'Watch your Step'

S – 1 Corinthians 10: 12

 

        ‘So if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall.”

 

O - Heed the warnings seems to be the message Paul wants to get through to the Corinthian Church. It was a relational warning not an accusation. Maybe there was a self confidence emerging in the way they were journeying. These Corinthian Christians were tongue speaking, prophesying and gift endowed people. Paul may have observed that a complacency and confidence in their own perspectives and thinking about their spirituality was now evident. Paul was warning that just as the nation of Israel had been in the midst of, and the manifestation of God’s great power their history showed they fell. Great care has to be exercised otherwise even the firmest footholds can experience life depilating falls.

 

A – I can think that I am standing firm. It’s easy to look back at past or even present examples and think – that would never happen to me. I am however responsible in the present to learn from the past. The firmest perceived footholds can become falls if care and diligence are not exercised. It seems I am warned of my thinking. I’m OK, everything in my life is in right order; I’m doing fine with the Lord… My alarm bell needs to be my complacency and the exercising of diligent care is my only safeguard against the unexpected fall. Do I have these safeguards around my life? Do I think wrongly as to my standing firm?

 

P – Lord, how dangerous my own thinking can be, forgive my complacency and self assessment in the manner I am walking and living. How I need Holy Spirit to be cautioning and prompting. Please help me to heed the warnings of the past, to walk carefully and stand firm in the present and for the future.

Predetermined innocence

Scripture

Joshua 20: 6 “ But the person who caused the death must stay in that city and be tried by the community and found innocent”

 

Observation

Predetermined innocence! A trial that already knows the verdict before the evidence is even presented. Reaching the city of refuge and being allowed to enter through the city gates, residing in the comfort and safety of its surrounds made the guilty innocent. The community living within its walls all knew the grace that predetermined innocence gave them and having been the recipients themselves they were able to predetermine the verdict for the newcomer.

 

Application

I have been declared innocent by Christ in the city of the Lord. My life has been redeemed and I’ve been given a second chance at life. But how often am I judgemental toward the newcomer who comes to the city gate looking for refuge? It’s so easy to forget the grace extended toward me, even though I was guilty, and act self-righteously toward their need. God forbid that attitude! If they come to the city gate they will receive the gift of predetermined innocence.

 

Prayer

Jesus thank you for this overwhelming gift of the second chance. May I value it like a treasure and applaud whenever I see someone else offered the same opportunity.

 

Jim

Principles not Personalities

S – 1 Corinthians 3:7

 

        ‘So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who makes things grow.’

 

O - This seems to be a major Kingdom realignment of principle that Paul is making in the context of some personality partisanship. There is the task of planting and the task to water. These tasks are assigned, not devalued or denigrated. In fact Paul reiterates further that these tasks will be rewarded by God. What Paul does make very strong and with clear contrast is, that it is only God who can bring growth and life. I can see a busy picture of two men planting and watering with great conviction and enthusiasm. But if just left to these tasks there will be no outcome. We are not told as to how this principle of growth works, only that God does it. The planters and the waterers cannot bring the growth. The tasks of planting and watering are not the fulfilment. It is the supernatural growth from God that only completes and brings life.

 

A – I may not fully understand how God’s growth takes place, but I must embrace that God’s Kingdom is based on Principles not Personalities. Both Paul and Apollos carried out important tasks (planting and watering), but these were not the principles that bring life. It’s not through the tasks of personalities, but rather through God’s Kingdom principles. It teaches me again that in this busy task oriented world that I don’t get so involved with the tasks that I see them as an end in themselves. They are merely to make way for God to bring His life and Growth. I guess if my tasks are not preparing a way for growth then I must question why do I get consumed by them or even doing them. I don’t want to be in a picture of planting and watering and believing that growth will come from my own efforts.

 

P – Lord I thank you for this reminder that your Kingdom is built on Principles not me or other personalities. I want to be a faithful planter and waterer but only when you do the miracle and principle of growth and life.

'Remember your Departure'

S – Deuteronomy 16:3b

 

‘Do not eat it with bread made with yeast, but for seven days eat unleavened bread, the bread of affliction, - because you left Egypt in haste, so that all the days of your life you may remember the time of your departure from Egypt.

 

O – This was a directive from the Lord to establish a very important and significant remembrance time. To remember the time of departure from Egypt all the days of their lives. This was not to be just a casual or a reflective remembrance. The Lord saw it as a very significant event in the lives of the people. It was no doubt a very raw and real memory to that generation that had been led out. They knew it as a time of slavery, domination, death and despair. How easy though for later generations to forget or be unaware of what it was like and the likelihood of it then becoming simply history or a story that was told and losing the  power of deliverance and the significance for destiny.

 

A – I know I am encouraged to embrace and move into what is ahead. However I need to remember my own personal departure from that Kingdom of Darkness into God’s Kingdom. How easy it is for me to forget the consequences of what I have been saved from. My salvation is a great event of deliverance with eternal significance. My remembrance of this departure from Egypt keeps me focused on the Grace and Love of God. The lord is my Deliverer and I must never forget that. I am blessed with Him being my Provider, Counsellor Strength and so many things – but foremost He is my deliverer. He has taken me from one state into another and I can never forget or devalue that.

 

P – Lord I thank you that you rescued and set me free from the bondage and consequences of sin. Let me never forget from where I have departed.