Joshua 5:13-14, Romans 5:8-10, 2 Corinthians 5:18

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Whose side are you on? There’s a scene in Joshua that I always find so fascinating when Joshua is leading God’s people into the Promised Land. And so they’re going, they’re getting ready for battle and for what’s ahead of them. We’re told that when Joshua’s by Jericho,

When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us, or for our adversaries?” And he said, “No; but I am the commander of the army of the Lord. Now I have come.” (Joshua 5:13-14)

Such an intriguing scene, because Joshua is leading the people of God. It would seem like if Joshua is saying, oh, hey, whose side are you on that it would be a pretty clear answer. Well, I’m with you guys, but the answer isn’t that the answer is no. I am the commander of the Army of the Lord. It’s not about being on the people’s side. It’s about being on God’s side. And for us, it’s not about trying to get God onto our side. It’s about being on God’s side. What is God doing? What is God up to? What does God want?

That’s something really worth pondering today in our world where people are so quick to take sides. Are you a Democrat or a Republican? Are you for this or against this? On Facebook, if there’s a post, are you liking it? Are you hating it? Are you commenting this or commenting that? Are you for this thing at church? Or are you anti this thing at church? Or are you a yes vote? Are you a no vote? We’re so quick to take sides, but as a Christian there’s only really one side to take and it’s the Lord’s, the Lord’s side.

When we get off thinking about, okay, my opinion, my side versus their side or what they think versus what what I think, we so quickly go down a wrong path. And perhaps that’s a big part of why there’s just so much hostility and hate in our world today. And social media definitely doesn’t help with that.

So what do we do when we realize we’ve taken the wrong side? Well, first of all, we lay that before the cross and then we remember this in Romans chapter five, verses 8 to 10. It says,

but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. (Romans 5:8-10)

Let’s think about that. We were enemies of God. We were naturally a sinful people. We didn’t do things God’s way. We did things our own way. And that went against God. And yet God, God is so for us that Jesus came into this world. God the Son became human and then lay down his life and died, absorbing all the justice that your sins and mine deserve. He took the death that we deserve, and he rose again so that God can now see us through him, so that through faith in Jesus, by the power of the Spirit, now we are new people. We are new creations. We are children of God.

We are no longer enemies of God. You are now on God’s side and now, by the Spirit, you are free to live as someone who is on God’s side. How different might we approach things? How different might we look? How much of a light might we be in this world if we approach things and go towards things, not thinking about what side I want to be on. What’s God up to in this? What does God want to do in this? What would the Lord’s army, if you will, what would their mission, God’s mission, be in this situation?

One thing I know that God’s mission would be in second Corinthians 5:18, we’re told that

All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; (2 Corinthians 5:18)

So much as we think about the gospel and our role in this world, is to be people who are now sharing the good news, sharing forgiveness and people of reconciliation, where people are brought together around the cross through Christ and united in him. When we were his enemies, he died for us. We are now on the Lord’s side. And what is his side up to today?

Peace Devotions uses a combination of paid and free stock footage in the creation of our devotions. While we typically avoid the use of AI generated content in our videos, we occasionally may use AI generated illustrations, photos, or videos to help visually convey our message. We will do our best to disclaim the use of AI content when it is used. This video contains one short clip that was generated using AI.

2 Corinthians 1:9-10, 2 Corinthians 12:9-10

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I realized it was too big for me and it was incredibly liberating.

Recently, there was some just heavy things going on in my world and in my life, and I just realized that I don’t have the wisdom for this. I don’t know how to work this all out. I don’t have the strength in and of myself. And yet I was also confident God was calling me to to serve in this way. So if God is calling us to do things that are bigger than us, that must mean God’s going to provide what we need to do those things, right? At least that’s the reasoning I had. And the more I thought about it, the more I thought, I think that, I think that works.

