Today’s Community Scripture – 4/16/2025

And now a personal but most urgent matter; I write in the gentle but firm spirit of Christ. I hear that I’m being painted as cringing and wishy-washy when I’m with you, but harsh and demanding when at a safe distance writing letters. Please don’t force me to take a hard line when I’m present with you. Don’t think that I’ll hesitate a single minute to stand up to those who say I’m an unprincipled opportunist. Then they’ll have to eat their words. The world is unprincipled. It’s dog-eat-dog out there! The world doesn’t fight fair. But we don’t live or fight our battles that way—never have and never will. The tools of our trade aren’t for marketing or manipulation, but they are for demolishing that entire massively corrupt culture. We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ. Our tools are ready at hand for clearing the ground of every obstruction and building lives of obedience into maturity.

2 Corinthians 10:1–6 (MSG)

Key Verse – We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ. 2 Corinthians 10:5 (MSG)

– Reflection:

Tear Down Those Barriers

Guys, you may have gone through a disappointment, a loss, an unfair situation in your life. Maybe life hasn’t turned out the way you thought it was supposed to. Worst-case images will come up of you living unhealthy, discouraged, struggling, never getting ahead. But God says He will give you beauty for those ashes, He will pay you back double for what was unfair, He will take what was meant for harm and use it to your advantage. The pictures that are playing in your imagination of rejection, defeat, and loneliness are exalting themselves above what God says about you. You have to pull them down from the highest places in your minds and hearts. They’re not reality. The enemy will keep showing you the ashes, of your life on fire, but not the beauty that’s coming of a life reformed and being set back on the correct path. He’ll always only show you the losses, and not ever the new beginnings that are coming.

– Where do we go from here?

Now we must do our part and use our imagination for the right purposes—to understand what God says about us. Begin to see ourselves as joyful, healthy individuals with great relationships and abundance, so that we can be a blessing. Harness your imagination to inspire and strengthen yourself and others, and to encourage everyone around you. Shift your focus to what God says.

– Our Prayer for Today

Father, thank You for giving us the power to control the images playing in our minds. Thank You that we can cast down the negative images that come against us, and we can use positive images to keep us moving forward. Let’s switch over to faith and leave the world’s problems to themselves. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.