The Everyday Prayer

“Where, O death, is your sting?” (1 Corinthians 15:55)  No one denys that death has a significant sting at the present time.  The loss of a loved one can be devastating.  More than once I have heard a grieving person express, “I knew it would be hard to lose him.  What I didn’t expect was to lose ME.”  The resurrection will remove this sting.  When God restores all people to life, we will look back over our years and wonder at the dread we felt for the experience of death.  Like a scorpion without a tail, and therefore without a stinger, death will be a grotesque but harmless reminder of what the creation was like when we once lived under the curse of God for sin.  This is no small vision!  This is no small hope!  We serve a cosmically good God who will restore all things and remove the sting of death.  Let’s gather tomorrow and celebrate this hope.  Don

“Grow old with me!  The best is yet to be, the end of life for which the first was made.”~Robert Browning.  One of the characteristics of true spiritual life is hope.  It is an optimism born of promise, held by confident faith.  Paul knows how necessary it is for us to be CERTAIN of the resurrection.  For 58 verses in 1 Corinthians 15, he insists that we view it as a reality (not a myth).  He declares that, like Christ, our new bodies will be imperishable, glorious, powerful and spiritual!  (1 Corinthians 15:43-44)  Much of what God will say and show is still in the future.  This powerful and motivating vision of life and eternity and the enduring love of God motivates us to serve without surrender or complaint. ( read vs 58)  Better than Browning ever imagined, we are all moving toward something amazing and good.  Friends, do you have this certainty?  Easter is our story too!  The best is yet to be.

“If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.” (1 Corinthians 15:44) Paul is pressing the Corinthians (and us) past our scientific cynicism.  He is challenging them to affirm the reality (not mythology) of the resurrection (Christ’s and their own).  It is absolutely essential that we embrace this idea!  Life is more than material.  It is natural AND supernatural.  (Paul calls it spiritual)  Strangely, the evidence for supernature is found in nature.  Seeds, when they are planted, don’t have the “body” they someday will.  God gives them a body.  With infinite creativity, the Creator God shapes the material world in diverse and appropriate ways.  Seeing this, we should have no fear of the future.  When he gives us a spiritual body that it will be gloriously appropriate for a new chapter of eternal history.  Nature is all the evidence we need to trust His faithfulness and competence.  Our new bodies will be imperishable, glorious, powerful, and spiritual! (vs 42-44) I can hardly wait!

“This is what we preach”  (1 Corinthians 15:11)  Sometimes we need to be reminded.  Christianity does not allow for personal freedom on all issues.  Some subjects may be honestly debated among those who love Christ and trust the Scripture.  (Fewer, I think, than we often believe.)  The Resurrection is not one!  To deny or doubt that Jesus was raised from the dead and/or that all men will be raised to face the judgement or reward of life after death is not a freedom that Christians have.  It is illogical!  The resurrection is our message!   Those who move from this confidence must have the courage to admit that they are no longer following Christ.  There is no wiggle room on this point.  “If it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection?” (1 Corinthians 15:12)  We cannot substitute personal experience for the message preached by the Apostles.  It is not a freedom we have.

It is about hope.  The quality of your life, the joy you experience nearly always comes down to your confidence that the future will be good. ( Where have we learned fear?  Not from God!)  In 1 Corinthians 15:20 Paul says that Christ is the “firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.”  Without any uncertainty, he claims that what happened to Christ (the resurrection) will also happen to us.  He went first.  We all follow.  Unexpectedly, the benefit of this exciting future event is experienced in the present.  Looking forward to the resurrection  brings calm, clear courage to the heart of the believer.  What we have now is not all we ever will.  Who we are now is not all we will ever be.  God pours His strength into our hearts by teaching us to reflect on this hope.  “The trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised, and we will all be changed.”  (1 Corinthians 15:52)  I feel better already! You?

“If only for this life we have hoped in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.”  (1 Corinthians 15:19)  Occasionally I hear someone say, “I’m not concerned with life after death.  If I find out later that there is no Heaven, I will still be glad I was a Christian because it was the best way to live.”  Paul would NOT have agreed.  Christians who believe that “God has given us eternal life”  (1 John 5:11), who make sacrifices to “lay up treasures in heaven” (Matt 6:20  ) should be pitied if it turns out to be untrue.  We should be pitied because we die. (all men)  We should be pitied (believers only) because we have been deceived, have trusted something that is false.  Friend, do you believe in the resurrection?  Do you believe that there will be life after death, for you and for all those around you?  Is the resurrection real or just a nice thought?  More as we study 1 Corinthians 15 this week.  My love to you , dear friends.  Don

Our reflections this week have been on Spiritual gifts.  When God gives us His Spirit (the first gift),  the Spirit gives us capacity for service (the second gift).  When believers use abilities and possessions for the glory of God we call it stewardship.  The sermon this morning will tell one of the most inspiring stories of stewardship in the Bible–the widow who gave 2 pennies.  The only reason we know this story is that Jesus pointed it out to the disciples.  He made it part of His instruction to us re. money and its role in a spiritual life.  I am excited to preach this message!  Most of us would find more freedom and more joy if Christ had full possession of our wallets (and of our hearts, which is what our wallets tell Him).  “Come every soul by sin oppressed, their’s MERCY with the Lord.”  I will look for you in a few hours.  Love to you, dear friends.  Don

“Now to each one a manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.”  (1 Corinthians 12:7)  The Spirit of God is invisible, but He doesn’t stay that way.  He makes Himself known  through the lives of believers.  This is what Paul calls “the manifestation of the Spirit” (phaneros–to make visible).  It includes a wide array of activities and works of service that are part of every Christian life.  How does the Spirit show Himself through you?  What evidence is there that you are filled and following?  It is for the common good.   He fills us so that we will gladly and effectively contribute to the work of the body.  Friend, do others see the Spirit at work in you?  Do you help others because of the help He has given you?  “Be ye filled with the Holy Spirit!”  (Ephesians 5:18)  Ask the Lord for this promised help.  I will see you in the morning!  Pastor Don

These days, when people tell me they are spiritual,  I usually ask, “do you mean the Holy Spirit?”  Just trying to be clear.  While the Bible allows that all men may have an awareness  and appreciation for God and the supernatural realm, it reserves the words spirit or spiritual for the work of the Holy Spirit.  He is the Activity and Mind of God who comes to us by virtue of the work of Christ!  He is the only means by which a person can know and serve the Risen Lord. “I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you.”  (John 14:18) is a prediction of His presence in us.  As I prayed this morning, I despaired (again) of ever serving Christ in my own strength or goodness.  My flesh is still so fleshly.  My hope, today and everyday, is that I will “walk by the Spirit”.  “No one can call Jesus Lord except by the Holy Spirit”  (1 Corinthians 12:3)

“And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles. . .” (1 Corinthians 12:28)  “But eagerly desire the greater gifts” (1 Corinthians 12:31)  It is confusing to consider how we are to be  individually content with the gifts the Spirit gives us (ears are to be glad to be ears–see vs 16) and at the same time  to corporately desire the “greater gifts”.  Desire is a word that most often means jealousy–a couple jealously excludes others from their marriage, a church jealously guards some gifts from exerting too much influence over the fellowship.  Structure the church, says Paul, with the emphasis on the gifts of evangelism, discipleship and teaching.  Put the “word gifts” first. (not in value but in emphasis)  This is a choice of God and when we cooperate with Him, all gifts operate with greater efficiency and joy.  No favoritism here, but it is wisdom from God to keep the “word first”.