The first Paragraph of Paul’s Second Epistle to the Corinthians has always intrigued me.

It is LOADED with encouragement!

But this morning I have seen a “new” (well, “fresh” is a better word) truth sparkling within its Sentences.

I am excited, too!

“For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth (overflows all around) by Christ.” Paul, under the Guidance of the Holy Spirit, promises this great Blessing to us who believe.

The Apostle here has drawn what I call a “word picture.”

Imagine a pair of scales, the old fashioned kind. With a pail (bucket) on the left of side the fulcrum (balance bar) and one of equal size on the right.

In the Basket on the left pour a sizeable amount of “sufferings.” The noun is “pathema,” a Greek word implying “passion, pain, fervor,” literally “pathos.” Essentially here, things like Jesus endured!

Now … IN EQUAL MEASURE … in the right hand container pour “consolation” (in Greek “paraklesis” basically meaning “comfort” or “strength”)!

Jesus plans to fill us with, ounce for ounce, as much love and grace and help and encouragement … as we have experienced (endured) trials and heartaches and tribulation in this old world!

So … if lately you’ve experienced very little of the “comfort” (“consolation”) of Jesus in your heart … maybe you have endured none of the sufferings a Christian is promised to undergo either!

Here I quote form a Preacher (a Writer too, obviously) who often suffered despression …

“Here is a blessed proportion. The Ruler of Heaven and earth bears a pair of scales … in this side He puts His people’s trials, and in that He puts their consolations. When the scale of trial is nearly empty, you will always find the scale of consolation in nearly the same condition; and when the scale of trials is full, you will find the scale of consolation just as heavy. When the black clouds gather most, the light is the more brightly revealed to us. When the night lowers and the tempest is coming on, the Heavenly Captain is always closest to His crew. It is a blessed thing, that when we are most cast down, then it is that we are most lifted up by the consolations of the Spirit.”

Amen!

Jesus never fails!

This TRUTH, I sense, helped Paul though many a hard time in life. The more I suffer, the more He comforts!

Glory to God!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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Luke is an accomplished writer. Add to that the Power of the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and you end up reading lines like this: “They took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.”

Let me give you the background for this Sentence, this event, this occasion. Peter, the spokesman for the disciples, is here preaching to the Sanhedrin, the ruling body of Jews back in that day. These godly men had been arrested for proclaiming Jesus so publicly, so boldly. The next morning, at their arraignment, Peter says to those 70 men: “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.” Acts 14:12-13

The verb “took knowledge” is a super-strengthened form of “ginosko.” It is literally “epiginosko!” They REALLY knew these men had been with Jesus! Yet Jesus is dead! Rather dead and (according to some people) risen again! And now (again, if you take Peter’s word) ascended into Heaven! (So thought the Sanhedrin, with much doubt.)

Yet, undeniably, right in front of these Pharisee’s and Sadducees’ and Chief Priest’s eyes … are men who talk and act like they have (still) been with Jesus!

YES, the crucified, buried, risen and ascended Jesus, still influencing lives! Still communing and fellowshipping and impacting the men who loved Him so!

If the world looks at us today, my dear Believer friends, will they say the same thing?

That we have been with Jesus?

If not, we should adjust our ways of living!

They “had been” with Jesus is an imperfect tense in Greek. Indicating something that happened in the past … but is still going on today, still alive, still doing things to individuals!

That’s Jesus, for sure! (“And He walks with me and talks with me and tells me I am His Own!”)

Hallelujah!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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In 1 Samuel 23:2 we are told: “David enquired of the Lord.”

Then we are told this of David in 1 Samuel 23:4, the first Clause of the verse: “And David enquired of the LORD yet again.”

And there are even more times describing this “habit” (or “lifestyle”) of David … 1 Samuel 30:8 and 2 Samuel 2:1 and 2 Samuel 5:19 and 2 Samuel 5:23 and 2 Samuel 21:1 … lots of praying!

I think we can say of David that prayer was to him a privilege!

The Hebrew verb “enquired” used in all these places but one is “shaal.” No, it is spelled correctly! It simply means “to ask.” Or at times “to desire.”

The one exception is 2 Samuel 21:1 where “enquired” represents the verb “baqash.” And it can mean (and does one time in the King James Version) “to beg!”

Sounds like David lived his days in communication (communion) with the Lord!

We too have that same opportunity, if not even more so. David did not know about this verse, but we do … “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” Hebrews 4:16

Or this Litany … “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: for every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.” Matthew 7:7-8

Prayer, what an honor.

Need I say any more?

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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“And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.” 1 John 4:14, today’s Bible Text.

The last Clause of that verse just freely flows off my lips! “The Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.”

I believe that with all my heart.

These words are precious to me for several reasons. Just the “Truth” they speak being primary.

I know that Son!

I know that Father!

Pesonally!

I am saved eternally and going to Heaven because of the Fact embedded in that Clause! Jesus (the Son) is my Saviour! I have been born-again, washed in the Blood, redeemed! (By Grace through Faith!)

Hallelujah!

But here’s another reason the Text is so precious to me today. I remember (like it was yesterday) teaching those words to my Son Joel when he was a little boy. It was part of his Bible Memory in the children’s program at Church. (He was such a sweet little boy.)

Joel grew up to be a Christian young man, whom God called to preach. Who pastored a little Baptist Church for years and years. Then, unexpectedly, he died earlier this year (April 15) … my heart is still broken! I’m crying as I type these words, in fact.

But what I can “hear” him saying in my memory this morning … “THE FATHER SENT THE SON TO BE THE SAVIOUR OF THE WORLD” … Joel more vividly knows to be a Truth today than ever before! He has met that Father! And hugged that Son! And strolled all over that Heavenly Home!

He learned it here as a little boy … He lives it now up there in Glory!

“The Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.”

Thank you dear God for the 48 years we had together. And for the eternity that lies ahead … because “Thou didst send Thy Son!”

I must quit for this morning.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

Be sure you know that verse, not just by memory but experientially … “The Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.”

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“Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon.” Song of Solomon 1:7

Sheep are hungry!

And their welfare (more than that, their very lives) depend on the type of shepherd they have! (Great shepherds have healthy sheep, hirelings have scabby, half-starved flocks.)

And that’s the true-to-life analogy (word picture) Solomon (really the Holy Spirit) has drawn for us in today’s Bible Text.

Except here, Song of Solomon 1:7, the little lamb who can speak … is “in love” with his or her shepherd. “Thou whom my soul loveth.”

Oh, I need to mention that in the Context of our Verse … other pastures seem to be available! “Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon: for why should I be as one that turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions?” But those feeding grounds are not sufficient for this little ewe, this little lamb!

He wants to eat in a specific pasture!

All of which is a parable!

THE LORD is our Shepherd! (Psalm 23)

And really, He feeds well! (“Green Pastures!”)

And all those of us who know Him, love Him … are consequently “hungry” for His Care, His Nourishment, His Protection!

Go over the words, the two questions of our Text again now. And turn them into a prayer. “Tell me, O Thou whom my soul loveth, where Thou feedest, where Thou makest Thy flock to rest at noon.”

Then put legs on your prayers … and go to Church Sunday! Go where your Good Shepherd Jesus (through His Word) and through the ministry of His undershepherd (your Pastor) will “feed” you well!

Do NOT attend the wrong flock!

That could be deadly.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

“Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another.” Hebrews 10:25

True at all times for the Christian, but especially … “and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.” The last few words of Hebrews 10:25, the “day” of trouble, I suspect is meant here.

And America, God’s people in this land … “trouble” is on the way! “So much the more” … get in a good pasture and faithfully feed there!

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