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1 Cor 1:27
27 But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound{shame}
the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to
confound{shame} the things which are mighty;
(KJV & NKJ)
As I read this verse this morning, it hit me that often in
our society we do
not recognize what kind of human wisdom the Apostle Paul was talking
about.
Paul was writing to a church in Corinth and Greece of course is
known for
its philosophical wisdom. The Greeks were one of the first groups
in the
world to write down their philosophies of life and they were a
people who
loved to debate and reason things out -sometimes with great logic,
other
times without it. And today's society as well as the world's
study the
philosophies of the Greeks just as they did, not only in Paul's
time, but
down through the centuries. Many Christian points of view have
used Greek
forms of thinking to support the truths of the Gospel. As a matter
of fact,
the early church fathers saw philosophy as a means to establish
the truths
of the Gospel, and so studied the reasoning techniques, etc. to
be able to
intelligently teach Christian truths and prove them. Many felt
that
philosophies properly studied and applied always led to the truth,
so
thought that it was necessary for church leadership to use Greek
philosophies as they preached the gospel.
But how does the verse apply to us today? In Paul's time,
there were many
schools of philosophy and of course the word philosophy means
love of
knowledge. The Greeks loved to reason, debate, and study what
was
considered knowledge for they believed that was the way they found
the
truth. They felt it was the way to discern what was reality and
what was
true and so know what to guide their lives by. When Christianity
was
introduced to the Greeks, they thought the teachings of Christ
were
foolishness. Remember the following verses?
1 Cor 1:22-23
22 For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom:
23 But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock,
and unto
the Greeks foolishness;
(KJV)
Paul is explaining to the church in Corinth that the Greeks
had the
inclination to seek after wisdom "knowledge" and thought
that was the way to
finding the truth. Christ being crucified made no sense to them
at all.
What did that have to do with the truth? And of course we know
and Paul
knew Jesus was and is the Truth that everyone looks for, though
not everyone
finds Him because they don't like the real Truth.
Well, what is the wisdom believed and taught in this world
right now. Well
for one, "Seeing is believing",
"gotta get ahead", "do unto others before they
do unto you", "position and
status are to be aimed for", "truth is relative",
"God isn't involved",
"your life is controlled by fate", and many more ideas
that contradict the
Word of God. And Paul states very clearly that God's "foolishness"
puts to
shame the wisdom of men; it confounds it, etc. God's "foolishness"
is of
course what He has revealed to us in His Word and in our walk
by faith.
In the weeks ahead we will see how foolish man's wisdom is
- based on the
truths of the Word of God. Till next week, think of the world's
idea of
wisdom and contrast that with what is in the Word of God-you will
see how
obviously true Paul's statement that God does indeed frustrate
the wisdom of
those who think of themselves as so intelligent.
1 Cor 1:19
19 For it is written: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;
the
intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate[bring to nothing]."
(NIV)
Weekly Devotional by the Good News Lady
GoodNewsLady@goodnewslady.com
Matt 5:48
48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in
heaven is
perfect.
(KJV)
How many of you have aimed for perfection only to fall short
time and again?
I have and it can be frustrating. Paul state we have all fallen
short of the
glory of God. He also stated that he found himself doing what
he didn't
really want and not doing those things he meant to do. And asked
then, Rom
7:24 "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from
the body of this
death?" (KJV) and then answered himself with Rom 7:25 "Thanks
be to God--
through Jesus Christ our Lord!.." (NIV) He goes on to say,
Rom 8:1-2 1 "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for
those who are in
Christ Jesus,2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit
of life
set me free from the law of sin and death." (NIV) So we know
just from that,
that Paul dealt with his humanness daily, and fell short of perfection,
but
his answer to the problem was Jesus Christ our Lord.
We often think of perfection according to Webster's dictionary
and the
English definition includes a meaning not included in the Greek
definition.
Take a look at the following from the Webster's Dictionary.
Part of Webster's definition
perfect-as an adjective
1 complete in all respects; without defect or omission; sound;
flawless
2 in a condition of complete excellence, as in skill or quantity;
faultless;
most excellent; sometimes used comparatively [to create a more
perfect
union]
3 completely correct or accurate; exact; precise [a perfect copy]
4 without reserve or qualification; pure; utter; sheer; absolute
[a perfect
fool, perfect stranger]
©1995 Zane Publishing, Inc. ©1994, 1991, 1988 Simon
& Schuster, Inc.
