Author: Ben Bourland

A little better each day. I still have a nasty cough that does get progressively better each day but man, it sure feels slow. Strength and stamina are increasing at a better rate than the cough for sure.

12 When I came to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ, even though a door was opened for me in the Lord, 13 my spirit was not at rest because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I took leave of them and went on to Macedonia. 2 Corinthians 2:12-13 [ESV]

I just wanted to pause here on these 2 verses today because of Paul’s love of Titus and Paul’s attention to the leaning of his spirit. Of course, Paul’s ministry is to preach the gospel to the Gentiles and so being led by the Lord there is a natural progression of his ministry. Paul traveled with a contingent of others who along with him, brought the good news of salvation to each place they went. Troas was a fishing and commercial port that Paul was very familiar with, so when they went there and felt an ‘open door’, I imagine it was not much different than when Paul went to Ephesus and a similar thing happened there.

However, it didn’t feel right without Titus there. This is the first time Titus is mentioned in the Corinthian letters and we don’t know that much about his background, but Titus played a crucial role in relations between Paul and the church at Corinth. One of the Pastoral Epistles is addressed to Titus, who was then active in Crete and responsible for setting up elders in the churches there (Titus 1:5).

So, what does Paul do – he breaks from the group in Troas and goes to Macedonia to find him. This 1) shows Paul’s love and desire to connect with Titus and 2) Paul follows the unrest in his heart and responds.

Application:

Paul’s ministry was not just him and he not only loved those serving with him, but he was also unsettled when one of them was not present. Never should I have such a closed mind that I think that my ministry I am called to is mine…no, it is the Lord’s first and then my community’s second. I am just a piece of the machinery. I may hold a function that includes decision making or leading, but I am in no way the center. Additionally, I need to have the needs of my co-workers in Christ in front of my view. My heart should be unsettled when one of them is missing. I should proactively connect with my co-laborers in Christ that we might build each other up and support the other.

Although our getaway for our anniversary was so special and wonderful, it was so good to be back home and see our kiddos. We reconnected with Bella and Sophie last night and then were able to snuggle with the ‘Littles’ (Brooklyn & Prim) when they got up this morning. Bella and Sophie filled us in on all the adventures with the snow and Prim being sick. We were very proud of the ‘Bigs’ for managing so well and frankly, just getting along through the execution of daily activities.

Today, I am going to spend a little more time on this passage (2 Corinthians 1:5-11). This is again, one of those times, where I re-read a passage that I have read many times before but now has so much more significance and even a Godly call to action. I am going to paste this passage in its entirety here and then will expound on the full context below.

For just as Christ’s [own] sufferings fall to our lot [as they overflow upon His disciples, and we share and experience them] abundantly, so through Christ comfort (consolation and encouragement) is also [shared and experienced] abundantly by us.
   But if we are troubled (afflicted and distressed), it is for your comfort (consolation and encouragement) and [for your] salvation; and if we are comforted (consoled and encouraged), it is for your comfort (consolation and encouragement), which works [in you] when you patiently endure the same evils (misfortunes and calamities) that we also suffer and undergo.
   And our hope for you [our joyful and confident expectation of good for you] is ever unwavering (assured and unshaken); for we know that just as you share and are partners in [our] sufferings and calamities, you also share and are partners in [our] comfort (consolation and encouragement).
   For we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about the affliction and oppressing distress which befell us in [the province of] Asia, how we were so utterly and unbearably weighed down and crushed that we despaired even of life [itself].
   Indeed, we felt within ourselves that we had received the [very] sentence of death, but that was to keep us from trusting in and depending on ourselves instead of on God Who raises the dead.
   [For it is He] Who rescued and saved us from such a perilous death, and He will still rescue and save us; in and on Him we have set our hope (our joyful and confident expectation) that He will again deliver us [from danger and destruction and draw us to Himself],
   While you also cooperate by your prayers for us [helping and laboring together with us]. Thus [the lips of] many persons [turned toward God will eventually] give thanks on our behalf for the grace (the blessing of deliverance) granted us at the request of the many who have prayed. 2 Corinthians 1:5-11 [AMP]

I have highlighted the primary areas I want to reinforce. I say reinforce more for myself than for you the reader. God is speaking to both Marianne and I, laying the same convictions and call to walk out in faith in a way that we want to not only be obedient but to also be dependent on His leading and not our own fleshly way of figuring this all out. In other words – we are moving at the pace of God’s timing; not our own.

