Bought for a price

1 Corinthians 6:20

20 For you were bought at a price; therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.

This verse stood out for me today in light of the fact that I for one know very well that I am all too human, and so often make mistakes that I regret, and yet I cannot do anything about them once they are made.  Many may ask or think that people who believe in God have it made and are perfect and moral and always have the right answer and never say wrong things, etc. etc.  Well, that's not true.  Believe me, I make mistakes, lots of them.  But one thing I know beyond a shadow of a doubt - I was bought for a price.  My iniquities cost Jesus a hefty price on the cross.  I can only live in thankfulness and glorify Him in body and in spirit - for I am His - because He bought me.    

My Redeemer - Nicole Mullen

Keeping clear of the abyss

1 Corinthians 6:8-9

8 No, you yourselves do wrong and cheat, and you do these things to your brethren! 9 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived.

The chapters of 1 Corinthians 5 and 6 are actually an incredible indictment against the church - or then the community of believers.  Paul speaks loudly and clearly to the body of believers, and he points out that we should not tolerate sin within the camp, nor should we be as hypocritical to think that we are better than others because we scandalously and shamelessly sin against God, and our brothers within the community of believers.  In verse 8-9 he says WE do wrong, and cheat AND we do it to each other, and then comes the warning - we should not let ourselves be deceived.  When we do wrong it is unrighteousness - and the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God.  Point made, and yes, I know we have many arguments about what is sin and what is not.  We have a way of thinking how far we can push the boundary before we move into sin and unrighteousness.  We have rights.  We can do whatever we like because we are not under the law, etc. etc.

The picture I have in my mind about this is one of a bus driving down a steep mountain pass, but, the driver tries to see how close he can drive to the abyss before the bus will fall off the edge.    

(Have a look at this short video:  Driving a bus in Peru)

This is what we do - we try to see how close we can come to the boundary before we fall into the abyss of sin.  Would it not be better to ask a different question?  Should the driver's attitude not rather be "how far can I stay away from the edge of the abyss so that I can ensure my own and others' safety"?  I think each and every one of us will agree that we would expect the bus driver to do that if we were a passenger on that bus.  Yet, when we drive the bus of our life, we constantly want to know how far we can go before we fall into the abyss of sin, instead of rather asking the question, "How far can I stay away from sin?"   Should it not be as simple as that? 

Point to ponder:  Paul uses the word "flee" in verse 18. The word means to seek safety by flight.  He admonishes us to seek safety by fleeing from sin.  Thus, the point to ponder for this week is - what sin or unrighteousness should we seek safety from by fleeing, rather than entertaining it?  

I Speak Jesus - Charity Gayle

Unleavened bread

1 Corinthians 5: 6-8

6 Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? 7 Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. 8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

In this verse Paul points out to us that leaven permeates the whole lump of dough. In this context it refers to sin.  Once mankind allowed sin into our lives and hearts, it permeated our whole beings.  But Christ, Who is our Passover Lamb, was sacrificed for us - in our place - therefore we can also rise with Him into a new being and into a new life.  The feast Paul refers to here is the feast of unleavened bread which is also celebrated at the time of Passover.  It symbolizes the fact that Christ was without sin - yet became sin for us and it encourages us to not bring any of the old leaven, meaning to bring nothing of our old lives, into our new life with Him.  Paul wants us not just to be aware of the fact that our sin has been dealt with, but he also wants us to know that we can celebrate Christ with immense joy!  He reminds us that we have been purged of the leaven of malice and wickedness and that the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth now is our inheritance.

Point to ponder:

What leaven from my old life am I trying to carry into the new life with Christ?  Leave it all behind and rise to a new life with Christ.  

Come to the Well - Casting Crowns

The thoughts of the wise

1 Corinthians 3:18-21

18 Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their own craftiness”; 20 and again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.” 21 Therefore let no one boast in men.

It is good to keep in mind that our wisdom here on earth is foolishness with God, for this thought, if pondered and taken to heart, will foster humility and dependence on God and not on our own strength and futile thoughts of human wisdom. God warns us in this passage that if we keep insisting to walk in our own wisdom, that we will be caught in our own craftiness.

Let us pray this week that God will show us where we are holding on to our own futile human wisdom instead of trusting in His Wisdom!  In His presence we cannot become wise in our own age.

Show me your face - Stephany Gretzinger

The dwelling place of God

 1 Corinthians 3:16

16 Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? 17 If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.

Dear friends, I have taken quite a long break from a lot of responsibilities, but now I need to start up this year with the speed of lightning otherwise I am never going to catch up with life this year!  As I was picking up the threads where we left them off last year, I realized what an amazing scripture 1 Corinthians 3:16 is to start 2023 off with!   What better thought to start this year than to be reminded that God's dwelling place for His Spirit, His place of presence and abode, is within us?    Do we really KNOW that WE - yes YOU and I are the temple of God, that HIS SPIRIT dwells in us?  We are the temple of God and God takes that so seriously that He says that if anyone defiles the temple of God, God Himself will destroy him?  Ouch - that's a serious statement, because pondering that I realized that we ourselves are the biggest culprits in defiling our own temples. But to God this temple - who is YOU and I - is HOLY.  Yes HOLY...

Thought to ponder:   Let's ask Holy Spirit to show us what is defiling our temples so we can clean it out and up and ask Him to fill us anew and make us His dwelling place once again.  

