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2 Corinthians 1:8-11

There are a number of things to note here:

1. Don’t expect to have an easy life when you become a Christian (8). In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted…2 Timothy 3:12. As Juan Carlos Ortiz commented, ‘Jesus sets you free from your problems so you can have His, and His are a lot worse than yours!’ Hard as it is to face, we do need intelligence on what Christian brothers and sisters are going through in other places, so that we can pray for them, and be reminded of the true nature of Christianity: it is dangerous. The hatred with which Satan hated Jesus at His birth and tried to have Him destroyed (Matt.2:13-18) is now vented on Christ’s church. It is a real and violent thing.
2. Whatever I am going through, it surely can’t be as bad as Paul’s sufferings (8b, 9a). Paul felt he was treading the borderlands of death and that he would soon cross over into it. We felt like we’d been sent to death row, that it was all over for us. The Message. We have all known ‘ups’ and ‘downs’ in the Christian life; experienced ‘mountains’ and ‘valleys’. But I know I have never been in depths as deep and dark and low as Paul’s.  So, if God could pull him out of his troubles He can bring me through mine. Take heart from Paul’s experience.
3. Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity (9b). I once heard a preacher say that you can get so low that the only direction you can look is up; and when you do, you see God! The hard times make you strong, if you allow them to. Or rather, God strengthens us through our hard times. The hardships we face in living the Christian life break our self-reliance and cause us to cling to God. This can only be good, even if it is painful at times. As it turned out, it was the best thing that could have happened. Instead of trusting in our own strength or wits to get out of it, we were forced to trust God totally-not a bad idea since he’s the God who raises the dead! The Message. When you’re shut up to trusting God alone who is there better to trust in?
4. 4. Paul’s focus was on God alone (10). God had got his full attention. Paul was looking to God for deliverance, not  to prayer. But he knew how important the prayers of his fellow-Christians were (11) and that it would be by means of prayer that the rescue would come. It would be the church making the ‘999’ call. Paul had absolute confidence in the power of prayer and regularly sought the intercessions of his Christian brothers. (See also Philemon 22 and Hebs.13:19 for a similar air of confidence about prayer).He knew that something definite would happen if they prayed. He looked forward with confidence to the praise that would flow when the prayers were answered. You and your prayers are part of the rescue operation – I don’t want you in the dark about that either. I can see your faces now, lifted in praise for God’s deliverance of us, a rescue in which your prayers played such a crucial part. The Message.

So here’s a little challenge for today: who are you helping by your prayers? Do you in fact believe that a real individual in your world can be rescued by means of your prayers?

Prayers: Thank you Lord for all who have prayed for me, and for those who still do. Don’t let me sin against anyone by failing to pray for them.

 2 Corinthians 1:1-7

‘Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a battle.’ John Watson

I visited a good friend yesterday. I’ve seen a lot of him this year, because back in the spring he had a heart attack. I was shocked when I heard the news, as, I think, were all who know him. He is in his early 70’s, but is one of the fittest people I know. He has run regularly for many years. He goes to the gym a few times each week. Actually, it was while he was running on the treadmill that he had his attack. We are thankful that an off duty policeman was also there that morning, and he massaged Gordon’s heart while the ambulance was on route to him. After about a week in a medically induced coma, Gordon returned to us all. He has made such good progress he is now back in the gym (with his doctor’s permission! He isn’t running anymore, but he is walking fast!!) He and I share at quite a deep level. He has walked with me through some dark days, and I have very much wanted to be there for him this year. Yesterday, as we chatted, we reflected on how going through deep waters gives you a credibility and extra ability to help others who are similarly going through the mill.

Paul says in this wonderful passage that when we suffer God comforts us, and what He gives to us is for the benefit of others. He comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, he brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us. The Message.

