Thoughts on the Corinthian Epistles

Well, it's been quite awhile, about 6 months to be exact. Life at school does not really permit any extra time writing about random topics on a blog. I've been through a lot, and yet, looking back, I was always upheld through the tough times by the power of God, keeping me from depression and boredom and getting discouraged by the constant drone of cadet life -- never-ending it seemed. Through the bad times and the good, God strengthened me, sustained me, and filled me with His Spirit, and gave me the ability to rejoice in times of trouble. So, anyways, it's not that big of a deal, hundreds of cadets do it each year -- make it through Knob year at the Citadel. Anyone who has an ounce of time-management and a little physical and mental fortitude can endure the monotony of it and come through successful. Anyways, even more than mental or physical growth.. I have grown spiritually more this year than any other year in my life. God has placed some of the most amazing people in my life to be lights and a guide to me, encouraging me, strengthening me, and just being able to be refreshed through Christian fellowship. The Word of God truly is powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, able to pierce to the division of the soul and spirit. God has placed people in my lives to convict me of problems in my life and motivate me to change and start anew -- with a more intimate relationship with Jesus Christ. My dreams and desires have changed in life. God has shown me so much... I only wanna serve Him -- as a cadet, as a friend, as a brother, as a son... I want my future time in the Navy to be focused on Him, and God-willing I want to raise a family with a wife and children who will be able to look to me as a man of God, not a man driven by the fleeting and vain cares of this world. These next three years at The Citadel, before I reach the real world, have to be the years where I am most focused on my relationship with Christ... I want to grow more than ever and truly become a selfless servant to everyone around me... friends, family, classmates.

More than anything, I am thankful and encouraged by the Word of God, which gives me strength and joy each and every day. It picks me up when I get down, and leaves me feeling convicted and determined to start afresh each day, relying on the faithfulness of God and focused on the hope of eternal glory with Him one day. But ultimately, it is for His glory. This short and seemingly unimportant life is for Him. My life must be a sacrifice, a joyful sacrifice which glorifies and praises my Holy Father who has given me the life to praise Him. Just as a friend recently told me, "Give God the joy He gives you." That is my aim in life. To joyfully live for Him in all I do. I thank Him every day that He did not intend for me to do this on my own, but has given me friends and leaders in my life to encourage, strengthen, fulfill, motivate, refresh, and joyfully uplift my spirit and flesh whenever I get brought down by the struggles of this world and the complacency of this vain life. But I thank God that a life with Him is NOT a vain life, it is a full life.. a life fulfilled! "For who can have enjoyment and who can have happiness apart from God?" Alas, you cannot! So daggumit, I'm gonna be happy and rejoice and dwell within the shadow of the Almighty, living each day for Him, as a child redeemed and a man of God who will not compromise, but will stand firm amidst the temptations and struggles of this fallen world.

I've really been loving the Corinthians lately, so I think I'm gonna just write about some cool stuff in this book from chapter one...

Paul is writing this book to the Christians in Corinth. I love how Paul always opens his book encouraging the Saints and reassuring them that they are being prayed for and how He never forgets them in His prayers. It is so awesome to know that someone is praying for you, especially when it comes from someone you trust and you know that they really are praying for you. Like in Galations 6:1, where Paul says, "Bear one anothers burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ." When someone is praying for me, or I am praying for them, then we can know as brothers and sisters in Christ, that we are sharing one anothers burdens and we going out of our way to experience the same sufferings, joys, troubles, and questions in eachothers lives. It is hard -- it is giving away apart of yourself and being selfless and adding more burdens to yourself -- but it is unselfishly sharing in the lives of another, and it what Jesus did when He came to earth.. and even what He does now. He shares our burdens, He took all our burdens on Him! He is faithful to do these things, no matter what! In I Corinthians 1:4 Paul says, "I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge-- even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you-- so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord." Indeed, God is faithful, and He is the one who even gives us the strength to bear burdens and to be filled by the strength of Jesus Christ. We are all one body and one family under the name of Jesus, and I think what a lot of Christians today need to realize is that they need each other. God did not put you in this world to have to suffer through the trials and tribulations of this world alone! He is not ashamed to say that He put others in our lives to help us along the way to eternal life. It is true that all we need is Christ alone, but Christ also declares that we need each other, as fellow believers. Jesus prayed to His Father, He pleaded for us even as He was about to be offered up as a sacrifice, pleaded with His Father in Heaven, "I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me." Clearly, we are called to be one in Christ! We must be different from the world, and encourage and strengthen each other through the trials of this world.

Paul then appeals to the brethren in the church at Corinth to be of one mind, and not to be divided as they had started to become. "What I mean is that each one of you says, 'I follow Paul,' or 'I follow Apollos,' or 'I follow Cephas,' or 'I follow Christ.' Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?... For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power." Indeed, it is not the preacher who makes the power of God great, it is not the encouragement from the brother in Christ who makes the work of Jesus amazing and encouraging, it is not the godly counsel from a Father that makes our heavenly Father glorified.. in all and through all the gospel of the cross, and the power of the cross is pre-eminent, allowing us to focus solely on the source of our unity and the source of our community in the gospel of Christ. It is sad to see so many different denominations today that quarrel and fight over the truth that lies before them all. We must lay aside our differences and focus on the work of Jesus, and the power of the gospel. I love how Paul reiterates the truth that the God has made foolish the wisdom of the world, putting to shame the wise, and exalting the weak and the lowly, so that no one may have any ground to boast except in the Lord. And so really, I'm not gonna say anything else. These next several verses in Scripture are so powerful, I'm not even going to talk about them or whatever.. I'm simply gonna paste them and meditate on their truth and power.

I Corinthians 1:18-31
"For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written,

"I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart."

Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom and our righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Therefore, as it is written, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord."

All I gotta say is, AMEN.