Friday, July 1: 1Corinthians 1

After the long journey through Job, it was refreshing to read in the New Testament and particularly to read one of the letters where so many verses offered a cool refreshing spiritual drink. Here are a couple of my spiritual pauses.

Verse 2: Paul writes To the church of God in Corinth … together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ--their Lord and ours: I was struck by the “together with.” My natural focus is with my church and the people I worship and serve with regularly. And yet this phrase caused me to think about the millions who call on Jesus throughout the world, most of whom I will never meet. God loves and cares for them as much as He does me. And God loves and cares for their churches as much as He does for the one I gather with regularly. And the Scripture I am reading speaks as boldly and strongly to each of them as it does to me.  I meditated on the wonder of God’s word and the beauty and variety of God’s world-wide family.

Then I paused for a while with verse 10-17 and Paul’s plea for no divisions among you. That short section ends with the phrase lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. The thought that divisions empty the cross of its power stunned me. I don’t recall connecting divisions within a local church with emptying the cross of power before! How sad. How true. When divisions prevail they typically garner our focus and attention.  And guess what, we stop being about God’s agenda and we start fighting, quarrelling and concentrating our own agenda. Thus the cross of Christ fades to the background, so, yes, the cross looses its power. This is frightening. What a cleaver plan by Satan, the enemy of God, to derail God’s people from God’s mission.

Jesus, forgive me for allowing stuff to get in the way of doing Your business and being about Your kingdom mission. Divisions, selfishness, personal wants and desires, laziness, the good life, all these and so many other issues can cause me to remove my eyes and heart from You and place them elsewhere. Please forgive me and help me to keep You front and center in my living and serving… Amen.