I'm doing something different this year and listening to the New Testament. I want to compete it each month and so far I'm on track. Of course it is only February. It has been fascinating so far. It has been amazing to hear Jesus talk and to hear Paul's seemingly constant scoldings mixed with tender comments about his tremendous love for the church and his Lord Jesus. Just this morning he was giving some hard love instructions to the folks at the Corinthian church. It was his second letter and it was as stern and tender as his first. That church was a piece of work. You have to think about context when you think about Corinth. The context is weighty and necessary because it reveals how artistically Paul communicated with his beloved flock there in that port city. Port cities were receptacles for all sorts of diversity. Sailors, often a rough subset of society in those days, were ubiquitous. Where there were sailors there was all sorts of debauchery. Corinth plus...
These are devotional, and other, thoughts from a guy who lived in Brazil from 1997 to 2023. I recount personal experiences and Bible applications with most of my posts. These "posts" are mostly for me but if you want to, you can read them too!