30:33 Or For Topheth

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DorNUsi5LE&list=RDsKviF34-Sqs&index=8

You Raise Me UP

Job 2:7-10

So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and struck Job with loathsome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. And he took a piece of broken pottery with which to scrape himself while he sat in the ashes.

Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die.” But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?”[a] In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

Footnotes:

1. Job 2:10 Or disaster; also verse 11

Romans 9 

God's Sovereign Choice

I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit— that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers,[a] my kinsmen according to the flesh. They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.

But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. For this is what the promise said: “About this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son.” And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls— she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? By no means! For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it depends not on human will or exertion,[b] but on God, who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.

You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? As indeed he says in Hosea,

“Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’
    and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’”
 “And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’
    there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’”

And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the sons of Israel[c] be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved, for the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay.” And as Isaiah predicted,

“If the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring,
    we would have been like Sodom
    and become like Gomorrah.”

Israel's Unbelief

What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith; but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness[d] did not succeed in reaching that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone, as it is written,

“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense;
    and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”

Footnotes:

1. Romans 9:3 Or brothers and sisters
2. Romans 9:16 Greek not of him who wills or runs
3. Romans 9:27 Or children of Israel
4. Romans 9:31 Greek a law of righteousness

Kintsugi (金継ぎ, きんつぎ, "golden joinery"), also known as Kintsukuroi (金繕い, きんつくろい, "golden repair"),is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum, a method similar to the maki-e technique. As a philosophy, it treats breakage and repair as part of the history of an object, rather than something to disguise.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kintsugi

We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; - verse 8-9

I'm Trading My Sorrows by Darrell Evans

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1cv1tzzgbk

persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;  - verse 9

Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lordyour God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.” - Deuteronomy 31:6 

Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” - Hebrews 13:5

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” - Matthew 28:19-20

Footnotes:

1. Matthew 28:19 Or into

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. - Matthew 6:33

always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.  - verse 10

"I am the door; by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and go out, and shall find pasture. The thief cometh not, but that he may steal, and kill, and destroy: I came that they may have life, and may [a]have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd layeth down his life for the sheep." - Jesus Christ (John 10:9-11)

Footnotes:

1. John 10:10 Or, have abundance

And Jesus said unto all, If any man would come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. - (Luke 9:23)

For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. - verse 11

So death is at work in us, but life in you. - verse 12

 "always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you." - verse 10 -12

Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, “I believed, and so I spoke,” we also believe, and so we also speak, - verse 13

Psalm 116:10 New King James Version (NKJV)

 I believed, therefore I spoke,
“I am greatly afflicted.”

Psalm 116 New King James Version (NKJV)

Thanksgiving for Deliverance from Death

 I love the Lord, because He has heard
My voice and my supplications.

Because He has inclined His ear to me,
Therefore I will call upon Him as long as I live.

 The pains of death surrounded me,
And the pangs of Sheol laid hold of me;
I found trouble and sorrow.
 Then I called upon the name of the Lord:
“O Lord, I implore You, deliver my soul!”

 Gracious is the Lord, and righteous;
Yes, our God is merciful.
 The Lord preserves the simple;
I was brought low, and He saved me.
 Return to your rest, O my soul,
For the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.

 For You have delivered my soul from death,
My eyes from tears,
And my feet from falling.
 I will walk before the Lord
In the land of the living.
 I believed, therefore I spoke,
“I am greatly afflicted.”
 I said in my haste,
“All men are liars.”

 What shall I render to the Lord
For all His benefits toward me?
 I will take up the cup of salvation,
And call upon the name of the Lord.
 I will pay my vows to the Lord
Now in the presence of all His people.

 Precious in the sight of the Lord
Is the death of His saints.

 O Lord, truly I am Your servant;
I am Your servant, the son of Your maidservant;
You have loosed my bonds.
 I will offer to You the sacrifice of thanksgiving,
And will call upon the name of the Lord.

 I will pay my vows to the Lord
Now in the presence of all His people,
 In the courts of the Lord’s house,
In the midst of you, O Jerusalem.

Praise the Lord!

For All The Saints

https://vimeo.com/53028813

"For All the Saints"
John Trapp and Joe Deegan 

Lyrics: William Walsham How, 1864, 1875
Music: Christopher Miner, 1997
Music © 1997 Christopher Miner Music

I just read the one comment on this video and realized it was my uncle.

1 comment

michael barry3 years ago

John and Joe--I've been carrying this hymn in my memory for 25 years: through battlefields in the sandy parts of the world; through dark nights, cloudy, wet, and cold; among family and friends. But it was my Dad who introduced me to your video here. You'd be hard pressed to guess the impact of 3 minutes and 51 seconds of your lives. Your particular voices have been a "distant triumph song" for a man (yes, my Dad) dying of cancer. And what a man! A saint. And then again, your song here--for a room full of high school kids...well, it's hard to capture the scene--but after a discussion of Corrie ten Boom, her sister Betsie, "The Hidding Place", and Ephesians 2, and culminating with this, your video and this hymn...well, they got it. Got what? I don't think I can explain it. Something having to do with what life is all about, and why. Your 3:51connected the dots for these kids. It was amazing. And for my Dad-being as the voices of "countless hosts". Thanks, guys.

Personal comment: 

When I was still young and in a child's crib, my dad would sing this to me as I went to sleep. The tune would come to mind at times during my childhood and even now I can remember him singing it.

This specific recording has meant a lot to me over the past years and has focused my mind on Christ and His love for His saints. When my grandfather passed away from this life due to cancer, I cried and sang this song, remembering the gift that God had given us by sending His son, and providing for our family in all things. I then would listen to this specific recording and would sing this song as a spiritual battle cry- often times on airplanes, in deserts, times of mourning the death of friends, and in times of sickness when there was little hope except that if any one of us died, those that remain would sing Hallelujah- "knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence."

 "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." - verse 17-18

While writing this post, my friends Even Davidson and Christ Deep-Fried-Oreo Jackson Skyped me to talk about Jesus! They are concert photographers-  

http://evandavidsonphotography.com

http://www.chrisjacksonphoto.com

"The world is like a concert. The drums, guitars, and every instrument is finely tuned so everything works in unison. In this world, gravity, friction, and everything is finely tuned in a way that everything works. Everything is finely tuned." - concert photographer Chris Deep-Fried-Oreo Jackson

2 Corinthians 4 English Standard Version (ESV)

The Light of the Gospel

4 Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God,[a] we do not lose heart.2 But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice[b]cunning or to tamper with God's word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God. 3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. 4 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants[c] for Jesus' sake. 6 For God, who said, “Let light 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.

Treasure in Jars of Clay

7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. 8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. 11 For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12 So death is at work in us, but life in you.

13 Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, “I believed, and so I spoke,” we also believe, and so we also speak, 14 knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. 15 For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.

16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self[d] is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 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.

Footnotes:

1. 2 Corinthians 4:1 Greek having this ministry as we have received mercy
2. 2 Corinthians 4:2 Greek to walk in
3. 2 Corinthians 4:5 Or slaves (for the contextual rendering of the Greek word doulos, see Preface)
4. 2 Corinthians 4:16 Greek man