Daily Devotionals

“Therefore, having these promises, beloved,
let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit,
perfecting holiness in the fear of God”
– 2 Corinthians 7:1 –

In 2 Corinthians 7, the apostle Paul encourages the church toward purity and affection. He recognizes the he himself is going through tribulations, but always feels comforted in his afflictions. Paul mentions two factors that helped him face his afflictions: the arrival of his friend Titus and the affection of the church.

Paul also feels satisfaction because the Corinthians were gentle and kind to his friend and collaborator Titus. The chapter ends with these beautiful words: “Therefore I rejoice that I have confidence in you in everything” (v. 16). The apostle’s disposition is noteworthy: despite his ordeals, he sees everything with joy, strengthens his relationships with his brothers and sisters in the faith, trusts them, and emphasizes a religion put into practice.

When Jesus wanted to highlight this same theme, He told the parable of the Good Samaritan. Both the priest and the Levite, representatives of the “religious” class according to their customs, carried on their wrist or their neck a parchment made of leather with the motto of their religion:

“Love God above all things
and your neighbor as yourself.”

The problem was that they did not have this message etched on their heart or in their daily life. Surprisingly, a Samaritan, who did not have the appearance of being religious, was truly religious.

Let us make a simple application of this parable adapted in our time. A person was traveling from the capital of a city to a poor neighborhood, and as he left the city, thieves caught him, stripped him of all he had, injured him, and left him for dead.

A short while later, the director of a well-respected church passed by, but he did not stop; he had urgent theological matters to attend to. A few minutes later, another prestigious religious person arrived, glanced sideways at the man, and went on her way; important administrative and ceremonial matters awaited her. Finally, a common man approached. He was not wearing religious clothing and did not seem educated, much less wealthy.

But he stopped, showed interest, provided first aid, offered what he had at hand, took the man to a medical center, and paid for all the fees in his recovery.

We need more religious people in work clothes.
True religion is not measured by how much we know
about the Bible or how many ceremonies we practice.
True religion is evident by how much we love and serve our neighbor.

Let us be the difference, brothers and sisters. May the Lord bless you…

“In an acceptable time I have heard you.
And in the day of salvation I have helped you.
Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation”
– 2 Corinthians 6:2 –

The Global Positioning System (GPS) functions thanks to twent-four man-made satellites. This system helps terrestrial, aerial, and nautical vehicles navigate.

Along the same lines, we have a spititual GPS that receives and transmits messages and guidance from the Universal Command Center, which watches over our journey and ensures that we will get to our final destination.

The number of direct promises in the Bible is no less than three thousand. There is no condition or situation in life which cannot be covered by one of God’s promises. Like Paul, we can say that today is the acceptable time and the day of salvation. All other blessings are then added into place; and the GPS, in other words, all the Great Promises of our Savior, make up our indispensable support, which guides us toward eternity.

In order to travel safely, we need the grace of Jesus (2 Cor. 6:1-2). It is a gift and the departure point of our grand journey. Facing life and its many challenges is an ongoing battle, which is why we need the power of the Holy Spirit (2 Cor. 6:6-7). And by His grace and power, we can grow in holiness, because we are the temple of the living God (1 Cor. 6:19).

We respond with a spirit of Gratitude, with Passion for Spiritual things, fulfilling alongside Jesus the mandate to seek and Save the lost.

All around are sinful people who need the Son of justice to illuminate their lives, guide their lives with direction and hope, in order to be free of sin and its consequences.

“A revival of true godliness among us is the greatest
and most urgent of all our needs. To seek this
should be our first work. There must be earnest effort
to obtain the blessing of the Lord, not because God is not willing
to bestow His blessings upon us, but because we are unprepared
to receive it” (Last Day Events, p. 189).

The GPS is designed by the “Author and Finisher of our faith” (Heb. 12:2) is at our disposal
to help produce this true revival and reform. In His Word, we have the Great
Promises of the Savior for us. His Grace, His Power, and His Sanctity are at our disposal.
We need to express Gratitude and live Passionately,
sharing with others the source of Salvation. There are many sinners
who need to be illuminated by the Sun of Justice.
We soon will see Him return for us and His glory will last forever.
Meanwhile, use the GPS.

May the Lord be with you…

“Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading
through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God”
– 2 Corinthians 5:20 –

An ambassador is a representative of a country to another country, or for an international organization, with a residence in the capitol of the foreign country. Diplomatic agents are divided into four classes, and the ambassador corresponds to the highest class.

