1 Corinthians 11: 23 – 26
When I was about 5 years old, there was a toy advertised on TV that looked like a flying saucer that did all kinds of awesome things when wound up with this special crank. What it really was was a big gyroscope inside a plastic shell that looked like a space ship. It was perfect. I don’t remember how much it cost, but I do remember that my parents told me it was too expensive and we couldn’t afford it, and I wanted it sooooooooo bad.
After Christmas that year, I was in Boston with my Grandmother and we went into Woolworth’s (sort of a tradition for us) there on the returned toy table was “My” flying saucer toy and it only cost fifty cents.
I asked Nana if she could buy it for me which she did. When I got home, I found out why the toy had been returned; it was missing some accessories, it was beat up, scratched , gouged, and the crank didn’t work all that well, but if I was persistent, I could make it work.
It was great and I played with it all the time for a couple of years.
It was perfect, it was just for me, and I loved it.
I had found joy in something that was broken.
23 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread,
24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me."
25 In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me."
26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
Easter is about the perfect Lamb of God, broken so that we can be whole.
The cost of our salvation is too expensive, we can’t afford it. So God, in His infinite wisdom, sacrificed his only son, broken for us, so that we may be saved.
Isn’t it funny that we can find joy and fulfillment in something that is broken?
Friday, July 4, 2008
BOUGHT AT A PRICE
1 Corinthians 6: 12 – 20
When I was younger, I really abused my body. I was prone to play contact sports without equipment, lift and carry heavy objects incorrectly; I ate, drank, drugged, smoked myself into oblivion and I was sexually immoral and promiscuous. I used to laugh every time I heard someone who was fit and pretty say that their body was a temple of God and wondered if they walked around wearing crosses on their heads while attending their cult meetings.
I really just had no clue.
19 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;
20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.
When I first came to believe, I still smoked and was still immoral, I just wasn’t getting it. I knew the words, I had heard them and read them myself, but in the beginning of my walk I was still clueless. That whole bought with a price thing took a while to soak in.
4 By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also.
15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never!
17 But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit.
The context paints a compelling picture of Christ's great sacrifice. He liberated us from the cruel slave master of sin by buying us with the high price of His own life.
Getting a grip on God's great and loving investment in us should motivate us to gladly consider making His sacrifice rich in dividends. How is that return on His investment measured? By living to bring glory to Him! Our eyes, hands, feet, thoughts, dreams, and desires have been purchased to reflect the wondrous glory of God's will and wisdom. In other words, we are no longer our own.
It took a while for me to get it. It took a while for it to sink into my thick skull. Slowly I began to change. I had already stopped drinking years before, then I knew it was time to address that whole immorality thing followed by smoking, which took a lot longer, and now I am addressing my diet and nutrition.
All this may seem to be vanity, and that I am blowing my own horn. Far from it, I am trying to get across the message that Paul delivered.
you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.
When I was younger, I really abused my body. I was prone to play contact sports without equipment, lift and carry heavy objects incorrectly; I ate, drank, drugged, smoked myself into oblivion and I was sexually immoral and promiscuous. I used to laugh every time I heard someone who was fit and pretty say that their body was a temple of God and wondered if they walked around wearing crosses on their heads while attending their cult meetings.
I really just had no clue.
19 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;
20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.
When I first came to believe, I still smoked and was still immoral, I just wasn’t getting it. I knew the words, I had heard them and read them myself, but in the beginning of my walk I was still clueless. That whole bought with a price thing took a while to soak in.
4 By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also.
15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never!
17 But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit.
The context paints a compelling picture of Christ's great sacrifice. He liberated us from the cruel slave master of sin by buying us with the high price of His own life.
Getting a grip on God's great and loving investment in us should motivate us to gladly consider making His sacrifice rich in dividends. How is that return on His investment measured? By living to bring glory to Him! Our eyes, hands, feet, thoughts, dreams, and desires have been purchased to reflect the wondrous glory of God's will and wisdom. In other words, we are no longer our own.
It took a while for me to get it. It took a while for it to sink into my thick skull. Slowly I began to change. I had already stopped drinking years before, then I knew it was time to address that whole immorality thing followed by smoking, which took a lot longer, and now I am addressing my diet and nutrition.
All this may seem to be vanity, and that I am blowing my own horn. Far from it, I am trying to get across the message that Paul delivered.
you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.
BEEN DOWN SO LONG…
Psalm 42
I used to love to watch Rick Flair wrestle. He was one of the best, right up there with Hulk, and Andre. They were all good for a laugh during the interviews they had every week. Rick would always say at some time during the interview; “If you want to be the man”, “You have to beat the man”, then he would follow it up with his trade mark. “WOOOOOOOO”.
He also boasted about being the 15 time world heavy weight champion.
15 times?
Doesn’t that mean that he had to lose the championship at least 14 times? But wait a minute; wasn’t Rick supposed to be the man? Rick Flair, like all successful people, failed a number of times, all the time learning for them.
Learn from your failures, or you will fail to learn.
