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Day 263: Proverbs 3:1-4:27; 1 Corinthians 15:35-57 — Pie in the sky, pie on the table

Monday, September 20th, 2010

Being a Christian…what does it get you? Pie in the sky bye and bye. Well, there’s pie on the table right now! There are those days that “we’ll understand it all bye and bye” but we do have days now that are filled with grace and goodness and blessing, a “foretaste of glory divine.” The readings today look at both sides of the life of one who is faithful to God in the covenant.

Proverbs holds quite a creation theology: this created reality, the world, works a certain way, therefore follow God’s design to reap blessing. Evil, frustrating that design, clogs the wheels, makes the wheels of life fall off and crash. While Job and, at times, the Psalmist ask, “I try to do the right thing, why do I suffer?” the Proverbs writer says, “Here is the only life that leads to any good thing in this present world God has made.” Prov. 3:3-8 has memorable wisdom, as all the words of God. Especially in this reading, Solomon, the likely writer, says to maintain “chesed,” a term for steadfast love, lovingkindness with God and man. God has “chesed” toward man, Ps. 100:5, Ps. 136:1. He chooses to do good and love us on and on. Man has “chesed” toward God: loyalty, determination to act with great commitment and submission to The God of heaven and earth. Be loyal and act with faith, integrity, good will toward God, and in the reading here, toward your fellow man as well. Trust in YHWH with all your heart, He will make your paths straight, Prov. 3:5-6. Look neither to the right or the left, Prov. 4:23-27. My dad used to tell us, “Keep your mind on your business.” Love God, treat your neighbor well, don’t follow the bad boys to see what they’re doing, and more to come about your spouse, money dealings, business, pie at the table now!

Is there REALLY a heaven? Perhaps there are glimpses of this question and answer in the OT readings up to now, but our Hebrew spiritual brothers and sisters busied themselves on what they needed to do here and now to honor, worship, and follow The Creator — and we must, also. But, is it really worth it? David and the saints of old say, “YES!!” What about later? Do we kind of float around? wait for “the light”? The ancient Greeks and Romans said, “oh you just fade from this life. May be you are tasked by Hades, may be you stop being all together, etc. ” Paul does not give ground to any illusions of myth or doubt or fear or opinions. This body is sown, and God raises His holy ones in the perfected, immortal bodies with which we may live and love in His presence forever! Pie in the sky, too? Yes, sir! Yes, ma’am! Echoing a great theme of Holy Writ: Trust God, follow Him with all your heart, and He will take care of what you and I cannot touch with our limited sight and reach. 1 Jn. 3:1-2. O Death — where is your victory, o death, where is your sting! It has none for God’s holy ones! Turning full circle to this life, the Spirit through Paul entreats us: “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, inasmuch as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” 1 Cor. 15:58.

Prayer: O Holy Father, today I trust You. I want to see You in this day. I want to see You on that great day. With Your Spirit may I live and love others that they, too, may see You. Thank You, for Jesus sake and name. Amen.

Tags: heaven on earth
Posted in 1 Corinthians, Proverbs | 4 Comments »

Day 262: 1 Corinthians 15:12-34 — Keep it Simple

Sunday, September 19th, 2010

I’m a meat and potatoes kinda guy both literally and figuratively. Is that shocking? Probably not. I try to take most of the things in my life and boil it down to its simplest form and then go from there. It just seems that I work best in that type of thinking.

In 1 Corinthians Chapter 15, Paul is going to break our faith down to its simplest form. 1 Corinthians 15:12-19 simplifies the basis of our faith. You either believe that Jesus Christ was crucified and then resurrected or you don’t. Simple as that. If you don’t believe that Christ defeated death, your faith is futile. If Christ didn’t defeat death, your Sunday mornings would be better spent playing golf.

Yet, I do believe with all of my heart. I stood in the water with my Dad and he asked me if I believe. I said I did and he dipped me below in the cold water and I was baptized because of that faith. Remember the reason that you stepped into the water that day…it is because you believed.

May God bless you and keep you this week!

Matt

Tags: Baptism, belief in the resurrection
Posted in 1 Corinthians, faith, Resurrection | 1 Comment »

Day 260: 1 Corinthians 14:6-25 — Building up the Church

Friday, September 17th, 2010

Quite a challenge here — write a post about spiritual gifts in less than 500 words. Actually that’s not a huge problem; I’ll let Scripture do most of the talking, so I’ll assume you’ve read today’s NT passage.

