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1 Corinthians 2

28 Sep

2 When I first came to you, dear brothers and sisters, I didn’t use lofty words and impressive wisdom to tell you God’s secret plan. 2 For I decided that while I was with you I would forget everything except Jesus Christ, the one who was crucified. 3 I came to you in weakness—timid and trembling. 4 And my message and my preaching were very plain. Rather than using clever and persuasive speeches, I relied only on the power of the Holy Spirit. 5 I did this so you would trust not in human wisdom but in the power of God.

6 Yet when I am among mature believers, I do speak with words of wisdom, but not the kind of wisdom that belongs to this world or to the rulers of this world, who are soon forgotten. 7 No, the wisdom we speak of is the mystery of God—his plan that was previously hidden, even though he made it for our ultimate glory before the world began. 8 But the rulers of this world have not understood it; if they had, they would not have crucified our glorious Lord. 9 That is what the Scriptures mean when they say,

“No eye has seen, no ear has heard,
    and no mind has imagined
what God has prepared
    for those who love him.”

10 But it was to us that God revealed these things by his Spirit. For his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God’s deep secrets. 11 No one can know a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit, and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit. 12 And we have received God’s Spirit (not the world’s spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us.

13 When we tell you these things, we do not use words that come from human wisdom. Instead, we speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit’s words to explain spiritual truths. 14 But people who aren’t spiritual can’t receive these truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can’t understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means. 15 Those who are spiritual can evaluate all things, but they themselves cannot be evaluated by others. 16 For,

“Who can know the Lord’s thoughts?
    Who knows enough to teach him?”

But we understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ.

1 Corinthians 2

Dear God, I think the more spiritual maturity we gain the more we get comfortable with no understanding. Some however, including some who are friends, work so hard to understand. One of the things I think about are my friends who work so hard to understand the end times. What will you do? When will you do it? How will it impact me? They get so distracted by these questions, I think they forget to live now. To hone themselves into your image. They worship you well, but sometimes they are distracted from loving others.

Once again, however, as I throw stones at others, I am compelled to stop and ask myself how I might be distracted from loving others. Am I doing what you call me to do? Am I worshipping you well? Am I loving those who are in my path, or even near my path, and I need to go out of my way for them?

Father, help me to remember to speak clearly and lovingly to those who need you. And to those who are growing in you, to challenge them with higher and deeper thoughts. I’m around all kinds. I have some in my life who are just learning about you. I have some who are growing and have further growing to do. I have further growing to do as well. And let me say a special prayer for a friend who is struggling. You and I both know who he is. He has marital struggles. I think he has some depression. But I don’t see him sharing about it. I don’t see him living. I just see him as surviving. Help him and his wife to be healed. Help him to live. And help his wife to live too.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on September 28, 2026 in 1 Corinthians

 

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“Does Prayer Change God’s Mind” – Slow Theology Podcast

27 Sep

Dear God, I listened to this podcast a couple of days ago, and the question alone is one of those things that I figure is an unsolveable mystery. Do my supplications change your mind? Do they empower you? Do they make you stronger? Do they influence you? Here are some random thoughts I’ve had of things I’ve heard or read over the years:

