2:2 - I recently heard a man named Alan Hirsch talking about the power of the phrase, "Jesus is Lord." He said we try all these different things in churches and talk about all these different secret formulas in an attempt to lives as disciples of Christ when it really comes down to one thing - is Jesus Christ the Lord of your life. You can say Jesus is Lord and you can sing about how Jesus is Lord...but is Jesus Christ really the Lord of your life? Does he have it all...every area of your life? Paul understood that it all comes down to one thing - Jesus Christ and him crucified. If you truly believe that, then you will live with Jesus as the Lord of your life. What does it look like for Jesus to be the Lord of your life?
2:12ff - The Spirit is God. The Spirit lives within those who make Jesus the Lord of their life. So we have the ability to understand God, to better understand His will for our life, and to see truth in a way that is not natural. Paul says that the natural man cannot understand the truth of God...it seems like folly. The natural man sees the way of Jesus and sees only death and sacrifice, but through the Spirit a believer can see that what the world calls idiotic (Actually putting God and other people above yourself!?) is really the only path to sanity and reality that exists.
3 comments:
I have always liked 1 Corinthians and the fact that Paul is repetitive in what he says in other books. Paul says the same things again and again but he always adjusts his words for his audience without changing the meaning and substance. The Spirit gave Paul the insight on what to say and to which group to say it.
The Message has some really some parts for some of the verses (~12&13) God offers a full report on the gifts of life and salvation that he is giving us. We don't have to rely on the world's guesses and opinions.
And 16 - Isaiah's question, "Is there anyone around who knows God's Spirit, anyone who knows what he is doing?" has been answered: Christ knows, and we have Christ's Spirit.
We have Christ’s Spirit. How cool is that. The same Spirit that worked through Jesus – God’s Holy Spirit – is available to us. Our God is unbelievable – look at all that He offers us – and it is just because He loves us. Too cool for words...
j
I'm playing catch up.
One reason today why our culture relies on wise and persuasive words is because we haven't done just what you said in the beginning of your comments, live for Christ alone. You can do that and be a tent maker or an engineer, a carpenter or an accountant. The problem I have always dealt with is the times I try it part time. At that point the "demonstration of the Spirt's Power" is gone and you have to try to rely on wise and persuasive words. There should be no questions as to why we can be ineffective.
Mr. T, its funny you say that, because I know in times in my life when I have put a lot of thought into what I'm going to say, I typically butcher it up and it comes out ok, but in times when my life for Christ is solid, and I have been doing my ALL to live for him, the words and actions come to me a whole lot easier. This is not to say that God is working any less in any circumstance, but that I am making it easier for him to work through me.
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