Today's Beginning

2 Corinthian 2:8 (NLT), "So I urge you to reaffirm your love for him." Tuesday... There is more to correcting. For some, it is so easy to correct. They can have an I am better than you attitude and that definitely isn't good. But there are times that we need to correct and here in the church in Corinth, Paul in his first letter had to encourage the church to do some correcting of a man they loved but who needed to be corrected because he was hurting the church. He was a definite problem. Sometimes because of love we want to let things slide because of the hurt correcting would cause. Yes, there can be pain. Here in his second letter Paul says in 2:5-6, "I am not overstating it when I say that the man who caused all the trouble hurt all of you more than he hurt me. Most of you opposed him, and that was punishment enough." As I said, for some it is easy to correct but for others it isn't. But there are times when we have to correct and they did and now Paul co...

2 Corinthians 1:3 (NLT), "All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort." Monday... So what do we do? We can go through difficult times and they can bring up a lot of questions. Now the Apostle Paul in his second letter to the church at Corinth starts out talking about troubles. In 1:8 (NLT) he says, "We think you ought to know, dear brothers and sister, about the trouble we went through in the province of Asia. We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure, and we thought we would not live through it." Now earlier in this chapter in verse 3 he writes, "All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort." And no matter what we are going though that is such an important truth for us to remember and to share. Yes in those times of trouble we need comfort and God is our source. And then Paul writes in verse 4, "H...

Psalm 58:11 (NLT), "Then at last everyone will say, 'There truly is a reward for those who live for God; surely there is a God who judges justly here on earth.'" Friday... There are so many opportunities and rewards. There really are when we live for God. And justice is one as David says in Psalm 58:11(NLT), "Then at last everyone will say, 'There truly is a reward for those who live for God; surely there is a God who judges justly here on earth.'" Yes, there is surely a tremendous reward. Now Paul over in 1 Corinthians 16 tells of another one. In 16:7 he writes in his first letter to the Corinthian church, "This time I don't want to make just a short visit and then go right on. I want to come and stay awhile, if the Lord will let me." And that phrase "if the Lord will let me" leads also to great opportunities and rewards. Of course that to us may not sound like a reward but it is. Yes, the LORD wants to have a hand in our lif...

Psalm 57:1b (NIRV), "There I will stay until the danger is gone." Thursday... Maybe we need this word today. There are words in life that give us confidence no matter what we are facing. Now we have to believe them in order for them to have an impact. David wrote Psalm 57 while he was in a cave hiding from Saul who wanted to kill him and he says in the last part of verse 1, "There I will stay." It was a safe place and Saul didn't know that he was there. But he doesn't stop there. With confidence he said, "There I will stay until." And until is definitely a word of faith and confidence. "There I will stay until the danger is gone." Do we need that today? Let me give you the whole verse. In verse 1 David says, "Have mercy on me, God. Have mercy on me." And that is a great place to start in times of trouble. Maybe that is what we need to pray today, "Have mercy on me, God. Have mercy on me." It is so great to have someone...

Psalm 56:8 (NLT), "You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book." Wednesday... There are so many annoyances in life. Now King David wrote Psalm 56 and he knows all about annoyances and even more. In verses 5 & 6 (AMP) he writes, "All day long they twist my words and say hurtful things; All their thoughts are against me for evil. They attack, they hide and lurk, they watch my steps, as they have [expectantly] waited to take my life." Now this is King David. We as ordinary people probably don't have people out to get us but we all do have annoyances in our life. For sure, I would never want to be the President but it is so good to have David tell us what he goes through and how he handles it. I'm sure we do have people who seem to twist our words and that definitely is an annoyance so what do we do? Well, David in verse 8 (NLT) gives some encouraging words. He says, in talking abo...

1 Corinthians 13:7 (NLT), "Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance." Tuesday... We just have trouble listening. Over in Jeremiah 25:4 (NLT) it says, "Again and again the LORD has sent you his servants, the prophets, but you have not listened or even paid attention." And Jeremiah went on to tell what was going to happen. There will be consequences if we do not listen to what God says through his Word. Now the Apostle Paul over in 1 Corinthians was having a problem with some professed Christ followers who were having trouble at listening. And we too can have problems at listening. We can think that being a Christ follower means we do a lot of finger pointing and we give up on people who don't do what we say. We can even do that in our families. But Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 13:7 (NLT), "Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance." In verse ...