Thought for June 24

 History:

  • 1441: Eton College founded
  • 1509: Henry VIII crowned King of England
  • 1535: Anabaptist commune of Munster captured and its leaders killed
  • 1664: New Jersey Colony founded
  • 1717: First Free Mason grand lodge founded in London
  • 1853: Franklin Pierce signs Gadsden Purchase
  • 1861: Tennessee secedes from the Union
  • 1880: First performance of "O Canada"
  • 1902: George Dayton founds Goodfellow Dry Goods--now Target
  • 1922: American Professional Football Association renamed the NFL
  • 1947L Flying saucers sighted over Mount Rainier
  • 1949: "Hopalong Cassidy" is first network western
  • 1957: Supreme Court rules that obscenity not protected by First Amendment
  • 1975: Eastern 727 crashes at JFK killing 113
  • 1993: Unabomber bomb hits Yale professor David Gelernter--loses , eye, ear, part of right hand
  • 2012: Saudi Arabia allows women athletes to compete at Olympics
  • 2020: NY imposes 2-week isolation on those arriving from 9 states hit by Covid
  • 2021: Champlain Tower South collapses in Miami killing at least 98
  • 2022: Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade
  • Born: Henry Ward Beecher, Gus Swift [meatpacker], Roy Disney, Jack Dempsey, Chuck Taylor, Fred Hoyle [coined "big bang"], Billy Casper, Michele Lee, Mick Fleetwood, Nancy Allen, JJ Redick, Lionel Messi, 
  • Died: Lucrezia Borgia, Grover Cleveland, Jackie Gleason, Brian Keith, Paul Winchell, Eli Wallach, 
Thought:
2 Corinthians 5:21 always hits home with me. I am looking at 5:20-21. But first, consider the word "therefore" in chapters 4 and 5.
  • 4:1: Therefore since we have this ministry, we do not lose heart.
  • 4:16: Therefore, we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. Because our outer man is decaying and subject to persecution, we could lose heart, we don't. Why? Because the inner person is being daily renewed--we are renewed through the Word, through prayer, through worship and praise. So these become of utmost importance to me--if I don't want to get discouraged, read the Bible, pray, worship, sing praises. 
  • 5:6-8: Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord--for we walk by faith, not by sight--we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and at home with the Lord. Since we are in the body, we must see by faith because our physical eyes will deceive us. Ways that seem right are not right---by faith we trust the word of God. We gain courage by remembering that when we leave this body, we will be at home with the Lord.
  • 5:9: Therefore, also we have as our ambition whether at home or absent to be pleasing to Him. When we walk by faith, when we read the word, pray, worship and praise, we please Him. And when we please Him, we gain strength for endurance--why? Doing these things, we give joy to Jesus and the joy of the Lord is my strength. 
  • 5:11: Therefore knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men. Pleasing Him also means by our words and deeds we persuade others to follow Him. 
  • 5:16: Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature, the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Dying to self and living for Christ reveals the new person. That new person causes the world to ask what happened--then we can answer--Jesus.
  • 5:20: Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were entreating through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. And the door is opened to plead with others to be reconciled to God through and in Christ Jesus. 
Which all leads to 5:21--why is Jesus able to reconcile us to God--He was perfect, He knew no sin; yet He became sin on the cross, paying the debt we could not pay; so that in Him we would be the righteousness of God--not having a righteousness of our own--but only the righteousness that comes through Christ. This verse should motivate and control me---the perfect One took on all my imperfection and sin so that I could cover myself in His perfection before God. That is amazing grace. That is good news. 

Blessings
Larry

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Thought for July 19

History: 1553: Lady Jane Gray deposed after 9 days 1692: 5 people hung during Salem Witch Trials 1848: First women's rights convention -Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott. Wesleyan Chapel at Seneca Falls NY 1910: Cy Young wins his 500th game 1941: US Army flying school at Tuskegee AL dedicated 1945: USS Cod saves 51 sailors from Dutch sub--only sub-to-sub rescue 1957: Firing of first rocket with nuclear warhead-Nevada 1984: Geraldine Ferraro is first major party female VP candidate 1996: Olympics open in Atlanta 2007: Madmen debuts 2018: Duck Boat sinks in Table Rock Lake killing 17 Born: Samuel Colt, Edgar Degas [painter], Lizzie Borden, Charles Mayo [Mayo Clinic], George McGovern, Al Haig, George Hamilton IV, Vikki Carr, Ilie Nastase, Stuart Scott, Benedict Cumberbatch,  Died: Syngman Rhee [President South Korea], Clyde Beatty [circus animal trainer], Mary Jo Kopechne [passenger with Ted Kennedy], Jack Warden, Frank McCourt [Angela's Ashes], James Garner, Garry Marshall
Read more

Thought for November 23, 2023

Happy Thanksgiving!  1664: Blaise Pascal is converted following a vision. He wrote the date and time of his conversion and said, "Fire. The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. Not of philosophers and intellectuals. Certitude, certitude, joy, peace. The God of Jesus Christ." Laid the foundation for the law of probabilities; genius in hydrodynamics and hydrostatics developing Pascal's principle of pressure; taught the experience of God through the heart rather than reason; mathematician and philosopher. 1783: Annapolis Maryland becomes U.S. Capitol until June 1784 1863: Patent for making color photographs granted 1889: First jukebox debuts in Palais Royale Saloon in San Francisco 1897: Pencil sharpener patented 1904: Summer Olympics in St. Louis close [1st Olymics in U.S.] 1921: President Harding signs an Act prohibiting doctors from prescribing beer or liquor for medicinal purposes 1923: Cecil B. DeMille's first "The Ten Commandments" premiers
Read more

Thought for April 5, 2024

1722: Easter Island discovered 1792: First Presidential veto 1815: Mt. Tambora erupts. Largest eruption ever witnessed. Created year without summer in 1816--frost and snow in North America in June and July. Largest part of eruption on April 10th. Killed 10,000 in initial blast.  1906: Mt. Vesuvius erupts killing 100 1923: Firestone begins producing inflatable tires 1936: Tupelo almost completely destroyed by a tornado--216 die 1972: Baseball strike costs 86 games 2063: On "Star Trek", earth has its first contact with the Vulcan species Born: Thomas Hobbes, Joseph Lister, Booker T Washington, Spencer Tracy, Bette Davis, Gregory Peck, Arthur Hailey. Gale Storm, Frank Gorshin, Colin Powell, Pharrell Williams Died: Robert Raikes [Sunday School], Douglas MacArthur, Howard Hughes, Abe Fortas, Sam Walton, Allen Ginsberg, Saul Bellow, Charlton Heston, Honor Blackman Thought: Reading Daniel 1:5-7 this morning. Continuing with the thoughts about Nebuchadnezzar's plan. Having brough
Read more