Of course, Paul particularly had in mind the sufferings (persecutions) that come from following Jesus. We have plenty of hard times that come from following the Messiah, but no more so than the good times of his healing comfort – we get a full measure of that, too. The Message. (As we pray for the suffering church, it is good for us to know that there is a special comfort from heaven for them in their trials.) But although this primarily has reference to suffering for the faith, I believe the principle holds good across the board. On the way home from my mother’s funeral, a family friend said to me, ‘You’ll be a better pastor now.’ It seemed a hard thing to say on that day, but I believe it was correct. I look back on the ‘premature’ death of my mum, at the age of 51, as a defining moment in my life. I believe it gave me a deeper empathy than I might otherwise have known. I don’t see mum’s early death from cancer as a good thing, but I see how God has used it for good, and is still doing so.

 ‘God does not comfort us to make us comfortable, but to make us comforters.’ John Henry Jowett

Our God is a wonderful ‘Cook’. He takes all the ingredients of our lives (and let’s face it, there are some things in the pot that cause us to instinctively turn up our noses) and He mixes them together according to His divine ‘recipe’, and something so tasty emerges.

Prayer: Lord God, I pray that the difficult things I face in life will not make me bitter but better. May they equip me to serve you and others so much better than I would have done without them.

2 Chronicles 28:9-27

‘Imagine the monstrous evil of a religion that offers young children as sacrifices. God allowed the nation to be conquered in response to Ahaz’s evil practices. Even today the practice hasn’t abated. The sacrifice of children to the harsh gods of convenience, economy, and whim continues in sterile medical institutions in numbers that would astound the wicked Ahaz. If we are to allow children to come to Christ (Matthew 19:14), we must first allow them to come into the world.’ Life Application Study Bible.

Well that relates to yesterday’s passage, but I thought it was a highly pertinent comment.

Moving on in the story, we see how a prophet named Oded saved the day (9-15): The Israelites were used by God to execute punishment on the people of Judah. But they over-stepped the mark. They went above and beyond the call of duty, you might say: Stop right where you are and listen! GOD, the God of your ancestors, was angry with Judah and used you to punish them; but you took things into your own hands and used your anger, uncalled for and irrational, to turn your brothers and sisters from Judah and Jerusalem into slaves. Don’t you see that this is a terrible sin against your GOD? The Message. In wrath, God remembers mercy.

Thankfully, there were leaders present who humbled themselves under God’s Word and responded appropriately to it (12, 13). This is something we must always do if we are to prosper and flourish in life in the truest sense. Whatever Jesus says to you do it. Respond quickly once you are certain you are hearing His voice, and He will be with you in the doing. He will call you out of your ‘boat’ to walk on water. You cannot do that, but fixing your eyes on Christ you will.

This is, generally speaking, an ugly chapter and it doesn’t have a pretty ending (16-25). ‘Instead of repenting and turning to the God of his father and grandfather, Ahaz adopted the gods of the victorious enemy. It seemed logical to him because the enemy was winning! Instead of going by the Word of God, he took the pragmatic approach (Prov.3:5-6). Have you ever done that? It is dangerous! Warren W. Wiersbe: ‘With the Word’, p.248. Whenever we turn to other ‘gods’, whatever shape or form they may come in; when we trust in people and things other than the Lord, we get trouble instead of help (20). May we learn this lesson well so that we will not have to suffer as Ahaz and Judah did.

Simple trust in God will get you through. It is foolish and futile to look elsewhere. Broken cisterns always fail.

Prayer: Lord I want to be someone who trembles at your Word and responds swiftly when you speak. I desire a heart that is soft and sensitive towards you.

Sadly, we come to the sting in the tail. This has been a great story so far, but it nosedives in the final chapter. In the end it’s a tale of:

Pride (16): God’s law of gravity says that whatever (whoever) goes down must come up (Lk.14:10; Phil.2:1-11; Jas.4:10; 1 Peter 5:5). On the other hand, if you lift yourself up you will be put down. Someone said, ‘If the Lord’s going to raise you up, let him raise you up. But whatever you do don’t raise yourself up.’ That is sound counsel. Pride still goes before a fall (Prov.16:18).

