Isaiah 40:7-8

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God abides forever.

Encouraging Words

We all know that the physical world around us is subject to decay or fading away. Our homes, cars, and other possessions slip into disrepair. Our bodies wither with time. All in this physical world will some day be gone. But God does not. He is always the same, whole, complete and perfect. It is because of this that we have hope. We have hope in the eternal, living God. We have hope in His Word, our Lord Jesus Christ. We have hope that even though our physical body will wither and fade, we will live on through eternity in the new bodies that He will give us. Glory be to God!

2 Corinthians 4:16

Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.

Encouraging Words

There was a day when I felt invincible. There was nothing that I could not do if I put my mind to it and pushed through. However, as I am growing older, my body is telling me that this is not so. My outward man is perishing, day by day. We all grow older and encounter the results of aging. Paul, however, reminds us that even though our bodies are deteriorating, our inward man, that which has been renewed by our loving Lord, is constantly being renewed, day by day. He continues to pour himself into us and lead us on our journey to theosis, which is growing in His image. God does not leave us alone but invests Himself in us every moment of our lives. All of this is part of our salvation. My Orthodox Study Bible describes our salvation in Christ as the following:

The Orthodox Faith teaches that salvation in Christ includes: 

1) a passage from death to life, from darkness to light (John 3:1–6; Colossians 1:13, 14), through repentance, faith, and baptism (“I have been saved”); 

2) a process of spiritual growth and maturation (2. Peter 1:2–8) through ongoing repentance, faith, and communion, often called deification (“I am being saved”); and 

3) a promise of eternal life (2 Corinthians 5:9–11; John 14:1–6), calling us to perseverance and righteousness (“I shall be saved”).

It is this second element, the process of our salvation, that Paul describes here, saying that our inner life is being renewed day by day.

How encouraging it is to know that God loves us this much. Glory be to God!

Isaiah 35:10

and those gathered by the Lord shall return and come to Zion with gladness, and with everlasting gladness over their head. For praise and exceeding joy will be on their head, and gladness shall possess them. Pain, sorrow, and sighing fled away.

Encouraging words

This past Sunday, I asked my high school class, “Why are you a Christian?” The response caught me off guard. The response was a room full of blank stares. So, lesson set aside, we dug into that question. My objective as a high school church school teacher is to engage these youth in a way that causes them to be independent thinkers who apply Gods’ truth in everything that they do. They cannot make it through college and adult life with their parents’ Christianity. It has to be their own. God does not have any grandchildren, only His own children. Needless to say, we will be continuing to dig into this, “Why?” question more. Isaiah gives us one of the many answers that we Christians can give when asked why we follow Jesus. Hope! Because of Jesus, we hope for that day when there will be no more pain, sorrow, or sighing in our lives. We believe that Jesus will bring us into His Kingdom, His Zion, and this will be the result, a place filled with gladness, everlasting gladness, filled with praise and exceeding joy, and yes, a place with no more pain, sorrow, and sighing. Come, Lord Jesus, come!

2 Corinthians 4:7-10

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed— always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.

Encouraging Words

Once again we are reminded that our specialness, the greatness that comes from us, is not something that we do or are. We are only clay pots made from the dirt of the earth. What makes us special and good in the sight of our Lord is that which He has put in these vessels. First of all, He breathed His image into these clay pots. Then He became a clay pot Himself as Jesus became incarnate. Finally, He fills us with His Holy Spirit when we became His children through our baptism and chrismation. It is because of Him that we can withstand the pressure from the world around us and not feel despair or the feeling of being forsaken or destroyed. Glory be to God!

Isaiah 33:13-16

Those afar off will hear what I have done; and those near will know My strength.” The lawless in Zion departed; trembling will seize the ungodly. Who will tell you a fire is burning? Who will tell you about the eternal place? He who walks in righteousness and speaks uprightly, he who hates lawlessness and wrongdoing, who gestures with his hands, refusing bribes, he who stops his ears from hearing the judgment of blood, and he who shuts his eyes from seeing wrongdoing. He will dwell in a high cave of a mighty rock. Bread will be given him, and his water will be plentiful.

Personal Challenge

There will come a day when no one will be able to deny that Jesus is the Lord of lords and King of kings. Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess who He is. And at that time, those who have denied Him will tremble in fear and regret for not seizing the opportunity to proclaim Him earlier in their life. My challenge is to proclaim Him at all times as my Lord and my King in my thoughts, my actions, my desires, and my words. Glory be to God!

2 Corinthians 4:1

Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart.

Personal Challenge

We are all called to be ministers and priests for our Lord Jesus Christ. We all have opportunities to have a positive and lasting impression on someone else. We should not lose heart in this responsibility for we have received mercy from our God and He will provide for us as we follow His calling. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

Isaiah 30:15

For thus says the Lord, the Holy One of Israel: “When you return and groan, then you will be saved and know where you were. When you trusted in vain things, vain was your strength, and you did not will to listen.”

Personal Challenge

Repentance is not confession. Confession is the act of admitting our sin to someone else, whether it be to God, to our priest, or to another person. Confession is the first step in repentance. Repent­ance is the set of steps following confession where we return to our Lord and grieve, or groan, as Isaiah calls out for our wrongdoing, followed by fleeing that which draws us to commit this sin and striving to pursue godly acts going forward. Without repentance, we end up trusting in vain things and therefore having vain strengths and an unwillingness to listen to our Lord. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

Isaiah 29:13

So the Lord said, “These people draw near to Me and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me, and they worship Me in vain, teaching the commandments and doctrines of men.

Personal Challenge

We are called to love the Lord our God with all of our heart and body. However, it is so easy to slip into the mode of just going through the motions of liturgical practices and leaving our hearts guarded and protected from even God. I see it every Sunday…older, seasoned adults who come to the liturgy and yet glare at the young parents because their child is restless. I see it regularity with people who are striving for some position in the local church body and yet do things to others so that they can be their stepping stones to their desired goal. And yes, I see it in myself as I regularly show up for liturgy with the appearance of piety and having my act all together just to find myself thinking about, and judging those around me for their behaviors when mine is just as bad, if not worse. I too must continually be searching the depths of my heart to ferret out those areas which I guard and protect from turning over to my Lord and God for cleansing. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!