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Courageous Spirituality (part 1): “Accept God’s Call”

2 Corinthians 3 laid the foundations for true spirituality--but what do we do once we have it? Once we obey the prompting of the Holy Spirit allowing Christ to lift the veil of spiritual blindness and He writes on our heart what is on His mind for all men to read, “now what?” “Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart.” (2 Cor. 4:1) In other words, “we are not wearied to the point of fainting.” The source of living true spirituality comes with the courage found in God’s mercy which we receive by faith. Mercy is an attribute of God requiring a closer look because we often find God’s mercy at work when God’s people are in trouble. “And David said to Gad, “I am in great distress. Please let us fall into the hand of the LORD, for His mercies are great; but do not let me fall into the hand of man.” (2 Sam 24:14) “When Jesus departed from there, two blind men followed Him, crying out and saying, ‘Son of David, have mercy on us!’” (Mt 9:27) “I thank C...

We Do Not Lose Heart! Courageous Spirituality (Introduction)

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"Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we received mercy, we do not lose heart . . . Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day." (2 Corinthians 4:1, 16 NASB) Since nobody does it better, the Lion has the floor: It’s been said that “fear” has two meanings. The first is “Forget Everything And Run.” That’s how it is sometimes. We see courageous people do courageous acts, but one little thing happens to us and we crumble. The second is “Face Everything And Rise.” This is courage.  Webster defines courage as “the ability to do something frightful, difficult or dangerous.” In other words, courage is not the absence of fear but the mastery of it. The great Phillips Brooks preached: “Oh, do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men. Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for powers equal to your tasks.” The last series of posts explored True Spirituality through 2 Corinthian...