2Cr 12:9-10 NKJV – And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

I reread these verses in my truth cards and a portion of it stuck out to me. He said needs was in infirmity. It’s easy to miss, being tucked in with words like reproach, persecution and distress. I am pretty sure today is the first time I have even noticed it there and I WROTE it down in my truth cards.

I don’t know too many people that aren’t in need today: debt, low pay, bills, losing a home, single moms… the list goes on and on. In this economy we all seem to have needs. Yes most of our needs are self inflicted consequences of bad decisions. John Wayne is credited with saying “Life is hard, it’s harder when you stupid.” I read that and look in the mirror saying “how true, how true.” Can a self inflicted infirmity be considered “for Christ sake?” Not everything Paul suffered was God’s fault was it? Sometimes he suffered because he just had to speak.

This is why I was stunned when I re-read the verses today. Needs is an infirmity that makes us weak, but when we are weak, HE is strong. It got me thinking about how I might rejoice in my infirmity and let Jesus be strong. Does God use the infirmity of stupid consequences to show Himself strong? I am pondering this today…

Last 2 weeks of teaching are up. We are finishing up 1 Corinthians 10 which will sum up all the teaching on the many aspects of how we handle our Christian freedoms. Now we get to move on to the gentle topic of women in the church so pull out your head coverings and stay tuned.

A little bit of leftovers from last weeks teaching: As most of you know, the letter to the Corinthians was all one piece, the verse markers and chapter breaks were added much later for our benefit. Anyway, Chapter 11 has one of those chapter breaks that make me ask… what were they thinking? Vs. 1 of chapter 11 obviously goes with chapter 10. It’s a pretty familiar verse:

1Cr 11:1 Imitate me, just as I also [imitate] Christ.

What a bold statement for Paul to make. How many of us would be willing to say that to our friends and family? If you do the things that you see me doing then you will be acting like Christ. Yikes! It did make me stop and think though about my heart towards some of the people in my life. Going back to the challenge Paul left in the verses just before that statement:

1Cr 10:32-33 – [32] Give no offense, either to the Jews or to the Greeks or to the church of God, [33] just as I also please all [men] in all [things], not seeking my own profit, but the [profit] of many, that they may be saved.

I had to own the fact that my heart was not following Paul’s example. I was willing to offend a few people in my circle and not for the sake of Christ but because they are just annoying. I was also guilty of not looking out for their profit nor was I concerned about the possibility of ministry to them. Bottom line, I could not tell you to follow me this last week because I was falling way short of the standard that Paul was setting. So the Lord and I did some business on the matter this morning in my time with Him.
We all have people that are looking to us. Some want to see how we follow Jesus, some want to see how to follow Jesus. How is your “follow?”

Finally its up! Actually its only MOSTLY ready but I figured that it being up would motivate me to finally finish. Feel free to leave comments about things that need corrections. My next big project will be to add Acts and Romans to the teaching archive so stay tuned.