Points for the day…

I’m not going to say anything about speaking in tongues, mainly because I don’t see that as Paul’s main focus here, so let’s not get distracted.
So what is his main focus? Simply that spiritual gifts should “build up the church”. (1 Cor 14:12)
He’s mentioning more than tongues & prophecy here — he also mentions singing and praying. He doesn’t call them spiritual gifts, but it’s in the same context as his exhortation to build up the church. When you participate in these acts of worship, it should be in a way as to build up the church.

Ask yourself this: when you attend a service of worship, what is your goal? Let me put it another way — when you leave, how do you judge whether it was a “good” service or not? If the singing was not to your liking, was it not a good service? If you don’t like something the preacher said, even though it was scriptural, is it still a good service? If few people (or nobody!) spoke to you or shook your hand, it must be an unfriendly bunch, right?

Do you see the problem with these questions? I don’t mean to be negative, but we’ve all heard people say these things (and probably at one time or another have said some of them ourselves — I have).

My point is simply this: The primary purpose of a worship service is to glorify God and give praise to His Son — no one’s denying that — but think about the worship services where you came away really feeling good about being a Christian. Were those the services where you sat back and just took it all in, or did you perhaps put a little more into the singing that day? Maybe you went out of your way to encourage someone who was having a bad day, and cheered him up. Or you spent yesterday taking someone (not your relative) to a funeral 3 hours away that she wouldn’t otherwise have had a chance to attend, and today she’s telling everyone how much she appreciated it. So the point is the same as Paul’s point in chapter 14 — whatever you do, do it such that it builds up the church. In so doing, you will also glorify God.

Suddenly, that song the leader pitched a half note too low doesn’t seem like that big a deal after all.

Tags: prophesying, Speaking in Tongues
Posted in 1 Corinthians, Worship | 2 Comments »

Day 258: 1 Corinthians 12:1-26 — Two Fingers

Wednesday, September 15th, 2010

I was watching a movie the other night and in it the main character had to have two fingers removed from the left hand, the pinkie and the one next to it. The damage was caused by an accident, but the fingers were still gone.

Don’t ask me why, but as I continued to watch, I also curled up the same two fingers on my left hand and began to see how it would affect me. I can tell you that even without the pain that would accompany such surgery, I had tremendous difficulty doing some very simple tasks. Go ahead; make immobile two fingers on one hand and try just buttoning your shirt/blouse. Isn’t it incredible how just those two little fingers change the whole dynamics of that simple task?

In 1 Corinthians 12 Paul speaks about the need for every part of the body to be involved. He of course is speaking of the spiritual body not the physical body. The point is just as valid in either discussion. Those two small fingers have all my life lent their support, and I never once thought about it. How many tasks have they done again and again? Important tasks that have made my existence easier.

The work of the church is so much easier when every part of the body is doing what it can do. Never think you are unimportant. Many things just get done without anyone thinking about how. Who takes the trash out? Who cleans the building? Who cuts the grass? Who prepares communion? There is so much more to the church than just the preacher and song leader. Who does all those small tasks totally out of the limelight?

The answer should be me and you. Have we stepped back from, or never picked up our responsibility to the body? I wonder how many are tired who have labored so long. Who would welcome just one more finger to aid in their tasks? And if that would make a difference, then how about two?

Tags: body of Christ, part of the body
Posted in 1 Corinthians | 1 Comment »

Day 257: 1 Corinthians 11:17-34 — “On Any Given Sunday”

Tuesday, September 14th, 2010

They say that on any given Sunday any professional football team may beat a superior team. If you have been a fan of football for any length of time, you know this is true. It is also true that on any given Sunday a church may have a division or trouble within the community of faith. These struggles are difficult and are often used as an excuse by those who don’t believe to not be a part of a church. However, 1 Corinthians 11:17-34 shows that Paul understands this and even more there are spiritual ramifications. It is interesting to me that in 1 Corinthians 11:19, Paul tells us that there are differences, but why? He goes on to say that it is an opportunity for us to see who is approved by God. The Corinthians came together to eat the Lord’s Supper and they went ahead and ate their meals and did not wait on some of their brothers and sisters. Paul gives us a good directive in this passage about what the church is all about. It is not about individual or cliquish groups. The Lord’s Supper is about the whole body of Christ coming together and even waiting for the other if necessary and finding restored relationships with each other and God. Maybe one of the spiritual gifts that we need to learn is how to view the entire body and not just a few. On any given Sunday, we have an opportunity to be approved by God by participating in forgiveness, patience, mercy, and by coming together as one body focusing on the sacrifice of Christ. On any given Sunday, we take the bread and drink the cup and proclaim the death of Christ until He comes again.