And part of the reason why I thought that, it has to do with what Paul says in Second Corinthians chapter one. He talks about the challenges they had. And he said,

Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. (2 Corinthians 1:9-10)

See, God often uses those moments where we realize it’s so clear that we don’t have the strength to show us that we are not the source of the strength. I mean, the whole way this is all set up is that we were created to eat from the tree of life, in the beginning, humanity was. To receive life from God. And where everything went wrong is when Adam and Eve that they did what looked right in their own eyes and they tried to take what was good and seek wisdom and things their own way. God is again and again teaching us that it’s not for us to try to do it ourselves. We were meant to receive from him. And the message of the gospel starts with the law that we cannot set ourselves right with God. We have it in our hearts. We know we were meant for something to live a certain way, and we don’t do it. We can’t by ourselves. And so we need a Savior to do what we can never do for ourselves. Jesus lived the life we were meant to live. The life you were meant to live, died for your sins, and rose again to give you what you can never achieve yourself. It is simply a gift. It’s something given to you that you can’t do yourself.

And so whenever we are reminded that we don’t have the strength for this, good! Because it points us back to his, or like Paul says later in Second Corinthians, the Lord said to him,

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:9-10)

It’s so liberating to come to the end of our own strength, because then we can be free of trying to be strong enough. We can then really begin to experience and embrace the strength of God. That’s what the gospel does. It frees us from trying to be good enough for God. You can know that Jesus was good enough for you, then every time in this life, whenever we come to the end of ourselves, we get to more fully embrace that we are in his hands, that Jesus has died. He has risen again, that we have life with him for eternity. And it’s all because of what he has done, and he is the one who will provide for us every step of the way today.

Romans 3:23, 2 Corinthians 5:17, John 14:3

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If somebody tries to give you their phone number and they rattle off ten digits really, really quick, it’s almost impossible to remember. But if we break it down into those three sections that we’re so familiar with, it’s a lot easier. Our brain works that way. Where a long string of numbers is hard to remember, but short little segments are easier.

And so sometimes I feel like that with my life of faith as well. God’s word is rich and deep. It’s never ending. We can never find the bottom of it. There’s always more to learn. And that’s a wonderful gift. But it can also sometimes feel overwhelming. There’s so much to learn. There’s so much to remember. So when doubts creep in, or when we have questions, or when life gets confusing or a storm in life comes, break it down. Break it down. Into three simple things to remember.

Number one, who you were.

Number two, who you are in Christ.

And number three, what that means for you today and for your future.

So remember who you were. Scripture says in Romans 3:23,

Because all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23)

That’s who we were. We were people who had fallen short of the glory of God. People who don’t deserve good things from him, people who are not good enough for him. People who have sinned.

But remember, number two, who you are in Christ. Second Corinthians five says this

So then, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. The new has come! (2 Corinthians 5:17)

By Jesus’ perfect life, his death, his resurrection through faith in him. Remember who you are. You are God’s own child. You are righteous. You are holy. You are innocent in his sight. You are an heir of eternal life.

And then remember, number three, what that means for you today and every day. You get to live in the freedom of your forgiveness. You get to live with the knowledge that you are going to heaven. Jesus says in John 14,

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to be with me, so that you may also be where I am. (John 14:3)

That’s where he is bringing us. So when life gets complicated, break it down. Remember who you were. That we were lost in our transgressions and sin. Remember who you are in Christ. That we are God’s own children. That we are forgiven and free. Remember what that means for us, that we will be in heaven with him forever.

Three simple truths. Easy to remember. The ultimate comfort for when life gets complicated.

2 Corinthians 3:16-18

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Focusing on self-improvement doesn’t really work, and there’s a reason for that.

There’s this interesting thing about the way we’re designed, where when we focus on something and value something and really just ponder something, we tend to become more like the thing that we focus on. In the Old Testament, the prophets would call out the people who were worshiping false gods and say, those gods that really aren’t alive. You’re becoming like them. And if you think about just the way we work, whatever it is that we are focused in on, whether it be sports, or music, or other interests, or books we read, we tend to model. We are imitators by nature.