Notice this definition includes the concept of being flawless,
faultless,
exact, precise, perfect copy, pure, etc. Well the Greek definition
doesn't
seem to include that. I took a look at several words in the Bible
that were
translated with the word "perfect" and found that by
an large the meaning of
the Greek words was the following:
wanting nothing necessary to completeness
used of men, full grown, adult, of full age, mature
to mend (what has been broken or rent), to repair, to complete
fitted, complete, perfect, having reference apparently to "special
aptitude
for given uses"
So the English word of perfect has a different meaning than
the Greek ones
do. There are several words in Greek translated into the English
word
"perfect" and the definitions I have given you for the
Greek pretty much are
the meaning of those words. Do you realize why Paul was able to
say Jesus
Christ our Lord was the answer? Take a look at the following verses:
Phil 1:6
6 Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun
a good work
in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ: (KJV)
Col 2:10
10 And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality
and
power:
1 Cor 1:8-9
8 Who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless
in the
day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
9 God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship
of his Son
Jesus Christ our Lord. (KJV)
Since He is the one who began the good work in us, we can count
on Him to
finish the job. For He indeed is faithful and as we are in Him-we
are also
complete in Him. This is why salvation by works or by being flawlessly
perfect is so unnecessary. His faithfulness to complete what He
has started
wipes out the need to work for your salvation. Does scripture
not say,
"Work out your salvation in fear and trembling?" Yes,
and notice it does not
say, 'work for your salvation in fear in trembling.' It instead
says to work
out the salvation you already have in fear and trembling. Take
your
salvation seriously Paul reminds us. But remember, since we are
complete in
Him, remember Jesus is saying in Matthew 5 "Be you complete
as your Father
in Heaven is complete." Practice that completeness each day
by making sure
in your activities and decisions you are letting Jesus operate
as Lord of
your life- that you are giving Him permission to run your life,
and as He
does, you become more and more complete, more and more free from
the power
of sin in your life, more and more like Him. God bless you all
and have a
great weekend.
Weekly Devotional by the Good News Lady
GoodNewsLady@goodnewslady.com
Mal 4:2
2 But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness
arise with
healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves
of the
stall. (KJV)
2 Cor 4:6
6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath
shined in
our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of
God in the
face of Jesus Christ.
(KJV)
1 Cor 4:5
5 Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come,
who both
will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make
manifest
the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise
of God.
(KJV)
Eph 5:13-14
13 But everything exposed by the light becomes visible,
14 for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why
it is said:
"Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will
shine on you."
(NIV)
I know you have noticed-everyone does-except those who are
physically
blind-that when the sun rises in the morning, it gets light, and
lighter,
till everything is bright. The light chases away the darkness,
doesn't it?
And no doubt you have seen how darkness cannot overcome and blank
out the
light of a flashlight or candle in a dark unlit room. Light is
more
powerful than darkness, and the more light there is, the brighter
and
clearer things become. Well, God made it possible for us to make
an analogy
here and you see it time and time again in the Bible. The light
symbolizes
Jesus Christ. He is the light of the world. And He brings to light
those
things of the darkness that many people would prefer to be hidden.
Those
who have no love for God or man have the attitude Jesus expressed
when He
said,
John 3:19-20
19 "And this is the condemnation, that the light has come
into the world,
and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds
were evil.
20 "For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does
not come to the
light, lest his deeds should be exposed. (NKJ)
Thank God Jesus came to "to give the light of the knowledge
of the glory of
God" to us, so that we might be freed from the power of sin,
healed in our
souls, and be cleansed; Eph 5:26 That he might sanctify and cleanse
it with
the washing of water by the word, (KJV) The "it" in
that verse refers to
the body of Christ-us believers. Realizing this, ought we not
go constantly
to God and His Word for cleansing? We need God to still clean
out our souls
of those things we are not aware of that need to be removed from
our lives.
We need to let the light shine on all the skeletons in our closet.
