Category: Food For Growth

1 Corinthians 1:25 ^NIV

²⁵ …the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

Paul is trying to get the Corinthian church to see and understand that there is great wisdom in all that God does. What seemed like foolishness to the Corinthian Gentiles, because they thought themselves very wise, because the center of Greek wisdom…, the Areopagus, which heavily influenced Corinthian life, was just next door…

So, Paul is saying that the foolishness of God…, what appears to be foolishness…, is actually much, much wiser than “that” wisdom—Mars Hill’s wisdom…

Because it is the wisdom of Salvation, and there is no greater wisdom than that of the wisdom of salvation…, because that, my friends, is the greatest of all wisdom.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Love His Wisdom.

John 15:18-21

[18]  If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. [19] If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. [20] Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. [21] But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me.

We got a very angry comment today on our message from Sunday. The person told us we were liars and it would be better for the world if we would die. Where did the hatred and animosity come from? From the fact that we are Christians who read and quote the Bible.

For me, personally, the hatred and distain doesn’t make sense based on his claim of being an atheist. Here’s what I’m getting at, if you don’t believe God exists, why do you despise Him and anyone who believes in Him with such intensity and passion? It makes no sense. How can you despise someone or something you do not believe even exists?

The true root of the issue? He doesn’t believe there is no God. He hates God. He despises Him with a passion. Why? There could be many reasons. He could blame God for something that scarred him, like a death of a loved one. He could feel God should’ve answered a prayer He didn’t. Or that his identity is blatantly called a sin by God. We don’t know the exact reason for his hatred, but it is evident that it is what fills his heart.

As Christians, it’s hard not to want to lash out verbally or say something callous and cold-hearted to him. But that’s not what we’re called to. We are called to be more. To turn the other cheek. To bless those who curse us and pray for those who persecute us. We are to be Christ to the world. Revenge, getting even, those things aren’t for us. They don’t belong to us. Vengeance is the LORD’s. And as Christians, we should never wish, hope, call, nor pray God vengeance on another person.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Learn To Turn.

⁶ Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? ~ 1 Corinthians 5:6

Bees are a lot more interesting than I thought they were. They have this thing called “guard bees.” When the worker bees return with nectar, they have to pass the smell test from the guard bees before they. An enter the hive. If any bees return with fermented nectar, they’ll be barred from entering the hive. Sometimes, they will be severely injured or even killed. Why?

Because nothing can contaminant the honey. The guard bees enforce the rules of the colony to ensure the safety of the hive and its honey. See, these Honey Bees understand that a little leaven leavens the whole pot. One Honey Bee with contaminated nectar will contaminant all the honey in the hive.

This is how the Church should be. We need to stop allowing sin into the Body of Christ. We are called to perfection, therefore, we need to strive for perfection. We struggle. We fight. But we do not give into sin. We do not dwell and remain in our trespasses. We have to stop making excuses for ourselves and others. We have to hold ourselves to a higher standard.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Guard Like Bees.

1 Peter 4:10-11

[10] As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: [11] whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

When we think of spiritual gifts from God, we often think of gifts we would deem mystical. Paul gives us a list of gifts that we most associate with spiritual gifts. Prophecy, word of knowledge, tongues, thing that sound and look spiritual. Peter, however, lists spiritual gifts that just sound regular and normal, but are no less spiritual and God-given than Paul’s list.

These gifts, listed by Peter, are more naturally born with. These are gifts that we showcase from a young age. Gifts that define who we are and direct us to our call. Even though these gifts are everyday traits, without them we could never fulfill our call. These gifts propel us forward towards God’s plan for our lives.

They aren’t meaningless, less than, or insignificant, they are like the one talent. They may look small now but if you use them, they will multiply. They will grow. And for all we know, give birth to even greater gifts than we could ever dream.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Use To Multiply.

Ezekiel 3:16-21

[16]  And at the end of seven days, the word of the Lord came to me: [17] “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. [18] If I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, in order to save his life, that wicked person shall die for his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. [19] But if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness, or from his wicked way, he shall die for his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul. [20] Again, if a righteous person turns from his righteousness and commits injustice, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die. Because you have not warned him, he shall die for his sin, and his righteous deeds that he has done shall not be remembered, but his blood I will require at your hand. [21] But if you warn the righteous person not to sin, and he does not sin, he shall surely live, because he took warning, and you will have delivered your soul.”

God gives Ezekiel a very difficult pill to swallow. A very difficult charge. He tells him that if He doesn’t correct a person living in sin and they then die in their sin, their blood is on his head. In other words, Ezekiel would be just as guilty as the sinner. What a difficult call. A difficult charge.

When we read that, we kind of breathe a sigh of relief thinking that now that we are under a new and better covenant, this isn’t for us. Oh what a deception we have been led into. The new covenant wasn’t about allowing or overlooking sin, but about overcoming and eradicating sin completely.

Jesus tells us to preach the Gospel. How can we do that without exposing sin? He tells us to be the salt of the earth. How can we be the salt if we don’t ever correct or teach? Jesus tells us to beware of false prophets. How can we do that if we do not judge their actions and words against Scripture?

No where in Scripture does God tell us we are free from correcting others. That we are to overlook and ignore or embrace sin. In fact, it says otherwise. Jesus condemned the Pharisees because they led others astray and made them even more a child of Hell than themselves, instead of leading them to God. This is the charge we were given “Go and make disciples of all nations.” Our pill is no different than Ezekiel’s.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Swallow His Pill.

⁸ He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? ~ Micah 6:8

Enoch walked and talked with God, then God took him. This is one of the very first examples of a spiritual walk in Scripture. In fact, I’d venture to say that it’s the first spiritual walk that ends with achieving the ultimate goal that is recorded in Scripture. That now begs the question, what exactly is a spiritual walk?

Our Spiritual Walk is our personal, individual journey with Jesus. Our personal connection and understanding of who Jesus is and what His sacrifice on Calvary did for us as individuals, and how we should respond. It’s personal.

Our walk with Jesus does not end when we say, “I believe, please forgive me, amen.” It is a lifelong walk, a struggle even. It is a seeking, searching, asking, knocking, a total dependence upon Jesus, it’s living by faith, walking by faith, talking by faith, and seeing by faith. Genesis 5:24 tells us that Enoch walked faithfully with God, or as the NLT puts it, walking in close fellowship with God. Do not begin to say to yourself that God is up in heaven, and I am here on the earth, so there’s no way to seek Him or to truly know Him.

God said through Isaiah, “…I would not have told the people of Israel to seek me if I could not be found…” (Isaiah 45:19b ^NLT). God has revealed Himself to us, so that we might find Him if we but diligently seek His face and call upon His Name. He can be found by anyone willing to seek Him. And when you find Him, He will walk with you.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Walk With God.

Deuteronomy 29:29

²⁹ The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.

I think that a lot of the time, as Christians, we forget that the Scriptures weren’t written in English. Our favorite or preferred translation is just that, a translation. It’s not perfect. It’s not flawless. And a lot of times, it misses the deeper picture the author was trying to get across to his audience. Does that mean that we shouldn’t read translations? Or trust them? No.

I’m saying, don’t just read one translation and ignore all the other ones. Don’t just take the translations at face value either. Dig deeper. Use those online resources that we have available to us. The entire Bible in its original language (the documents that were translated) are available for anyone to see. They have definitions, root words, etc.

We miss so much, not because we don’t read, but because we cling to one single translation and shun all of the rest. No one translation is perfect. Only the original is. Therefore, search the original. Don’t just accept what someone has translated, check their translation. See if there is something more going on in the original language.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Don’t Take It For Granted.