The Same God

2 Corinthians 4:6-15

For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

The same God who spoke into darkness and nothingness and created light, a light that never before existed, is the same God who brought light to your hearts in the form of and through Jesus Christ. The same God who brought real light and real truth to our hearts in the face of Jesus Christ.

And lest we think we are gods ourselves, the Apostle reminds us,

7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. 

THINK--cracked clay pots holding the dazzling brilliance of THE SAME GOD willing to dwell with us, IN US.

If we can keep this in mind, God can do some mighty things in and through us. The moment we think we are SOMETHING, is the moment we begin to lose sight of the LIGHT and who it is who brought it.

PERHAPS, that is why the troubles come. To remind us, not punitively nor with malice, but with a loving Hand, as God ushers us ever closer to Him.

8We are hard- pressed on every side, yet not crushed; 

He will not let us be crushed, though we can often feel the overwhelming pressures of life.

we are perplexed, but not in despair; 

Confusion sets in the moment we look for more than God, He who made us can save us.

9persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed—

Some truths take an iron grip of faith to hang on to, and this is one. When the entire world including those humans who are most suppose to love us have betrayed, rejected or turned against us, even through OUR OWN failures. WE--who we really are in Christ-- can never be struck down, can never be destroyed for we... 

10 always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.

Just as the true life of Jesus was not revealed until He died and rose again, nor will the beauty of ours be brought into view until we have been battered, bruised, pierced and struck down, for surely, IN HIM, we will rise again here in this life and in the hereafter.

 10For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So then death is working in us, but life in you.

 And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, “I believed and therefore I spoke,” we also believe and therefore speak, knowing that He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus, and will present us with you. 

An attitude worth keeping, just as Jesus did,

15For all things are for your sakes, that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God.

Paul wrote, "for your sakes." WE are the 'your' he was talking about, and he was as human as we, and now we go through all of these things for YOUR SAKES that the same grace we know in Christ May spread to you.

If that attitude be in us, it will surely make the bumpy ride here more joyful.