The Devotional - 1025 - Foot steps in First Corinthians, ongoing

The Devotional – 1025 – Foot steps in First Corinthians, ongoing

Looking over my desk this morning I notice five Bibles, three of them are opened to passages of study. Out of an abundance we talk, write, teach, preach and carry the information of Christ with us. Just in the other room there is another Bible on the table and oh yes I forgot the three pocket Bible also on my desk. And then the thought comes to me, the versions. Of all of these Bibles, there are four versions. All of this and I am thinking seriously of buying another Bible because my favorite one is falling apart, but I am not sure that the one I see on line is like the one I have in front of me. “What a FRET!”

Comments and Challenges:

1 Corinthians 2:1-5

And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. (The word testimony here in verse one can be translated ‘Mystery’). If we took a serious look around Christian circles today we would no doubt see serious men, even women who claim to have a word of wisdom. Yet this wisdom does not come from the Holy Bible, but from the commentaries of people or ministries of various ISMS they have chosen follow.

For me I feel there is a shift from TRUTH or better, from the SIMPLICITY of the gospel of Christ. There are many ISMS, and doctrinal thesis rolling around in the circles of Christendom these days and again, many are simply a demonstration of the wisdom of man and not in the Wisdom and Power of God expressed firstly in the death and resurrection of our LORD and secondly in the Wisdom and Power of God. Truly the apostle Paul would be saying that we gentiles have lost our grip on the message of the CROSS.

In the days ahead, if the LORD agrees, I intend to reach further into this subject. This is what is currently on my mind. In 2005 I went on a short trip to Ukraine, on the plane there were several Ascetic Jews, ‘self-denying and religiously focused men’. They took to prayer at least three time while in flight, they ate only foods that were blessed by a certain Rabbi to be kosher for them. I thought “wow” these men are holy men of God. Of course that was before I began talking with one who was sitting next to me.

“The Bible, he laughed” we do not study the Bible! We are followers of Rabbi So-in-so”. I said, “Really, how did that happen?” the young man in his late twenties said, “I have followed the Rabbi all my life, my parents do and I do too”. So with that the man showed me just one of the books this dead Rabbi wrote and I said, “How do you know that what is written is TRUTH” and his comment was. “It is not truth until we pray and after prayer, we stick a marker in the pages randomly, then we read where the marker is, this becomes truth and we follow his words. You may think I’m exaggerating here but I am not.

We in Christendom today are rapidly moving in that direction. We follow men who we believe are the spiritual giants of Christendom past and present, but we go one step further, we include them in our study Bible, have them on our book-shelves and follow them on their web-sites, even those who have gone to be with the LORD, their followers use every avenue to keep the teaching alive. Yes, I know the aggravation I am causing here, but it is past time to take a serious look at the bigger problem.

 What we have accused the Jew of doing, we are doing and the hour-glass is turning over for the final hour. The Jew is turning back to God and the gentile is turning away. For me this is evident and while I am excited I am also saddened for one day soon we will be like those in Zechariah 8:22 because we have lost our way as gentiles and the Jews rapidly returning to their God.