As of the end of 2019, the ten countries with the most embassies in the world were China, with 276 embassies, the United States with 273, France with 267, Japan with 247, Russia with 242, Turkey with 235, Germany with 224, United Kingdom with 222, Spain with 215, and Brazil with 205.

There are three Hebrew words which mean ambassador: messenger, envoy, and interpreter. Paul presents himself as an ambassador for Christ – in chains (Eph. 6:20) – and considers that all believers ought to be ambassadors as well. An ambassador is a representative, an envoy, and an interpreter of the interests of the nation he or she represents.

• The nation we represent is heaven,
• The King is our Lord, and
• the mission entrusted to us is to reconcile and restore friendly relations between entities which became enemies due to sin.

Ambassadors do not have their own message or their own mission. Both their message as well as their mission are given to them by the One who commissions and sends them. Therefore, everything comes from God. He takes the initiative of salvation, sends His Son, send the Holy Spirit, sends the ambassador, and produces the growth and fruits of the labor.

This reconciliation happens in three timeframes:
Past: We have been reconciled because of Christ’s substitutive death.
Present: We are being reconciled by Christ’s mediation.
Future: We will be reconciled definitively when the Lord returns.

Who has the responsibility to proclaim this glorious message? Paul teaches us that all believers are ambassadors, and spokespeople for the King. At this time, we have “embassies” from heaven (meaning places to gather, or churches) in 212 of the 235 countries in the world to reach 7.223 billion inhabitants, and we do not have embassies in twenty-three countries, which have 215 million inhabitants. In both groups the work of the ambassadors is not yet completed; that is, each one of us as Christians has a lot of work yet to do as representatives of the King of kings.

Soon, the final kingdom will be established.
All the faithful ambassadors on the Earth will be designated
as perpetual ambassadors in heaven. It is time to stop
sleeping in the barn. We must rise up for the harvest,
thankful that God has chosen us for salvation.
“If God had not chosen me, I should never have chosen Him” – Spurgeon. –

Thank you Lord, for chosing us. We are a chosen generation…

“For Christ’s love compells us, because we are convinced
that One died for all, and therefore all died. And He died for all,
that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him
who died for them and was raised again”
– 2 Corinthians 5:15-15 –

The love of Christ towards us presses us, urges us, propels us, dominates us, forces us, keeps us together, and leaves us no other option. It seems ver abirtrary, right? Where is God’s respect for my personal decision?

Paul tells us that his love is so strong that it wrenches an answer of love from my heart. We love Him because He first loved us (Rom. 5:8). Impacted by that love, I cannot do anything else but love Him, stop living for myself, and begin living for Him… and for all of those who need me to be a cunduit of that love.

Let us remember the story of Derek Redmond, the athlete who had trained his whole life to compete in the Olympic Games in Barcelona in 1992. He had been to the operating room five times, and even so, he was the favorite to win gold in the 400 meter race.

The race begins. Lane five. Everything is going amazingly. But with only 150 meters to the finish line, he feels an intense pain in his hamstring. He wills himself to keep going, but can’t. He falls to the ground in intense pain. Then, as the medical team is approaching, he decides to stand up and continue walking toward the finish line. He stops; tears of impotence and suffering fill his face. The race has already ended and his dreams are broken. But he dicides to continue.

Then a man from the crowd clears a path toward him. Who is this? His father, Jimmy Redmond. He comes near his son and tells him, “It’s okay, you don’t have to prove anything to anyone.”

Derek answers, “Dad, I have to finish the race.”

Then his father holds him and whispers, “Then let’s finish it together.”

When the love of God compels us, we are going to have a genuine interest in helping others finish the race. This principle always inspired Paul’s life.

What did the apostle do if ever his ardor in the path of duty flagged for a moment?
“One glance at the cross caused him to gird up anew
the lions of his mind and press forward in the way
of self-denial. In his labors for his brethren he relied much
upon the manifestation of infinite love in the sacrifice of Christ,
with its subduing, constraining power” (Gospel Workers, p. 600).
There are many broken, crippled people in the race to heaven.
For them, and for ourselves,
we need to hold each other up and arrive together,
because “the love of Christ compels us.”

