Life This Side of Heaven Life This Side of Heaven

In Job, the prophet found himself stricken by crushing loss and crippling illness.  And if you’ve ever found yourself experienced loss, faltering finances or diminished health, you may have found yourself confronted by some tough questions.  You may have even wanted to give God a piece of your mind. Well, you might be surprised to know that God has a few choice words for us.

Tent camping.  Just the image of it ignites your sense of adventure.  Stunning scenery, fresh air, sleeping under the stars and camp fires. However, if you've lost your home, tent camping isn’t the summertime adventure that comes to mind. The apostle Paul, a tent-maker by trade, likened these bodies to tents that wear out. With joy, he points us to the resurrection and our heavenly home to come.

In describing the kingdom of God Jesus compared it to a mustard seed. The seed itself is tiny.  You can’t help but sigh and think, “Is that it?” However, what appears to be weak and unimpressive brings about remarkable results.

There’s a reason that old gardens –especially those large estate gardens you may visit in the summer – look more majestic than the average garden in your backyard.  Plants were given time to grow. We like to see results and we want to see them now. So, it’s not surprising that we may find ourselves expecting much the same when it comes to planting the seed of the Gospel. But it doesn’t always work that way.

“That’s crazy talk!” Now there’s handy phrase to use when the person you’re talking to doesn’t seem make sense.  It’s an informal way of saying, “You’re babbling!”  And yet there were those who were comfortable using a similar phrase to describe our Savior. The reality is that much of what you and I take for granted as a matter of faith sounds crazy to the world – until the Holy Spirit calls a person to faith by the Gospel.

This year is the 60th Anniversary of National Safety Council's defensive driving program. Some of the principles that it incorporates are based on techniques that were known even before that.  One of those principles has a lot in common with the instruction that Paul gives us here in 2 Corinthians.