Tags: Communion, fellowship, Lord's Supper
Posted in 1 Corinthians, Lord's Supper | 2 Comments »

Day 256: Psalm 119:66-176; 1 Corinthians 10:23-11:16 — The Way

Monday, September 13th, 2010

The longest chapter in the Bible, but every verse praises God for His leadership, His law, instruction for life. So many verses! so many memory verses come from this chapter. What does it all mean? Paul’s approach to the church in Corinth tells it all. God has created a way to live now and forever. Short short comment today, long readings. Put the law and will of God into your mind, understand, your heart, be committed to His way, and life, show His will in your decisions and walk of life.

Prayer: Guide me today so that may walk in Your ways, not my own; let Your church show your love to each other and the world, that the world may believe.

Tags: walk with God
Posted in 1 Corinthians, God's Word, Law, Psalms | Comments Off

Day 255: 1 Corinthians 10:6-22 — I’ve Had Choices…

Sunday, September 12th, 2010

I’m going to throw a verse at you that you probably know pretty well. Maybe you didn’t remember the verse but I’m sure you’ve heard this before. My mother used to tell me, “God won’t give us more than we can handle.” That term was put to use quite often when I was young because there were plenty of times I thought that wasn’t right. How could that be right when there were times where it seemed that I had no way out? There were so many times where I felt that everything had gone wrong and I couldn’t do anything about it.

But…you know what? Momma was right.

Turn with me to 1 Corinthians 10:6-22 and read along. I’d like to focus on the 13th verse of that passage. Paul is talking to a people that had idolatry all around them. They were tempted on a daily basis to shift their focus and trust away from God. Sound familiar? Every day of our lives we make choices to trust God, to follow God and to show others the way to Christ. God knows that we are weak. He knows very well what we can bear. Paul is telling us that while we’ll be tempted because we are human, God gives a way out from every trial. I can save you a lot of time and trouble here — the way out is trusting in God. Too often we choose to listen to ourselves. Too often we put our trust in ourselves to try to “fix” the problem or extract ourselves from a situation. Proverbs 3:5-6 sums it up quite nicely.

My Mom was right. She always said that God wouldn’t give us more than we could handle. She always followed that up with, “Keep the faith.”

The next time you find yourself in a hopeless situation, remember that God has given you a way out — trust in him always.

May God bless you and keep you this week.

Matt

Tags: God will provide a way of escape
Posted in 1 Corinthians | Comments Off

Day 253: Psalm 110; 1 Corinthians 8:7-13 — My Burning Attitude

Friday, September 10th, 2010

For some reason when I read Psalm 110 tonight the current situation with the burning of another religion’s holy text came to mind. “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet…He will judge the nations, heaping up the dead and crushing the rulers of the whole earth.” It seems that those involved think that God has spoken these same words to them today and they are leading the fight vociferously in defense of God’s kingdom (or possibly their own). Whether this is true or not, it’s where my mind went. But then as I start to condemn them for their nasty behaviors, I jump over to I Corinthians 8:7-13.

The other emotion I feel for them besides anger is pity. I feel sorry that their hyper-condemnatory views and actions are probably turning people off to the message of Christ. I feel sorry that they live such angry lives that the only way they know to express themselves is with flamboyant displays of futility. I think a point Paul is trying to make is that how we react to situations with which we disagree or even detest especially in the sight of others is an important part of our testimony to believers and non-believers alike. Whether I think I’m the stronger or weaker brother in this situation is not even important. But if I react with anger, bile, hatred, rudeness or even apathy to the situations around me, someone is watching. It might be my 11 year old son, the neighbor across the street, a coworker, or a complete stranger.

So many times in my life I’ve unfairly judged others by standards I made up. I remember as a teenager very much having a holier-than-thou attitude towards others in the youth group who didn’t show up for every event like I did or maybe only showed up for the “fun” events like Six Flags or camp. It was also fun to criticize all the stupid rules that other adults put in place for things that go on in the church.

