2 Corinthians on Sacred Vs. Secular

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Working with God through Our Work

Author

Keywords

Scripture

Romans 12:2, 2 Corinthians 5:16-17, Colossians 1:17-20

Note from TPW: Kara Martin addresses life in the secular workplace, sharing insights to help you lead your congregations to understand their faith and work and also to bring the Kingdom into your o...

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Two Wrong-Headed Views of the Body

Author

Tish Harrison Warren

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 1:31, 1 Timothy 4:4-5, Colossians 1:16, Romans 1:20, 1 Corinthians 15:42-44, 2 Corinthians 5:1

Christians are often accused of two wrong-headed views of the body. One is that we ignore the body in favor of a disembodied, spirits-floating-on-clouds spirituality. The other is that we are obsessed...

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Author

Jen Pollock Michel

Keywords

The Kingdom of God

Scripture

Colossians 1:12-13, Ephesians 5:1-2, 2 Corinthians 7:1, Romans 14:17, Hebrews 12:14

Kingdom is a signpost to the holy.

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Spiritual Formation: Essential to Human Existence

Author

M. Robert Mulholland Jr. and Ruth Haley Barton

Keywords

Scripture

2 Corinthians 3:18, Galatians 2:20, Colossians 1:28, Philippians 2:12-13, 2 Corinthians 4:16, 1 Timothy 64:7-8, Colossians 3:10-11

In their excellent book, Invitation to a Journey , M. Robert Mulholland and Ruth Haley Barton describe the foundation of life as being spiritual in nature. This means we are constantly be “form...

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Remembering We Have Bodies

Author

Ruth Haley Barton

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 1:31, 1 Timothy 4:4-5, Colossians 1:16, Romans 1:20, 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, 1 Corinthians 15:42-44, 2 Corinthians 5:1

Surprisingly enough, it was in the process of staying faithful to the spiritual journey that I first began to face my profound ambivalence about life in a body. At the ripe old age of thirty, I could ...

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Author

Emil Brunner

Keywords

Scripture

Romans 3:23-25, 2 Corinthians 5:21, 1 Peter 2:24, Ephesians 2:13-14, Colossians 1:19-20

Only at the cross of Christ does man see fully what it is that separates him from God; yet it is here alone that he perceives that he is no longer separated from God. Nowhere else does the inviolable ...

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The Gospel is Not Right Wing or Left Wing

Author

John Piper

Keywords

Gospel

Scripture

2 Corinthians 5:17, Romans 1:16-17, Acts 4:12, Matthew 28:18-20, Colossians 1:16-17

Because the gospel of Jesus is not an ideology or a philosophy or a methodology or a therapy but a supernatural in-breaking of God into our lives, I am concerned at how many Christians do not bring it...

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Your Body

Author

Christopher West

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 1:27, Genesis 1:31, 1 Timothy 4:4-5, Colossians 1:16, 1 Corinthians 15:42-44, 2 Corinthians 5:1

Think of your own experiences as a human being: your body is not just a “shell” in which you dwell. Your body is not just a body. Your body is not just any body. Your body is somebody—you! Through the...

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Atheism from a Historical Perspective

Author

Os Guinness

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 55:8-9, Colossians 1:16-17, Acts 17:24-25, 2 Corinthians 4:6

From a historical perspective it is atheism that was old and the Christian faith and its good news that burst on the world as new. Once commonly called “atomism,” the genealogy of atheism can be trace...

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Salvation From and For

Author

John Ortberg

Keywords

Scripture

John 10:10, 2 Corinthians 5:17-18, Romans 5:9-10, Ephesians 2:8-10, Colossians 1:13-14

Being saved always involves being both saved from something and saved for something. We are saved for shalom—a flourishing life with God. What are we saved from? Salvation as described in the Bible is...

blog

Keeping Christ at the Center

Author

Dan Baumgartner

Keywords

Scripture

Colossians 1:15-17, Hebrews 1:3, 2 Corinthians 4:4, John 1:18, John 10:30, John 14:9

Christmas in May I’m pretty sure it was Stephen Covey, back in the day ( The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People ) who originally said, “The main thing is to let the main thing be the main thing...

