Does God really choose the base things of this world?

and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are,

1 Corinthians 1:28(NASB)

There are many occasions in Scripture when God uses simple things or unschooled people... whom the world considers foolish or juvenile, to undertake an assignment and forward His plans and purposes. It was in his letter to the Corinthians that Paul highlights this important issue when he wrote, "God has chosen the base things of the world and the things that are despised... God has chosen the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are".

Corinth was a place that was teeming with citizens of Rome, and other people from different places - both Gentiles and Jews. Many had relocated in Corinth, because of its importance as a commercial city and industrial centre. It had become a bustling town that was strategically situated, for both land and marine trade and travel.

Corinth had a range of intersecting trade routes from across the world and had become a busy centre, with a wide variety of merchants and travellers passing through. Like so many cities in Paul's day, it was replete with pagan practices, depravity, and corruption. There were many temples dedicated to pagan deities... and sexual idolatry and temple prostitution were two of the ungodly habits that flourished within the city gates.

It was in the midst of this den of iniquity that Paul made Corinth his missionary headquarters and started to preach the good news of the gospel of Christ. He ministered in Corinth for about 18 months before moving to Ephesus.

While in Ephesus Paul received some concerning news about the ungodly practices that the Corinthians Church had adopted. Paul was distressed by their fall into carnality, which caused him to write a chastening and corrective letter, exhorting the believers there to stop engaging in such ungodly practices and giving instruction on right thinking and godly living.

Some in the congregation were engaged in some serious sexual misconduct, which was allowed to go unchallenged by the elders there. Others were involved in internal squabbles which resulted in disorderly meetings and presented a poor testimony to unbelievers in the city.

Pagan courts were being used by Christians to sue a brother in Christ! Spiritual gifts were being abused and Paul's apostolic authority and doctrinal teaching had already been challenged and disputed by false teachers and legalists. As a result, Paul found it necessary to address these issues in a letter of correction, as well as defending his position as an apostle of God and a chosen instrument of Christ.

In an attempt to justify his apostolic authority and the gospel he taught. Paul pointed out that God uses foolish things of the world to confound the wise and weak things to dumbfound the strong. He uses things like the cross of Christ and Paul's own ministry in order to humiliate those that are wise in their own eyes. God chooses the weak things of the world, to bring down the powerful and Paul contrasted the clever oratory skills of his critics with the simplicity of the pure gospel he taught.

In His wisdom, the Lord uses things that are insignificant and people who are despised, to carry out his plans and purposes. God is able to take things that are viewed as nothing... in order to topple those that consider themselves superior! The Amplified Bible puts it this way, "And God deliberately selected and chose to use things in the world that are lowborn... things that are insignificant. God chooses to use those that are branded as useless and treated with contempt. He even uses things that are of absolutely no value whatsoever, so that He might depose the proud and bring their arguments to nothing".

We read in Psalm 2 that God sits in the heavens and laughs at the pompous piety and arrogant attitude of fallen man who rails against the Lord and His Anointed. What a comfort to know that God in His grace, takes the base things of the world and chooses those that are despised to bring to nothing those that view themselves as important!

Human wisdom and philosophical thinking may be coveted by the world and celebrated by fallen man, but the gospel exposes this attitude as foolish and futile. Human wisdom is the antithesis of godly wisdom and in this verse Paul's quoted from Isaiah, who said, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise". Paul was not suggesting that God will not save the wealthy man or intelligent person, for His goodness and grace embraces all, but how important that we get our priorities right and put JESUS as the central focus of our lives.  

What a reminder that God is not influenced by the debating skills, intellectual capacities, business acumen or human wisdom of the wise. Such people are insignificant in His eyes. But the Lord values the man who is humble of heart and ever looking to Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith.

My Prayer

Heavenly Father, thank You that I am accepted in the Beloved and my salvation does not depend on my debating skills, intellectual capacities, business acumen or human wisdom. I pray that I may develop an attitude of heart that trusts in You implicitly, and looks to Jesus, day by day. Thank You that You take the base things of the world and people that are insignificant in eyes of the proud, and use them for Your greater glory. Use me I pray and help me to walk humbly before You all the days of my life  - this I ask in Jesus' name, AMEN. 