  • I remember a scene from the movie Shadowlands. It is about C.S. “Jack” Lewis and the lost of his wife Joy. Anthony Hopkins is playing Jack, and a friend is trying to comfort him and talking about prayer. Friend: “I know how hard you’ve been praying. Now God is answering your prayer.” Lewis: “That’s not why I pray, Harry. I pray because I can’t help myself. I pray because I’m helpless. I pray because the need flows out of me all the time. Waking and sleeping. It doesn’t change God, it changes me.” I’ve never forgotten that. But is that how it works?
  • I thought of Jesus’s parable about the persistent Widow. I think, in fact, this might be the most important thing I’m about to say–of course it is. It’s from Jesus:
    • 18 One day Jesus told his disciples a story to show that they should always pray and never give up. 2 “There was a judge in a certain city,” he said, “who neither feared God nor cared about people. 3 A widow of that city came to him repeatedly, saying, ‘Give me justice in this dispute with my enemy.’ 4 The judge ignored her for a while, but finally he said to himself, ‘I don’t fear God or care about people, 5 but this woman is driving me crazy. I’m going to see that she gets justice, because she is wearing me out with her constant requests!’” 6 Then the Lord said, “Learn a lesson from this unjust judge. 7 Even he rendered a just decision in the end. So don’t you think God will surely give justice to his chosen people who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? 8 I tell you, he will grant justice to them quickly! But when the Son of Man returns, how many will he find on the earth who have faith?”
  • This seems to contradict what Lewis said in Shadowlands. It seems that Jesus thinks we can influence you with our persistence. Jesus thinks you are moveable. Or is that what he’s really saying?
  • I think about the book by Frank Peretti called This Present Darkness. I don’t think there is any–and I mean ANY–theological/biblical basis for this, but when were were seeing the spiritual warfare in this book, your angels would get strong when they were fighting them demons when the Christians were praying. The prayers were some kind of power infuser that loosed your power through them–kind of like Popeye and his spinach. Your people prayed and your angels got stronger. I have no idea where he got that, but I can tell you it’s had an influence, right or wrong, on my prayers.
  • I think about Jesus in John 14 telling us whatever we ask for in his name, you will do for us.
    • 12 “I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father. 13 You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it, so that the Son can bring glory to the Father. 14 Yes, ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it!
  • But here’s the last one I will bring up. The time you told Jesus, “No.” The time you didn’t answer his request. But there was a key to it. It was a key that Job learned by the end of his story: Not my will, but your will be done. Luke 22:
    • 39 Then, accompanied by the disciples, Jesus left the upstairs room and went as usual to the Mount of Olives. 40 There he told them, “Pray that you will not give in to temptation.” 41 He walked away, about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed, 42 “Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.” 43 Then an angel from heaven appeared and strengthened him. 44 He prayed more fervently, and he was in such agony of spirit that his sweat fell to the ground like great drops of blood.

Jesus really wanted to be spared from what was about to happen. That’s one way I know his divinity didn’t protect him from the pain. He was sweating blood. While still submitting to you, he was still pleading with you. I wonder if this scene shouldn’t be the model of my prayers. It’s a model of fitting what we want into the box of what you know we need.

So can my prayers change your mind? Can they strengthen you? Can that spur you into action in a way that you wouldn’t have otherwise acted? I think the answer is vague and ultimately not understandable with my limited human mind. I think our prayers are largely about forming us and our relationship with you. You are our Father, and you want us to communicate with you. So when I see the ambulance drive by and I say a prayer for the victim they are going to help. When my coworker texts me at 8:00 on a Saturday evening and says her daughter is in the ER and my wife and I pray for her daughter. When I am at a football game and a player is knocked out for several minutes and I pray for him while the physicians work. When I pray for Ukraine, Russia, Israel, Iran, Palestine, the President, my wife, my children, my family, my friends, my work…what are those prayers doing? Well, first, they are forming me. They are growing my compassion and love. They are encouraging me to care about others and worship you. And as far as you’re concerned, the best I can figure is that there is something in my relationship with you that is happening for you in your timelessness that I just can’t understand. You are interested in loving me in the moment in time where I am currently existing, and you are interested me loving you. You want to give me those good things, but you also know the structure of the whole world, the time it is experiencing, the events that are happening, and how they will fit together. When a butterfly flaps its wings in the southern hemisphere, you don’t figure out how it will cause a storm in the northern hemisphere. You already know. You don’t chew your nails, as I heard someone put it once. You don’t fret. You know how all this goes and works out.

Father, I’m here to worship you right now. I’m here to pray. I’m here to be formed. I’m here to be changes. You know the pain I have. The pain my wife has. We even talked a little about our pain this morning. Help her to heal. Help me to heal. Bring your peace. Bring your love, and I’ll bring you the little bit of love that I have to give. My love compared to yours feels like a preschool child bringing home an art project for their parent. It’s ridiculous and imperfect, but it’s made with good intentions. And it’s yours. Thank you for it being enough. And in the meantime, I’ll keep praying until I’m on there other side. Then you’ll teach me how to exist there as well.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on September 27, 2026 in Miscellaneous, Musings and Stories

 

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Hebrews 10:26-31

26 Sep

Dear friends, if we deliberately continue sinning after we have received knowledge of the truth, there is no longer any sacrifice that will cover these sins. There is only the terrible expectation of God’s judgment and the raging fire that will consume his enemies. For anyone who refused to obey the law of Moses was put to death without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Just think how much worse the punishment will be for those who have trampled on the Son of God, and have treated the blood of the covenant, which made us holy, as if it were common and unholy, and have insulted and disdained the Holy Spirit who brings God’s mercy to us. For we know the one who said,“I will take revenge. I will pay them back. ”He also said,“The LORD will judge his own people. ” It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Hebrews 10:26-31

Dear God, this is a weird analogy, but I really like a lot of things in my life. Of course, I really like and love my wife. I just enjoy her. I like my life with her. I also really like the vehicles we drive. And I just really like and love you. See? Weird analogy.

