What is your perspective on life? Do you recognize that your hardships, weaknesses, and afflictions, provide opportunities for you to personally experience and manifest the indwelling life of Christ?

Our current physical bodies are fragile earthen vessels. They are jars of clay. They were made to be receptacles and manifesters of divine life. Sin causes them to fall short of serving Gods original intention.

For Christians, however, these physical bodies still can serve Gods eternal purpose. Although they will be dissolved to dust, they will one day be resurrected in an incorruptible state.  From then on they will perfectly serve Gods original intention--they will enable us to reflect His communicable attributes, both in attitude and action.

Though we live in these transitory imperfect bodies, we have an opportunity every day to experience His life and have it progressively transform us to the image of Christ. By looking to Him and focusing on what is of eternal value, we will be better furnished to appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ. On that day, when our lives are scrutinized in His light, only that which has been sourced in His life will remain (John 15:1-16; 1 Corinthians 3:12-15; 2 Corinthians 5:10).

How do we recognize if our Christianity is the real deal? The Apostle Paul refers to the real deal as the outliving of the indwelling Christ (2 Corinthians 13:5). He refers to it as this ministry (2 Corinthians 4:1), the ministry of the new covenant (2 Corinthians 3:6), the ministry of the Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:8, 17-18) and the ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18-19). This ministry is shared by all those who have personally put their faith in the gospel of the glory of Christ and His perfect work of redemption (2 Corinthians 4:4, 6).

The ministry of Christs life in us is not stagnant! We are being changed by the Spirit of the Lord as a result of beholding Him in the mirror of His Word and having our faith exercised in the rough and tumble of life (our light afflictions; 2 Cor 3:18; 4:17-18). This process of transformation will not be complete until we receive new bodies resembling His glorified body. (1 Corinthians 15:51; 2 Corinthians 5:1-5; 1 John 3:2).

But this ministry also causes us to recognize that there are real enemies that war against our souls. There is an Adversary who blinds the minds of those who believe not (4:4). There is also the weakness of our human nature and bodies. We are born into these fragile jars of clay (2 Corinthians 4:7). We have a tendency to get caught up with the temporal and illusory. The default position of our old nature is to center on ourselves. The default position of the new nature is to focus on Christ and His promises-- to walk by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). Our purpose in this age and the age to come is to seek to please Him in all that we do (2 Corinthians 5:9). Is it your ambition to live that way?

Not all that advertises itself as Christianity is the real deal.

The false teachers at Corinth distorted the Christian message.  In the name of Christianity, they advocated a change of thinking and a change of behavior without a change of heart. They advocated a reformation without regeneration. But Jesus did not come to give us a TED talk. He did not come to merely give us a new ethic, new insight, a power boost or life enhancement. He came to give us a new lifewith new desires and a new direction. He came to deliver us from the Old Covenant and its condemnation by fulfilling its demands for righteousness on our behalf. The result makes the promise of a New Covenant available to us- a new life in Christ.

Do you know what it is to experience the New Covenant promises? Do you have new desires operating within you, a God-pleasing law written upon your heart? The Apostle Paul calls this experience of freedom- the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:2-4).  Do you have the assurance that your sins are forgiven and the certain hope that you will be conformed to Christs image on the day that you see Him face to face?

The Spirit of God is at work in our lives to produce a transformation that is more than skin deep. It promises to be total. A daily recognition of this New Covenant ministry will help ward off any discouragement or deception in our lives!

Join us this Sunday as Pastor MacAdam continues to teach the reality of the New Covenant work of the Spirit (in 2 Corinthians 3).  Do not settle for the superficial. Jesus has paid for your total transformation. It takes Christs life to be Christ-like.

The Apostle Paul found himself in circumstances that left him troubled in his spirit. Things were not working out according to his original plan. Not only did he find the results temporally disappointing, but he also knew they would be disappointing to others. His colleague, Titus, could not join him in Troas as planned. He had an open door for ministry but not a sufficient team to fulfill it.

What do we do when we find ourselves in disappointing circumstances? Paul spends the next four chapters of his letter to the Corinthians sharing how we can live in the victory of Christ, despite circumstances that would trouble our souls. Do you know what it means to have the ministry of the Holy Spirit?

Jesus said, Do not let your heart be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in Me (John 14:1). In Him, we have peace with God through His reconciling work on the cross. And in Him, we have the unconquerable ministry of the Holy Spirit actively conforming us to the image of Christ.

Join us this Sunday as we learn how in Christ ones can experience victory despite circumstances.

Thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place (even in places of lifes most difficult circumstances!) (2 Corinthians 2:14).

No one likes to be misunderstood, especially by those whom we have counted as close friends. It is one thing if people we do not know that well are suspicious of us. It is another thing if those you believed were on your team, had your back, and were in your corner, are suddenly bringing false accusations against you.

This was the experience of the Apostle Paul. A good number of the believers in Corinth, those whom he personally evangelized and discipled were influenced by the slanderous reports of Pauls enemies. Some were now questioning his motivations, his integrity and even his sanity!

We all struggle when we believe we have been wrongly accused. What is the Christ-like response? Sometimes Jesus answered his critics; sometimes not. In the Apostle Pauls second canonical letter to the Corinthians, we can gain some important insights.

Join us for a time of God-glorifying worship as we continue in our teaching series When Life Gets Tough and we observe the example of The Apostolic Art of Self-Defense. Pastor MacAdam will be teaching on 2 Corinthians 1:12-2:4. We will be joyfully celebrating believers baptism after the teaching session.