Melissa Rightmire Melissa Rightmire

Week Nineteen

What we know as 2 Corinthians is actually Paul’s fourth letter to this church. It also appears that he visited Corinth briefly two more times after founding the church and spending 18 months there. We already know that Paul deeply loved the people of Corinth. He was their spiritual father in Christ. When you read this letter you will hear a pastor guiding a people gently and specifically.

While there is MUCH to talk about with this letter, I want to draw your attention to 2 Corinthians 1:10 & 11, “. . .On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, as you help us by your prayers.” It’s such a small yet weighty statement. What if this is true for pastors and people in general? Could it be that God delivers people through the tremendous pressures that life gives us, even deadly peril through accidents, disease, or horrible trauma? Could it be that God delivers us “by your prayers”?

John Wesley is quoted as having said, “God does nothing but by prayer, and everything with it.” Watchman Nee wrote, “We cannot make God do what He does not want to do, yet we can stop God from doing what He wants to do.” This all by prayer or lack-there-of from His people.

I’m not sure if you know how much pastors rely on the prayers of their congregations. Let me be direct and say, it is critical that the people of God pray for their pastors. Pastors enter into the most difficult situations in the lives of their people. It is done out of love and care for those we are in community with. Pastors also get to celebrate with the family of God as children are born, baptised, graduate, and make important decisions. We celebrate with those who celebrate and weep with those who weep. It is part of the calling and not one that is begrudged, rather it is embraced.

Likewise, Pastors have their own lives with unique yet familiar challenges. We all have a family of some sort. Like every family, no matter what we look like on Sunday, we have our challenges. Pastors experience transitional seasons like moving, death, graduations, work changes, health and financial challenges. Everything you experience, pastors can experience in their own lives too. Yet, for the pastor it can be difficult to reveal our own challenges. It can be difficult to put onto the church community what we are experiencing.

No matter what our lives look like day-to-day, pastors need your prayers to uphold them so God will continue to deliver them and many will hear and see the gospel lived out. When the church prays for their pastors, people see the gospel lived out in the entire community of believers. Praying for your pastors is a fundamental way that Jesus’ prayer in John 17:21-23 is answered; all of us in the Father and Son and they in us, perfected in unity so that the world will know that Jesus is the Lord of all.

Your prayers matter! I speak for the Crossroads pastoral staff and say thank you for helping us with your prayers so the gospel can be made known through the east valley! You are faithful in prayer and we enjoy the fruit of your prayers each day. You matter! And know that we also are praying for you! Just as Paul often said in his letters, every time we think of you, we mention you in our prayers. This is how the body of Jesus becomes the church and the world knows that Jesus is Lord.

You can write a comment below, or reach me, Melissa, at mrightmire@crnaz.com . Thank you for traveling with me on this journey through the New Testament.

Below are the readings for week 19:

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Melissa Rightmire Melissa Rightmire

Week Eighteen

The church in Corinth apparently needed some additional pastoral guidance from Paul — hence we have what we call the letter of 1 Corinthians. You may want to go back to Acts 18 to refresh your memory of Paul’s 1.5 year stay in the city of Corinth.

1 Corinthians is actually the second letter Paul wrote to the believers in Corinth. The first letter has not been found by historians, but Paul references it in 1 Corinthians 5:9. He probably wrote this letter while he was in Ephesus between two to four years after he founded the church in Corinth.

The subjects Paul addresses in this letter are provoked by a letter or report he received from Chloe’s household. An overarching theme in this letter is how the Body of Christ should live. While Paul addresses some pretty heavy topics like sexual immorality, incest, lawsuits, marriage, and food, everything he talks about is meant to help the reader understand how these things impact our relationship with God and each other. His emphasis is not just that these things are bad but that they destroy the church, families, and put up barriers in our relationship with God.

This is not a letter to faceless and nameless people. It is a letter of deep love for a people that Paul poured his heart out to for a long time. It is written to a people he deeply invested in. It is a letter to people that he would later say he wrote out of the depth of his love (2 Corinthians 2.4). Why else would he go to the trouble of addressing tough issues? But, it is also a letter for us. We are also the people he poured his heart our for. In fact, Paul poured his heart and life out for the people who would come to believe in the living gospel generation after generation after generation. Like David said in Psalm 22.31, “declaring to a people yet unborn: He has done it!” It is because he and others poured out their hearts that we know Jesus today.