The line above that says, “It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” Yeah, I suppose, but I find the less I question you, the more I worship you, and the more I love others the more at peace wave with the idea of your presence I am. It’s just important for me to come to that initial place of surrender to you and then to maintain that commitment. Now, the idea of being in your hand is actually comforting, regardless of how it turns out.

I heard a podcast yesterday that talked about the question of whether our prayers change your mind. They talked about the difference between healing and curing. They talked about a friend who had live his whole life afraid of death. Then he got a terminal illness. In the last month of his life, his fear of death was gone. He wasn’t cured, but he was healed.

Father, I don’t want to make light of your justice or your frustration with my sin. My sins of commission and omission. It’s awful. And I’m sorry. But I feel the grace through Jesus. I feel the love of my Father. I feel the comfort and teaching from your Holy Spirit. I feel you, and I am not afraid. I love you. Thank you.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on September 26, 2026 in Hebrews

 

1 John 2:1-6

25 Sep

2 My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous. 2 He himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins—and not only our sins but the sins of all the world.

3 And we can be sure that we know him if we obey his commandments. 4 If someone claims, “I know God,” but doesn’t obey God’s commandments, that person is a liar and is not living in the truth. 5 But those who obey God’s word truly show how completely they love him. That is how we know we are living in him. 6 Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did.

1 John 2:6

Dear God, there are a lot of politicians right now claiming to know you, but their fruit suggests otherwise. I live in Texas, and the Republican and the Democrat running for Senate both claim to know you. One of them seems to exhibit bad fruit but proports to share more of my theology and belief about you. Whether he follows that theology or not is another story, but his words align more with me in some areas of moral code. The other has seemingly good fruit, and claims to love and know you. The problem with him is that some of his words indicate he and I have differences in opinion on some areas of moral code.

Some people tell me that I cannot possibly vote for one because his spoken moral code is bad, regardless of the seemingly good life that he leads. His opponent will vote more in line with my moral values regardless of whether or not he lives by them. Others will tell me I cannot vote for the other because he because, regardless of what he says, his actions are so far against any fruit that would grow from you that he cannot be trusted. His corruption is absolute and complete. You don’t get good people in politics by voting for bad people.

I am discussing this issue because of the passages above. Which of these men knows how to repent? Which one is a “liar and is not living in truth”?

And now I turn the question to myself. How am I doing? Forget the politicians. I have one vote, a very small sphere of influence, and I can wrestle with it all I want but at the end of the day my vote won’t move the needle. No, my eyes need to be focused on any logs that are obscuring them before I start dealing with other people’s specks. Do I obey your commandments? Do I repent well when I realize I’ve sinned? A couple of days ago, I told you I had made a mistake in talking with a friend and given him a false idol to worship. I not only repented to you, but I repented to him as well. I hope I’m good at this.

Father, give me eyes to see, ears to hear, and a discerning heart. Help me to love. Help me to worship you well. Help me to represent you to the world so that others might find the narrow path and find your light, peace, and joy–regardless of their circumstances.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on September 25, 2026 in 1 John

 

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Hebrews 10:32-39

24 Sep

32 Think back on those early days when you first learned about Christ. Remember how you remained faithful even though it meant terrible suffering. 33 Sometimes you were exposed to public ridicule and were beaten, and sometimes you helped others who were suffering the same things. 34 You suffered along with those who were thrown into jail, and when all you owned was taken from you, you accepted it with joy. You knew there were better things waiting for you that will last forever.

35 So do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord. Remember the great reward it brings you! 36 Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God’s will. Then you will receive all that he has promised.

37 “For in just a little while,
    the Coming One will come and not delay.
38 And my righteous ones will live by faith.
    But I will take no pleasure in anyone who turns away.”

39 But we are not like those who turn away from God to their own destruction. We are the faithful ones, whose souls will be saved.