I Jn 1:9
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us
our sins,
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (KJV)
The more we allow God to cleanse us, the more we will become
like Jesus and
the more we are like Him, the more Jesus can shine through us,
and the more
Jesus shines through us, the more people see Him and come to Him
for their
salvation. We really have nothing to fear. The truth is our friend.
If
you feel a need for cleansing, go to the Father, let Him shine
His light
into those secret corners, clean and free you, and fill you with
His joy,
love, peace & righteousness.
Weekly Devotional by the Good News Lady
GoodNewsLady@goodnewslady.com
2 Cor 4:6-7
6 Seeing it is God, that said, Light shall shine out of darkness,
who shined
in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the
face of Jesus Christ.
7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the exceeding
greatness
of the power may be of God, and not from ourselves; (ASV)
Some of you may know that in ancient times Jewish scribes and
rabbis often
stored scrolls of scripture in jars-clay jars, and they would
seal the top
of the jar so that no moisture could get in and no mold could
grow to
destroy the scrolls. One reason they did this was because if they
left the
scrolls out exposed, they could deteriorate easily. If you remember,
back
in the middle of the last century, the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered.
And where were they found? In fired clay jars, sealed jars. And
they had
been preserved that way for nearly 2000 years. The group that
wrote the
Dead Sea Scrolls also had copies of scrolls of the Bible along
with their
commentaries, and we know next to nothing how old the scrolls
of scripture
were, but they were obviously at least about 2000 years old, and
very
possibly much older. Scrolls of Scripture were recognized as the
most
valuable item to own-they were treasured as one treasures one's
life. Hence
the earthen jars for protection and storage.
Well, Paul made a comparison in verse 7 above, calling us earthen
vessels.
Why, we are actually made of the elements of the earth and Paul
knew it, not
only from experience, but also from Genesis. And God decided to
follow the
custom He must have inspired the Jews to carry on by placing the
most
valuable part of Himself in earthen vessels. The Holy Spirit who
shines in
our hearts, who gives the light of what God's glory is to others-lives
in
earthen vessels. Us. Is it not a miracle that God can place someone
supernatural inside someone so natural as a human being? Is it
not a
miracle that God's greatness, beauty, and love can be seen despite
the
flaws of the container? You and I, natural beings, created by
God, have
been wedded with a supernatural being-God the Holy Spirit. Actually,
according to scripture, we are the Bride of Christ, and our union
with the
Holy Spirit marks us as the Bride of Christ. We will be fully
wedded with
Jesus Christ one of these days, but until then we are to look
forward to the
wedding. And as we do, we need to shine the greatness of God past
our
earthen nature-which gives us the responsibility not only to reach
out to
those who don't know Him as well as recognize Jesus in the other
believers
we know-warts and all. For since Jesus chose to live in us because
we
accepted Him by faith, He also chose to live in those others who
have
accepted Him by faith-so for this reason, God says-"Don't
judge your
brother." Why? 1st, you are guilty of the same things, maybe
in a
different form (See Romans 2:1); 2nd, you are also judging Jesus
who is also
in that person. The fact that we are clay vessels, earthen vessels
should
indicate to all of us that we are imperfect vessels, we all have
our flaws,
some of one kind, some of another. It is like the black cast iron
kettle
calling the black cast iron fry pan black.
Let's concentrate on letting the light of God shine out of
us on to other
believers as well as on to those others who have yet to become
believers.
God's blessings be upon you and have a great weekend.
Rom 6:16
16 Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone
{as} slaves
for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either
of sin
resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?(NAS)
Have you found yourself constantly giving in to a desire that
you know you
shouldn't, giving in to a temptation that you know you oughtn't?
Or have
you found things that are irresistable to you and you need to
do without
them, but when they are around you, you just can't say no? Well
the above
two verses address that problem. If you are a believer in Jesus
Christ,
actually one of His followers, the previous and following verses
definitely
apply to you:
Rom 6:5-8
5 For if we have become united with {Him} in the likeness of
His death,
certainly we shall be also {in the likeness} of His resurrection,
6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with {Him,}
that our body
of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves
to sin;
7 for he who has died is freed from sin.
