Contemplative Bible Reading

2 Corinthians 10:3 (New Living Translation) We are human, but we don’t wage war as humans do. Paul writes to the Christians at Corinth long ago. In this short sentence, Paul states two simple and significant facts: (1) We (followers of Jesus Christ) are human. This is great. We are created by God in the […]

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2 Corinthians 10:4 (New Living Translation) 4 We use God’s mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments. The writer is telling the readers in Corinth about some of the ways that God has made Christians different (if we accept that). Once different, we destroy […]

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2 Corinthians 10:7 (New Living Translation) 7 Look at the obvious facts. Those who say they belong to Christ must recognize that we belong to Christ as much as they do. Paul is writing to a church in Corinth. There is a lot of fussing going on. Some say Paul is a phony. Paul is […]

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2 Corinthians 8:5 (New Living Translation) 5 They even did more than we had hoped, for their first action was to give themselves to the Lord and to us, just as God wanted them to do. This is from a letter that Paul wrote to Christians in Corinth. He is relaying what some Christians in […]

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2 Corinthians 4:2 (New Living Translation) 2 We reject all shameful deeds and underhanded methods. We don’t try to trick anyone or distort the word of God. We tell the truth before God, and all who are honest know this. “Got ya,” we would shout in triumph. We were kids (little boys as maybe little […]

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2 Corinthians 3:16 (New Living Translation) 16 But whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. The verses before this describe the lack of mental understanding and the lack of emotional feeling of God’s people as a veil. There was a veil that covered their minds and covered their hearts when the […]

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2 Corinthians 5:21 (New Living Translation) For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ. There are a few places in the Bible where one sentence summarizes the entire thing. We should take note of these sentences. There are […]

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2 Corinthians 5:20 (New Living Translation) So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. An Ambassador for the U.S. Department of State has an official title. That title is “Chief of Mission.” An ambassador is a person sent on a mission by someone else. There is a task to accomplish and […]

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2 Corinthians 4:5 (New Living Translation) You see, we don’t go around preaching about ourselves. We preach that Jesus Christ is Lord, and we ourselves are your servants for Jesus’ sake. This is pretty simple. Paul says that the Gospel is not about him; it is about Jesus the Christ. We, however, have been stumbling over […]

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2 Corinthians 7:6 (New International Version) 6But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus, In this simple little verse, Paul writes of an occasion when he and some other Christians were downcast – another way of writing that they were a depressed. God gave them some comfort. The form of […]

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