Who Understands Faith?
Simon Wants to Buy Power
1 Corinthians 1:26-2:5
The Message
26-31 Take
a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this
life. I don’t see many of “the brightest and the best” among you, not
many influential, not many from high-society families. Isn’t it obvious
that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and
exploits and abuses, chose these “nobodies” to expose the hollow
pretensions of the “somebodies”? That makes it quite clear that none of
you can get by with blowing your own horn before God. Everything that we
have—right thinking and right living, a clean slate and a fresh
start—comes from God by way of Jesus Christ. That’s why we have the
saying, “If you’re going to blow a horn, blow a trumpet for God.”
2 1-2 You’ll
remember, friends, that when I first came to you to let you in on God’s
master stroke, I didn’t try to impress you with polished speeches and
the latest philosophy. I deliberately kept it plain and simple: first
Jesus and who he is; then Jesus and what he did—Jesus crucified.
3-5 I
was unsure of how to go about this, and felt totally inadequate—I was
scared to death, if you want the truth of it—and so nothing I said could
have impressed you or anyone else. But the Message came through anyway.
God’s Spirit and God’s power did it, which made it clear that your life
of faith is a response to God’s power, not to some fancy mental or
emotional footwork by me or anyone else.For Reflection
We
are blessed In the free world to live in a nations of relative
affluence and peace. We know what affluence and peace do for us, but do
we understand what they do to us?
I remember in my childhood hearing stories of my grandparents arrival into New York City from Austria in 1900. They were poor, arriving almost penniless. Their Lutheran faith was the glue which held them together and provided a basis for their hope in a brighter American future. Their confidence and trust in the Lord allowed them to overcome their perceptions of the risk of upheaval.
They were closely bound as a family. I remember the boys, my uncles, stopping daily on their way home from the mills in which they worked to pay respects to their mother and visit with their sisters. They began their American lives poor in material wealth but rich in spiritual abundance.
Americans, like the Israelites in Egypt, grew more and more affluent. As our nation grew more affluent, our work ethic and culture made more and more demands upon our time. We became less able to continue the family ties that supported us. Some say morality and ethics were bent to justify just about anything. Studies are showing that spirituality is deteriorating. Society seems becoming soft. The gulf between the haves and the havenots seems to be widening.
In the face of these conditions, turning to God for a solid spiritual foundation does not seem to be the most important first step. And yet, contrary to popular opinion, returning to a strong individual spiritual base may be much more effective than each trying to control outcomes single handedly.
To what extent are you ready to reject the divisiveness of our affluent culture and return to spiritual solidity and hopeful faith?
I remember in my childhood hearing stories of my grandparents arrival into New York City from Austria in 1900. They were poor, arriving almost penniless. Their Lutheran faith was the glue which held them together and provided a basis for their hope in a brighter American future. Their confidence and trust in the Lord allowed them to overcome their perceptions of the risk of upheaval.
They were closely bound as a family. I remember the boys, my uncles, stopping daily on their way home from the mills in which they worked to pay respects to their mother and visit with their sisters. They began their American lives poor in material wealth but rich in spiritual abundance.
Americans, like the Israelites in Egypt, grew more and more affluent. As our nation grew more affluent, our work ethic and culture made more and more demands upon our time. We became less able to continue the family ties that supported us. Some say morality and ethics were bent to justify just about anything. Studies are showing that spirituality is deteriorating. Society seems becoming soft. The gulf between the haves and the havenots seems to be widening.
In the face of these conditions, turning to God for a solid spiritual foundation does not seem to be the most important first step. And yet, contrary to popular opinion, returning to a strong individual spiritual base may be much more effective than each trying to control outcomes single handedly.
To what extent are you ready to reject the divisiveness of our affluent culture and return to spiritual solidity and hopeful faith?
Pray
for
the wisdom that starts with confidence in the promise of God and ends
in absolute trust in the goodness of God's plan for your life and the
lives of all people.
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