May 21, 2016
Today’s reading from Encounter with God

A Purposeful Journey

Please see the links to our EXTRA Bible Study notes at the bottom of the page.

Opening Prayer

Dear Father, You are the same yesterday, today and forever. Your compassion and presence never change. I praise You.

Read 2 Corinthians 5:1-10

For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.

[1] For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. [2] Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, [3] because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. [4] For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. [5] Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. [6] Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. [7] For we live by faith, not by sight. [8] We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. [9] So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. [10] For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.

Scripture taken from the THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, NIV Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Reflect

“We make it our aim to please him” (2 Cor. 5:9, ESV). We won’t go wrong with that as our aim.

There are two dimensions to human existence. The first is lived out in our temporary, human bodies, which commence the process of decay as cells begin to die the day we are born (1,4). This is the avenue for preparing for the other, the real, unending life that God intends for us, free from the laws of decay and death (6,8).

 

What evidence do we have that it does not all end when we die and are buried? First, the evidence of the Lord Jesus Christ who came down to earth, taking on the temporary human body which was destroyed on the cross and coming back to life in the glorious resurrection body of the heavenly realm. As if that is not enough, we have within us the evidence of the Spirit of God (Eph. 1:13-14), proof that we are not merely creatures of the earth alone but that our ultimate destiny belongs to a higher plane (1 Cor. 15:20).

 

On a tombstone was the epitaph, “Here lies an atheist. All dressed up and nowhere to go.” No doubt the person lying under it now knows better! In contrast, there is a reassuring clarity in Paul’s vision of where he was headed (1). It conjures up for us the joyful steps of the traveler returning home (2,4). They are purposeful steps, focused on the goal of bringing delight to the One waiting to receive him back with a welcome embrace. For Paul, for the believers to whom he was writing in Corinth and for us, verse 10 describes that embrace as a judgment. This is not a judgment to determine the point of arrival at the end of the journey. That is settled on the basis of our faith in Christ. Rather, it is the Lord’s verdict on the way in which we conduct ourselves along the way.

Apply

Do you have a vision statement for your life? Read verse 9 again. How does it fit your life vision?

Closing prayer

Lord, what a wonderful, purposeful life You give me–strength for today and a hope forever. Thanks be to You.

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