Hebrews 10:32-39

Dear God, just before I sat down to pray, my wife let me know about someone in our small town who died in a car accident yesterday. I had met him once or twice, but I didn’t really know him. But I knew of him. He was an artist of significant renown in the art world. A sculptor. I also happen to know he was a man of faith and devotion to you. I have to admit, my first thought was not of sorrow for him. He had lived an effectively life that I think pointed others towards you. But for his family. My heart breaks for his family. For his wife. I cannot imagine the pain and shock she is in right now. What must the world look like to her? What do you look like to her? I don’t know if they have any children, but the odds are that they do. For their children. For their friends. Father, have mercy. Jesus, have mercy, Holy Spirit, have mercy.

Thinking about these verses today and our hope for the future, I guess I want to start with the idea that I’ve never been able to really “get into” Hebrews. It’s always had nice verses, but I’ve known we don’t know who the author is, definitively, and I think that has kind of lessened my interest in it. But after researching Apollos a little bit and seeing that some theorize he is the author, that has made it a little more personal. Another way to put it is that it has given the book a “voice.” If I can think that it’s him then I can give a little more credence to the admonition of someone who was thought so highly of by Paul, Luke, and others.

With that said, the hope we have is what I’m clinging to with the idea that this good man died suddenly yesterday. But I also have hope here on earth. I have hope that you are working all things for the good. Right now, I have a few challenges I’m facing and that I’m trying to help others face. Show me how to help them, please. Show me the path. Show me the way for them and for my work. Show me how to glorify you and point everyone involved to you. Help me to help them find the narrow path. Help me to find and stay on the narrow path. Help me to worship you well. I pray for the healing and wellbeing of those who are currently on my heart. Show them your mercy. Holy Spirit, heal. Make our paths straight, Father.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spririt,

Amen

 
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Posted by on September 24, 2026 in Hebrews

 

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Proverbs 30:1-9

23 Sep

30 The sayings of Agur son of Jakeh contain this message.

I am weary, O God;
    I am weary and worn out, O God.
2 I am too stupid to be human,
    and I lack common sense.
3 I have not mastered human wisdom,
    nor do I know the Holy One.

4 Who but God goes up to heaven and comes back down?
    Who holds the wind in his fists?
Who wraps up the oceans in his cloak?
    Who has created the whole wide world?
What is his name—and his son’s name?
    Tell me if you know!

5 Every word of God proves true.
    He is a shield to all who come to him for protection.
6 Do not add to his words,
    or he may rebuke you and expose you as a liar.

7 O God, I beg two favors from you;
    let me have them before I die.
8 First, help me never to tell a lie.
    Second, give me neither poverty nor riches!
    Give me just enough to satisfy my needs.
9 For if I grow rich, I may deny you and say, “Who is the Lord?”
    And if I am too poor, I may steal and thus insult God’s holy name.

Proverbs 30:1-9

Dear God, I usually don’t like reading Proverbs because some of it feels like a list of fortune cookie sayings with disjointed verses put together. This part of chapter 30, however, is the kind of thing I like. It’s just the auther (and me) coming before you and asking that you protect me from myself. I’m thinking mainly of verses eight and nine. I love the idea of asking you to just give me my daily bread because if I’m rich I might lose my need for you. If I’m poor, I might lose my faith in you and do things that hurt others and cause others to think negatively of you because they know I’m yours.

I can think of one thing I did yesterday that was a sin. I was visiting with a friend, and he was expressing concern about the happenings in the world. Will the economy collapse? What will happen to all of us. As I tried to comfort him and talk about not looking for certainty in anything but you I found myself pointing to his job and how it seems like he works for a company that is solid and well-funded. So what did I do? I took his eyes off of you and put them on money. I still found an idol to comfort thim. Going back to verse two, “I am too stupid to be human.”

Father, I am, really, too stupid to be human. I’m sorry. I need you. You provide for me very well, and I am grateful. You provide for my work/vocation very well. I’m grateful. I’m probably not nearly grateful enough for either of those things. You’ve given me a peaceful, good life with my wife. We are both healthy. I’m not grateful enough for any of that. I’m not grateful enough for my children, parents, siblings… I’m not grateful enough for my friends. My country. This world. I’m not grateful enough for Jesus. For the Holy Spirit with me now. For you. I am too stupid to be human. Please make me a little smarter today. And thank you.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on September 23, 2026 in Proverbs

 

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“Endless is Your Love” by Tom Kendzia

22 Sep

“Endless is Your Love” by Tom Kendzia

You know my heart
You know my mind
You know my words long before I speak them.
There is no place that I can hide
Endless is your love for us

How vast the sums of all your deeds.
Endless is your love for us

Surely there’s a place, even you don’t know
If I find there, if I fly there
Can I hide from you?