Knowing Jesus is the first step to true wisdom!

Ted

How Faith Grows

 But He knows the way that I take; when He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold.

Job 23:10

Before the first Sunday morning service at Harvest Christian Fellowship, we have a time of prayer and worship with our volunteers. One morning we asked some of them to share what they were thankful to God for.

I was very surprised by one woman’s answer. She said, “I’m thankful to God that I’m going through a trial.”

What? Who says that? She did. And she went on to say, “Job says, ‘When He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold.’”

Now there’s someone who understands why God allows trials in her life.

Do you want your faith to grow? I hate to break this to you, but if you said yes, then you just said, “Lord, I want some trials.”

We want our faith to grow in the sunshine and the good times. And it does to some degree. But real faith grows in the valleys when the storm clouds are forming, when things are not making sense. And why does it grow? Because we hang on to God.

We hang on to God because we have nowhere else to go. And that is not a bad place to be, by the way. Sometimes we’ll have lapses of faith, and as a result, we think we’ve failed. But everyone has lapses of faith. Everyone. So just come to God with as much faith as you have.

Also, faith doesn’t mean that we check our brains at the door. Christians use logic. Christians think things through. Most importantly, Christians think things through biblically.

Faith is not opposed to reason, but sometimes it’s opposed to feelings and appearances. That means we refuse to let our emotions rule us. We refuse to let circumstances rule us. Instead, we resolve to have faith, regardless of circumstances.

Faith is not the absence of thinking. Faith is focused on thinking on God’s Word!

Pastor Greg Laurie

My blog concerning the New Year to come...

Ted

Renew Your Strength Through God

Renew Your Strength Through God

Let the peoples renew their strength.

 Isaiah 41:1

All things on earth need to be renewed. No created thing continues by itself. "You renew the face of the ground,"1 was the psalmist's utterance.

Even the trees, which wear not themselves with care, nor shorten their lives with labor, must drink of the rain of heaven and draw from the hidden treasures of the soil. The cedars of Lebanon, which God has planted, only live because day by day they are full of sap freshly drawn from the earth. Neither can man's life be sustained without renewal from God. As it is necessary to repair the body by the frequent meal, so we must repair the soul by feeding upon the Book of God, or by listening to the preached Word, or by the soul-fattening table of the ordinances.

How depressed are our graces when means are neglected! What poor starving souls they are who live without the diligent use of the Word of God and secret prayer! If our piety can live without God it is not of divine creating; it is but a dream; for if God had begotten it, it would wait upon Him as the flowers wait upon the dew.

Without constant restoration we are not ready for the perpetual assaults of hell, or the stern afflictions of heaven, or even for the strife within. When the whirlwind shall be loosed, woe to the tree that has not sucked up fresh sap and grasped the rock with many inter-twisted roots.

When tempests arise, woe to the mariners that have not strengthened their mast, nor cast their anchor, nor sought the haven. If we suffer the good to grow weaker, the evil will surely gather strength and struggle desperately for the mastery over us; and as a result a painful desolation and a lamentable disgrace may follow. Let us draw near to the footstool of divine mercy in humble entreaty, and we shall realize the fulfillment of the promise, "They who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength."2

1) Psalm 104:30
2) Isaiah 40:31

Pastor Alistair Begg at Truthforlife.org

My blog for the New Year coming...

Ted

I AM GOD...not me HIM!

Now when Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, "I am God Almighty; Walk before Me, and be blameless.

Genesis 17:1(NASB)

Little by little throughout scripture God gently and gradually unveils His gracious character and His eternal attributes.. first to one person and then to another. To David, God proved Himself to be his Shepherd. To Hagar, God was revealed as the all-seeing One. He became a Banner and Standard to the wandering Israelites in the wilderness and to the frightened Gideon He became Shalom - the Lord is my Peace.