What I love about 1 Corinthians is that Paul moved with incredible grace from hard conversations to the Spirit filled life in the Church. He spoke of the way a healthy Body of believers moves together like a human body does - each part doing what it was made for. He was able to put a unified Body of believers on display as we waltz through chapters 11 through 14.

He ends his letter with pure gospel! He makes it clear that the gospel isn’t good news without resurrection! “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death is your sting?” Victory is in Christ and His resurrection! Therefore, stand firm brothers and sisters! “Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord” because that work is not in vain. If we set out to do the work of the Lord, all those other things he spent the beginning of the letter talking about will fade away in the distant past, because our focus will have shifted to the Spirit filled life. And oh what a life it is!

Enjoy this letter Paul poured his heart and life out for to the Body of believers across the world today and even to us at Crossroads in Chandler, Arizona.

You can write a comment below, or reach me, Melissa, at mrightmire@crnaz.com . Thank you for traveling with me on this journey through the New Testament.

Below are the readings for week 18:

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Melissa Rightmire Melissa Rightmire

Week Seventeen

When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! Romans 6:20-21

Paul must have been a bold man! He wrote the letter we know as Romans to everyone who believed in Jesus in Rome before he even knew them. Well aware of the Roman culture he was able to write to them with authority and credibility. Scholars believe this letter was written while he was in Corinth on his third missionary journey. He had still planned to go to Rome on his way to Spain.

As you read this and other letters Paul wrote, you will hear a continual theme of unity among believers. He often challenged both Jews and Gentiles to consider themselves as brothers and sisters in Christ. This thread is loud and clear in the letter to the Roman believers — both Jew and Gentile. He called them to begin by understanding their own humanity, their frailties and brokenness, in order to see each other as bound together in the righteousness of God.

Specifically in this letter, Paul takes time to respond to the questions and philosophies of the day. How do people who are never told about Jesus or God know that He exists? Why do people do such evil things and how does God feel about it? What is the purpose of the Jewish law and does it apply to the Gentiles? I am free since I believe in Jesus, so I can do whatever I want now, can’t I? Will God ever judge the cruelty of humanity? It’s them and not me, right?

And there’s that word “right” which leads us to the related theme of righteousness in Paul’s letter. He used the word, dikaiosynē 36 times in this letter. He uses it to talk about the character of God and how He imparts that to believers. He talks about the role of righteousness in the believers life. He talks about righteousness as a moral standard, again looking to God’s character as that standard. But, he does not neglect speaking of the role of the righteousness of the Jewish law that many of the believers in Rome grew up in. Paul uses this letter to articulate how to recognize righteousness in God as well as in believers. By the end of this letter we know that righteousness is very much wrapped up in our relationship with God but in no way excludes our relationships with one another. The righteousness of God, imparted to us through faith, must be lived out together. And there we are again talking about the life of disciples, doing discipleship together. Making disciples that make disciples that make disciples — together.

I keep ending up here in this challenge of discipleship together. Maybe it’s where I am at in my life and I am dragging you with me. I just keep seeing this thread pulled through everything we are reading. Do you see it? Does it tug on your heart and challenge you too? How are you responding to it?

You can write a comment below, or reach me, Melissa, at mrightmire@crnaz.com . Thank you for traveling with me on this journey through the New Testament.

Below are the readings for week 17:

 

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Melissa Rightmire Melissa Rightmire

Week Sixteen

We wrap up the book of Acts this week, which seems to me to be way too fast! There are so many morsels of truth and revelation of how God works in this book. Don’t ever be afraid to sit in a passage for a couple of days or weeks, even if it puts you behind in the reading! The whole reason we began this journey was to help us gain a new level of abiding in our relationship with Jesus and each other. The goal is not really finishing the New Testament in six months. The goal is abiding deeper and in a more sustainable way because our lives won’t be over in six months!

