FEARING THE LORD What are you afraid of? In 2 Corinthians 5:11-15, Paul begins with the words "Knowing the fear of the Lord ..." And if you remember last week's text, he's not joking. Verse 10 stated, "We ALL must appear before the judgment seat of God," which seems directly connected with fearing God. We know that elsewhere the "fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom," but from this passage, what else does fearing God accomplish in us? So let's open 2 Cor 5 and find out

JUST TENTING This week, we're moving into chapter 5, specifically verses 1-10. While some of our previous texts have been perhaps a little obscure, this one feels pretty straightforward - with three major metaphors to keep in mind, so let's study together: 2 Cor 5:1-6 1 For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly

DUSTY DADS As we look forward to Father's Day, this week we're in 2 Cor 4:7-18. The text before us has some amazingly powerful (and popular) words of hope for us all. At the same time, we do hope that our fathers will be encouraged by the truths in these 12 verses, so let's study together: 2 COR 4:7-9 7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. 8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not

MINISTRY BY MERCY After last week's passage, this week we come to six verses: 2 Cor 4:1-6. And while I think we'll find them to be fairly simple, the task they propose is indeed filled with difficulty. At the heart of today's text is the question of what drives us when we talk about Jesus. It's easy to say only what other people want to hear, isn't it? But if you're up for it, I think we'll find strong reasons to (as the kids song tells us) "let our little light shine." 2 COR