Travel Plans

I was reading in the 16th chapter of I Corinthians this morning where Paul talked about his travel plans.  He said to the church at Corinth: "I will visit you after passing through Macedonia, and perhaps I will stay with you or even spend the winter, so that you may send me on my way, wherever I go."  That might seem like an insignificant verse in the grand scheme of things but I think it says a lot.  It says that ministry is active and in motion.  We are headed somewhere as we live out our faith in Jesus Christ.  Where are you going today?  Who will you see?  What will you do? 

Resurrection!

I was reading from I Corinthians 15:12-19 today.  It is the passage where Paul is responding to some comments that some made about not believing in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Paul said, "If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain...but in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died."  Resurrection is real!  There is hope for you and me today and for eternity.  May we not forget that today's problems are temporary and that with Jesus Christ there is hope. 

Building Up

I was reading from I Corinthians 10 today and ran across the following -- "All things are lawful, but not all things are beneficial.  All things are lawful but not all things build up.  Do not seek your own advantage, but that of the other."  It made me think of my own life and how I often miss opportunities to build others up.  Sometimes we get too occupied with our own lives and neglect to take the time to encourage and build others up in the name of Christ.  This passage has encouraged me to be more mindful of building others up. 

Be Imitators of Me

I was reading I Corinthians 4:16 this morning where Paul wrote to the church, "I appeal to you, then, be imitators of me."  At first glance that sounds like an incredibly arrogant statement -- "Be imitators of me!"  Can you imagine what people would say to us if we went around saying, "Be imitators of me!"  But Paul has a point here.  If we are to be true witnesses to our faith in Jesus Christ then we ought to feel comfortable with others imitating us -- not in that we are sinless -- but in that we are on the path of salvation.  We are following Jesus the best we can and rely on his grace, and in that sense then we can comfortably say to others, "Be imitators of me."   

God's Foolishness

I was reading I Corinthians 1:18-31 this morning.  It is the passage where Paul speaks about the "foolishness" of God in regards to God choosing what is foolish in the world to shame the wise and choosing what is weak in the world to shame the strong.  Pual's point was simple -- we are nothing, Jesus Christ is everything.  Paul said it well in verse 31 "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord." 

God is Faithful

For the month of October we will be reading I Corinthians.  I Corinthians is Paul's letter to the church in Corinth.  What we will find in our reading is that the people of Corinth were very much like us -- they struggled at times to live in Christian community.  In this letter Paul addressed some of those issues.  However, at the beginning of the letter Paul expressed his thanks for the people of Corinth, and made the following statement, "God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord." (I Corinthians 1:9) 

This is another reminder that our faith comes not from ourselves but from God's faithfulness and love for us in Jesus Christ.  John Wesley made the point on numerous occasions that in order to come to faith in Jesus Christ we need the Holy Spirit to help us along in the process.  Paul made the same point in saying that we were called into the fellowship of Jesus Christ by God's faithfulness.