The Book of Second Corinthians is a wonderful blessing

I have recently been studying the book of second Corinthians, which is a very amazing book in the New Testament which is about the apostil Paul and the church he planted in Corinth which is a part of Greece down on the southern peninsula or island by the Aegean Sea in the east of Europe.

Please see the maps below for reference

As you can see above the 2 places we are addressing are Corinth and Ephesus then known as Asia modernly the country of Turkey.

There are a wealth of great scriptures and teachings in this book, my focus here is concerning the term or ideal that a good majority of us have heard of which is “Rest in Christ”.

The reason we are talking about these two specific locations is to illustrate the point of Paul’s faith, now as you may know already, and if you don’t the book of 2nd Corinthians is a letter that Paul has written to his congregation or his church in Corinth, he touches on a great and many different subjects but to highlight a couple specific subject we are going to talk about Paul’s time in Asia or Ephesus.

Paul’s comments on his time in Ephesus doesn’t states that while there he was in real trouble, now Paul doesn’t go into the details of what it was that he faced there but what he does say is that the trials he faced were so great that he was essentially certain that he would die as a result, but it’s what he says next that really is astounding. Here is the verse

2 Corinthians 1:8-9 - (8) For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life: (9) But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead

Basically what we read in this verse is that Paul having been in a situation that pushed him beyond his own strength beyond what he knew to be his own limits in every way to the point where he believe that he would surely perish , and all he could say about it is essentially “we trust not in ourselves” meaning we are not the capable party in any given situation, “but in god which raiseth the dead” he is saying that in Christ we have everlasting life, that with Christ who is the capable party in all things strong where we are week  and truly the raiser of the dead. IN Christ we live forever therefore our worry is for nothing because our heavenly father promises our everlasting life through his son Jesus.

So how does this relate to the concept of our rest in Jesus?

It is our dependency in Jesus that gives us rest , Jesus said he would bare all burdens which means that when you are struggling you need only raise your issues up to God and focus on your Godly works Jesus will in fact take care of your problems for the bible tells us that “the lord knows what you are in need of even before you know yourself” the bible also says in Mathew chapter 6:

25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?”

Essentially the point here is that if you toil first for God striving ever more for the glory of God, making the lord your first concern and all other things? Let them be background details for when you seek god he will provide, he will bare your burdens he will keep you fed and clothed and safe, you need not waste all your time worrying about yourself and your own pursuits.

If you have questions or comments or something to add to this please contact me here.

If you want to know more about the rest Jesus provides or just want to know more about God and the bible please contact me and I will do everything in my power to help you find the answers you seek through Jesus in whom all things are possible.

God Bless you

Part 1

I have attempted to simplify these concepts and highlight some main ideals that have changed my life and I Hope that you can see that whatever might make you feel separated from God is only in your mind.

God Loves us so much, and he wants for each and every one of us to experience and fully enjoy that love. It’s a very simple and inspirational message, but sometimes things that sound simple are the hardest things to actually put into practice. For you to really love something you have to have the choice to love it or not, this is why we have the free will to do whatever we choose so that we can experience real love.
Without that choice the love if you could call it that would be forced and empty, this is not the kind of love god has for us and it’s not the kind of love he wants for us to have for others.

If we didn’t have the choice it wouldn’t be love would it?

God’s love is complete, so much so that he gives us total forgiveness for our sins through the grace of Jesus Christ.

What does that mean?

It means that God thought about you and loved you before you even existed, and he knew that no one was perfect, he made it so that nothing you could or would possibly do wrong in your entire life would be held against you, in other words nothing can possibly separate you from God’s love accept your choosing not to accept that love. It’s like getting a present, when you are handed a gift you have to accept the gift in order to truly receive it.

Grace means that this forgiveness is freely given to you, which means that you don’t have to earn it, It’s a gift, why is it like this? Because if you were to try and earn your way into heaven you’d fail right? Everyone would because we are all human and imperfect so God said you don’t have to earn your way in I’ll give you free passage all you have to do is choose to accept it and trust in him.

Much More to come