Month: October 2018

Re:Verse passage – I Corinthians 15:3-20, 35-44, 50-57 (day four)

Verses 3-4 have sometimes been referred to as the Easter passage.  “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.”  This short, concise passage accurately sums up the work of Christ.

I like the phrase “according to the Scriptures.”  Jesus had an assignment and He completed it obediently.  Why would He do that?  Why would He willingly die such a horrible death, for us?  It was for love!  Love for the Father and love for us.  Do we have any responsibility as a result of Jesus demonstrating His love toward us?  Should we be asking ourselves anything for such a sacrifice?  With that level of love demonstrated for us, we owe Him…at the very least…to ask what He would have us to do.

• Who is Jesus?
• Why did He come?
• What does He want me to do?

Re:Verse passage – I Corinthians 15:3-20, 35-44, 50-57 (day three)

“If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.”

A body is by definition physical.  What, then, is a “spiritual body”?  It’s a body powered by the spiritual realm instead of by the natural realm.  The body isn’t a piece of inferior work to be superseded by something better.  It is God’s handiwork, and is, in God’s own words, “very good.”  Paul says that at the resurrection the physical body will actually live forever because it will be powered by the inexhaustible resources of the spiritual realm.  In other words, the age to come will be grounded, not ghostly—solid, not shadowy.  Keep in mind the words the resurrected Jesus said after “Peace be with you.”  He said, “Do you have anything to eat?”  A real body in a real world—that’s what the resurrection promises.

Re:Verse reading–1 Corinthians 15:3-20, 35-44, 50-57 (day two) and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain. Vs. 14

This was a familiar refrain of both Billy Graham and C. S. Lewis. They would come at it from different ways in their preaching and writing, but the essence of this passage from Paul was clear: Either Christ is what he says he is, or he isn’t. There is so much summed up in that statement. There can be no halfway with Jesus. You can’t talk about how he loved the poor and disenfranchised and then deny the power of the cross. Jesus’ death and resurrection is also a call to action. A call to repentance and a restored walk with our creator. The power of the resurrection is hope for humanity, hope for you and me. In order for us to truly embrace all that Jesus was in his earthly ministry we must never deny the power of the cross and the hope of the resurrection. It happened – I believe.

Re:Verse reading–1 Corinthians 15:3-20, 35-44, 50-57 (day one)

“For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.”–v 53

We are not ready.  Not yet equipped to be citizens of a restored universe.  We need new bodies.

It is a transformation that began at conversion.  Ephesians 4:22-24 commands us to  “Put off the old self. . .and put on the new self.”  (If you go to buy a new coat, you don’t put it on over your old coat.  Silly.  You cannot just add Christ on top of your old ways.  The losses are as important as the gains).

At the end of life and time,  God will do something similar.  He will put off our old bodies (corrupted by sin and subject to death) and put new robes on us, new resurrected bodies.

Death is not fearful to a believer.  It is the door to a place and time when our transformation (salvation) will be gloriously complete.

Re:Verse reading–1 Corinthians 13 (day seven)

There is a line from Luke’s account of the Beatitudes that has plagued me this week.  Luke 6:32 says this: If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them.

Sometimes I struggle to love those who love me. There are days when I cannot even live up to the world’s standard of love when I am impatient, unkind, and/or provoked by those who have cared for me deeply.  What does that say about me on those days of seeking my own even at the expense of people who love me?

If nothing else it is evidence that I am a fragile flailing human in need of God’s constant grace, and even when I do not deserve that grace God still loves me.  God is showing me every day how to live out 1 Corinthians 13 by His perfect patience with me.

Re:Verse reading–1 Corinthians 13 (day five) I have read “the list” about love in chapter 13 all week. To be honest, there are moments when I am nothing like that list. At times, those qualities and characteristics of love seem completely opposite to my actions and attitudes. The human heart struggles to live as love like that in its own preference and power. I must learn to listen and trust the Spirit. He will teach, convict, and encourage.  When I do, I discover a “loving” God who has demonstrated all the characteristics in the list through the life and words of Jesus and the power and work of the Holy Spirit.  He is patient with me.  He is kind to me.  The is the potential and possibility to live like that because of  “Christ in me”. Glad I have a perfect and faithful example of what the list says love looks and acts like.

Re:Verse reading–1 Corinthians 13 (day four)

As a college freshman, I was challenged by a friend to read 1 Corinthians 13 every day for 30 days.  He gave me a small book by Henry Drummond to assist me.  The experience was a life-changer.  I began to have a picture of what God’s love for me and for those around me really looked like.  Not only did I learn what the characteristics of true love were, I was floored by three words in verse 8…Love never fails.

Never?  How can that be?  Surely we get a few exceptions!  But there it is…Love never fails.  I wish I could say that it has never failed in my life since then, but I can’t.  God constantly uses those three words in my life though to shape and mold the direction of my life.  Powerful words …life-changing words…God-honoring words that can change the world!  Try reading the chapter for 30 days in a row…see what happens.

Re:Verse reading–1 Corinthians 13 (day three) 

“Love never fails.” 

Fails to what?  To “be there” for you when you come to your senses?  No, it’s already with you in your foolishness.  You are never beyond love’s presence, though you might be unwilling to receive it or believe it or learn its ways—so unwilling that it might seem you’ve become unable to do so.  Ask yourself: Does anybody in your life regard you with love, however imperfectly acted upon?  Most likely, you will say yes.  If then you have not wandered beyond love’s reach, you have not wandered beyond God’s reach, because love is the mark of God’s regard for you.  And if another person would claim that his or her life is devoid of the love of parent, friend, spouse, or child—a great tragedy—what then? Will love announce its presence through you?

Re:Verse reading–1 Corinthians 13 (day two) 

And I show you a still more excellent way. 12:31b

Like the tremendous teacher that Paul was, he spent the entirety of the previous chapter setting us up for this discourse on Love. When we truly understand our gifts in the context of love and surrender to Jesus, there is so much more clarity in our walk. Notice in chapter 13 how Paul uses the same gifts that he had discussed in detail in 12: tongues, prophecy, knowledge, faith. Now, however, he puts a qualifier on them all – LOVE. Without it the greatest gifts bestowed to us are useless. Too hard a word? I don’t think so. Everything seasoned with love is more powerful, more useful.

Do an inventory. What gifts have been given to you? How will love make them better?