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Author

Thomas Dubay

Keywords

Scripture

1 John 3:2, Matthew 5:8, Colossians 1:15, 2 Corinthians 3:18, Psalm 27:4

We have been created and redeemed for the eternal ecstasy of an interpersonal immersion in the triune God, seeing infinite Beauty face to face.

scripture guide

Scripture Guide, Revelation 21:10, 22:1-5

Author

Gabe Fung

Keywords

Scripture

Revelation 21:10, Revelation 21:2, 10, 22-27, Revelation 22:1-5, 1 Kings 6:20, Genesis 12:1-3, Genesis 2:9, Genesis 3:23-24, Genesis 1:28, Genesis 2:15, Genesis 3:17-19, 1 Corinthians 15:58, Ephesians 6:5-9, Colossians 3:23, Genesis 1:26-27, Exodus 33:20-23, John 14:9, Colossians 1:15, Hebrews 1:3, Mark 15:34, 2 Corinthians 5:21, Exodus 28:15-21, 29-30, John 4:13-14, John 7:37-38, Matthew 27:46, John 3:2, Romans 8:29

Pulling Back the Curtain The Revelation of Jesus Christ is a “pulling back of the curtain” to reveal both the unseen realities of the present (what is really going on in the world from God’s perspect...

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Author

Michael Gorman

Keywords

Scripture

Romans 8:19-21, 1 Corinthians 15:42-44, Philippians 3:20-21, Colossians 1:16-18, Revelation 21:, 2 Corinthians 5:17

Salvation in the New Testament is consistently portrayed not as escape from creation but as the redemption and transformation of creation.

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Author

John D. Zizioulas

Keywords

Scripture

Romans 5:2-5, 1 Peter 1:3-4, Colossians 1:27, Romans 8:24-25, 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, Philippians 3:13-14

[The Christian Faith] has its roots in the future and its branches in the present.

lectionary

Sixth Sunday of Easter

Author

Gabe Fung

Keywords

Scripture

Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5, Revelation 21:2, 10, 22-27, Revelation 22:1-5, 1 Kings 6:20, Genesis 12:1-3, Genesis 2:9, Genesis 3:23-24, Genesis 1:28, Genesis 2:15, Genesis 3:17-19, 1 Corinthians 15:58, Ephesians 6:5-9, Colossians 3:23, Genesis 1:26-27, Exodus 33:20-23, John 14:9, Colossians 1:15, Hebrews 1:3, Mark 15:34, 2 Corinthians 5:21, Exodus 28:15-21, 29-30, John 4:13-14, John 7:37-38, Matthew 27:46, John 3:2, Romans 8:29

Preaching Commentary Pulling Back the Curtain The Revelation of Jesus Christ is a “pulling back of the curtain” to reveal both the unseen realities of the present (what is really going on in the wo...

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Author

C. S. Lewis

Keywords

Scripture

Colossians 1:15-17, John 1:14, Micah 5:2, 2 Corinthians 4:7, Isaiah 57:15, Hebrews 1:3

“It seems, then,” said Tirian, smiling himself, “that the Stable seen from within and the Stable seen from without are two different places.” “Yes,” said the Lord Digory. “Its inside is bigger than it...

lectionary

Third Sunday after Pentecost

Author

Dustin Ray

Keywords

Scripture

2 Corinthians 5:6-17, 2 Corinthians 5:6-17, Job 2:9, Proverbs 29:25, Colossians 1:12, 2 Corinthians 5:6-17

Preaching Commentary a brief introduction I would like to start with a rather big question. How do we know that we are, in fact, Christians? We find some direction from Jesus on this subject in Mat...

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Coming Down

Author

C. S. Lewis

Keywords

Scripture

John 1:14, Philippians 2:6-8, Hebrews 2:14-15, Colossians 1:19-20, 2 Corinthians 8:9

C.S. Lewis on the Incarnation: We catch sight of a new key principle—the power of the Higher, just in so far as it is truly Higher, to come down, the power of the greater to include the less. . . . ...

