Today Is the Day

In one paragraph

Pastor Ray opened with a personal story about a demanding high school English teacher, used it to frame a passage from 2 Corinthians 5 and 6, and pressed the congregation toward a direct question: when will you confess that Jesus Christ is Lord? Miss Margie Palmer taught Pastor Ray English all four years of high school in a small Wyoming town. She was feared and respected in equal measure. The...

Read together

1. Psalm 69:30 opening prayer verse: 'I will praise God's name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving'
2. 2 Corinthians 5:17 the what: 'if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, the old things have passed away'
3. 2 Corinthians 5:18 God has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ and given us the ministry of reconciliation
4. 2 Corinthians 5:19 God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses, committing to us the word of reconciliation
5. 2 Corinthians 5:20 we are ambassadors for Christ, imploring on Christ's behalf: be reconciled to God
6. 2 Corinthians 5:21 the how: he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him
7. 2 Corinthians 6:1 pleading with you not to receive the grace of God in vain
8. 2 Corinthians 6:2 the when: 'now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation,' quoting Isaiah 49:8
9. Isaiah 49:8 Paul's source for 'in an acceptable time I have heard you, in the day of salvation I have helped you'
10. Isaiah 45 God speaking: 'to me every knee shall bow and every tongue shall swear allegiance'
11. Philippians 2 at the name of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father
12. 2 Corinthians 1 the God of all comforts who comforted us in afflictions so that we may comfort others, linked to ministry of reconciliation

Talk about it

1. Pastor Ray used Jonathan Edwards' description of the unrepentant soul being held over hell by nothing but God's forbearance to set up the passage. How does that picture sit with you, and does it change the way you hear Paul's words in 2 Corinthians 5 about reconciliation?
2. Pastor Ray pointed out that the old things passing away happened once at the cross, objectively, but that what we do with that fact still matters subjectively. What does it look like in your own life to personally receive something that has already been accomplished for you?
3. Paul says God has given believers the ministry of reconciliation, the same idea as in chapter one where God comforts us so that we can comfort others. What does it actually mean for you, day to day, to carry that ministry?
4. Pastor Ray drew a contrast between saying the right thing at the wrong time and getting a zero, and the picture of every knee eventually bowing, whether now or at judgment. How does that contrast shape the urgency you feel, or don't feel, about your own faith and about the people around you?
5. Miss Palmer had a lasting impact on Pastor Ray's life, and he wrote her a letter years later to say so. Who has shaped your faith in ways you have never properly acknowledged, and what is stopping you from doing that?