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Weekly Devotional

October 26, 2009

God’s Peace be with you all.

2 Corinthians 11:16-31  ¹⁶ I repeat, let no one think that I am a fool; but if you do, then accept me as a fool, so that I too may boast a little.  ¹⁷ What I am saying in regard to this boastful confidence, I am saying not with the Lord's authority, but as a fool;  ¹⁸ since many boast according to human standards, I will also boast.  ¹⁹ For you gladly put up with fools, being wise yourselves!  ²⁰ For you put up with it when someone makes slaves of you, or preys upon you, or takes advantage of you, or puts on airs, or gives you a slap in the face.  ²¹ To my shame, I must say, we were too weak for that! But whatever anyone dares to boast of-- I am speaking as a fool-- I also dare to boast of that.  ²² Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I.  ²³ Are they ministers of Christ? I am talking like a madman-- I am a better one: with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless floggings, and often near death.  ²⁴ Five times I have received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one.  ²⁵ Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I received a stoning. Three times I was shipwrecked; for a night and a day I was adrift at sea;  ²⁶ on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from bandits, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers and sisters;  ²⁷ in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, hungry and thirsty, often without food, cold and naked.  ²⁸ And, besides other things, I am under daily pressure because of my anxiety for all the churches.  ²⁹ Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I am not indignant?  ³⁰ If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.  ³¹ The God and Father of the Lord Jesus (blessed be he forever!) knows that I do not lie.

Yesterday I was telling a few of you that I have started anew book that is a cross between Dan Brown and Indiana Jones.  That book starts with the opening chapter talking about finding the shipwreck of St. Paul, which is an account that is present in Acts of the Apostle’s chapters 27 and 28.  That shipwreck was one that St. Paul was lucky to survive, and other than those two chapters, it is not mentioned again in the Bible.  However, as you can see from above, St. Paul did mention that he had actually been in three shipwrecks, although he does not go into detail about them in his 2^nd letter to the Corinthians. 

Paul was a man that really endured some hardships.  The text above boasts about some of the things that he lived through, including three times where he was flogged.  Paul saw many of his hardships as retribution by a God that he had himself tried to persecute.  Could you imagine having to deal with some of the things that Paul had to deal with?  Thank goodness we don’t flog anymore!!!

We all though at some point have been through some hardships in our own lives.  Hopefully we are able to look back on those and not necessarily say they are the work of God, but instead be able to say that God was present in that moment.  Like Paul, we are only able to come out of the hardships of our lives because God is involved.  So perhaps like Paul, we should boast about our hardships, and in doing so spread the Gospel message all the more.

In our prayers this week: 

Doris, Mary Netta, Ann, Joseph, Lisa, Kim, Robert, Evelyn, Michael, and St. John’s Lutheran Church. 

God’s Peace,

Pastor Judson