And so then what happens if you look back and you’re constantly looking at, okay, this is how I got to try to do better. This is where I’ve fallen short. This is where I’m going to try to improve. It’s actually this weird inward where you actually become more like part of yourself, I guess. And if the focus is on yourself and you see again your failed attempts to be better, you actually then can start to have more failed attempts to be better. It kind of snowballs. And the answer that God has for us is so much better, because it’s a turn away from self to Jesus.

We look at Jesus and we see that he lived the life we were meant to live, but we don’t. He died for us on that cross. He took the justice for your sins, and mine. Paid for it. And he came back to life, showing that we have this new life with God. And as we gaze at him, we are transformed by him. There’s this really powerful section in Second Corinthians chapter three, and here the apostle Paul is referring back to when Moses would come down from having received the covenant, the laws. That actually, at first, after having been up there, his face was glowing. It was kind of scary for people. And so Moses would put this veil on his face. But also Paul gives us this insight to that part of why he would put the veil on his faces, because the glowing started to fade, and he didn’t want people to realize that. Now, if that amazing transformation happened to Moses from receiving the original covenant, how much more of a transformation happens for us now? And he goes on to say,

But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:16-18 EHV)

See, because Jesus has removed our sin, we can confidently look to God and really see God in Jesus. And we don’t have to have this veil that covers our face. We don’t have to be afraid of God in this way. We’re forgiven. We know we are loved. We can look at him, and we also don’t have to be afraid that the glory is going to fade. Jesus is God himself. He has conquered our sin. He is the promised one. That glory is not going anywhere. We have eternity with him. And so we get to confidently, boldly, continuously look at him. And according to these words, the more we look at Jesus, the more we are transformed to be like Jesus.

So sometimes self-reflection can be good, but may that self-reflection point you back to the cross and turn your gaze to Jesus. That’s where our focus needs to be. That’s the focus that transforms because it’s Jesus and the Spirit, not us, and not even our attempts to focus on him. It’s Jesus, the Spirit. It’s our God who transforms us.

2 Corinthians 4:7-12

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Many people have called me an optimist and I strongly disagree. Here’s why. When I think of an optimist, I think we usually mean someone who just always paints a rosy picture and pretends everything is good and they just kind of ignore the bad stuff. And I like to tell people I am not an optimist. I’m not ignoring the bad stuff or pretending these bad things don’t happen. I am a positive realist. It here’s what I mean: I’m not denying the bad, but I just don’t want us to forget the good, the blessings.

It’s interesting. We have this tendency, I think, to have things in our lives where we think that either have to be good or bad. This is a good moment or it’s a bad moment. But the reality is we can be in the middle of challenges, but also be incredibly blessed. And this isn’t just my idea. Let me read some words for you from Second Corinthians chapter four. So this is the apostle Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit.

But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may 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. (2 Corinthians 4:7-12)

Do you hear all those things he has, we have these things going on. But look at what God has done. I mean, and that’s really the gospel, isn’t it? When Jesus goes to the cross, this is a terrible thing. People have rejected him. His own people have rejected him. There’s all this sadness, and yet we have a God who actually takes that sadness, that awful event, and he uses that as the way he sets us right with him. Through their rejection, we get redemption. Through Jesus’ death, we get life.

Death is a bad thing. The rejection was a bad thing. And yet in the midst of that, we see the greatest love. We see Jesus dying for our sins so he can rise again to set us right with God. So in the middle of all this, now, as people who know this gospel, we are people who are living, seeing that death was not part of God’s original plan for this world, that was a result of sin. But now death is a doorway to life. In the midst of challenges today, yes, it can be so difficult, but you have a God who is with you, who is for you. Think about the ways he has blessed you. Recognize the strength he will give to you. See the way he will provide for you. Acknowledge the bad, but also remember the good.

I think I’ve made my case, hopefully for me being a positive realist.

2 Corinthians 5:17

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You are a hypocrite. Yes, you. You are. You who are watching this Christian devotion on a Christian topic or subject matter, a hypocrite. Let me give you my proof.

