Thursday, October 19, 2023
The church at Corinth was particularly gifted by God; it seems all the
gifts of the Spirit were in full-blown operation there, and the church was
becoming a seedbed of confusion as to what was acceptable behavior. So Paul reminded them of the dividing-line
between holy and hellish. On that line
stands Jesus Christ. Those who speak/act
with impunity towards even the name of Christ do not belong to the Kingdom.
We can often misread people, and whether they’re on the Christ-side of
that line. We mistake the nature of
their gift, and what God has called them to be, or how God has called them to serve. The Great Generation (my parents
were in this group, born in the early 20th century) gave birth to
the Baby Boomers following the second World War. Both of those generations were as different
as can be. Long hair on guys, holes in
jeans, and Rock ‘n Roll didn’t set well with my parent’s generation; bodies
covered in tattoos, and gender-neutral/same-sex everything doesn’t set well
with mine. But (as Apostle Paul might say)
the gifts and Spirit are unchanging and not up for debate. We should not miss that!
When I served as pastor at tiny Greenville, Florida, the church gave me a
50th-birthday present, a gift certificate to the local undertakers. WHAT?
Yup, that's what the inscribed card said. So, I went to the funeral
home, assuming I was in for a time of pre-need planning for my early
demise, and wondering what the next Deacon meeting would be about.
When I got to the funeral home, I discovered they not only buried folks, but
they also dressed them well. This was a place of funeral directors and
tailors. A few weeks later I wore a great hand-tailored blazer to preach
to those good folks who scared the life out of me!
Now the point of this is the same as that which Paul warned the good
folks at Corinth, and what I would like to say about what we see in our
day. We must not let long hair (or
short, spikey, multi-colored hair, or any other surprise-hair), nor tattoos,
piercings, clothing, shoes (or lack of footwear), or anything else under the sun,
interfere with what’s going-on underneath that skin. I had assumed the worst about the great gift
that was given to me; we must not make the same mistake in the Kingdom of
God. What is going on in our day of
people opting-out of “traditions” in church, in favor of finding new ways to
spread the Gospel of God’s love in Jesus Christ may (or may not) be a move of
God…but that is not for any of us who are lower than divine-pay-grade to judge!
For You Today
Your generation may be (in your humble
opinion) the greatest or the worst. But
that is never the issue of importance in Heaven…God will do what He will
do.
The real issue is: What’s going on with You? What are you doing to speak the Word
of Truth to whatever generation God puts in front of you?
There are about 2,600 devotional posts and 400 sermons
in the Rocky Road library.
Title Image Pixabay.com Images without
citation are in public domain or cited via weblinks.
Unless noted, Scripture quoted from NLT©