8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall
also live with
Him, (NAS)
When you were baptized, that baptism symbolized your death,
burial, and
resurrection with Jesus Christ. Because you have died with Christ,
you have
also been freed from sin. Does this mean you are never guilty
of sin from
that day forward. Of course not, but it does mean you have been
freed from
its shackles. You are no longer bound to it. It no longer has
power or
dominion over you. You can say no! Take a look at the picture
located at
the address http://www.bibleverseart.com/images/FreefromSinandDeath.htm
You have been freed. You are now no longer bound and under
its power.
However, what do you do about those temptations? You resist them.
You say,
No! You have the power now that you have Jesus Christ living in
you, the
Holy Spirit living in you, even the Father living in you. It was
a power
you did not have before you were saved.
The apostle Paul found himself grappling with fighting his
sin nature. Even
though we are unshackled, we still must make choices-it is part
of the
sanctification and maturing process. How do we handle this? Paul
explains
Rom 6:12-14
12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye
should obey it
in the lusts thereof.
13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness
unto
sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from
the dead,
and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not
under the law,
but under grace. (KJV)
You see? You choose! Make up your mind not to allow sin to
reign in your
life. Make up your mind that giving in to what you know you shouldn't
is
no longer going to be done, whether it be a desire for something,
or whether
it be something else that you shouldn't think or do; just say
no and stick
to your guns. Would that be hard? Of course! You think Satan wants
to
lose control that easily? Not only will he put thoughts in your
head that
are false, but he will try to convince you that you don't have
that power
from the Holy Spirit to resist temptations. Don't believe it!
God freed
you, now you must live in it. He didn't call you to become slaves
again to
that which you escaped from. He called you to freedom in Him,
to the
freedom of purity and obedience and love. And I am just scratching
the
surface. You see, His Lordship is what freed us from the attempts
of the
sinful nature and the attempts of Satan and his cronies to control
and rule
us, and our responsibility is to yield to the direction the Holy
Spirit is
giving us. We learn by practice, constant practice. And in that
constant
practice we are being saved from our sins. This is where our salvation
is a
present tense thing. We were saved 2000 years ago by Jesus death
and
resurrection, and we are now being saved also. And we will be
saved in the
future when we come into the final portion of our inheritance-leaving
this
life for an eternal one in His presence. So remember--You who
have died in
Christ are now freed from sin and its power over you. Keep that
in mind all
day today and rejoice in it. And when the temptations come your
way, just
praise and thank God you have been freed. God bless, and have
an exciting
day in the Lord.
Eph 2:8
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that
not of
yourselves; it is the gift of God,
(NKJ)
In a few previous devotionals I wrote about spiritual blessings
given us by
Jesus Christ. Well faith is another of the spiritual blessings
given us by
God. Where do we get our faith? See what Romans 10:17 says--"So
then faith
comes from hearing, and hearing from the word of God." (my
paraphrase) So
what happens first-we have to hear the Word of God and hearing
that puts
faith in us. So we have to receive that faith in order to be saved.
You
see there are two sides involved in the salvation process. The
giver and
the receiver. God extends his grace to you-you hear His Word,
He plants
faith in you, you receive that faith and by it, ask Him to save
you, and
wahlah! You get saved. And notice the point Paul makes that your
salvation
is not of yourself-you didn't bring it about. If you could have,
you would
have reason to brag or boast of what you accomplished, but there
is nothing
you can point to in your life that makes you even worthy of salvation.
For
all have sinned and fallen short and fallen short of the glory
of God. One
sin can send a person to hell, and only Jesus blood can wash away
any sins.
And God gave Jesus to us so our sins could be washed away. So
God's grace
here is necessary as the start of the salvation process, but we
must then
accept our salvation by faith. And this is a blind faith in this
instance.
You can't see the proof of salvation with your eyes, you have
to decide you
are going to believe for faith is a decision, not a feeling. Not
everyone
who gets saved feels saved when it happens, but that does not
negate what
has occurred. A legal transaction has taken place here. You are
offered
salvation by God and you decide you want to receive it, and you
ask for it,
and by blind faith you accept that you have received it. You decide
to
believe God when He says you can have it.