Highlight #1 – We will suffer…just as Christ suffered. We will incur the effects of sin on our bodies, on society, and through persecution as we testify to the truth of the gospel.

Highlight #2 – Even while we are in the midst of suffering, we can be the conduit by which God delivers comfort to others. Not only that, when we patiently endure our suffering and look for the Hand of God working in those sufferings, our faith grows because we see Him ever present.

Highlight #3 – Our trials and suffering are opportunities for us to draw closer to God.

Highlight #4 – As God draws us to himself, he shows us that He will comfort us and even may deliver us from our circumstances or situations causing the suffering.

Highlight #4+ – It is through prayer that we can come to the Lord and where people can come to the Lord on our behalf, beseeching the deliverance of comfort and thanking God for what He is already doing for our good as we obey Him and lean into His cloak for shelter and safety.

Marianne and I feel a need for Parents of Teenagers (including us) to have a refuge to come to for prayer and co-lamenting for our children who have or are wondering from the truth they have grown up in the church knowing. We are prayerfully asking the Lord what this might look like and how to get it started. Would you join us in prayer for wisdom and direction as we seek to move forward following what God is laying before us?

Day 2 of being on our little getaway here at the Salish Lodge. We have literally spent the entire day sitting in two chairs next to a Christmas tree talking, and talking, and talking. Here in the last 4 hours, we have been getting a better handle on how we as a husband/wife and mother/father want to be better at coming alongside our kiddos as well as what God has for us in ministry. Amazing what can happen when you set aside some time to be open to the Lord’s calling on your marriage and bending an ear to the will and purposes of the One Who created the heavens and the earth.

He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many. 2 Corinthians 1:10-11 [ESV]

Following on from the QT yesterday where Paul is talking about the despair he and his companions endured on their travels in Asia; now we see how Paul enlists the prayer of the saints in Corinth in anticipatory ‘thanks’ for the deliverance, God will indeed send. This is the hope that we need in this world today. We know that God has the power to do 2 things..1) He has the power to remove us from the painful situations we find ourselves in, or 2) give us the comfort & strength we need to patiently endure them.

Application:

I need to have confidence that God will deliver me from my pain and suffering. I need to consistently focus on the hope that is not only in the power of His Right Hand but also in the saving hope I have in His Son Jesus Christ in an eternity secured on His behalf. If I maintain a mindset that wholeheartedly believes this, I can endure anything!

Happy Anniversary…to us!! Today marks the anniversary of being married to Marianne for 23 years! Today we were graciously given the gift by our daughters to be away together overnight for the first time in over 10 years. We went to the 9:30am service at church and then left for our getaway to the Salish Lodge which has been amazing! We had an 8:30pm couples massage and plan to sleep in tomorrow and finish it off with a dinner together at the Salish Lodge Dinning Room at 5:30pm Monday night. We will get home around 10pm.

We are so thankful for Bella and Sophie taking care of the Littles at home even though little Prim (6) is battling a nasty cold. We miss them though and even though this has been wonderful, we miss them all so much!

For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. 2 Corinthians 1:8-9

My quiet time is super short this evening but also very powerful…this passage so resonated with me lately…some things we have been walking through at home have been very trying and we have felt alone in certain ways. Now, don’t get me wrong, this is nothing compared to what Paul and his companions were dealing with as he talks about here. One of the things that Marianne have I have been resolved to is seeing that these trials we walk through ‘under the sun’ are opportunities to draw closer to the Lord Himself and rely on Him for the strength we need rather than what the world might call us to for ‘self-help’. That is precisely what Paul is saying as well! He saw these afflictions (even afflictions that cause despair of life itself) as a way to further rely on the God Who raises people from the dead, not themselves.

