Day 58 - Leader of the Church
Lord God, our Father in heaven, we turn to you in these times when we are under so much stress and temptation. Let your light glow in our hearts to give us firmness, patience, and perseverance throughout the time of testing, no matter how long it lasts. Your hand can change everything. Your hand can shorten the time we must wait until your light shines out of the darkness of death and evil, until your light reveals your life to your children and to the whole world. You are our God and Father as you have promised, and remaining at your side, we look to you in faith and trust. You will bring about goodness, justice, and mercy as you have promised, and so fulfill your will. Amen.
The Plough, Daily Prayer for 8 Sept 2021
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The Bible in Time |
Wednesday | Week after the 15th Sunday after the Pentecost
New Testament Study, Day 58 |
Today - Day 58 | Reflections on 1 Corinthians 1:
Next - Day 59 | Reflections on
1 Corinthians 2:
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Reflection Today’s Reading -
Dear Friends in Christ,
We will be reading a chapter a day from Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians. (This would be a good time to invite friends to the study. The links to the study are also on Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr.)
This is a letter from a minister that has worked with this church for five years and knows what is going on in that parish. Paul is an “apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God” (1:1) and has the divine right to speak with them about matters of faith and life.
Since it is a letter it begins with blessings and greeting firmly stated in the context of Jesus Christ. Part of this greeting is a thanksgiving for Jesus being revealed to the Corinthians.
Paul in 1:10 begins with an appeal for unity so that we can assume there are some divisions within that congregation for a variety of reasons (This has not changed much over 2100 years, eh.)
Paul sees the ministry being fractured into different parties who claim Paul, Apollos, Cephas (Apostle Peter), and even Christ as their spiritual base and leaders that all should be followed as the lead theologian of the community of faith. Christ is the head of the Church period.
But this can be hard to understand based on the current worldview because Christ crucified sounds foolish. For one group demands signs, another demands wisdom but WE proclaim Christ crucified which does NOT make any sense with those that do not understand Jesus (1:18-25). According to Paul, this is God’s plan to make it sound foolish to the wise and powerful.
If we are to boast, let us boast of God!
A Thought ...
How do you boast about God?
May the Holy Spirit be in your life!
Blessings,
Dave Eitland
P.S. I would suggest that you are using a study bible that was published in this century for your reflection.
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Today’s Sources: Introducing the New Testament (buy the book); NOAB5, notes by Lawrence L. Wellborn
Activity Calendar | updated 05 Aug 2021
See Paul’s 3rd Missionary Journey -Map
Note: “Revo.”, “Revolutionary”, “Edwards”
refers to our textbook “Revolutionary Bible
Study” by Gene Edwards,
ISBN 978-0-97975157-8,
© 2009.
Also used notes from the New Oxford
Annotated Bible, 5th Edition, © 2018.
(NOAB5)
Also used Mark Allen Powell, Introducing
the New Testament, 1st ed., ISBN
978-0-8010-2868-7
Also using links to Biblegateway.com for
copy of the readings.
Use Right Arrow to get to the next
chapter
Posted to blog - 9/8/2021
Picture Credit - https://www.meredithgould.com/books-written-by-paul/
© 2021, Dave Eitland, all rights reserved, congregational use only.
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