So you have met people who said, "Oh, I felt the Holy
Spirit come into me wh
en I got saved", or "I felt such peace" or some
such thing. Sometimes these
folks are confusing these feelings with faith. What they are feeling
or
experiencing is the result of their faith. But not everyone feels
a
dramatic difference on first accepting Jesus Christ, but I guarantee
you,
whether one feels it or not, the resultant changes in your life
are the
evidence of what you could not see. Remember Heb 11:1 "Now
faith is being
sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see."
(NIV)
And you need to always live by faith in the word of God, for remember
what
applied to Abraham applies also to us.
Rom 4:3
3 For what does the Scripture say? "And Abraham believed
(put his faith in)
God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness." (NAS)(PMT)
Rom 4:5
5 However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who
justifies the
wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness. (NIV)
So it is obvious from these scriptures you can't work for your
salvation, as
Paul states, it is a gift from God. And so too is your faith a
gift from
God.
Rom 12:3
3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not
think of
yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself
with sober
judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given
you. (NIV)
And sometimes He gives a special gift of faith to a person-faith
that is
much more than normally experienced or practiced, for see the
next two
verses.
1 Cor 12:8-9
8 For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to
another the word
of knowledge by the same Spirit;
9 To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts
of healing by
the same Spirit; (KJV)
Seeing how important faith is, walk by faith in Jesus Christ
all your
life-believe Him, trust Him, put your trust in Him no matter how
difficult
the situation. He can handle it all. After all, He saved you.
John 1:17 For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth
came by Jesus
Christ. (KJV)
John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the
life: no
man cometh unto the Father, but by me. (KJV)
John 16:13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will
guide you
into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever
he shall
hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.
(KJV)
John 18:37 Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then?
Jesus
answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born,
and for this
cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the
truth.
Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice. (KJV)
When you read these verses, you can't help but notice that
Jesus claims
quite plainly to be the truth, to be the speaker and witness of
the truth,
truth comes by Him, and those who are of the truth hear His voice.
That doesn't leave much room for anyone else's truth, does it?
I have heard
people argue that there is no absolute truth by which one must
live, that
truth is what you see it as, or it is relative, etc. And for those
who
think this way, let me pose to you a hypothetical situation.
Suppose you were from Philadelphia. And in Philadelphia the
traffic rules
required you to stop on red, go on green, and slow down on yellow.
So far
so good. But say you had a friend who was from Atlanta, and in
Atlanta the
traffic rules were a little different. Instead of stopping on
red, you had
to stop on yellow. And on green you slowed down, but on red you
would go.
But in Indianapolis they had even more different rules and another
friend
you had from there had to stop on green, go on yellow, and slow
down for
red. Now supposing you all got together for a visit, and made
that visit to
another state-and you went to Texas, where the law was that you
drove
according to the laws of your home state. Now picture all three
of you
driving in Texas trying to drive by the rules of the state you
were from and
you all came to the same intersection. What would happen? That's
right,
confusion and chaos. No one could even begin to drive safely.
You would
have conflicting authorities and when there are conflicting authorities,
you
have chaos and confusion. If the rules we lived by all contradicted
the
rules everyone else lived by, we would be living in an anarchy.
The nation
of Israel experienced living in anarchy for in the time of the
judges,
Judg 17:6 In those days there was no king in Israel, but every
man did that
which was right in his own eyes. (KJV)
The people were basically anarchists.
And even when there was a king in Israel as well as a king
in Judah, you had
kings doing what was right in their own eyes, rather than what
was right in
God's eyes. Too many of them tolerated pagan religious practices
in their
own kingdom when God had specifically said not to allow that.
They were the
preachers of tolerance in their day. And as a result, there was
spiritual
anarchy and deception practiced by the people of that time, just
as is true
of today.
Hezekiah was one of the few kings that was truly faithful to
God. He did
what was right in God's eyes. God's truth was his authority.
II Ki 18:1,3 1 Now it came to pass in the third year of Hoshea
son of
Elah king of Israel, that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz king of Judah
began to
reign. 3 And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD,
according to all that David his father did. (KJV)
And what did Jesus say? He came to bear witness to the truth.
The Absolute
truth. The Absolute authority. What is your authority and whose
rules do you
live by?
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