This journey of reading and abiding is taking us somewhere. Maybe it’s somewhere new for you. Or maybe it’s going deeper into the heart of Jesus than you ever have before. Maybe it’s stretching you to ask questions about the Word of God that you have never been vulnerable enough to ask. Maybe like me, you have found a new community of people who are willing to ask questions and share their thoughts not always knowing if they are right or wrong, finding the way of abiding in Jesus together. I pray one or all of these is true for you!

The book of Acts sets the stage for the rest of the New Testament you are about to encounter. Much of what remains to be read was written by Paul and so pay attention to the places that are logged in these final chapters as you will encounter them again. As you read Acts chapter 26 I would like you to pause at verses 16-18. Read the words silently once, and then read them out loud at least once — they are Jesus’ words. Ponder what Jesus says and ask yourself if you know to whom you are sent to open their eyes. If you don’t know, now is a good time to put that question before God.

As disciples, we all have a people to whom we are sent to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, from the power of satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in Jesus. That seems like a daunting calling. Maybe it’s only for Paul and people like him — the super apostles! But, I don’t think so. Jesus said more than once, and in a variety of ways, that we are to go and make disciples. I never saw an asterisk indicating a footnote of which disciples were excluded. The good news is, our responsibility is to go and be obedient to what Jesus is calling us to do. The Holy Spirit does the rest and He is faithful 100% of the time to do His part. Don’t be afraid! What I am saying is true and reasonable!

Who is Jesus calling you to? Where are you called to take the gospel? You can write a comment below, or reach me, Melissa, at mrightmire@crnaz.com . Thank you for traveling with me on this journey through the New Testament.

Below are the readings for week 16:

April 17, 2025 Acts 25–26 NIV, Ps 90 NIV

April 18, 2025 Acts 27 NIV, Ps 91:1–6 NIV

April 19, 2025 Acts 28 NIV, Ps 91:7–16 NIV

April 20, 2025 Rom 1 NIV, Ps 92 NIV

April 21, 2025 Rom 2:1–3:8 NIV, Ps 93 NIV

April 22, 2025 Rom 3:9–4:25 NIV, Ps 94 NIV

April 23, 2025 Rom 5–6 NIV, Ps 95 NIV

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Melissa Rightmire Melissa Rightmire

Week Fifteen

Week 14 was filled with one account after another of how the Spirit of the Living God was moving in power to make Himself known to all people! We ended last week with the first general council of the Church — capital C, which provided a great model for solving disputes. Yet, that did not preclude the fact that sometimes strong believers, even the renowned Paul, could have a sharp disagreement with someone with whom he worked so closely. Human nature continues among those we consider the most sanctified, but our frailties do not stop the move of God.

This week Luke joins the story he has been writing (Acts 16.10). Now it is not simply accounts that he verified, the rest of the story depicts his experiences with a focus on Paul’s leadership and life. Luke became part of the group traveling with Paul, Silas, Timothy, and others. It seems one of the first places he gets to go is Philippi. There they find a prayer meeting by the river. Most likely another divinely orchestrated appointment. They mostly met with women who would have been Jewish. Apparently there were not enough Jewish men, 10 were required to create a synagogue, so believers went outside the city gates to worship and pray. The miracle of God continues as Lydia and her household all become believers and are immediately baptized.

Once again, the gospel is met with opposition. Paul and Silas were arrested and we read about the 3rd prison break in Acts. I’m wondering if by this point, it’s simply expected that something miraculous happens when disciples of Jesus are sent to prison! This week’s readings take us to familiar cities where Paul and his entourage preach the gospel. In the weeks and months ahead we will read letters that he wrote to many of the congregations he started on his life long journey. If you have time this week, take a few extra minutes to familiarize yourself with the letters written to believers in Thessalonica, Ephesus, Philipi, and Galatia. All cities which are now infamous.

The only reason these cities are infamous is because of obedient disciples that made disciples that made disciples. This is our calling too. What is the name of your neighborhood? Your township? Your city? Have you accepted the call to take the gospel there or somewhere else? Even though the places you are now thinking of all have names known to us, could they become infamous if the gospel is preached with boldness, people are baptized, and new disciples are made?

I would love to know what your discipleship journey looks like or where you are called to take the gospel. You can write a comment below, or reach me, Melissa, at mrightmire@crnaz.com . Thank you for traveling with me on this journey through the New Testament.

Below are the readings for week 15:

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