Have you ever lied? No? Well, have you ever withheld truth from someone? Let a coworker, a family member, spouse think or assume one thing when you knew that the truth was something else? Have you ever been angry with or at someone else, called them names? Even if those names never slipped past your lips, those mean dirty, foul words at least passed through your mind. Jesus says that is breaking God’s commandment against murder. Jesus says lust is committing adultery with another person in your heart. Disrespect for authority. If you have said, or if you have thought, rude, contemptuous things about our current president, you have broken God’s commandment for authority. And if you haven’t, you haven’t said or thought any of those things about our current president, very likely you said or thought them about the previous administration.

Hypocrisy. Hypocrisy can be defined as when our actions are opposite from what we say about ourselves, or how we identify or label ourselves. You are a hypocrite, but you’re a hypocrite because you’re a child of God. You are God’s son or God’s daughter. You are precious. You are redeemed. You’ve been cleansed and renewed. You see, our hypocrisy isn’t in calling ourselves or thinking of ourselves as Christians. No, no, that’s not it at all. Because Christian, child of God, that’s the true part. That’s the part that God Himself has accomplished and established. That part of us is more solid than the ground beneath us.

Second Corinthians five verse 17 says,

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come. (2 Corinthians 5:17)

Our hypocrisy is our sin. That’s when we are acting like hypocrites. It’s when we break God’s commandments even in our thoughts. That’s when we are being hypocritical. That’s when we’re not being genuine to who we are. A new creation. Because who we really are is God’s, his children. We’ve been purchased and cleansed on Good Friday long ago, buried with him, risen with him three days later on that first Easter Sunday.

We are like Adam and Eve. They’re part of us. Adam and Eve created in God’s image. The children of Israel, once slaves, once captives, but freed and traveling, sojourning to a promised land. We are like Daniel, sleeping soundly and safely while surrounded by predators. Surrounded by lions. We are, like Jonah, kept safe in the deep. Called back to life from the deep. We’re like all those people that Jesus healed from their diseases, and cleansed from their demons, and raised from the death.

We are his people. We are children of the Heavenly Father, waiting for him to return and to remove these last traces of sin. These last traces of hypocrisy that still reside in us. God help us, each and every one of us, to live as we really are, as we’ve been remade to be. God help us for Jesus sake. Amen.

Ruth 1:16-17, 2 Corinthians 5:15

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You only live once. So the world tells us. So, get as much happiness out of this life as you possibly can. That seems to be the mentality of our world today. That if you’re not happy in your job, quit. If you’re not happy with your friends, well, find some new ones. If you’re not happy in your family life, in your marriage, get a divorce, because happiness is key. Because you only live once.

There’s a woman in the Bible by the name of Ruth that seems to be living in direct contrast to that concept of YOLO or You Only Live Once. Ruth is this woman who has lost her husband at a young age, and she yet cares for her mother-in-law, who has not only lost her husband, but also her two sons as well. Ruth’s husband being one of them. Yet, even though Ruth’s mother-in-law, Naomi, gives her the right to go back home to her family to maybe find a new spouse, a new husband to marry and be happy and to have kids. Yet Ruth clings to her mother-in-law, Naomi.

It’s interesting to think about what she does that she’s willing to leave her family and her homeland. She’s willing to take on a life of poverty and difficulty. She’s willing to live with this woman, Naomi, who doesn’t want people to call her Naomi, a name that means pleasant, but instead wants people to call her bitter because the Lord has made her life bitter. She desires to do all of that. It seems to be the exact opposite of the concept of YOLO. You only live once. Live your life for your own happiness.

Why would she do this? Well, in Ruth chapter one we hear this about her. Ruth says this to her mother-in-law, Naomi.

But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to abandon you or to turn back from following you. Because wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you make your home, I will make my home. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. Wherever you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord punish me severely and double it if anything but death separates me from you.” (Ruth 1:16-17 EHV)

We hear why. We hear why she would give up on her own happiness to serve her mother-in-law, Naomi. It’s because of a promise she made to God. To the Lord. She had come to know the Lord as the true God, but not only as the true God, but as her own personal Savior. The one who is sending the Messiah into the world, the one who would come to redeem her and make satisfaction for her sins. To give her life forever in his name.

