The Lily Letters

If you have been around the Christian faith very much, you have likely heard of a guy named Paul and maybe even his conversion story, but to recap…  Saul (also called Paul, but that is another story), was a guy who was at the top of his game studying Jewish Law and the Torah, determined to root out all those pesky Jesus followers that were causing such a ruckus (Acts 8:1-3). Saul was en route to Damascus with the sole purpose of arresting those that “belonged to the Way” (Acts 9:1-2), when he had a radical encounter with Jesus that quite literally caused a complete 180° in Saul’s life. (Acts 9:3-19). Saul, the same guy that was actively and aggressively persecuting Jesus’s followers just days before, “immediately began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues” (Acts 9:20).  I can understand why the disciples were hesitant to trust this guy! But I can also sympathize with Saul in why he would desperately want to associate with fellow believers. I would imagine Saul felt lonely and m...

READ: 2 Corinthians 3 Paul begins this section of his epistle saying that letters of recommendation were part of verifying someone's work in ministry, and viable and important, but the Corinthians had a greater authentication: seeing and experiencing Paul's teaching and service unto themselves which other churches had not. Paul wrote commendation letters when he sent missionaries out to churches, but, knowing the Corinthians himself, he need not do such for himself when he sends out his very instructions via this letter. Paul writes to the Corinthian church that his own spiritual credentials aren't written on a piece of paper with ink nor on tablets carved into stone, but on the "tablet of the heart" in each of the Corinthian Christians themselves, who he had ministered to in person. His reference to tablets of the heart are a direct reference to Proverbs 7:3, which reads, "Bind [my instruction] on your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart" an...