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Daily Bible Reading: 1 Samuel 21, 22, 1 Corinthians 3, Ezekiel 1, John 2

Mere Humanity, God’s Temple

Have you ever gotten the big head about something you did or accomplished? Or have you put someone on a pedestal because of their ministry, their ability to speak, and their seeming success? Read 1 Corinthians 3. This chapter puts things back in perspective. Every big-name evangelist and speaker should read this chapter every day!!

Paul points out that those who serve Christ, even those who are leaders are mere men, only servants. The wisdom of man is foolishness (actually stupidity) in God’s eyes, man’s thoughts and ways futile. If people we have elevated and put on a pedestal would look at themselves through God’s eyes that would take the wind out of their sails in a hurry. If we begin to think that we are really “something” in God’s kingdom for what we are doing, we need to see things from God’s perspective. All people/we are doing is just the task God assigned them/us to do and God is the one who causes it to grow. We all are just workers in God’s kingdom. Nothing to get the big head about!! God is the ONLY one who can cause things to grow. And if we think we are wise, in God’s eyes we are fools!!

But there is a contrast. Even though we are mere humanity, because God’s Spirit lives in us we are sacred, we are God’s temple. The whole church is his Temple. “God’s Spirit has His permanent dwelling in you, to be at home in you, collectively as a church and also individually.” (Amplified Version) And because we’re God’s temple we have everything. Everything is ours in Christ, both now and in the future. We are Christ’s and Christ is God’s. How’s that for feeling secure, comforted and full of hope?? There’s nothing more comforting than to know you are God’s precious possession.

So Paul, goes from popping our balloon, to putting us back in the most elevated spot we could be in. He puts in perspective those we have the tendency to elevate. “So let no one exult proudly concerning men, boasting of having this or that man as a leader, for all things are yours.” Verse 21, Amplified Version.

Jesus knows what lies within us. John 2:25. “He knew what was in a man.” Out aim and goal should be to just let the beauty of Jesus shine through us, and whatever we do in the Kingdom, let all the glory go to the Lord. Matt 5:16  "Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise you Father in heave." Do the task and duty that God has assigned you to, but do it in such a way that people will see our good works and glorify God.

Tomorrows Bible Reading - 1 Samuel 21, 1 Corinthians 4, Exekiel 2,  John 3

God is good all the time,

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Bible Reading - 1 Samuel 20, 1 Corinthians 2, Lamentations 5, John 1

In today's devotional I talk our of John 1 about how we need to get back to The Word of God and beceome the living word at our jobs, homes and neighborhoods. It is when the word became flesh and dwelt among the people that the glory of God was seen. Will you become the living word for someone today?

Tomorrows Bible Reading - 1 Samuel 21-22, 1 Corinthians 3, Ezekiel 1, John 2

Dream Big - Ben Brinkman

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Stay Foolish

Today’s Bible Reading: 1 Samuel 19, 1 Corinthians 1, Lamentations 4, Luke 24

“26 Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that few of you were wise in the world’s eyes or powerful or wealthy when God called you. 27 Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful. 28 God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important. 29 As a result, no one can ever boast in the presence of God.” 1 Corinthians 1:26-29

I’m sure most of us have heard this portion of scripture at one time of another and marveled at how great it really is. I mean God chose the stupidest most foolish things in this world to confound and marvel those that think they are wise. This scripture is really a shout out to the underdog and who doesn’t love the underdog. They are the players or teams that no one really thinks have a chance but somehow and some way they tend to sneak up from behind and wow the socks off of everyone and often win it all. They might not have the most talent or be the biggest and strongest players in the game but they have that “it” factor that allows them to maybe want it more. They dream bigger dreams than they themselves can dream and it manages to pay off.

Yes I do admit that it’s nice to just flat out be the best without having to be the underdog. It’s nice to have all the answers to all the right questions or to be the biggest, fastest or strongest at whatever you are doing. It’s nice yes, but that isn’t the stuff that stories are made of. We may give kudos to those individuals, but you won’t sell books, tickets or whatever by being the best. More people will get behind a good story, an inspirational story than they will someone that is just good.

I threw hammer in high school and this was me. I wasn’t necessarily the best hammer thrower. I was really too short. My legs and arms weren’t long enough. I was strong, but there was room for improvement and I definitely wasn’t the quickest, but regardless I gave it all. I worked out twice as long as the other throwers and practiced in the off season and on weekends. Eventually I made it to where I was seeded top two in the nation and managed to get a college scholarship. I was in essence an underdog that made it.

When it comes to Christ we are all really dumb, foolish things. I mean we sin ridiculously. Even when we try we still tend to fall short. Like Paul says, we do the things we don’t want to do, and what we want to do we don’t. All of us had to come to a point in our lives where we realized we were helpless. We can’t make it without Christ. We aren’t strong, in fact we are pretty frail as humanity. Yet Christ chooses us! Verse two of this same chapter, Jesus Christ as called you and I holy! He called us winners when we really deserved to lose in a big way. I am continually in awe of this. How grateful I am that Christ doesn’t choose the wise and the best at religion to be used, otherwise I would be last to be picked and even then there is no guarantee that I would. Let that sink in for a moment.