You see, Ruth wasn’t living for the here and now. She wasn’t living for life here on earth and for her happiness here. But she was living for the one who gives her eternal life forever because of the Messiah, her Savior, the one that God was sending into the world. Saint Paul writes in the New Testament concerning this one the Messiah.

And he died for all, so that those who live would no longer live for themselves but for him, who died in their place and was raised again. (2 Corinthians 5:15 EHV)

You see, God encourages us instead of having that attitude of living for our happiness or YOLO, you only live once. Maybe instead YLT you live twice, right? We live here and now, but we also will have life forever in God’s name, in eternity, because of the one who has purchased our redemption, who has paid for our sin and given us the certainty of everlasting life.

So let us not live our lives here and now for our own selves, for our own happiness, but instead to live for the one who has given his life for us, to guarantee us that we will live twice. We will live forever, eternally in heaven. (WWLTWWLFEIH) Amen.

2 Corinthians 3:7-8,13,18, Exodus 34:29

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God’s ministry is glorious. That’s what the Apostle Paul tells us in Second Corinthians chapter three. He begins by saying,

Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, transitory though it was, will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? (2 Corinthians 3:7-8)

He compares two different kinds of ministry the ministry that Moses brought into the world through God, and then the ministry of the Spirit. Now there’s a glorious minister there, Moses. You’ve looked through the Old Testament, you’ve seen just how popular and important Moses was.

One of my favorite artistic representations of Moses is by Michelangelo, and it’s a marble statue. And you look at this statue and Moses looks glorious. He is powerful. You take a close look at his arms and his hands, and you can see the veins and the muscles on them. It’s real life, larger than life. He’s enormous. He’s huge. He’s powerful. And then you take a closer look at Moses, and you even see horns? All right, what’s going on there? So this is actually when Michelangelo and other Renaissance artists portrayed Moses, they would use a translation from Exodus chapter 34, verse 29 that said,

When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the covenant law in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the Lord. (Exodus 34:29)

Moses had had a glowing, radiant face, beams of light.

But there was also a mistranslation of that word in the Latin Bible, where it said Moses had not beams but horns protruding from his head. (Exodus 34:29 DRA) So sometimes you’ll see that. Paul gives us what it really meant here, because it talks about how the face of Moses was glorious. And that glory would fade. Moses would put a veil over his face so the Israelites wouldn’t see that glory fading away. (2 Corinthians 3:13) But God’s law was glorious. It was wonderful. And so was he.

But there was a problem. God’s law that tells us what to do and not to do, how to follow God can only really result in condemnation because we can’t do it perfectly. It’s a glorious ministry. It’s important for us to know God’s standards in the world would be a much better place if everybody followed what the Lord and what Moses told them to do, but it can only lead to condemnation on its own, because we can’t keep it perfectly.

Thankfully, there’s another ministry, and there’s another minister that is even more glorious. Picture Christ, picture him, maybe you remember on the Mount of Transfiguration when he’s with Moses and Jesus lets a little bit of his glory shine through and his face erupts in light and his clothing is bright. He’s glorious. Think of him when he rises from the dead in all of his glory, when he ascended into heaven and now rules over all things. Jesus is the glorious minister who came not just with a message of be better, do better, make this world a better place. But he came with a message of how he is perfectly kept the Law of Moses in our place, how he gives us his righteousness, how he transforms us from the inside out with his word of forgiveness and peace.

And now Paul goes on to say that as we are forgiven by Christ, as he’s given us his righteousness, not only was Moses transformed, not only is Jesus transformed and we got to see a glimpse of his glory, but we are transformed. Verse 18 says,

And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:18)

You’re transformed from the inside out. It might not always look like it to everyone around you, but God sees you as holy, righteous, and he gives you a glorious ministry to share the good news of Jesus, the Gospel.

