" ... IS BEING RENEWED DAY BY DAY"

2 Cor 4 Paul speaks of the wonderful gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, that we have received by mercy.

And because of this, "we faint (weary) not", he continues "but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed DAY BY DAY".  We have an echo straight back to the words of Jesus "Give us DAY BY DAY our daily bread", and as I am sure we are aware, Jesus' words don't just speak of the literal bread but also of the spiritual bread of the word (the manna).

Which again takes us to the words of our Master:
"And Jesus..., saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.

Pray that we feast on the spiritual food which is there for us if we will give the time and effort to open the word, study, meditate upon it and apply it to our lives DAY BY DAY.
“… IS BEING RENEWED DAY BY DAY”

     What interesting and, in some ways, challenging readings we had this morning: first, we read of the detailed guidance given in Moses’ law as to what could be eaten – and what avoided.  Also – what happened to make articles of wood, garments and vessels “unclean” and whether cleansing was possible. [Lev. 11 v.32-35 &c] Here is valuable advice on hygiene which were not re-discovered until less than 200 years ago. But spiritual hygiene is even more important!

     Then we came to Psalm 110, so often quoted in the New Testament. Christ brought to an end the Mosaic law, he nailed it to his cross ( Col. 2 v.14)  and instead became “a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek” [v.4]  His role as that Priest will one day, maybe very soon, become powerfully evident for the next verses read, “”The Lord is at your right hand; he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath. He will execute judgment among the nations, filling them with corpses; he will shatter chiefs (leaders) …” [v.5,6]

     When we come to Paul’s 2^nd letter to the Corinthians we specially note his point that believers must “let light shine out of darkness” because it “has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” [Ch, 4 v.6].,  So let us shine spiritually – and as a result of this shining we have seen “grace extend(s) to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving to the glory of God. So we do not lose heart.  Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day.” {v.15,16]

     An essential part of that daily renewal is to feed our minds on God’s word, we have seen this today, “for we walk by faith, not by sight … for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil”  [5 v.7,10]  Note – he speaks of the body, Paul told the Thessalonians, “Encourage one another, and build one another up” [1 Thess 5 v.11] Let us walk with ever firmer and surer steps as we feed and are “renewed day by day” and seek ways to renew each other.