Study Desk

When y'all pray for us, it helps us! Then we will be able to tell others of how God so graciously saved us and answered your prayers.

Just like you can trust in what God says, you can trust our word as well.

As a matter of fact, Jesus is the fulfillment of all of God's promises. If you're wondering, this is why we say "amen" (which means "yes") after we hear something great about God. Jesus is the trail that takes our prayers straight to the Boss.

It is God who makes all of us strong and gives us the will and want to ride hard for Jesus. He chose us for this task.

Now, with God as my witness, I'm telling y'all that the reason I didn't come back to Corinth was to save y'all from a bad scoldin'.

But I tip my hat to God! He has put his word in our hearts and we spread the good news like a sweet perfume everywhere we go.

Our very lives are a pleasing scent to God. You know how a feedlot smells great to a cowboy, but it stinks to everyone else. This is how the Christ-like fragrance of God is to others.

You see, we ain't preaching for profit. We only preach for the glory of God and with the authority of Jesus. We know God's watching and we must answer to him.

That's right, y'all are a living letter, written not with quill and ink, but with the Holy Spirit. This new letter wasn't written on stone tablets like the first one, but rather on human hearts by the Spirit of God.

We can say this proudly because of our never-ending trust in God through Jesus Christ.

Now we know we ain't qualified or worthy of this task, but we tell you it is God working through us that allows all these good works.

The old agreement was a code of condemnation that brought death. This code was written on stone tablets and shone with the glory of God, but just like how Moses's face shone the same way, it was already fading away. At first, the people of Israel couldn't even look at Moses.

What I mean is, the old agreement was a code of condemnation that judged people guilty of sin and brought death. Even so, it was filled with God's glory. So surely this new agreement, a code of confirmation that forgives people of sin and brings life, has even more glory from God.

Our faces don't hide behind wild rags to keep people from seeing the glory of God. We show the Lord's glory, not in our faces, but in our hearts and in our lives that are being changed to be like his. As we change more and more, there is more and more glory that belongs only to the Lord—who is the Spirit.

God has mercifully given us a spot on his outfit. He assigned us this work to do and we never give up.

But we have given up on our old shameful deeds and underhanded way of living. We don't try to trick people or distort the word of God. We explain the truth in a way you can understand it, and those who are honest know it.

If the good news seems too hard to understand to some folks, it because those people are lost and don't know God.

That old devil has put blinders on those who don't believe. They just can't see the good news. They have chosen to live in darkness with the devil rather than live in the light with God.

We can tell you stories about ourselves, but it's only to point you toward God. We don't preach about ourselves. We preach that Jesus is the boss and we are his cowboys who ride for his brand.

God once said, "Let a light shine in the darkness." This light has come on inside our hearts and it is the glory of God which is Christ Jesus.