1 As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?
3 My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to me all day long, "Where is your God?"
4 These things I remember as I pour out my soul: how I used to go with the multitude, leading the procession to the house of God, with shouts of joy and thanksgiving among the festive throng.
11 Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.
Many of the psalms of Israel were born in seasons of failure. Out of desperation came this cry. Sometimes we are not ready to see the wonder of God’s wisdom and strength until we are gasping for breath in the exhaustion of our own strength. A recurring story of the Bible is that mountains of faith rise from the valleys of failure. Before discovering the high ground we are looking for, we may need to see the failure of the dreams we hold in our hearts and trust instead in the love, wisdom, and guidance of our God.
I used to love to watch Rick Flair wrestle. He was one of the best, right up there with Hulk, and Andre. They were all good for a laugh during the interviews they had every week. Rick would always say at some time during the interview; “If you want to be the man”, “You have to beat the man”, then he would follow it up with his trade mark. “WOOOOOOOO”.
He also boasted about being the 15 time world heavy weight champion.
15 times?
Doesn’t that mean that he had to lose the championship at least 14 times? But wait a minute; wasn’t Rick supposed to be the man? Rick Flair, like all successful people, failed a number of times, all the time learning for them.
Learn from your failures, or you will fail to learn.
1 As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?
3 My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to me all day long, "Where is your God?"
4 These things I remember as I pour out my soul: how I used to go with the multitude, leading the procession to the house of God, with shouts of joy and thanksgiving among the festive throng.
11 Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.
Many of the psalms of Israel were born in seasons of failure. Out of desperation came this cry. Sometimes we are not ready to see the wonder of God’s wisdom and strength until we are gasping for breath in the exhaustion of our own strength. A recurring story of the Bible is that mountains of faith rise from the valleys of failure. Before discovering the high ground we are looking for, we may need to see the failure of the dreams we hold in our hearts and trust instead in the love, wisdom, and guidance of our God.
BE STILL
1Kings 19: 9 – 12
There was this hilarious TV show from the BBC titled Absolutely Fabulous. The show was about two middle aged women who were completely nasty and self centered with no socially redeeming values.
On the last show the main character (Edina) has a near death experience, while snow boarding on vacation, and sees God in the appearance of Maryanne Faithful, the former girlfriend of Mick Jagger and an equally self centered woman.
This is a far different situation and experience from that of Elijah. However in both circumstances, God came quietly to a mountain after very impressive events.
Oh yeah! One was a fictional account, the other wasn’t.
11 The LORD said, "Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by." Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake.
12 After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.
God comes to us in ways that we can perceive, usually in quiet times when we have immersed ourselves in His spirit. Yet as Aslan is described by C.S.Lewis, He is not a tame lion. As the Bible says;
Ex 15:3 The LORD is a warrior; the LORD is his name.
I’m more convinced than ever that God finds ways to communicate to those who truly seek Him, especially when we lower the volume of the surrounding static.
God is wild and untamed; all we have to do is look at nature to see this. He created it and declared it good. Yet he came into this world physically as a newborn Baby. There are no more opposite things than that.
Speak, Lord, in the stillness, while I wait on Thee;Hushed my heart to listen, in expectancy. —Grimes
There was this hilarious TV show from the BBC titled Absolutely Fabulous. The show was about two middle aged women who were completely nasty and self centered with no socially redeeming values.
On the last show the main character (Edina) has a near death experience, while snow boarding on vacation, and sees God in the appearance of Maryanne Faithful, the former girlfriend of Mick Jagger and an equally self centered woman.
This is a far different situation and experience from that of Elijah. However in both circumstances, God came quietly to a mountain after very impressive events.
Oh yeah! One was a fictional account, the other wasn’t.
11 The LORD said, "Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by." Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake.
12 After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.
God comes to us in ways that we can perceive, usually in quiet times when we have immersed ourselves in His spirit. Yet as Aslan is described by C.S.Lewis, He is not a tame lion. As the Bible says;
Ex 15:3 The LORD is a warrior; the LORD is his name.
I’m more convinced than ever that God finds ways to communicate to those who truly seek Him, especially when we lower the volume of the surrounding static.
God is wild and untamed; all we have to do is look at nature to see this. He created it and declared it good. Yet he came into this world physically as a newborn Baby. There are no more opposite things than that.
Speak, Lord, in the stillness, while I wait on Thee;Hushed my heart to listen, in expectancy. —Grimes
BE RECONCILED
2Corinthians 5: 14 – 21
The word, reconcile, means to bring oneself to accept, or to re- establish a relationship with someone or something.
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:
19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.
I may have this wrong, but, these verses make me think that God wants to re – establish a relationship with us. But, what is this ministry of reconciliation?
After visiting a homeless shelter, a group of teenagers couldn’t wait to express what they had experienced. Excitedly, they wrote about their visits with men and women of all ages who were poor and destitute. While desiring to share God’s message of reconciliation, these teens were surprised to find that some of the people already knew God. By cutting through the discomfort of their differences, the kids discovered people who needed the reassurance that God still cared for them.
There are a lot of people out there who need our reassurance that God loves them and has not forgotten about them. Even though they may have walked away from God, He hasn’t walked away form them.