Psalm 51:17, 2 Corinthians 12:9, Matthew 26:36-46, Luke 22:42, Matthew 7:9-11

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If I asked you for something, if I asked you to do something for me, I suppose you could answer in at least one of three different ways.

You could answer yes. You could do exactly as I’ve asked you to do. Or give me exactly what I’ve asked you to give me.

You could answer no. You could simply not be able to or not be willing to do what I’ve asked, or give me what I’ve asked for.

Or you could answer differently. The answer might be yes, but not on the timetable, the time frame, that I’ve asked for. Or maybe your answer is yes, but you end up doing something very different, or a lot more than anything I’ve even asked for.

Well when we pray to God, when we come to him in prayer and ask him for things, God answers in those three ways as well. In Psalm 51, verse 17. God promises

A broken and a contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. (Psalm 51:17)

If I come to God in prayer or in church confessing my sin, and I ask him to forgive me, his answer there is an absolute yes. God doesn’t say, maybe, maybe next week. I’ll think about it. God doesn’t answer no. God’s answer is an unequivocal yes.

There are other times when I pray, when I ask God for something, and maybe his answer is no. For example, as he answered, when the Apostle Paul prayed to him concerning a what he called a thorn in his side, some kind of impediment, maybe it was a handicap, an illness which Paul was convinced would, if it were removed, would make him a better servant of the gospel. God’s answer was no. No, my grace is sufficient for you. My strength is made perfect, is perfected, in your weakness. (2 Corinthians 12:9) Sometimes God answers no.

There’s comfort, I think, there. In the company of Saint Paul and of our Savior Jesus. He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane to have that cup pass from him. To not have to suffer for the sin of the world. If there was another way to save and redeem the world, and God the Father answered his own Son, his only begotten Son. No. (Matthew 26:36-46) So there is comfort in that company of our Savior and of Saint Paul.

There are other times when God’s answer might be different. Different from what we’ve asked. Not my will, but yours be done. (Luke 22:42) Sometimes God’s will is very different than what we’ve asked. In Matthew seven verses nine through 11, Jesus says,

Who among you, if his son asks him for bread, would give him a stone? Or who, if his son asks for a fish, would give him a snake? Then if you know how to give good gifts to your children, even though you are evil, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! (Matthew 7:9-11)

What a gift, what a privilege we have in Christian prayer to come to God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, knowing that through the Son, God loves us. God has our eternal welfare in mind and that we can ask him for anything and that he will answer. Sometimes yes, maybe. Sometimes no, maybe sometimes differently, but that he will answer in the absolute best and most loving way that there can be.

So my friends, keep up with your own prayers. Pray to God for whatever it is that you need, whatever worries and concerns are on your hearts and know that in Christ God will answer you.

Jeremiah 29:11, 2 Corinthians 5:21

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“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (Jeremiah 29:11)

A few years ago, I had a pastor’s conference that was in Denver, Colorado. Now, at the time, I was serving a church in Nebraska. So to get to this conference, I would have to drive 14 hours each way. 28 plus hours of driving for a 48 hour conference. So I decided the reasonable thing to do, and the more affordable thing to do would be to fly. So I booked a flight, so I would land in Denver about 6 p.m., have time to kind of settle in, have time to visit with some friends in the area. The conference started very early the next morning, so I wanted to get a good night of rest.

So I arrive at the airport and as I sit there at the gate, I get a notification on my phone. I pull it out. 30 minute delay. No big deal. 30 minutes is not the end of the world. But then I got another notification and another notification and another notification until I ended up landing in Denver about 3 a.m.. As you can imagine, I was not in a fantastic mood. I called an Uber, a taxi cab, it showed up at about 3:30 in the morning, and I get in the car with all my luggage, exhausted and frustrated.

The lady who’s driving the Uber is polite and she asks the reasonable question, what brings you into town? And so I tell her, well, I’m a pastor and I’m here for a pastor’s conference. She kind of scoffs when I say that, and she says, “you know what? I could write a book on religion.” And the way she said it would have not been a very flattering book on religion. She asked me, what is it that your church even teaches about the Bible?

