Pastor Leon’s SOAP:  Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer
April 03, 2022: SOAP #4504:  Judges 17-18; Psalm 89; 2Corinthians 3

SCRIPTURE:  2Corinthians (NIV) 3: 1 Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some people, letters of recommendation to you or from you? 2 You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody. 3 You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

OBSERVATION: Paul did not need someone to write a letter of introduction to the church in Corinth.  He did not need someone to present a list of his accomplishments.  He already had such a letter.  The lives of the ones to whom he was writing were his letters. 

People could look at them and see the results of Paul’s ministry.  They were not letters written by ink, but by the Holy Spirit!   They were not written “on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.”

When the letter written in my heart by the Holy Spirit, shines out in the way I live, and act, and talk…it is then others can read the letter,

APPLICATION: There is a house on my school bus route that is being remodeled.  I note the changes to the outside every day.  But there is something happening on the inside of the house that is much better.  No, I cannot see inside the house, but I can see what comes out of the house:  happy, respectful, neatly dressed children.  They are letters of good things happening in that home. 

I need to consider myself a letter from Christ, guided by the Word of God (still the result of Paul’s ministry).  This letter is written on my heart and written with the Spirit of the living God!

PRAYER:  Holy Spirit, help me live my life to glorify Jesus.  When people see me, may they know that God cares for them also.  Amen

Pastor Leon
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