Back to Corinth: 1 Cor. 3:16-23

Verse 16: “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?”

What does it mean to treat your body, to treat yourself, as a temple of God?

Well, for instance, how convincing is it to watch a physical fitness instructional show, and the “expert” who is supposed to have been doing the exercise all this time…doesn’t look like the exercises did them any good? (Now, I’m not talking about other people behind the instructor who are beginners or intermediates…but you expect the expert to look like that all the physical fitness works!)

In the Scooby-Doo episode “Spooky Space Kook”, the gang was at an abandoned airfield, looking for the outer-space ghost. Shaggy peered into a window of a building that the ghost’s footprints led into. When Fred and Velma asked what he saw in the window, Shaggy said, “Doesn’t matter anyway…the windows are too dirty to see into.”

You’ve often heard me quote that sometimes, “we are the only Jesus some people see”. Being a temple of God, the Lord can’t shine through us without “clean windows”. We are changed by Jesus coming into our lives…do we show it? Unless we let Him “clean the windows” from the inside, He can’t shine through to let everyone see Him in us. (My thanks to my wife for providing that analogy!)

So, are you living for Jesus today? Do others see a temple…or an old building with dirty windows?

Something to think about.

Read Full Post »

Back to Corinth: 1 Cor. 3:9-15

Verse 9: “For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building.”

The first time our Carpenters for Christ group had heard of the Church of the Brethren, it was on a mission trip to help a COTB church in Erwin, TN. One of the church members was telling us about the history of the church, and said something that struck me interesting. Whereas a lot of us call the building we worship in “the church”, the congregation up there called it “the meeting house”. The church member said it is because the congregation is the church…and he is right.

We may worship in a building, but God’s people are the church. The day after the deadly tornadoes that struck North Alabama some years back, one of our CFC “churches” was worshipping on a slab that was the only thing left of their “meeting house”. But they worshipped and praised God; as I recall, there were even some baptisms that day that had to take place in a church member’s pool!

In Matthew 18:20, Jesus said, “For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.” Sometimes it’s good to bring a visitor to the meeting house, but if you can’t bring them to the house, take the church to them! The church is to serve God! We are to be God’s tools to deliver the Gospel and to minister and serve others.

I close today with a good quote from our pastor, Bro. M. R. Hamilton: “if you don’t like the lot in your life…build a service station on it!”

Something to think about.

Read Full Post »

Back to Corinth: 1 Cor. 3:5-8

Verse 7: “So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.”

While in college, I took care of my grandmother’s yard. Among all the different plants and bushes (potted or rooted), she had a hydrangea bush that wasn’t doing too well. It often got knocked into or broken, and even got run over by the lawn mower (I don’t recall it being me!). She was ready to give up on it. I asked her to let me take a try at “saving” it. First thing I did was make a border of big rocks around it to protect it. I’d water it, especially during the hot summer days. Slowly but surely over the next few years, it made a comeback and developed back into a nice sized bush that blossomed some beautiful flowers.

Now, for the rhetorical question: did I cause the plant to grow? Of course not. Did I help care for it and water it? Yes. But the actual growth was caused by…God (of course!)

This is what Paul is trying to drill into the Corinthian church. All argument about who brought someone to saving grace through Christ Jesus (whether Paul, Apollos, or someone else) doesn’t matter in the importance of things. What matters is that Jesus saved them! It is only through Him that we are saved. Paul couldn’t get them into Heaven; neither could Apollos. They were tools in the hands of God to spread the Gospel. The verses go on to mention that those who helped plant and water would “receive his own reward according to his labor.”

Remember what a wonderful feeling it is to be used by God!

Something to think about.

Read Full Post »

Back to Corinth: 1 Cor. 3: 1-4

Verse 1: “And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ.”

Reed Richards awakened in a predicament. He and his family in the Fantastic Four had defeated their enemies, the Frightful Four, despite the fact that Reed had lost his stretching powers. But in a brazen move, the Brute dragged Reed into the Negative Zone chamber of their Baxter Building headquarters, knocked him out, took on his costume, and cast him into the Negative Zone. You see, the Brute was really the Reed Richards of Counter-Earth, who had been rendered evil by a concussion when he received his brutish form and strength via cosmic rays. He had stolen Reed’s costume to impersonate him on this Earth, since he could change back to his lookalike appearance (this took place in the Marvel comic Fantastic Four, Vol. 1, issue 179, the synopsis can be found at http://marvel.wikia.com/wiki/Fantastic_Four_Vol_1_179)

Fear and panic begin to grip Reed, but he snapped out of it, calling on his military survival training. Making his way to a floating asteroid, he managed to start a fire with some flint-like stones. Attracting some of the flying bat-like creatures of the zone with the fire light, Reed was able to use a rock to knock one down, kill it, and cook it on the fire. As he surmised, now that he had taken care of basic needs like food, warmth, and protection by the fire, he could now train his great intellect on what had happened…and how he could escape his predicament.

You see, in order to tackle more difficult topics, Reed Richards had to take care of basic needs first. The word carnal has several definitions, but the basic one has to do with things of the physical body.

Paul was explaining here that he truly wished to speak with the Corinthian church on spiritual matters and issues, but they weren’t mature enough yet. He called them carnal, like spiritual babes. Even though he had brought them to saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, they were still too carnal, too not-ready, to receive Paul’s teachings on spiritual things. They still were behaving with “envy, strife, and divisions”…thus were they still carnal. He repeated the point that some still argued their allegiances to him and others to Apollos, instead of to Christ. You might say he was telling them, “you haven’t graduated yet!”

You see, in order to tackle more spiritual teaching, Paul had to get the church past the carnal stage.

As we begin this new year of 2019, I pray that you all (myself included) would seek God and His wisdom to grow in Him, and graduate from church kindergarten, so to speak.

Something to think about.

Read Full Post »