October 14, 2024

I Corinthians 12.7 (NIV)

Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.

The gifts God has entrusted to us belong to the community of believers.*

I know a family in which all four of the children look like their mother. I don’t know them well so a closer inspection might reveal characteristics in each of the children that prove that their father did provide some of their genetic material. The father may be disappointed that the kids don’t take after his side of the family in looks but maybe they make up for it in their dispositions!

The manifestations of the Spirit mentioned in this verse are similar to the genetic clues in this family. It may be an obvious “endowment,” such as a preacher may have, or it may be something more subtle, as in the gifts of encouraging or generosity, but every Christian carries the “genetic code” that proves we are Spirit-filled.

Paul lists some of these manifestations of the Spirit in the next few verses: wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miraculous powers, prophecy, distinguishing between spirits, tongues, and interpretation of tongues. It seems that the Corinthians took “everything to excess – whether practicing immorality, celebrating the Lord’s Supper, or exercising spiritual gifts.”* Whether those with the flashier gifts were flaunting it over the others, or whether some were just dissatisfied with their gifts, Paul felt the need to stress his concerns. He wanted to make sure that they understood that God gives no gifts for any person’s “private advantage, or exclusive profit.”*

Yes, it benefits us individually to have the Spirit dwelling in us; he is our comforter, counselor, and intercessor. But the manifestation of his presence in our lives is a vehicle for blessing the community of faith and advancing the kingdom on earth. Paul goes on to say, in verse 11, that the Spirit determines which gifts he will give us. Pray that yours won't be wasted.

Rather than being a measure of our spiritual depth, our gifts become a canvass on which we display our love.*

October 13, 2024

I Corinthians 6.19, 20 (NIV)

Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.

His holiness demands our holiness.*

Have you ever had a bad roommate? How unpleasant it is to share your living space with someone who is incompatible!  Wherever we go, we carry the Holy Spirit with us - until we pollute the living space and he finds us to be incompatible as roommates. We lie to ourselves if we think that what we do physically has nothing to do with us spiritually. “Body and soul are the Lord’s. You cannot sin with the body and keep the ‘soul’ untarnished."* Knowing this, how can we participate in conduct that is not appropriate to the dwelling of God?

We are not cheap houses. We don’t even own our houses. Jesus bought them with his blood. Because of this, Paul says we should honor God with our bodies. In fact, the only way we can honor God is with our bodies because our spirits don’t live outside of our bodies. The body is “an instrument to be used . . . in the service of God and for his glory."*

Considering the price he paid, that’s not asking too much!

God is not ours to possess. We are God’s to be possessed by.*

October 12, 2024

I Corinthians 4.20 (NIV)

For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.

Words pertain to the kingdom, but they are not its power.*

When I worked in the church office, one of my weekly duties required that I get a preview of the preacher’s sermon outline. That outline is just a piece of paper – and some weeks I couldn’t see how he was going to make a sermon out of it. But every Sunday, the Spirit speaks through my preacher and he delivers a powerful message. Who needs a perfectly organized outline?

We put a lot of pressure on ourselves to say just the right things in our witnessing. It is important to prepare ourselves – you have to study for the test and my preacher has to prepare his outline; but a person could be accurate, fluent, and profound and still be “spiritually useless.”*

  

Sometimes the power of words lies in the listener more than in the speaker. Someone else characterized the phenomenon this way: “I probably should apologize to preachers for the hundreds of times that the main point that I took in from their sermon was not the one they intended to make; please know that I was listening – your voice was a conduit for another voice.”*

It’s not about what you say – and it’s not about how you say it, either. It’s about being empowered. I pray over these words as I write them but they are just words. Without the Spirit, the Bible itself is just words. The Spirit makes the words powerful.

The kingdom of God occurs when persons are ruled by God.*

October 11, 2024

Romans 14.1 (NIV)

Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters.

In . . . differences of opinion the natural reaction is to seek to bring about uniformity – to one’s own opinion!*

I have been a Christian for nearly 60 years. In that time, I have missed attending Sunday church services perhaps a total of ten times (until the COVID shut-down, and even then I watched the online service). I faithfully attended Sunday School, Vacation Bible School, and church camp, and I graduated from Bible college. I have taught Bible classes for children and for adults. I have a daily quiet time with the Lord which I have not skipped more than ten times in over 20 years. But guess what? I don’t know everything.

 

Recently, a young woman who is a new Christian came to me with a question about something she had read in the Bible. It turned out to be a passage that I have long wondered about so I couldn’t help her. It was not a matter of salvation but it could become an important issue in her life. My point is this: how could I pass judgment on her when I, the wise old woman of God, didn’t know any more than she did?