Now this comes with a bit of a warning. The first part of this scripture says, “Remember that few of you were wealthy and wise when God first called you.” Over time I believe we do start to become a little puffed up from being the underdogs that win and we forget that we too started foolish, but we forget and start looking down on those that are still in that place of foolishness. A few scriptures earlier, Paul points out that the church at Corinth was enriched with eloquence and knowledge which can be great and valuable, but we must never forget what we really are without Christ’s goodness and grace that he called us holy.

I hope you never forget the story that Christ made for you and I. That he took us, extreme underdogs with no chance at ever making the cut, and made us winners that we could be his church and call others who think they have no chance in the darkness and call them out into his marvelous light as winners.

Tomorrow's Bible reading - 1 Samuel 20, 1 Corinthians 2, Lamentations 5, John 1

Live life extraordinary!

Alayna

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Bible Reading - 1 Samuel 18, Romans 16, Lamentations 3, Luke 23

Nothing But Jesus

I was preparing my family for our flight yesterday before we left home and I needed some headphones for my kids. I knew right where I kept them, top drawer of the dresser along with every other little cord and iPhone accessories I own. I went over to the drawer and pulled out a pair, well more like four pairs and every other iPhone accessory that was tangled up in a ball of mess. I pulled it all out and sat down on the bed so that I could begin to untangle it all. It was a time consuming project and I got frustrated more than once but after about 20 minutes I finally walked away with two pairs of headphones.

As I was untangling the headphones I found myself talking to myself which is always OK until you start to actually answer back to the questions you are asking yourself, which in this case I did. "How in God's name do these headphones tangle themselves up like this, I mean all I did was put some cords in hear and now they are all tangled up". My response to myself was, "there must be little Trolls that crawl into this drawer when I am not looking and weave them all together to frustrate me, yes that is it that is what it must be". Then I tossed them to the ground in frustration before picking them back up and succeeding at my task.

Now obviously I do not believe little Trolls crawled into the drawer and I think we have all experienced something similar to this dilemma. The fact of the matter is when you throw too many cords together in the same drawer along with some other junk and leave it unchecked long enough it just seems to become one big tangled mess. If I had only thrown one set of headphones in that drawer or at least in a separate compartment within that drawer I would have successfully reached in and grabbed one set of headphones and walked away within seconds.

The Church today often times looks just like this drawer full of tangled cords. What was meant to be a powerful growing community of Christ centered gospel preaching/teaching people seems far too often to have become a community of agenda pushing, celebrity seeking, who is who among the most popular of speakers people. When you throw too many thoughts and ideology's into the Church it becomes a confusing messy ball of stuff just like with the headphones. The Church left unchecked long enough becomes a tangled mess.

Paul in Romans 15:18-21 understood the tangled mess that comes about when we mix our own thoughts, idiologies and agenda's to the message of God's grace. He says here in this passage, "18 For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience--by word and deed,19 by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God--so that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ;20 and thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else's foundation,21 but as it is written, Those who have never been told of him will see, and those who have never heard will understand". Paul declares in this passage that the only thing he aims to do is preach Jesus Christ for it is in this preaching that people will come to know God's grace. Paul understood that if he tried to mix other thoughts and ideas in with the message of grace that he would distort it and that it would end up being a big mess. He kept it simple and to the point and I think we can all agree that Paul had a powerful ministry to the unreached and unsaved people of his time.

I believe there is a great lesson and warning for us here today as believers and as the Church. I believe we need to open up the drawer/church and check out and see if the gospel of grace is truly being preached. We need to look and see if there is any other thoughts, agendas and ideologies mixed into the good news of Jesus Christ. Who knows maybe seeing world wide breakthrough and revival is as simple as getting back to preaching Jesus and Jesus only. Maybe we need to get back to nothing but Jesus!

Let's untagle the mess together and see what happens.

Tomorrows Reading - 1 Samuel 19, 1 Corinthians 1, Lamentations 4, Luke 24

Dream Big - Ben Brinkman

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Tomorrows Bible Reading - 1 Samuel 18, Romans 16, Lamentaions 3, Luke 23

God is good all the time,

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Today's Reading -1 Samuel 16, Romans 14, Lamentations 1, Luke 21

Tomorrows Reading -1 Samuel 17, Romans 15, Lamentations 2, Luke 22

Dream Big - Ben

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Today's Bible reading - 1 Samuel 13, Romans 11, Jeremiah 50, Luke 18

Tomorrow's Bible reading - 1 Samuel 1, Romans 12, Jeremiah 51, Luke 19

Dream Big!!

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