MW Smith - Agnus Dei

Jesus Christ our firm foundation

1 Corinthians 3:9-15

For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building. 10 According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. 11 For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13 each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. 14 If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.

What a way to conclude 2022.  In this scripture Paul brings it under our attention that what we do is important even though we do not earn our salvation with our works, we do build something in our lifetime.  We either build in vain or we build with eternal results.  Paul reminds us that what we build will be tested at the end of time and we will be rewarded for it should it be able to stand the test of time.  God's intention is to reward us for our building in His Kingdom and with Kingdom purpose.  He wants us to be successful therefore He has given us all we need to build with, we just need to unpack those treasures.  

Point to ponder:

• What did I build this year?  When the test comes will it stand, or will it be burned away?  
• What is on God's agenda for me to build next year?
• Let us put our focus on Jesus as our firm foundation for everything we build.  

Maybe this is a good place to end off this year and take some time to contemplate where, what and how are we led by the Holy Spirit to build next year.  Consequently, this will then be the last Monday devotions for 2022 and it will resume again in January 2023.  Thank you to everyone who have journeyed with me this year, may you have a blessed, restful, peaceful holiday season and with significant encounters with Jesus as we slowdown and have more time to spend with him and our loved ones.  

For those who continue to work and find this time of the year some of the busiest weeks of the year, may Jesus meet you equally significantly in spite of the business of this season.  May you experience his hand of calm presence on your shoulder and his closeness and guidance to bring you safely though this part of your 2022 journey.  

Keep well and I bless you with being enfolded in His safe presence.  

Gerda 

Our firm foundation - Maverick City

Becoming mature

1 Corinthians 3:1-8 

And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. 2 I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; 3 for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men? 4 For when one says, “I am of Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not carnal? 5 Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one? 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. 7 So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. 8 Now he who plants, and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor.

In this week's scripture I can hear Paul say to the church today (should he have had the chance) - you are as childish as the Corinthians were - if not worse - because Paul's criteria here for childish behaviour are 'are there envy, strife and divisions amongst you?'  We sadly will have to admit that 2000 years after Paul wrote this to the Corinthians, we have not grown into any more maturity.  

Point to ponder:  Let us remind ourselves this week that we are a body, that some of us plant, some water, but ultimately none of that would be of any use if God did not give the increase.  In verse 8 Paul equates those who plant and those who water, stating that they are one - in other words, of equal value, importance or actually of equal non-importance.  Let us give God the glory for the fruit of the increase rather than trying to be more important than another while we are supposed to be one body!

Let us ask God to increase our spiritual maturity so that we can receive solid food and not just survive on spiritual milk all the time.  

One People  - Philippa Hannah

Spiritual discernment

1 Corinthians 2:13-14,16

13 These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.... 16 For “who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

There is so much food for thought in these few verses.  Let us break it up into smaller components.  Paul says:

• They are not teaching man's wisdom, but the wisdom of the Holy Spirit
• The Holy Spirit's wisdom is spirit to spirit and should be discerned by and in the spirit
• The natural man cannot and does not receive the things of the Spirit of God
• The natural man perceives the things of God as foolishness and therefore cannot know the things of God

Point to ponder

• Let us this week ask the Holy Spirit to give us the discernment to discern the things of the Spirit with our spirits, as opposed to human wisdom.
• Let us ask Holy Spirit to give us the spiritual sensitivity to know and experience the Wisdom of the Spirit of God.
• Let us ask the Holy Spirit to give us the mind of Christ 

Changing me - Anna Golden

His Spirit's whisper in my spirit

1 Corinthians 2:10-12

10 But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. 11 For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.

These three verses are such interesting verses and teaches us so much about how spirit works.  Contrary to the theology many of us grew up with, Paul makes it clear that man has spirit.  God has Spirit and the world also has spirit.  Paul encourages us by making us aware that God does not give us the spirit of the world and he then continues to explain that God gives us His Spirit, in our spirits, so that we might know the things, yes, the deep things of God.  This remains a mystery to many of us, but in faith we can receive and expect and be comforted by the fact that since we know (at least in part) the things of God, it must mean that we therefore have received the Spirit of God, and that He is at work in our hearts, drawing us closer and ever deeper into the knowledge and revelation of God.  A miracle indeed, nevertheless one we were created for before the foundation of the earth.  

Point to ponder: 

Ask Holy Spirit to make us aware of God's Spirit in our spirit this week in whichever way He should choose to.  

Whisper - Jason Upton

Leaders with godly Wisdom

1 Corinthians 2:6-9

6 However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, 8 which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

The rulers of biblical times did not have God's wisdom, therefore they crucified Jesus - 2000 years later  we unfortunately still cannot say that we have rulers that have developed any godlier wisdom than those of biblical times.  This made me think, though - we have such great opportunities to raise godly leaders in the next generation - maybe we should intentionally ask God for His wisdom in how to raise the next generation, how to impart at least the godly wisdom we have to them - but then also - what would be His strategy for us to put in place so that they will go on developing even more godly wisdom than what we have in this generation?  

Point to ponder

Let's pray this week for our leaders - for their hearts to turn to God and for godly wisdom to be imparted by the Lord Jesus Christ into their hearts and minds.  Let's also pray for the next generation of leaders to be raised with godly wisdom and for those who have to raise them to know how to do that!

Lord, we join heaven's song, singing endless Alleluias for countless miracles...

Endless Alleluia - Stephany Gretzinger