THURSDAY May 2nd
1 Corinthians 1:17-31
V18 ‘For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God’.
A few weeks back on a Sunday evening as Iain was sharing the word, he commented concerning the Easter message as to how far into the year can we keep looking back to the Easter weekend, the reason being that he was going to speak further on some of the things that happened over that momentous weekend two-thousand years ago. And the straight answer is that we can keep on talking, preaching about the events of that weekend right through the year, without ever ending as it is the most important weekend that has ever taken place on planet earth. Therefore, I will come to the same verse for the third time!
The facts concerning the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ are the central theme of both the Scripture and the central point in the history of the world.
The message, or the word of, or the preaching of the cross is the most urgent and needed message that the world needs to hear. And we need to do all that we can to make this important and pivotal message known to those all around us, regardless or not of whether as they hear it, they consider it to be foolishness. The fact of the matter is this, that many of us may have considered it as foolishness at some time in the past, but as the message was proclaimed, the Holy Spirit worked in our lives to change our understanding of it as from being foolish to it becoming the power of God that saved us and continues to save us.
Thank God for everyone that heralded the gospel in some way that has caused us to be together as a fellowship of God’s people, yes we may have different backgrounds, come from various parts of the UK or from other nations of the world, but it was the preaching of the gospel that reconciled us to God and brought us into the wonderful fellowship that we can enjoy together as the family of God.
God knew exactly what he was doing, and Paul later says in this same chapter ‘For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom’ (v25) He isn’t calling God foolish, but what he is saying is this ‘How dare men and women think that they know better than God!’ With all our intellect and knowledge, we are not a match for God—he is the omniscient one, he knows all things, even those things which are yet to come or to happen.
As we have come to know the power of God, may we seek to find any and every way possible to share the good news of the gospel, knowing that as we are obedient in sowing the seed, it is the Holy Spirit who will water it and God will give the increase.