There was one occasion when the Lord revealed Himself to Abraham as his Provider, but in this unique and touching episode, God disclosed Himself to the aging Abraham as: Almighty God (El-Shaddai). 

'EL' adequately speaks of God's tremendous work of creation and the mighty power He displayed during the great deluge of Noah's day. It speaks coherently of His majesty, strength, greatness and power, as further exhibited in the tremendous plagues that ravaged Egypt's fertile plain. And yet the name, ‘El Shadai’, identifies our heavenly Father as the all-sufficient God - the God Who is totally adequate to provide ALL we need according to His riches in mercy.

Insufficient emphasis has been placed on the meaning of the nourishing nature of the word ‘Shadai’ in this astonishing revelation of God. While the word 'EL' signified the strength and power of the great Creator EL-ohim, the word 'Shadai' additionally speaks of tender nourishment; gentle reassurance and the provision of strength that a tiny babe derives from the comforting breast of his mother.

Abraham had been promised the Seed through whom all the families of the earth were to be blessed. His advancing years appeared to contradict God's former Word. It seemed impossible that the 90-year-old Sarah and her 100-year-old husband could parent a child, as God had promised some time before. Yet, in this gracious encounter, God reveals Himself to Abraham, in a new and wonderful way - as 'God Almighty' - 'El Shadai' -  the All-Sufficient God. He gently admonished His doubting child while giving Abraham ample reassurance that His Word is true, and would be fulfilled in His time, and His way.

And as it was with Abraham, so it is with all of God's people. The All-sufficiency of God enriches, empowers and provides for all God's children. The precious promise of God's all-embracing sufficiency, is equally relevant today as it was in those dim and distant days, when God called a pagan Gentile, out of  Ur of the Chaldees.. to leave his land, his wealth and his relatives, and go to the land God promised to show him.

The young Abram had obeyed the Lord many years earlier and his faith was already credited to him as righteousness. But many years later, when that same man of faith was ninety-nine years of age, the Lord appeared to him in a new and special way. Abraham was granted further revelation into the essential nature of the God, in Whom he had placed his trust so many years before... for there were still lessons for this man of God to learn. There were many truths that had not yet been disclosed to this man of faith. "I am God Almighty", he was told. "I am El Shaddai - the All-Sufficient One. Walk before Me, and be blameless".

The same Lord nourishes, multiplies and makes abundantly fruitful the seed of faith that is planted in the heart of each of His children. And in the same way, that He overshadowed and stirred the womb of the elderly Sarah and empowered old Abraham to father this child, so God is able and willing to work His all-sufficient grace in the lives of each of His children.

If God has placed a seed in your heart, never doubt that He is All-sufficient to carry it through to its final delivery - for He Who started a good work in you has promised to bring it to completion, by transforming you into the likeness of the Indwelling Seed - the lovely Lord Jesus, in Whom we trust.

My Prayer

Loving Father I recognise Your almighty power and great glory - for the heavens declare its truth and Christ proved it with outstretched arms on Calvary's cross. But You are also my great Provider for which I thank You. Your gracious provision is All-sufficient and I long to serve You faithfully, and to live a blameless life before You. Lord, I know that living blamelessly before You is only possible as You provide the sufficient grace and power through the Holy Spirit's work within. Bring to fruitfulness the seed that You have planted in my heart, that I may live as You desire - this I ask in Jesus' name, AMEN.

Knowing Jesus is the beginning of wisdom!

Ted

The God Of Heaven Instructs Us To Listen To His Son!

Hebrews 4:14 - "Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession."

Not only is Jesus our Saviour and King, our Prophet and Lord but He has also become our great High Priest. Jesus is God's anointed High Priest, through Whom we have been made fit to approach the grand and awesome throne of the most high God. His high priestly position is a heavenly one, and it is a position that is so much more superior to the earthly Levitical order, which came through Moses.

Christ's high priestly role is a continuous, eternal, spiritual headship. He is our perfect Priest, Who by virtue of His own spotless sacrificial life-blood, which streamed over the heavenly mercy-seat, has once-and-for-all atoned for all our sins - forever and ever, amen.