As I’ve grown up I’m sorry to say that some of this attitude still remains. I criticize those that aren’t as good as me and fight with those who try to put too many walls in places I don’t think they should be. Whether I’m right or wrong in my assessments is not the point. My judgments and grumblings are not conducive to the spreading of the gospel. Thankfully Paul shows us an attitude of humility. And when attacked, he doesn’t fight back. He defends his case lovingly and thoroughly. His goal is not to make himself look good but always to advance the cause of Christ and never to do anything to hinder it.

Father, give me a spirit like Paul that I may be humble and not say and do the stupid stuff that will turn others away from you.

Tags: Anger, attitude, burning quran, condemning, humility, Judging, koran
Posted in 1 Corinthians, Anger, Complaining, Humility, Judging, Psalms | 2 Comments »

Day 250: 1 Corinthians 5:1-13 — Distinctions in Judging

Tuesday, September 7th, 2010

I hear the question often, “who are we to judge another? This is an important question, especially in view of Paul’s statements in 1 Corinthians 4:1-6 about being judged by a human court. If we go to Jesus, we find more warnings. Jesus said, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged” (Matthew 7:1). And James asked, “Who are you to judge your neighbor?” after pointing out that God alone is “Lawgiver and Judge” (James 4:11-12).

Yet when we look at 1 Corinthians 5:3, we find that Paul had “already passed judgment” on one member of the Corinthian fellowship. He commanded the church to assemble and “hand this man over to Satan” (I Corinthians 5:5). He told them “not to associate” with sexually immoral persons, which necessarily calls for an evaluation or judgment of who is and who is not immoral! Paul even tells us to judge inside the church (1 Corinthians 5:12).

While on the surface this may seem contradictory, it is not when we make a simple distinction. We don’t use the word “judge” correctly. We apply the word rather shallowly in our contexts. Yet, the Bible is rich in distinctions…there are various uses and applications. As one of my old professors used to say “Context, context, context is important!” Without understanding the distinctions, we are fooled by the world’s myopic point of view. Here are some examples of the distinctions of the word “judge” in the New Testament:

Preference (e.g., Romans 14:5). It is used to think, consider or evaluate (e.g., Acts 13:46; Acts 26:8; Acts 4:19; 1 Corinthians 10:15; Luke 7:43).

Decision or intending to do something (e.g., Acts 3:13; Acts 20:16; Acts 25:25; 1 Corinthians 2:2; 1 Corinthians 5:3; Titus 3:12; Acts 27:1; Acts 21:25; 1 Corinthians 7:37; Romans 14:13; 2 Corinthians 2:1; Acts 16:4).

Legal term – judge, decide, before a court, condemn, also hand over for judicial punishment.

In the context of a human court (e.g., Acts 13:27. John 18:31; Acts 23:3; 1 Corinthians 5:12; John 7:51; Luke 19:22; Acts 25:10; Acts 26:6; Luke 12:57; 1 Corinthians 6:6).

In the context of a divine court occupied by God or Christ (e.g., John 5:30; John 8:16; John 8:50; Revelation 6:10; Matthew 7:1-2; Luke 6:37; Revelation 11:18; John 5:22; John 8:15; 1 Corinthians 5:13; 2 Timothy 4:1; 1 Peter 4:5; Romans 2:16; Acts 17:31; 1 Peter 1:17; Revelation 20:13; 1 Peter 2:23; Revelation 19:11; James 2:12; John 3:17; Acts 7:7; Romans 2:12; Romans 3:6; 2 Thessalonians 2:12; Hebrews 10:30; James 5:9; 1 Peter 4:6; Revelation 18:8; Revelation 19:2; John 16:11; Revelation 16:5).

Men divinely commissioned to judge (e.g., Matthew 19:28; Luke 22:30; Romans 2:27; 1 Corinthians 6:2).

Pass an unfavorable judgment upon, criticize, find fault with, or condemn (e.g., Romans 2:1-3; Romans 14:3-13; Colossians 2:16; James 4:11-12; 1 Corinthians 4:5; 1 Corinthians 10:29; Romans 14:22; Romans 3:4).

Maybe we need to understand the distinctions in judging. We need to know when it is not appropriate and when it is.

Tags: decisions, judgement, preferences, You can't judge me
Posted in 1 Corinthians, Judging, Judgment Day | Comments Off

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