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Grace Turns our World Upside Down

Author

Jacob Traeger

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 6:14-15, Colossians 1:13-14, Luke 6:37, Titus 3:5, Hebrews 4:16, 2 Corinthians 12:9, Romans 3:23-24

At the beginning to the musical Les Misérables , the lead character Jean Valjean is arrested by the police, with silver he has stolen from a kindly bishop who had given him shelter. Valjean is plainl...

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Author

D. Douglas Meeks

Keywords

Scripture

Hebrews 6:19, John 17:21, Ephesians 1:10, 1 Peter 1:3-4, Colossians 1:20, 2 Corinthians 5:17

Hope orients all thought, action, and relationships to God’s ultimate redemption of the creation and to the ultimate communion with the triune God...hope is the steady orientation to God’s making all ...

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Author

N. T. Wright

Keywords

Scripture

1 Peter 1:18-19, Romans 8:30, Colossians 1:13-14, Romans 5:1, 2 Corinthians 5:21, Ephesians 1:7

Dealing with sin, saving humans from it, giving them grace, forgiveness, justification, glorification-all this was the purpose of the single covenant from the beginning, now fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

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Author

A. W. Tozer

Keywords

Scripture

1 Timothy 1:17, 1 Peter 1:8-9, 2 Corinthians 5:7, Colossians 1:16, Romans 8:24-25, John 20:29

Faith is seeing the invisible, but not the nonexistent.

liturgy

Continue Your Good Work

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 5:13-20, 2 Corinthians 9:6-15, Ephesians 2:1-10, Colossians 1:1-14, 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5

Beautiful and Blessed Creator, Maker of Heaven and Earth, You work for reconciliation and grace, wholeness and hope. Empower us to share abundantly in your good work through creativity and co...

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A Trinitarian Deficit Disorder

Author

James Bryan Smith

Keywords

Scripture

John 14:9, Colossians 1:15, Hebrews 1:3, 2 Corinthians 4:4-6, Luke 19:10

A student of mine, Josiah Brown, oversees the student outreach team. He and some of our students go to youth groups to teach the youth about Christian spiritual formation. They talk about what formati...

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Author

Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 53:4-6, 2 Corinthians 5:21, Romans 8:1-3, Colossians 1:19-20, Exodus 12:1-30, Leviticus 16:, John 18:28-19

In Christ as sacrifice, God our judge is judged in our place, reveals our perpetration of and collaboration with sin, ends our rebellion, forgives our guilt, cleanses us, makes us righteous, and estab...

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Author

Daniel Darling

Keywords

Christmas

Scripture

2 Corinthians 5:17, Luke 2:8-14, John 3:3-8, Acts 2:1-4, John 11:38-44, Ezekiel 36:26, Isaiah 9:6-7, John 1:9-13, Colossians 1:19-22, Revelation 21:1-5

The message of Christmas, then, is not about manufacturing sentimental feelings in vain hopes of a miracle. It’s about believing the reality that God has birthed something new in Jesus and because of ...

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Author

Harold Best

Keywords

Scripture

Colossians 1:27, John 15:4-5, Galatians 2:20, Luke 24:13-35, Acts 2:1-4, Romans 12:1, 2 Corinthians 5:17-20

Nonetheless, this singular fact, full to the bursting, remains. It is a fact grounded in infinite outpouring: Christ is in me; I am in Christ. . . . Christ in me is not some narrow, introspective, dis...

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Lowering the Lord Nelson Statue

Author

David McCullough

Keywords

Scripture

Colossians 1:15, John 14:6, John 8:12, 2 Corinthians 4:6, John 14:9, Hebrews 1:3, John 1:14

At Trafalgar Square in the city of London stands a statue of Lord Nelson. Resting atop a tall pillar, it towers too high for passersby to distinguish his features. For this reason, about forty years a...

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The End of Jesus’ Ministry?

Author

Andrew Purves

Keywords

Scripture

Hebrews 7:24-25, Acts 2:32-33, John 14:16-18, Colossians 1:27, 2 Corinthians 13:5

The ministry of Jesus does not end with his resurrection. In his ascension, he does not abandon his humanity. He is not the ascended Lord apart from everything that has happened between his incarnatio...

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