YES OR NO? VOTE THIS ONE OR THAT?  

I DID get out to vote yesterday – not that I understood all the intricate details of all the races or the people – some yes but honestly I didn’t know much at all for some – but I voted…

One person I made sure to vote for was the son of the woman who handed me the sample “suggestions” ballot – I thought well, his mother came all the way to my little district (and yeah mine is little) – and the other thing I voted for was some people holding up a sign on an overpass over the highway, standing and waving a few times this last cold month – i thought – wow that’s a strange cause, they must really be dedicated for a proposition that seemed so hohum, not to worry about…  but they were there and I voted thinking of them…

That is one thing in the scripture that struck me this morning – in this look at one of Paul’s letters – the VOTE to be faithful was all about NOT being wishy washy or uninformed. This letter in this scripture is about teaching and believing in God fully – believing in Jesus – and that in God it is YES! All the promises in Him are YES!!!

Paul writes: “Or the things I plan, do I plan according to the flesh, that with me there should be Yes, Yes, and No, No? But as God is faithful, our word to you was not Yes and No. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us—by me, Silvanus, and Timothy—was not Yes and No, but in Him was Yes. For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us. “

Paul was writing about not boasting in himself but in each other for that the Lord had delivered and was delivering them – that they (both groups of letter writers and letter receivers) were faithful. And “we trust that He will still deliver us” – yes – the TRUST that they had and we have in the Lord will deliver us from the suffering (physical and emotional and otherwise) that we have in this present world.

Paul’s Letter to the T – for Life in Harmony – is that we believe in Jesus and in His Father – be led by the Spirit to TRUST and to OBEY.

Amen

2 Corinthians 1 NKJV
Greeting from Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the church of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints who are in all Achaia: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Comfort in Suffering
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ. Now if we are afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effective for enduring the same sufferings which we also suffer. Or if we are comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation. And our hope for you is steadfast, because we know that as you are partakers of the sufferings, so also you will partake of the consolation.

Delivered from Suffering
For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of our trouble which came to us in Asia: that we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life. Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead, who delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver us; in whom we trust that He will still deliver us, you also helping together in prayer for us, that thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf for the gift granted to us through many.

Paul’s Sincerity
For our boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience that we conducted ourselves in the world in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God, and more abundantly toward you. For we are not writing any other things to you than what you read or understand. Now I trust you will understand, even to the end (as also you have understood us in part), that we are your boast as you also are ours, in the day of the Lord Jesus.

Sparing the Church
And in this confidence I intended to come to you before, that you might have a second benefit— to pass by way of you to Macedonia, to come again from Macedonia to you, and be helped by you on my way to Judea. Therefore, when I was planning this, did I do it lightly? Or the things I plan, do I plan according to the flesh, that with me there should be Yes, Yes, and No, No? But as God is faithful, our word to you was not Yes and No. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us—by me, Silvanus, and Timothy—was not Yes and No, but in Him was Yes. For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us. Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.

Moreover I call God as witness against my soul, that to spare you I came no more to Corinth. Not that we have dominion over your faith, but are fellow workers for your joy; for by faith you stand.