When our church leadership announced plans to start a Saturday night worship service, I had concerns. Rather than cause trouble – or ignore something that shouldn’t be ignored – I researched the book of Acts. There, I found nothing that proved to me that a service on Saturday was wrong, and nothing to indicate that a Sunday morning service was a commandment.

   

Ah, but do you agree with my assessment? If you believe that you are right and I am wrong, why would you even think of the matter as “disputable?” Which of us is the one whose faith is weak? What if I am wrong? What is your responsibility to me? Paul says to accept me without passing judgment. Can you manage that? 

Rather than viewing differences as right or wrong, learn to see them as alternative perspectives and stop passing judgment on one another.*

October 10, 2024

Romans 11.33, 34 (NIV)

How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! Who has known the mind of the Lord? 

God leaves no prints nor footsteps behind him.*

The Bible tells us a lot about God’s attributes: power, justice, mercy, wisdom, lovingkindness; but it doesn’t ever claim that he measures up to human expectations when it comes to logic. The Bible contains things that we find confusing and sometimes contradictory. But we aren’t required to understand everything - that’s what faith is for. Ephesians 1.9 says that God has made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure. All we know about God is what he chooses to reveal about himself.

Apparently, today's verses are part of a hymn. What is it that has caused Paul to burst into song? Most people would find a discussion of God’s character to be daunting. When we are intimidated by what we don’t understand, it puts us in a negative frame of mind. But Paul sees it differently. Perhaps he is overcome because he has realized that a God that we completely understand is not big enough to save us!

The total elimination of ambiguity means I must pull God down to my level in order to master him.*

October 9, 2024

Romans  8.32 (NIV)

He who did not spare his own Son . . . how will he not also . . . give us all things?

We sometimes think God is silent when he isn’t doing something we want him to do or telling us something we want to hear.*

I have heard of parents whose child needs a bone marrow transplant, or perhaps a kidney, and who purposely have another child in hopes that the new baby will be a donor match. The parents may love both children but the second one’s purpose in life is to save the first one. These situations do not involve one-of-a-kind organs, like a heart, but in essence, that is what God did for us. His Son was born to sacrifice his life in order to save ours.

Someone posed the question, "Has it ever occurred to you that the only person God ever really forsook was His own Son?" He has nothing that he values more than his Son and yet he turned his back on him. He wasn’t a prodigal or a trouble-maker or disobedient or ungrateful. But I am all these things. And yet God let his Son pay the price for my sins. He doesn’t resent me for it. He still loves me unconditionally. There is no power greater than the ability to love like that!

If God would do all that for me, how could I think that he would then turn around and reject me? The sacrifice would have been for nothing - a waste of blood, suffering, life. Are your dreams not coming true? Do you really think that means God has turned his back on you? Would God really withhold his blessings when he has gone to this much trouble on your behalf?  

Shall the Father not give us freely all that Christ purchased for us?*

October 8, 2024

Romans 8.26 (NIV)

We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.

So much of my prayer life is full of my words, just talking at God, that there’s no room for the Holy Spirit to work in my prayer life.*

It has been said that one of our weaknesses is that “we are not even aware of all our weaknesses.”* If this is true, how can we be expected to know what to pray for? Jesus told us to pray for our daily bread (Matthew 6.11); and workers for the harvest (Matthew 9.38). He also told how not to pray (Matthew 6.5) and where to pray (Matthew 6.6).

But there are occasions when we really don’t know what to pray for. We’re afraid that we might ask for something that we shouldn’t. Maybe we aren’t comfortable enough in our relationship with God to express ourselves as openly as David did in the Psalms. Often, we are just too stressed for words. We need someone to help us understand God’s will for our prayer lives.

When Paul tells us in this verse that the Spirit intercedes for us, he is not speaking of Jesus’ role as our advocate, standing between us and the wrath of God. The Spirit’s intercession is specifically related to our prayer life.* The Spirit’s function, as described in this verse, is not just as a mediator who goes to God on my behalf and says, “This is what she means.” That is part of his job. But his job of intercession also involves coming to me and saying, “This is what you should say.”

The Spirit does not work apart from the Word so if the Word of God doesn’t dwell in me, then neither does his Spirit. When we are exposed to the Word of God, we allow the Spirit to do his work of “awakening right desires,”* and releasing us to express them. The Spirit is not moved by the eloquence of our prayers but by the sincerity of our faith. 

Praying in the Holy Spirit releases supernatural resources.*