So here I am, exhausted, 3:45 in the morning at this point. I look at the app up on her phone I see I have four minutes. I have four minutes to tell her what we as a church believe. So I give her what’s called the Great Exchange. I talk about how in 2 Corinthians 5 it tells us that

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

When God looks at us, he sees righteousness. So through Christ, through that sacrifice, salvation is ours. And it seemed to sink in a little bit as I said that. And soon after speaking, she dropped me off at my hotel. And as I was lying in bed that night, I couldn’t help but to marvel at God and to marvel at the plans that he has, the places that he puts us. When I was sitting late in the night at an airport in Omaha, getting more and more frustrated as she was driving a taxi cab at three in the morning. God saw to it that we came together and that she had an opportunity to hear about Jesus. Maybe it’s sunk in, maybe it didn’t. But God gave me an opportunity to plant the seed.

God promises a lot of things. He promises to give us hope and a future. When we’re going through difficult times, whether they’re minor frustrations like an airport and a delay or major frustrations, major things in life, we can remember that. Now, when God tells us that he’s going to prosper us and give us a future, it’s not necessarily money and it’s not necessarily a long life. It’s something better. It is a closer relationship with him. It is a closer relationship with him here on Earth and a closer relationship with him in heaven.

So when we find ourselves growing frustrated with God, saying, God, why are all of these things, these inconveniences, these difficulties, why are these happening? We can know that they’re not just random, but rather God is using those to strengthen us, to give us opportunity to share His Word and give us opportunity to grow in our faith with him. Amen.

2 Corinthians 5:19, Romans 5:1

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Our devotion today is based upon Second Corinthians chapter five, verses 19 and 20. Saint Paul writes,

God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. (2 Corinthians 5:19)

When I was a teenager, my mother invited a distant relative to come to our house for dinner one day, and this was a woman that we hadn’t seen for quite a while. And the reason was she had gone through a kind of a difficult divorce. Someone we were related to, she had been married to this man and their marriage had now fallen apart.

The woman imagined in her mind that we were all angry with her and saw her as the reason for the divorce, which really was not the case. The problem was really someone in our family, and we had always sort of sided with her, if you will. We certainly felt no anger against her and we felt sorry for her. But because of all of this, she had pretty much stayed away from our family for many years.

Well, my mother happened to run into her shopping a couple of days earlier and invited her to dinner. And as we sat down to eat dinner this woman stood up even before we started to eat, and she started to tear up and she said, “I have to make an announcement to all of you. I want to let you know that I tried so hard to keep my marriage together, and I really did care, and I really did try hard. I am so sorry. I know you’re all angry with me.” And my mom immediately jumped up and ran to her side and hugged her and said, “no, that’s not the case at all. We’re not angry with you at all. We love you. We care about you. And we knew that you weren’t the one at fault in all of this.”

And she was so shocked and so surprised. In her mind, she imagined that we thought of her almost like an enemy. And that was not the case. And it was a beautiful moment of what Paul is talking about with the word reconciliation. Reconciliation means to put two things back together or two groups that appear to be fighting back together and to make everything peaceful once again.

Now a lot of people go through life feeling and imagining that God is their enemy. They think of God as someone who’s angry with them, and certainly he’s a God of justice. And they think of God as someone who is so holy and above them and powerful, and that he would want nothing to do with them because of their wickedness and their sin. And so it’s easy for all of us to sometimes feel this kind of animosity between us and God, as if he’s waiting to condemn us and to judge us. We think about Judas after he sold Jesus for those 30 pieces of silver. He mistakenly believed that Jesus could never forgive him and that he just needed to get himself away from Christ and from God Himself, and to go and commit suicide.

