Copy From Our Daily Bread
2012-05-25 Conversion
— by Julie
Ackerman Link
Our Daily Bread Radio is hosted by Les
Lamborn
Read : 2
Corinthians 12 :14 - 21
12:14 Behold, the third time I am
ready to come to you; and I will not be burdensome to you: for I seek not
yours, but you: for the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the
parents for the children.
12:15 And I will very gladly spend and be spent for
you; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved. for you: Gr.
for your souls
12:16 But be it so, I did not burden you:
nevertheless, being crafty, I caught you with guile.
12:17 Did I make a gain of you by any of them whom I sent unto you?
12:17 Did I make a gain of you by any of them whom I sent unto you?
12:18 I desired Titus, and with him I sent a
brother. Did Titus make a gain of you? walked we not in the same spirit? walked
we not in the same steps?
12:19 Again, think ye that we excuse ourselves unto
you? we speak before God in Christ: but we do all things, dearly beloved, for
your edifying.
12:20 For I fear, lest, when I come, I shall not
find you such as I would, and that I shall be found unto you such as ye would
not: lest there be debates, envyings, wraths, strifes, backbitings,
whisperings, swellings, tumults:
12:21 And lest, when I come again, my God will
humble me among you, and that I shall bewail many which have sinned already,
and have not repented of the uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness
which they have committed.
I will very
gladly spend and be spent for your souls. —2
Corinthians 12:15
Bible in a Year : Job 38 - 42
Before my husband and I travel, we go to the bank and trade in our US
dollars for the currency of the country we’ll be visiting.
We do this so we can pay for expenses while we’re away from home.
When we become Christians, another kind of exchange takes place.
Our lives are like currency that we convert from one medium to another.
We trade our old life for a new one so that we can begin “spending”
ourselves in a different kingdom.
Instead of spending ourselves for the causes of this world, we are able to
start spending ourselves for the cause of Christ.
The apostle Paul is a good example of this difference.
After his dramatic conversion on the
way to Damascus (Acts 9), he began spending his life in a
dramatically different way.
Instead of pursuing Christians to imprison and kill them, he began
pursuing non-Christians to convert them.
Then he spent the rest of his life for their welfare.
He wrote to the
church at Corinth, “I will very gladly spend and be spent
for your souls” (2 Cor. 12:15).
Everything he did was for the
edification of his spiritual children (vv.14,19).
Conversion is far more than just
changing our final destination.
It’s changing the way we spend each day of our lives.
Lord, help me to
spend myself on what will last,
not on what will fade away one day.
not on what will fade away one day.
I give my life to You that I might spend and be spent for others and Your will. Amen.
Conversion takes
only a moment—transformation takes a lifetime.
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