1 CORINTHIANS 1

Heart Issues
I am challenged by a lot in this chapter. Most of all, I am humbled today as I recognize that I don’t have much to offer our omnipotent and omniscient God. He did not call me for what I could do for Him but because of His grace and to shame the powerful and wise. I also find myself today in a healthy amount of helplessness on my own. I am in such need of the grace of God and His faithfulness in my life. He will keep me strong and blameless to the end and I claim this promise and thank Him for His goodness. I know that I am not faithful to the end, I can drop the ball way too easily. I am challenged again to preach the cross and to drop all of my “wisdom” and allow the cross to do its work on peoples’ lives.

Notes
-All Christians are called to be holy and are in the process of sanctification in Christ Jesus. People everywhere could now call on the name of Jesus, not just the Jews.
-God, by His grace, gives us all good things. He gives knowledge and sound speaking for His glory, not for our own. He keeps us blameless and strong to the end because He is faithful even when we are not.
-Division destroys a church, believers should be “perfectly united in mind and thought.”
-It is very easy to align ourselves with figures of our time period and their teachings, but Paul calls us here to follow Christ and Christ alone. It is not about wisdom or great teaching, we are Christians because of the cross. It is the central point to the glory of God.
-God is not impressed with our wisdom or power, but He wants us to see His omnipotence and omniscience. His grace and character are amazing, not what we can add to it. For even God’s foolishness, if there is such a thing is wiser than man’s wisdom and his weakness, again if such a concept exists, is stronger than Magnus Samuelson (Strong Man Competitor).
-God does not call us because of what we can give to Him or do for Him. He calls us to shame the wisdom and the power of the world. That is pretty humbling.
-We have nothing to boast about, for it is because of His grace that we are in Christ. He is our righteousness, holiness, and redemption.