May the Love of Christ be with you, today and every day…

“For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed,
we have a building from God, a house not made with hands,
eternal in the heavens”
– 2 Corinthians 5:1 –

In 2 Corinthians 5, the apostle Paul reaffirms the assurance of inmortal glory, but he also makes it very clear that we will appear in the judgement before God.

In turn, he also claims that he works for God with zeal and commitment and does not even have the slightest intention of boasting about the work he does. In this way, Paul tries to carry out the mission that God gave him and live in peace with his own consience.

The apsotle highlights a beautiful teaching:

The death of Christ in our favor should produce in us a corresponding commitment and loyalty to Him and should lead us from a selfish and self-centered life toward a life lived to follow and do the will of God.

Yes, those who accept Christ into their lives become new creatures (2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15). That is why they must abandon their old life of sin and begin to live in the light of the gospel of Christ. This is possible because Christ has reconciled us with the Father (Rom. 5:10-15; 2 Cor. 5:11, 18-20; Eph. 2:16; Col. 1:20-21), providing a new relationship with God.

We do not deserve God’s love, but He is so merciful that He loves us, frees us from sin, transforms us daily, and makes us His representatives before the world. This is how our amazing God is! All of this is done with a purpose: to transform our earthly dwelling into an eternal building.

Paul begins the chapter by contrasting life in the present with eternity. Paul, the tentmaker, tells us that today we have a tabernacle, a tent, an earthly dwelling which is wearing out. Both the tent as well as the body are made with materials from the earth; transitory and easy to destroy. On the other hand, the celestial dwelling is a building made with materials which originate in heaven.

The tent’s time is running out.
It is time to debut the new building.
This is not a reopening; the tent is not getting dusted off
and some patches put in. It is not a refurbished tent.
It is a restored life. It will not be a tent in disguise,
it will be a reclaimed life. The Master Builder makes all things new;
new energy, new strenght, new life!
Tent or building?
It is time to decide today!

May the Lord bless you, today and always…

“But we have this treasure in jars of clay,
to show that this all-surpassing power is from God
and not from us”
– 2 Corinthians 4:7 –

Paul presents the gospel by means of three contrasts: a precious threasure placed in earthen vessels, as fragile as our lives. Let us look at some of them.

Darkness and light (Rom. 2:19; 13:12; 2 Cor. 6:14; Eph. 5:8; 1 Thess. 5:5). In the beginning, amid the darkness, God created the light. Then, when spiritual darkness covered the earth, we received Jesus, the Light of the world.

Clay and treasure (Rom. 9:20-21; 2 Cor. 4:7; 2 Tim. 2:19-21; Col. 2:2-3). The jars made of clay were fragile and not valuable. But the treasure of the gospel is permanent, relevant, and eternal. God’s plan was that such an insignificant vessel would contain that priceless gospel.

Life and death (Rom. 5:10, 17, 21; 6:4, 23; 8:2, 6, 38; 7:18; 1 Cor. 3:22; 2 Cor. 2:16; 4:10-12; Phil. 2:20; 2 Tim. 1:10). Our body carries the scars of sin. From the day we are born we begin to die, but the Lord came to provide us, by His grace received through faith, life now and forever.

The exterior and interior man (Rom. 2:28, 29; 2 Cor. 4:16; Eph. 3:15-17). The body wears out with the passing weight of time. However, the interior is renewed day by day in God’s promises. Affliction is light and momentary; glory is excellent and eternal (see 2 Cor. 4:17).

Visible and invisible (Rom. 1:20; Col. 1:16). Things which are seen are limited, perishable, and have an expiration date. The ones which are not seen are limitless, nonperishable, and eternal.

The good news of the gospel is that:

the treasure triumphed over the clay,
the light overcame the darkness,
life asserted itself over death,
and the interior man rises above the exterior man.

The invisible has trancendence and relevance above the visible, because the temporary will end, but eternal remains.

An eleven-year-old boy came to a house one afternoon. The family opened the door to greet him and he asked for water. The family thought the boy wanted to drink the water, but he really wanted water to clean car windshields in order to earn money to buy food and medicine for his mother and siblings. The family gave him everything he needed, which was more than just water. The boy did not have a bucket, soap, or brush… he was missing everything. The boy’s little dirty face and sad eyes were never forgotten.

