We must go.... ...live to feed the hungry, stand beside the broken.

Good Morning!! Just thought I would write and share the joy of the Word of God that I received this morning! 2 Corinthians 5 A lot of this talks about not being "at home" in our earthly bodies, but being "at home" in Christ. Then in verse five, Paul writes: "Now He who prepared us for this very purpose (not taking pride in earthly bodies/things), is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge." I stopped here and looked up the word "pledge." No, my Pleasant Grove education wasn't that pathetic...but I wanted to look into it in detail. Pledge |plej| noun 1 a solemn promise or undertaking; 2 Law a thing that is given as security for the fulfillment of a contract or the payment of a debt and is liable to forfeiture in the event of failure. • a thing given as a token of love, favor, or loyalty. So, this was a solemn promise give as security for the fulfillment of the payment of the debt of sin, our sin, given as a token of love and loyalty. WOW. The next thing that stuck out to me was verse 9: "Therefore we also have as our ambition whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him." Sound like a theme verse for my summer? Ah, yes. Skipping down to verse 12: "We are not again commending ourselves to you but are giving you an occasion to be proud of us, so that you will have an answer for those who take pride in appearance and not in heart." haha oh, Paul! So basically, Paul is telling the church at Corinth, Look guys and gals, I'm not bragging, but i AM telling you this so that when you meet somebody who is totally wrapped up in their looks and not in matters of the heart, you can tell them what's up. Verse 14 says: "For the love of Christ controls us..." CONTROLS. That's a rather strong verb. I pray that the love of Christ would consume and control my every action and thought and word. Hallelujah. Lastly, Paul says, in verse 18: "Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation." Ministry of Reconciliation. That seemed like a really odd phrase to me. So once again, I hit the dictionary.... reconcile |ˈrekənˌsīl| verb [ trans. ] (often be reconciled) restore friendly relations between So, God has given us the MINISTRY of restoring friendly relations between us and others AND us and our Father. I have never ever seen this before today. It is amazing to me that Paul refers to reconciliation as a ministry...HOWEVER, that is what Christ was all about. He reconciled us to himself. This was Jesus' ministry. It is ours as well.