You know my heart
You know my mind
You know my words
long before I speak them
There is no place
Where I can hide
Endless is your love for us

How vast the sums of all your deeds
Endless is your love for us

Wonderful your works
Countless as the sands
Earth and heaven know your beauty
fashioned by your hand

You know my heart
You know my mind
You know my words
Long before I speak them
There is no place that I can hide
Endless is your love for us

How vast the sums of all your deeds
Endless is your love for us

Dear God, we sang this song in church Sunday, and I really liked it. I found that it is a relatively new hymn, copyrighted only 20 years ago in 2006. What caught my eye was the first verse after the opening chorus: “Surely there is a place even you don’t know. If I climb there, if I fly there, can I hide from you?” Of course this is a play on Psalm 139 about hiding from you. But the psalmist says, “Where can I go?” The slight twist on this that Mr. Kendzia is playing with is, “There has to be a place, and I’ll find it!”

Ironically, you do allow us to run. You can see us. You can still know us. But you allow us to turn away. My wife has a friend whose father absolutely rejected you in a hostile way. He wouldn’t allow his daughter to talk to him about you. If she wanted a relationship with him she had to not reference you. I suppose that level of blocking helped him to feel unseen by you. And now that he has died, it is one of her great sorrows. That he didn’t know you. Where is he now? Eternally perishing? Is his soul just dead? Was there some loophole in your grace that he found and he is with you on the other side?

Father, all parents have a choice on how much freedom to give their children, whether they are young or adults. You give us a lot of freedom, and yet it is so hard for us to follow your example. Obviously, you don’t expect us to give them freedom as young children, but when they are grown they have a free will that we shouldn’t control. And that you don’t control. So when we pray for our children, that they be drawn to you and healed from their pain, how do you go about answering those prayers? I don’t know. All I know is all I can control is myself, and while there are times I want to run and hide, I know I need you and I’m only hurting myself (and you, I suppose) with this my foolishness. So I come to you this morning. Seen. Known. Loved. I hope my children can know that, while I cannot see them or even really know them at any given moment, they are at least loved.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on September 22, 2026 in Hymns and Songs

 

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Ephesians 4:11-13

21 Sep

11 Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. 12 Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. 13 This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.

Ephesians 4:11-13

Dear God, what would it feel like to be mature in you? What would I look like if I were a person who measured up to the full and complete standard of Jesus? I mean, I think I am maturing, but, frankly, it’s hard to imagine htting that standard in this lifetime. I hve so far to go. It reminds me of a person who need to lose 200 lbs. They’ve lost about 60 lbs, and I can tell, but they could still stand to lose about 140 lbs. I feel like that person when it comes to describing the growth that needs to happen between me and the “complete standard of Christ.” I’ve made some progress over the last 40-ish years. I probably don’t have another 40 on this earth. How much more can I grow towards Jesus in the time between now and my death and the next world?

And why do I need to grow? If you have grace for me, why do I need to do better? Well, for your sake and the sake of those around me, of course. I am part of your body, and your body is your Plan A. And there is no Plan B. I need to be as mature as possible to do my part.

Father, help me to grow just a little bit closer to you today. Help me to be just a little bit more like you. To quote a song that is based on a prayer from St. Francis, “When men look at me I want them to see the Light of the World inside.”

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on September 21, 2026 in Ephesians

 

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1 Corinthians 15:35-49

20 Sep

35 But someone may ask, “How will the dead be raised? What kind of bodies will they have?” 36 What a foolish question! When you put a seed into the ground, it doesn’t grow into a plant unless it dies first. 37 And what you put in the ground is not the plant that will grow, but only a bare seed of wheat or whatever you are planting. 38 Then God gives it the new body he wants it to have. A different plant grows from each kind of seed. 39 Similarly there are different kinds of flesh—one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish.

40 There are also bodies in the heavens and bodies on the earth. The glory of the heavenly bodies is different from the glory of the earthly bodies. 41 The sun has one kind of glory, while the moon and stars each have another kind. And even the stars differ from each other in their glory.

42 It is the same way with the resurrection of the dead. Our earthly bodies are planted in the ground when we die, but they will be raised to live forever. 43 Our bodies are buried in brokenness, but they will be raised in glory. They are buried in weakness, but they will be raised in strength. 44 They are buried as natural human bodies, but they will be raised as spiritual bodies. For just as there are natural bodies, there are also spiritual bodies.

