ARE, NOT SHOULD BE

ARE, NOT SHOULD BE

Friday, March 04, 2016

2Corinthians [GW] 5:14-21 Clearly, Christ's love guides us. We are convinced of the fact that one man has died for all people. Therefore, all people have died. He died for all people so that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for the man who died and was brought back to life for them. So from now on we don't think of anyone from a human point of view. If we did think of Christ from a human point of view, we don't anymore. Whoever is a believer in Christ is a new creation. The old way of living has disappeared. A new way of living has come into existence. God has done all this. He has restored our relationship with him through Christ, and has given us this ministry of restoring relationships. In other words, God was using Christ to restore his relationship with humanity. He didn't hold people's faults against them, and he has given us this message of restored relationships to tell others. Therefore, we are Christ's representatives, and through us God is calling you. We beg you on behalf of Christ to become reunited with God. God had Christ, who was sinless, take our sin so that we might receive God's approval through him.

  Mary Fear is cofounder of Overcomers In Christ. She wrote the OIC handbook, Dealing With Feeling questions cards, and other Christ-centered Bible-based materials, all designed to support and further victorious personal maturation pleasing to God and man. Since husband Bill passed from this life Mary has continued as OIC director with daily her hand to the plow.

  Mary has a characteristic in common with the Apostle Paul.  When she writes she does not emphasize what we should be doing, but focuses primarily on the fact of whom and what we are as God’s people . . . and that our actions should be because of and according to.

  Consider highlights in Paul’s letters to the church at Corinth:

·         Paul begins with the fact of whom and what they are: Saints; with exalted standing in Christ.

·         Paul points out that they do not think or act out accordingly to who they are. (Note Rom.12:1-3 written a year prior.) They think and act like immature children that know no better.

·         Paul reminds them of proper congregant resolution and He who is the Ultimate Judge rewarding and denying.

·         Paul, detailing examples, judges Corinthian believer’s misbegotten mindset, faulty reliance, and egocentric prideful lives.

·         Paul describes the body of Christ, the church, as it is and how the Corinthian church acts contrariwise. (I cannot ponder this apart from remembering Grandmother’s folksy admonition: “Sometimes you bite off your nose to spite your face!”)

·         Paul emphasizes that though gifts are important, with prophecy the greatest, he learned charitable love is the way to think and act.

·         Paul describes acting out charitable love; not a ministry, but the ministry for all.

·         Paul presents some warnings and the why therefore.

  That which has always spoken to me greatly in Paul’s words to the Corinthians is the reality I am a new creature by and in Lord Jesus Christ and consequently am His minister of reconciliation with God and man. The Overcomers In Christ literature and support groups don’t supersede this fact, but they do definitely reinforce this truth of being existent versus reliance on experts (fulltime pastors, priests, missionaries, et al) or bemoaning “Woulda, coulda, shoulda!”

  Thank you Paul.  Thank you Mary. 

EBB4

If interested: http://overcomersinchrist.org/ or call (866)-573-0966 or write Overcomers In Christ, POBox 34460, Omaha NE 68134