But through the work of Jesus Himself, the very Son of God, God has already reconciled us to himself by Jesus work for us on the cross. It’s an accomplished fact. It’s based upon something that’s already done in history. It’s not as though there’s something that has to change in you or about you, or something you have to do to somehow alter or change the heart of God toward you. God has already taken it upon himself to do it on your behalf. Saint Paul says in the book of Romans earlier,

We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 5:1)

It’s an already established thing, and that’s really what the entire work of God’s church is all about. The very things that God tells us to do in our congregations baptism, the Lord’s Supper, preaching His Word. It’s all about reconciling the sinner back to himself. The entire ministry is based upon this concept.

So I’d like to extend an invitation to you if you happen to be living your life sort of in fear of God. Maybe there’s something you did years ago or something that’s really bothering your conscience. I would encourage you to go and meet with a Lutheran pastor, and to learn more and more about how this holy God has reconciled himself with you and learned then how to live in that wonderful peace of God’s grace and forgiveness. Amen.

2 Corinthians 3:1-3

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It seems that Paul, Saint Paul, had been challenged about his credentials. There must have been some who were coming into especially the Corinthian congregation. And we’re saying, who is this guy, Paul? Why are you listening to him? Does he have letters of recommendation? What are his credentials? Now, Saint Paul, of course, had a lot of credentials.

He could have brought up how Jesus appeared to him as he was a persecutor of the church on the road to Damascus, converting him. And he had this miraculous experience of seeing and speaking with Christ. He could have brought up how in the times when God was training him to become an apostle, how he even had this vision of heaven, where he heard like things that he couldn’t even describe or put into words. Saint Paul could have brought up the times where he performed amazing miracles and saw incredible things happen in his midst, how God was at work through him and in supernatural ways. But what does Paul point to about the credentials to the Corinthians, especially when he’s under attack from these false teachers who are trying to get other people to not listen to Paul, but to listen to them?

Paul points out in Second Corinthians chapter three. He says, you are our credentials. You are evidence of God’s power among us. He says this in Second Corinthians three, beginning in verse one,

Do we need, like some people, letters of recommendation to you or from you? You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone. It is clear that you are a letter from Christ, delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on stone tablets but on tablets that are hearts of flesh. (2 Corinthians 3:1-3)

You are a letter from Christ. It’s interesting, I had a friend who was in an online debate with a hardened atheist who was arguing that organized religion and Christianity especially has done nothing to help the world. And my friend pointed out, well, why are all these hospitals? Why are all these charitable organizations named after saints or after Christian themes? Salvation Army, things like that? It’s because these were places that were begun and started by Christians who had a desire to share love with people. We see evidence all around us of the Christian faith at work, and we see that even within ourselves.

As a pastor, I’m constantly amazed when I see people in my congregation being willing to forgive, being willing to show kindness to those who have hurt them. I see miraculous things taking place in the hearts of people all the time. And why is this? Because we value what God has told us in His Word. We value the fact that he loves us. We value the fact that he is for us. We value the fact that he has forgiven us, that he has shown us grace and charity, and we want to reflect that. And in that way, we see that people, our people, Christian people are in fact a living letter proclaiming Christ. That’s where our credentials lie.

We see the power of God active in our hearts. Think of Saint Paul, before he became a Christian, hewas an avowed hater of the church. He was persecuting the church. He wanted to put Christians in jail and to death. And look at what a change was made in his heart when he knew the love and forgiveness of Jesus. That happens continually still today. The love of Christ is shared with us, and it’s why we come to church to hear this message about my sins, my guilt being forgiven. God assures me of the fact that I am, I am washed clean in baptism. I get to receive the body and blood of Christ and the Lord’s Supper for the forgiveness of sins. And that moves us as Christians, that moves us to go out and and to rejoice.

And in this way, what Paul says here to the Corinthians, it continues on still to this day, you in the way that you lead your life as a Christian, you are continuing to be a letter from Christ, delivered, not written with ink, but with the spirit of the living God. That is the credential. That is the power of God’s Word, how it changes our hearts and minds. And we pray.

Oh Lord, we thank you for sharing your gospel with us. Help us to have changed hearts that reflect this wonderful message of our forgiveness and salvation. Amen.

God’s peace be with you.