He was born for this priestly role and anointed as God's great High Priest by the Holy Spirit, Who rested on Him in the likeness of a Dove at His baptism. His exquisite position was further confirmed by the thunderous voice of the Almighty God, saying: This is My Beloved Son - listen to Him.

The Lord Jesus is the ultimate and final Word of God. He is the incarnate Word, Who took upon Himself human flesh, and as our great, heavenly High Priest, He is interceding day and night for the Church, which is His Body. Jesus is the only Mediator between man and God and He is the only One who can defend our case when the accusational finger of the evil one is pointing at you or at me.

There were a succession of men from the earthly Mosaic economy, who functioned as high priest, but none could be compared with Christ Jesus, for all were sinners in need of salvation. He alone was called 'great' and He alone was appointed after the order of Melchisedek - the Kingly-Priest of righteousness and peace, who was honoured by Abraham and is identified as a type of Christ.

He alone rose from the dead and passed through the earthly atmosphere and starry heights into the heaven of heavens. He alone is seated on the right hand of the Majesty on high. He no longer officiates in an earthly Temple. His is an eternal Priesthood that is vastly superior to everything that went before.

He is our righteous, kinsman-Redeemer, Who has become our heavenly Mediator. He has been given a Name that is above every name - Jesus Christ the righteous. And we who have trusted in His death, burial and resurrection for the forgiveness of sin and life everlasting, have been called to hold fast to our confession. We are commanded to stand firm on the witness of the cross - that Jesus is the Son of God; that Jesus is our great High Priest; that Jesus has put away our sin forever by His sacrificial death and glorious resurrection - that JESUS ascended into heaven by passing through the heavens, on our account, and in Whom are the words of eternal life. 

No wonder we are urged by the writer to the Hebrews to HOLD FAST to our confession - to keep a firm grip on our trust in Christ's finished Work; to believe all God has said through His Word; to unreservedly remain firm to His Truth - and to boldly approach the throne of grace. For it is only and ultimately through Jesus, the Son of God - Who is God the Son, that we can find grace to help in time of need, for His grace is sufficient; His office is efficacious and His loving-mercy is everlasting.

YES INDEED - since we DO have a great High Priest Who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God - let us hold fast our confession. Hallelujah. Praise His holy name. 

My Prayer

Loving heavenly Father, Your plans and purposes for me are staggering. I can scarcely take in that God Himself should come as my Saviour and High Priest, so that I can approach You on Your great and gracious throne of grace. Keep me ever mindful of this amazing privilege. Open my ears to hear Your voice and cleanse my heart to pray into Your will. Have grace on my brothers and sisters in Christ, and have mercy for a lost and dying world, which needs to acknowledge Jesus as 'kinsman-redeemer'.  Hear and answer my prayer, I ask, in the name of Jesus Christ Your only begotten Son, and my great high heavenly priest, AMEN.

Knowing Jesus is the beginning of wisdom!

Ted

An Everlasting Covenant!

For he has made with me an everlasting covenant.

 2 Samuel 23:5

This covenant is divine in its origin. "He has made with me an everlasting covenant." Oh, that great word "he"! My soul, consider--God, the everlasting Father, has positively made a covenant with you; yes, the God who spoke the world into existence by a word; He, stooping from His majesty, takes hold of your hand and makes a covenant with you. Isn't this act so stupendous and such an example of condescension that it would overwhelm us forever if we could really understand it? "He has made with me an everlasting covenant."

A king has not made a covenant with me—that would be something; but the Prince of the kings of the earth, Shaddai, the Lord All-sufficient, the Jehovah of ages, the everlasting Elohim—"He has made with me an everlasting covenant."

But notice, it is particular in its application. "For he has made with me an everlasting covenant." Here is the sweetness of it to each believer. It is nothing for me that He made peace for the world; I want to know whether He made peace for me! It is a small matter that He has made a covenant; I want to know whether He has made a covenant with me.

