Wednesday, April 29, 2009

2 Corinthians -- wow -- READ IT!


Well... its taken a while to post again, but all my dedicated readers :-) will just have to overlook that point.
I was at the office today and was doing some reading concerning the background of 2 Corinthians (I'm about to start preaching straight through 2 Corinthians on Sunday nights). As I was doing that, I ran across a statement by an individual that was quoted as basically saying, "When I read 2 Corinthians, I feel like I've walked into a room and picked up a persons personal daily diary. I read it and just couldn't put it down, and when I finished I just had to read it again."
This is exactly what I did today. I copied the text from the ESV from my Bible program into the a word document (without any chapter or paragraph divisions--just one big block of text for 7 pages) and printed it off. I then read it out loud (all of it) and attempted to read it with the emotion that I believe is found in the text. It was a very moving experience. I have studied through the book before, but have never read it like that. If you haven't, I highly recommend doing so--it is the most intimately personal book in the New Testament and it is shame that it is not studied/read more.
One passage that I found interesting is in 1:6 - "
If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer." Paul is talking about the "God of comfort" and is saying that it is not until we suffer that we experience the true comfort of God. Oh what a difference there is in the Bible between comfort and comfortable!!!

3 comments:

  1. well that ended abruptly... i say expound further

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  2. Lol shutup Molly. :P

    Good suggestion. I've never done that before, but now I think I will have to! Thanks

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  3. hmm... Molly... maybe that means you should have picked up 2 Corinthians and read it--while trying to figure out the difference between comfort and comfortable! :-P Maybe I shall expound anyway--we'll see.

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