How many like this boy walk through life suffering from the things they lack:
work, health, family, forgiveness, faith, and hope…
Soon, God will transform the things you lack
because of sin into abundant gifts for eternity,
which you can have even now, for yourself and to share!
Don’t walk with your eyes fixed on the ground,
but instead, lift your eyes to heaven.

May the Lord fill any voids you may have today…

“Therefore, since we have this ministry,
as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart”
– 2 Corinthians 4:1 –

In 2 Corinthians 4, the apostle Paul declares that he has preached the gospel of Christ with responsibility, sincerity, and effort. This has provoked persecutions, which contributed to God’s glory and were benefecial to the church because they kept unity among the brethren and kept them dependent on God; they were even beneficial to Paul himself.

The apostle shares many beautiful teachings, to which we should be attentive:

1. Just like Paul, we should reject things which bring fame (vv. 1-4). Being a Christian and being a leader demands transparacy and being a good example. People should see in us a good model to follow. We should not practice things that will bring shame to our God.
2. Those who preach should not present topics of personal interest, should not talk about themselves, and should not waste time telling mere anecdotes (vv. 5,6). Preachers should talk about Christ and lead people to Christ.
3. The treasure, which is the knowledge of the glory of God in Christ, was given to us simple mortals (v. 7). As true consecrated vessels, we should hold the treasure, which is Christ, to share with all who seek Him.
4. We are hard-pressed in everything because we are in the middle of a spiritual war, but distress does not paralyze us because the grace of Christ sustains us. In some situations, we are left perplexed, we have doubts, but we should not get discouraged over that, because we trust in our God. We sometimes feel helpless and dejected (vv. 8-16), but God’s love and power sustain us, so that we are not destroyed.
5. What we suffer now or will suffer is slight and momentary in comparison to the future glory we will have together with Christ (v. 17).
6. We should not trust in things which are seen, because someday they will be destroyed (v. 18). We should place our trust in Christ’s promises, because they guarantee us eternity.

In Paul’s writings we find two mysteries:

• The mystery of iniquity (2 Thess. 2:7). The first is a mystery because in a world which was perfect, sin and corruption were introduced. We know that created beings were made perfect and used theit capacity for choice incorrectly, and in their independence caused evil and lost their lives.

To solve this mystery of iniquity, God counters it with

• The mystery of mercy (1 Tim. 3:16). To resolve this mystery of iniquity, God superimposes it with the mystery of mercy. The God of the universe became flesh for us. Only in light of His mercy can we, in part, understand His love, a topic that will be the subject of study for eternity.

Yes, Jesus decided to die for us
because He did not want to live without us.
Let us live for Him today.

Be blessed…

“Clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us,
written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God,
not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart”
– 2 Corinthians 3:3 –

In 2 Corinthians 3, Paul wants his words to have an impact on the lives of the readers. Nevetheless, he recognizes that this is only possible through direct action from God, because He has the power to reach the heart and write His law on it.

It is easier for God to write His law on tablets of stone than to write them on the human heart, because stones do not resist. Once the law is written on the heart, it is no longer a dead letter. Paper and stone are transitory. This is not so with the law written on a heart and in a life.

Paul knows that God is acting through the letters he writes. But he also knows that the credit for being an effective instrument belongs to God, because all ability and all talents come from God.

The covenant of salvation is also the work of God. In this context, Paul makes a statement which summarizes divine grace: “For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life” (2 Cor. 3:6). What does this mean?

The “letter” was good; however, it did not have the power to rescue the sinner from a death sentence. In truth, the letter condemned the sinner to death. Originally, God instituded the law to promote life; therefore it is “holy” and its commandments are “just and good” (Rom. 7:12).

The law condemns the sinner to death, because “the soul who sins shall die” (Ezek. 18:20). Nevertheless, the gospel was designed to forgive and give us life. The law sentences the transgressors to death, but the gospel redeems them and brings them back to life.

The message of salvation gives hope, and hope produces boldness to live and testify. The one who has been given such  a gift understands and lives the gospel of grace, lives responsibly, and pledges to become a messenger of hope.

We all have the privilege of communicating to the world the treasure of God’s grace and inscrutable riches of Christ.

“There is nothing that the Savior desires so much as agents
who will represent to the world His Spirit and His character.
There is nothing that the world needs so much
as the manifestation through humanity of the Savior’s love.
All heaven is waiting for men and women
through whom God can reveal the power of Christianity”
(The Acts of the Apostles, p. 600).

Let’s be messengers of hope together…