Blessed is the assurance that He has made a covenant with me! If God the Holy Spirit gives me assurance of this, then His salvation is mine, His heart is mine, He Himself is mine--He is my God.

This covenant is everlasting in its duration. An everlasting covenant means a covenant that had no beginning and that will never, ever end. How sweet in all the uncertainties of life to know that "God's foundation stands firm,"1 and to have God's own promise, "I will not violate my covenant or alter the word that went forth from my lips."2 I will sing of this through all my days and at their ending and forever.

1) 2 Timothy 2:19
2) Psalm 89:34

Pastor Alistair Begg

Would You Be Willing To Fight A War If Victory Was Assured?

Revelation 12:11 - ""And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death."

Satan is the great accuser of the saints of God who has pursued the people of God down through the centuries with an intense hatred... and the coming tribulation is a time when the devil's vicious attacks on God's servants will increase in intensity against both Jews and Christians.

Although Church-age believers are not appointed to face the wrath of the Lamb, during the coming time of terrible tribulation.. the enemy of our soul attempts to accuse the saints, despite being covered and cleansed by the blood of Christ. Revelation gives believers a multi-pronged approach to victory over Satan, "they overcame him by of the blood of the Lamb. They overcame him because of the word of their testimony. They overcame because they did not love their life even when faced with death." 

The time is coming when Satan and all his fallen angels with him, will be flung out of the heavenly realm and cast to the earth. It is during the terrible time of tribulation that his fury will target the Jewish nation and all that have trusted Christ as Saviour. But we read that: they gained victory over Satan because they were cleansed by the blood of Christ and they defeated him by the word of their faithful witness - they trusted Christ for salvation, and were willing to die for His sake.

Church-age believers are instructed to "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you," and although we will not face this terrible time of tribulation, this verse is as relevant for saints today who are facing increasing persecution from all sectors of society. Just like believers today, tribulation saints, who live in the final seven years of Daniel's great end-times prophecy, will also overcome the enemy because of their faith in the cleansing power of the blood of the Lamb. Victory for them and for us is secure in the testimony of Christ.

Although we will be raptured before the great and terrible day of the Lord, oppression against the church is rampant and persecution in all its guises is instigated by that old serpent who is the devil and Satan, who prowls around like a roaring lion seeking believers to trounce and devour. Only those covered in the blood of the Lamb have victory over the evil principalities and powers.

Christ Himself told us that victory is assured for those of us who are part of the Body of Christ, for He Himself has promised that the gates of hell will never prevail against His Church. Today we live in an age of martyrs, and the martyr spirit has predominated throughout this dispensation of 'grace'... but like saints in this Church-age, those who trust in Christ during the coming time of tribulation have the same security in Him.

The foundational bedrock upon which all victory rests is the shed blood of Christ... the Lamb that was slain - the perfect Sacrifice, Who with one glorious cry of IT IS FINISHED, pronounced sin, death and hell, 'forever conquered'. Nothing can dislodge that unshakably firm foundation. For the holy lives, faithful testimony and patient sufferings of those standing on the promises of Christ, the shout VICTORY is an eternal watchword.

The salvation, security and strength of saints in every dispensation rests on Christ alone.

Salvation is of Christ - for He is the Sacrifice slain, His is the blood of the Lamb. 

Strength is of Christ - for His is the faithful testimony, the glorious gospel of grace. 

Security is of Christ-for His is the life - eternal, that no enemy can destroy.

The spiritual strongholds of the enemy are powerless against the weapons of our warfare, which rest on Christ and Christ alone. Hallelujah!

My Prayer

Thank You, Father, for the wonderful salvation, strength, and security I have received from the Lord Jesus Christ and for the victory He won for me through His blood. Thank You that we are overcomers because of faith. Thank You that the penalty and power of sin, Satan, death, and hell has been overcome through faith in the cleansing blood of the Lamb.. Who died and rose again so that we might never die - but be raised into life immortal. May I live every day of my life in faith through Christ... in Jesus' name, I pray, AMEN.

Knowing Jesus is the first step to wisdom

See you next blog,

Ted