Today Our Daily Bread 2 Cor 3 & John 1:14

Scripture selections are taken from the Rock Church Daily Bread Reading schedule for each month. “Lena’s Journalin’” are Lena’s comments on the specific passages from her Daily Journal.

If the e-mail text you receive is encrypted at all, just scroll down to the end of all of the text and click on Lena’s Journalin’ , which will take you directly to the web-page where you will be able to read the text quite clearly in it’s purposed form.

2 Cor 3:1-18
1Are we beginning again to tell you how good we are? Some people need to bring letters of recommendation with them or ask you to write letters of recommendation for them. 2But the only letter of recommendation we need is you yourselves! Your lives are a letter written in our F8 hearts, and everyone can read it and recognize our good work among you. 3Clearly, you are a letter from Christ prepared by us. It is written not with pen and ink, but with the Spirit of the living God. It is carved not on stone, but on human hearts.
4We are confident of all this because of our great trust in God through Christ. 5It is not that we think we can do anything of lasting value by ourselves. Our only power and success come from God. 6He is the one who has enabled us to represent his new covenant. This is a covenant, not of written laws, but of the Spirit. The old way ends in death; in the new way, the Holy Spirit gives life.
The Glory of the New Covenant
7That old system of law etched in stone led to death, yet it began with such glory that the people of Israel could not bear to look at Moses' face. For his face shone with the glory of God, even though the brightness was already fading away. 8Shouldn't we expect far greater glory when the Holy Spirit is giving life? 9If the old covenant, which brings condemnation, was glorious, how much more glorious is the new covenant, which makes us right with God! 10In fact, that first glory was not glorious at all compared with the overwhelming glory of the new covenant. 11So if the old covenant, which has been set aside, was full of glory, then the new covenant, which remains forever, has far greater glory.
12Since this new covenant gives us such confidence, we can be very bold. 13We are not like Moses, who put a veil over his face so the people of Israel would not see the glory fading away. 14But the people's minds were hardened, and even to this day whenever the old covenant is being read, a veil covers their minds so they cannot understand the truth. And this veil can be removed only by believing in Christ. 15Yes, even today when they read Moses' writings, their hearts are covered with that veil, and they do not understand.
16But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, then the veil is taken away. 17Now, the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, he gives freedom. 18And all of us have had that veil removed so that we can be mirrors that brightly reflect F9 the glory of the Lord. And as the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we become more and more like him and reflect his glory even more.
FOOTNOTES:F8: Some manuscripts read your. F9: Or so that we can see in a mirror.

~Lena’s Journalin’~
Have you ever seen books entitled, “What Are We Here For?” and other leading titles that reflect man’s search for himself? This is man’s plight, to search for himself. The only thing is, man cannot find himself or his purpose without knowing where he came from and who his father is. Boy isn’t that a dilemma in present day USA? Many of us do not know our fathers, we may know their names, because they put their names on us, but we don’t know them, we don’t live with them, we don’t see them in action as fathers, right?
That makes it very hard to even be able to define “father”, thus it makes it somewhat hard for people to know where to find themselves and this to find THE FATHER GOD.
Yet inside of the deepest parts of every human being is the desire to know their fathers and to know themselves and “where they came from”.
There is only One Way to truth. There is only One Way to life, There is only One way to finding out anything about ourselves. Just as a vessel does not make itself, or design itself or name itself or decide on the use of itself, so man has a designer and a maker. This is God The Father and the Lord Jesus Christ is the only way to truly find and get to know God the Father.
One of the greatest designs of mankind is to show forth the glory of God.
In the beginning it was and still is the mandate upon all of mankind. To show forth the image of the Father in the earth. The glory is a reflection of the true image. The word glory actually means weight, mass. To me that speaks of importance and responsibility. Now let’s look at this word in this context.
opinion, judgment, view
opinion, estimate, whether good or bad concerning someone
in the NT always a good opinion concerning one, resulting in praise, honour, and glory
splendour, brightness
of the moon, sun, stars
magnificence, excellence, preeminence, dignity, grace
majesty
a thing belonging to God
the kingly majesty which belongs to him as supreme ruler, majesty in the sense of the absolute perfection of the deity
a thing belonging to Christ
the kingly majesty of the Messiah
the absolutely perfect inward or personal excellency of Christ; the majesty
of the angels
as apparent in their exterior brightness
a most glorious condition, most exalted state
of that condition with God the Father in heaven to which Christ was raised after he had achieved his work on earth
the glorious condition of blessedness into which is appointed and promised that true Christians shall enter after their Saviour's return from heaven
How does God, our Father, look to anyone who knows we are called by His name? What reflection or representation do we portray of Him?
If we are His exact reflection, does He look good? Are we ambassadors of His image? We are, whether we desire to be, whether we try to be, or not. This is how we are designed; this is how we are made, to reflect- Him, His will, His desire, His purpose, His love, His grace, His mercy, His Son.
Whether we want to, care to or not, it is so.
The veil is the lie the enemy has fed into each of us, telling us that we don’t have to reflect and we have no responsibility to shine glory, we don’t “belong” to anyone and we have no responsibility to anyone. That is the veil that needs to be removed today.
God has been calling you to His purposes since you were created in your mother’s womb.
God THE FATHER is drawing you to His will, His purpose etc, so that you can find your true self, inside of Him, inside of his heart where you started off and where you belong.
Ever wonder if and who you “belong” to? Where you “came from”?
You came from God and are going to God and are on a journey here to know Him more and make Him known as much as is possible on this earth, before you don’t have any more chances, and the threat of true regret would try to show itself in the light of eternity.
Come home for Christmas, or New Years or whenever, but do it soon, or no matter what you do or where you move or how many jobs you take on, you’ll never find yourself apart from God and His will for you.

John 1:14 So the Word became human and lived here on earth among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. F1 And we have seen his glory, the glory of the only Son of the Father.