April 11th, 21

Our reading today is I Samuel 11-12, I Chronicles I, and II Corinthians 11.  We are reading from the New Living Translation.

It’s an upside down world.  Paul is being lowered, in a basket, through a hole in the wall, outside of the city.  As he’s being lowered, God is lifting – He’s lifting him up into the man that He created him to be.  

We’ve been invited into an upside down world.  It’s a world where those who are lowered down are being lifted up, while those who lift themselves up are being lowered, from within.  Paul very briefly talks about his elevated days when he was lifting himself up. He reminds his readers that he was elevated, too, just like those super apostles.  He was an elevated Israelite,  an elevated Son of Abraham.  But Paul wants them to know that this elevated status did nothing for his soul. He was descending from within, even while, on the outside, his status was lifting him up in the eyes of others.  Paul teaches us that it was while he was being lowered on the outside, descending on the outside, -accused, scorned, whipped, stoned, shipwrecked, hungry, alone on the outside, even as he was being lowered in a basket –  it’s at these many moments of lowering, that God showed himself most present in his life.  It was there that Paul knew God’s strength the most.  He experienced God’s love most intimately, when he was being lowered in that basket outside of the city. It was a defining moment for Paul.  

God does his deepest work in the lowering.  And anyone, super-apostle or not, who tells us otherwise, should be avoided.  See God in the lowering.  Experience fellowship with him there.  

Allow his Spirit to build and lift you up even as you are being lowered. He is faithful to bring about His good purposes in all of your circumstances

You are loved!