Presumption (16b): One day, contemptuous of GOD, he walked into The Temple of GOD like he owned it and took over, burning incense on the Incense Altar. The Message.He went beyond his calling. He had a high and holy vocation as king, but this did not include the priesthood. He trespassed into territory that was not marked out for him and he should have known better. It wasn’t that he didn’t know God’s Word. The implication is, I believe, that he must have done. But he still wantonly crossed the boundary line. Beware of passing greedy eyes over someone else’s ministry. You’ve been given a ‘lane’ to run in, so stick to it. There is no anointing that will be given you for someone else’s task. Don’t meddle with matters that are none of your business.

Protest (17, 18): It was a big deal to rebuke a king. He held the power of life and death in his hands. But there comes a time to courageously confront things that are wrong. 81 men raised their voices and pointed out that the king was straying into someone else’s lane. They did so in the clearest terms. There are moments in life when you can’t sugar-coat the pill for anyone; you just have to say it how it is

Punishment (19-23): Uzziah’s punishment was real and severe and undiminished to the end of his life. It brought about great loss. He had to live in quarantine. He could not enter the temple. Management of the country and governance of the land passed to his son Jotham Also, he could not be buried in the royal cemetery, but in a field next to it. It makes all the more tragic reading when you consider that for many years he walked with God and was a great king. But no-one can defy God’s Word and get away with doing so. No-one. There are no loop-holes and no exemptions for anyone.

2 Chronicles 26:6-15

I read a Youth Bible that suggested what fun it must be to be 16, and king, and have everyone obey your decrees. What might be the first law you would pass? Maybe one banning homework!!

Leaving that trivial thought behind, we do see that Uzziah was a highly successful man. He was good at battling and building. He grew rich and powerful and famous (6-8). He had various interests and abilities. The last part of (10) reads like this in The Message: – he loved growing things. (I make the observation that unfortunately the growth of his inner world did not keep pace with his burgeoning outward success, and it was to be his undoing.) The passage shows also that he was a resourceful military leader (11-15): He also installed the latest in military technology on the towers and corners of Jerusalem for shooting arrows and hurling stones (15a). The Message.

However, it is also transparently clear that Uzziah’s success was God-given (5b, 7 and 15b). He became great with the great help of God.

Now success can go to your head. You can start to read and believe your ‘reviews’. Major league success can be a dangerous thing. You can easily forget who it was who gave you the success and (perhaps subtly at first) lose your sense of dependence. The danger, however, is that we should become strong in our own conceit, and credit ourselves with the position which is due to the grace of God alone…God cannot trust some of us with prosperity and success, because our nature could not stand them. F.B.Meyer: Great verses through the Bible, p.159. A man was writing about a friend, a colleague in ministry, and he said he had always wondered why this guy, with his great gifts, hadn’t become prominent. He had conducted a fairly ordinary looking ministry and had not appeared to achieve anything spectacular. One day he happened to mention this to his friend. The man replied with a disarming, humble honesty, saying that he believed God had denied him such success because He knew he wouldn’t be able to handle it. Warren Wiersbe writes: ‘The starting point in Uzziah’s success was his seeking God and wanting to do his will (v.5)…The turning point was his pride (v.16)’: With the Word, p.247. Everything seemed to go his way. But then the strength and success went to his head. Arrogant and proud, he fell. The Message.

Here, then, are the ‘take homes’ from today’s passage:

1. Be a man/woman of prayer;
2.  Get your success from God;
3. Give God all the glory for every good thing that happens in your ministry;
4. Stay, humble and obedient;
5. It is possible to be in great blessing today, and in disgrace tomorrow. (No wonder Paul said he beat his body and made it his slave, so that after preaching to others he would not himself be a castaway: 1 Cor.9:27).

A wonderful song says something like this: While walking in this world, we are nothing in ourselves; but God’s chosen to use us in His mighty will. And the Master’s plan requires human instruments, but they must not ever glorify themselves…All the glory must be to the Lord…