45 The Scriptures tell us, “The first man, Adam, became a living person.” But the last Adam—that is, Christ—is a life-giving Spirit. 46 What comes first is the natural body, then the spiritual body comes later. 47 Adam, the first man, was made from the dust of the earth, while Christ, the second man, came from heaven. 48 Earthly people are like the earthly man, and heavenly people are like the heavenly man. 49 Just as we are now like the earthly man, we will someday be like the heavenly man.

1 Corinthians 15:35-49

Dear God, I was at a funeral Friday, and the woman had been cremated. My in-laws were both cremated. My in-laws were Anglican. The funeral Friday was Catholic. It’s important in both traditions that, while cremation is seen as acceptable in your sight, the ashes must be kept together and not scattered. Frankly, this seems like a very small technicality to me since all that “ashes” are are literally ground up bones and everything else has gone into the air. But perhaps all you need is a rib.

The idea of an afterlife and what to expect is an interesting one. Some envision walking streets of gold, only worshipping all day, every day, and being liesurely. No sadness. No tears. No toil. No suffering. And some are afraid of this because it sounds like it will get old after a while. Just this, day after day with no end? Yuck.

Others think we will have jobs to do in the New Earth and that the New Earth will actually be here. Redeemed. Made perfect. After all, you gave Adam work to do, even before the fall. It seems we were created to work. Are there any of your creation who don’t work? I feel like even the angels are given jobs to do.

Personally, I have my theories, but I wouldn’t presume to type them here or send them out into the world because I believe that, at the end of the day, they don’t matter. We will all find out what life after death is like soon enough. I know what I’m hoping for, but I’m not letting myself get distracted by it. I want to focus on today and what you have for me now.

Father, I love you. I’m grateful for you. I worship you. I was in church this morning and really trying to focus on loving you. You are my God. Jesus, you are God and you did it all. Holy Spirit, you are God with me now. I give all of this day to you.

I pray all of this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on September 20, 2026 in 1 Corinthians

 

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1 Corinthians 15:12-20

18 Sep

12 But tell me this—since we preach that Christ rose from the dead, why are some of you saying there will be no resurrection of the dead? 13 For if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised either. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your faith is useless. 15 And we apostles would all be lying about God—for we have said that God raised Christ from the grave. But that can’t be true if there is no resurrection of the dead. 16 And if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless and you are still guilty of your sins. 18 In that case, all who have died believing in Christ are lost! 19 And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world.

20 But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died.

1 Corinthians 15:12-20

Dear God, way back when I was 22 I remember getting into a conversation with a man at work. His name was Wally, and he was a great guy. We both worked in sales for a Christian music/book publisher called Word. He sold books and I sold music. We were talking about heaven and after life, and I told him what I had taught kids at a summer camp a few years before: Living a Christian life is worth the peace, joy, and freedom we get this side of death, and even if there were no afterlife with you it would be worth it. He disagreed and quoted this passage to me. I hadn’t really seen this passage before, and I was chastened. I had no response. It’s always stuck with me. Obviously it has because I’m sitting here 34 years later thinking about it as soon as I read this verse.

I wouldn’t say that I disagree with Paul here, but I would say that I think he took the passage out of context and misinterpreted it. I think Paul is saying that Jesus’s power is in his resurrection so if we don’t believe in resurrection then we don’t believe in who Jesus is (you, part of the Triune God). If there’s nothing supernatural and other worldly about Jesus then what are we doing? If we are following a false god then we are to be pitied. There’s a thread that we pull on if we say there is no afterlife, and that thread will unravel the entire theology of Jesus’s pre-existence to his birth, his birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension. If that’s unraveled then what are we doing.

But I will still hold to my theology that life is still worth living in worship of and relationship with you regardless of the existence of an eternal reward. You are the vine and I am the branch. Without you, I have no fruit. Without your fruit, I have not joy, peace, love, patience, goodness, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. Without your love, no matter how talented or good I might think I am, I am just a clanging gong.

Father, I appreciate the depth of who you are and your power. I appreciate Jesus’s sacrifice of even coming to earth in the first place. What an amazing gift. I offer you whatever it is about myself that I know how to offer. Teach me to offer you more. Teach me to love, sacrifice, and serve more. Teach me to pray. Teach me to serve. Teach me to persuade. Teach me to suffer. All for your glory and your kingdom to come and will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on September 18, 2026 in 1 Corinthians

 

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