As the Hymn says; “Quietly tenderly Jesus is calling. Calling all sinners, come home”.
Lord, use us as Your instrumentsOf truth and love and care,And may we bring encouragementAs Your good news we share. (Sper)
20 We’re Christ’s representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God’s work of making things right between them. We’re speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; he’s already a friend with you.
21 How you say? In Christ. God put the wrong on him who never did anything wrong, so we could be put right with God. (The Message)
A word of encouragement can make the difference between giving up and going on.
The word, reconcile, means to bring oneself to accept, or to re- establish a relationship with someone or something.
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:
19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.
I may have this wrong, but, these verses make me think that God wants to re – establish a relationship with us. But, what is this ministry of reconciliation?
After visiting a homeless shelter, a group of teenagers couldn’t wait to express what they had experienced. Excitedly, they wrote about their visits with men and women of all ages who were poor and destitute. While desiring to share God’s message of reconciliation, these teens were surprised to find that some of the people already knew God. By cutting through the discomfort of their differences, the kids discovered people who needed the reassurance that God still cared for them.
There are a lot of people out there who need our reassurance that God loves them and has not forgotten about them. Even though they may have walked away from God, He hasn’t walked away form them.
As the Hymn says; “Quietly tenderly Jesus is calling. Calling all sinners, come home”.
Lord, use us as Your instrumentsOf truth and love and care,And may we bring encouragementAs Your good news we share. (Sper)
20 We’re Christ’s representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God’s work of making things right between them. We’re speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; he’s already a friend with you.
21 How you say? In Christ. God put the wrong on him who never did anything wrong, so we could be put right with God. (The Message)
A word of encouragement can make the difference between giving up and going on.
Attraction and obedience
1 Peter, 2: 9-17
“One sanctimonious hypocrite makes 100 unbelievers”.
Joy Davidman
“If only 10% of the world’s population had Holiness, would not the whole world be converted and happy before years end?”
C.S. Lewis
Peter is expanding on a lesson that was first taught by Jesus (render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s), and what Paul expanded in the book of Romans. (Romans, 13:1-7)
Peter first shows us that we should; “declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”
He does this by telling us to abstain from sinful desire and live such good lives that though we are accused of doing wrong, that other people may see our good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.
We do this by “submitting” (hupotasso) ourselves, for the Lords sake, to every authority among men, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and commend those who do right.
Peter is not telling us to compromise our consciences, he told us in the book of Acts to obey God rather than men. But in most aspects of life it is possible and desirable for us to live in accordance to the laws of the land. We are to do this for the Lords sake so that the good news and his people will be respected. If we are to be punished, it should be for obeying God and not breaking moral or civil law.
“One sanctimonious hypocrite makes 100 unbelievers”.
Joy Davidman
“If only 10% of the world’s population had Holiness, would not the whole world be converted and happy before years end?”
C.S. Lewis
Peter is expanding on a lesson that was first taught by Jesus (render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s), and what Paul expanded in the book of Romans. (Romans, 13:1-7)
Peter first shows us that we should; “declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”
He does this by telling us to abstain from sinful desire and live such good lives that though we are accused of doing wrong, that other people may see our good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.
We do this by “submitting” (hupotasso) ourselves, for the Lords sake, to every authority among men, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and commend those who do right.
Peter is not telling us to compromise our consciences, he told us in the book of Acts to obey God rather than men. But in most aspects of life it is possible and desirable for us to live in accordance to the laws of the land. We are to do this for the Lords sake so that the good news and his people will be respected. If we are to be punished, it should be for obeying God and not breaking moral or civil law.
ANTICIPATION
Remember that old commercial when the kid went to the wise old owl to find out how many licks it took to reach the center of a tootsie pop? There was no question that the chocolate center existed, and that it would be reached eventually, so the owl began to count. One, two, three, and then the owl bit into the lollypop and announced that it took three licks, to reach the center. He couldn’t stand the anticipation and wanted to get to the tootsie roll center quickly.
This is what was going on with Daniel. Okay, he wasn’t eating a lollypop, but he was anticipating the time when the Jews would be freed from captivity. God had given Daniel a vision that the captivity would last 70 years, and 67 had passed when he cried out to God with this prayer.
Three years to go! How could he wait so long? He had to cry out to God, he just couldn’t wait.
When Daniel prays, he uses the A C T S formula;
Adoration
Confession
Thanksgiving
Supplication
This is an effective frame work for prayer.
State your love for God, confess your sins, give thanks for the gifts you have received, and then bring your petitions to him.
This is what was going on with Daniel. Okay, he wasn’t eating a lollypop, but he was anticipating the time when the Jews would be freed from captivity. God had given Daniel a vision that the captivity would last 70 years, and 67 had passed when he cried out to God with this prayer.
Three years to go! How could he wait so long? He had to cry out to God, he just couldn’t wait.
When Daniel prays, he uses the A C T S formula;
Adoration
Confession
Thanksgiving
Supplication
This is an effective frame work for prayer.
State your love for God, confess your sins, give thanks for the gifts you have received, and then bring your petitions to him.
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