Good day dear friends. As we begin our morning devotional, please keep Mr. Don Chapman in your prayers. He is from here in Corpus Christi and was just admitted to ER with chest pains. Thank you.
Our text for today comes from 2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1: 13We're not keeping this quiet, not on your life. Just like the psalmist who wrote, "I believed it, so I said it," we say what we believe. 14 And what we believe is that the One who raised up the Master Jesus will just as certainly raise us up with you, alive. 15 Every detail works to your advantage and to God's glory: more and more grace, more and more people, more and more praise! 16 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. 17 These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. 18 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. 1 For instance, we know that when these bodies of ours are taken down like tents and folded away, they will be replaced by resurrection bodies in heaven - God-made, not handmade (The Message)
Pentecost is not a time to keep quiet about what God is doing, has done, or will do. Paul writes in the above text about the wonders of God even when it seems everything is falling apart. This can be applied to our bodies or even the Body of Christ (our church and our churches). What is needed is our willingness to share with others, as God's witnesses, about what God can do even in the midst of of what seems to be failure or death. The Resurrection power of God to work in Christ can and is at work in us and our ministries. Paul is sure that as we share with others, grace will abound and more people will come and as more people come the greater our praise. The key is not to give up. Inwardly we should be asking and aware of the new life that is being made in us. Our faith continues to be on the things we cannot see, for those things are eternal.
Let Pentecost be a time of sharing and shouting out what God is doing in you!
PRAYER: Loving God, renew me for Thy work. Renew my church that I and others in it may be sharing and shouting what You are doing, have done, and will do, in our lives and in our ministry together. Help me to reach others and to do the things that need to be done. Let my eyes be eyes of faith that I can see that what is not seen is eternal. Bless those who need this in their bodies; those with cancer, those with heart disease, and those near the point of leaving this life into Thy presence. Renew them and let them know that when this life ends, our bodies change from earth-made to God-made. I pray this and with those who make it their prayer, in Christ Jesus' precious and powerful name, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord.
Eradio Valverde