Application:

Right here on this getaway, Marianne and I have been talking about how we can take the journey we are on with leaning on God more and more for our trials and include others who might be going through similar circumstances and need prayer and support. God is working!!

Today was such a nice leisurely morning. I got up with the ‘Littles’ and let Marianne sleep in. We had a slow start with a lingering restful time of reading together and enjoying the laughter of these little chickens (Prim and Brooklyn). Around lunch time we started to make snowflakes that we then hung up over the window looking out onto the backyard…everyone did such a great job!

5 For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. 6 If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. 7 Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort. 2 Corinthians 1:5-7 [ESV]

Today’s quiet time and reflection on God’s Word continued with ‘God’s comfort and the comfort we give to others’ but now Paul pulls in our Lord Jesus Christ into the picture to show that ‘Being in Christ’ not only includes participating in His suffering but also in His comfort. As the Body of the Church of Christ we share in these things together which is what Paul was trying to encourage the Corinthian church with.

Paul also goes on to say that if (when) we are afflicted, it is for our comfort and salvation. God wants us to draw into Himself; He knows that He is the best thing for us, but we must discover and recognize this need. I believe that God allows trials, affliction, and difficult times to fall on us so that we might turn toward Him. When we do this, He grows our faith by pouring out this comfort Paul speaks of here.

The next crazy part of what Paul says here is that you get comfort when you ‘patiently endure’ suffering. Paul knows what suffering is – he has been chased, imprisoned, persecuted, and even dealt with some physical ailment he calls ‘a thorn in his side’. So, he closes this thought by telling the church that from his own experience, that when they suffer as he suffers, they will also receive the same comfort he has had.

Application:

The first thing I must ask myself is “am I a follower of Jesus who patiently endures suffering”? I can honestly answer this by saying “No…but I need to be”. Because I am a person whose flesh is easily tossed by the waves of circumstances and situations, I must remember to quickly move into a posture of prayer and openness to the will and purposes of God that have me in the situation/circumstances that cause suffering. I also must be looking for God’s hand of comfort, acknowledging it, and receiving it with gratefulness and love for Him.

Having finished Philemon, I am now moving on to 2nd Corinthians. I have read through 2nd Corinthians many times and reference it a lot but have not yet done a deliberate study of the book. I know this because I have not highlighted it. Look here at the difference between Philemon and 2 Corinthians.

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of sympathy (pity and mercy) and the God [Who is the Source] of every comfort (consolation and encouragement),
4 Who comforts (consoles and encourages) us in every trouble (calamity and affliction), so that we may also be able to comfort (console and encourage) those who are in any kind of trouble or distress, with the comfort (consolation and encouragement) with which we ourselves are comforted (consoled and encouraged) by God. 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 [AMP]

I really love the description of the Lord by Paul here right at the beginning of this book.

Attributes of God called out by Paul:

• Sympathetic
• Merciful
• Comforter
• Encourager
• Not just a ‘Sunny Day’ God -> He is with us in the best and worst times.

The reason these couple of verses hit me a little harder than normal today is partly because of a book I just started reading call ‘The Insanity of God’ by Nik Ripkin. This book is about a missionary to Africa (Somalia) that tells of his and his family’s stories and how God shows up in the worst of circumstances. So, if I am getting precise, my chewing today is specifically on this portion ->

“[ESV]…who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”

God comforts us in the worst of times, so that we can comfort others in the worst of their times, with the comfort God shows us when we are comforted by Him. Just dwell on that saying it over and over again in your mind.

Application:

First – am I paying attention to the comforting hand of God when I am in painful circumstances? Second – does this acknowledgement translate into seeking out others in pain who I can come along and comfort with the same loving comfort God has shown me? For Nik Ripkin, he and his wife Ruth would actually put themselves in harm’s way to help the war torn, famine stricken, and hopeless Somali people. This all comes down to having a heart that is filled with the love of God; filled to the point that everything I think and desire to do is what He thinks and desires of me. Praying today that God would continue to help me see how much I and others need Him even thought I live comfortably here in the United States, with food on my table, a roof over my head, money in my bank, and a healthy family…none of which the Somali people had in the timeframe this “Insanity of God” book was written.