CALLED TO NOT MISS A THING!

Posted on January 18, 2022 by randscallawayffm

As we read our next passage of Paul’s compelling ministry journey, I am reminded of a gospel song by The Martins.  This group of two sisters and a brother sing from the heart as they deliver the Good News to all who will listen.  This song touches my heart in my own calling to “go and tell”.

“I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing”

Leaving this place getting ready to go
Gotta get moving cause there’s something I know
God’s got a plan, got a blessing in store
So put me in the middle of the will of the Lord

Having my fill of the pushing away
It was me who was running, it was Him who stayed
Now I want it bad and I know what this means
Lining up with him, sure don’t wanna miss a thing

Don’t wanna miss the joy, don’t wanna miss the peace
Don’t wanna miss the power, don’t wanna miss a thing
I’m gonna get while the gettin’s good
Follow His heart like I know I should
No I don’t want, don’t wanna miss a thing
No I don’t want, don’t wanna miss a thing

Setting my sights on the heavenly prize
Seeing my life through spiritual eyes
I’m breaking out of a worldly mode
Heading on down a less traveled road

I’ll walk through the fire just to see His face
Won’t trade my freedom for a temporal place
He may be moving in mysterious ways
But I’m moving with Him for the rest of my days

Don’t wanna miss the joy, don’t wanna miss the peace
Don’t wanna miss the power, don’t wanna miss a thing
I’m gonna get while the gettin’s good
Follow His heart like I know I should
No I don’t want, don’t wanna miss a thing
No I don’t want, don’t wanna miss a thing

Don’t want to miss the mark (no no no)
Don’t want to go astray
Don’t want to waste the chance
Don’t want to lose the way

Don’t wanna miss the joy, don’t wanna miss the peace
Don’t wanna miss the power, don’t wanna miss a thing
Well, I’m gonna get while the gettin’s good
Follow His heart like I know I should
No I don’t want, don’t wanna miss a thing
No I don’t want, don’t wanna miss a thing
No No No, I don’t want, don’t wanna miss a thing
No No, I don’t want….don’t want to miss a thing

I do not want to miss a single thing!

I hear this in the background as Paul writes of the authority, peace, joy that compels him by Jesus, in the Name of Jesus, to preach the Good News of salvation from Jesus!  Paul runs the race, constantly training in the Word, listening and obeying the Holy Spirit of God.  He is writing what God inspires him to write while most times sitting in jail for doing exactly what Jesus commissioned and compels Paul to do.  Jesus met him on the road to Damacus, changed his whole way of thinking (the calling), prepared him then commissioned with His authority to go and preach (the sending).  (See Acts 9.)

I am also reminded of the words of Jesus as began this spreading of the gospel of salvation from the mountain top, giving His authority as given to him to those who will continue His work on earth…as he ascended back to heaven;

The Great Commission

Then the eleven disciples left for Galilee, going to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him—but some of them doubted!

Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” –Jesus, Matthew 28:16-20, NLT

Paul was commissioned and compelled to speak, whether paid or unpaid with care for his physical needs, whether jailed or moving from town to town to those who needed to know the Messiah come, dealing with critics and unbelievers along the way.  Paul does not want to miss a thing of Jesus’ calling so others will know Jesus, too, saved by the grace of God!  Paul does not personally want to miss a thing in his own daily living, guided by the Holy Spirit.  “I’ve become just about every sort of servant there is in my attempts to lead those I meet into a God-saved life. I did all this because of the Message. I didn’t just want to talk about it; I wanted to be in on it!

NOTE TO SELF…All who believe and call on the name of Jesus are saved for eternity with God.  All of us are called and sent, by Jesus’ authority, with His compelling compassion to speak His words so others will know Jesus, too.  Jesus is not a secret to be hidden away! 

Dear Friends, don’t we all want “to be in on it”, like Paul? 

Pause to pray, asking God what HE wants.  Take all the time you need.  The outcome of our behaviors will reveal and reflect who we really believe and compels to do what we do. 

Personally, I don’t wanna miss a thing! 

CORINTHIANS—CALLED AND SENT

1 Corinthians 9, The Message

(Emphasis in bold, mind)

1-2 And don’t tell me that I have no authority to write like this. I’m perfectly free to do this—isn’t that obvious? Haven’t I been given a job to do? Wasn’t I commissioned to this work in a face-to-face meeting with Jesus, our Master? Aren’t you yourselves proof of the good work that I’ve done for the Master? Even if no one else admits the authority of my commission, you can’t deny it. Why, my work with you is living proof of my authority!

3-7 I’m not shy in standing up to my critics. We who are on missionary assignments for God have a right to decent accommodations, and we have a right to support for us and our families. You don’t seem to have raised questions with the other apostles and our Master’s brothers and Peter in these matters. So, why me? Is it just Barnabas and I who have to go it alone and pay our own way? Are soldiers self-employed? Are gardeners forbidden to eat vegetables from their own gardens? Don’t dairy farmers get to drink their fill from the pail?

8-12 I’m not just sounding off because I’m irritated. This is all written in the scriptural law. Moses wrote, “Don’t muzzle an ox to keep it from eating the grain when it’s threshing.” Do you think Moses’ primary concern was the care of farm animals? Don’t you think his concern extends to us? Of course. Farmers plow and thresh expecting something when the crop comes in. So if we have planted spiritual seed among you, is it out of line to expect a meal or two from you? Others demand plenty from you in these ways. Don’t we who have never demanded deserve even more?

12-14 But we’re not going to start demanding now what we’ve always had a perfect right to. Our decision all along has been to put up with anything rather than to get in the way or detract from the Message of Christ. All I’m concerned with right now is that you not use our decision to take advantage of others, depriving them of what is rightly theirs. You know, don’t you, that it’s always been taken for granted that those who work in the Temple live off the proceeds of the Temple, and that those who offer sacrifices at the altar eat their meals from what has been sacrificed? Along the same lines, the Master directed that those who spread the Message be supported by those who believe the Message.

15-18 Still, I want it made clear that I’ve never gotten anything out of this for myself, and that I’m not writing now to get something. I’d rather die than give anyone ammunition to discredit me or question my motives. If I proclaim the Message, it’s not to get something out of it for myself. I’m compelled to do it, and doomed if I don’t! If this was my own idea of just another way to make a living, I’d expect some pay. But since it’s not my idea but something solemnly entrusted to me, why would I expect to get paid? So am I getting anything out of it? Yes, as a matter of fact: the pleasure of proclaiming the Message at no cost to you. You don’t even have to pay my expenses!

19-23 Even though I am free of the demands and expectations of everyone, I have voluntarily become a servant to any and all in order to reach a wide range of people: religious, nonreligious, meticulous moralists, loose-living immoralists, the defeated, the demoralized—whoever. I didn’t take on their way of life. I kept my bearings in Christ—but I entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view. I’ve become just about every sort of servant there is in my attempts to lead those I meet into a God-saved life. I did all this because of the Message. I didn’t just want to talk about it; I wanted to be in on it!

24-25 You’ve all been to the stadium and seen the athletes race. Everyone runs; one wins. Run to win. All good athletes train hard. They do it for a gold medal that tarnishes and fades. You’re after one that’s gold eternally.

26-27 I don’t know about you, but I’m running hard for the finish line. I’m giving it everything I’ve got. No lazy living for me! I’m staying alert and in top condition. I’m not going to get caught napping, telling everyone else all about it and then missing out myself.

WHAT WE LEARN…

“If I proclaim the Message, it’s not to get something out of it for myself. I’m compelled to do it, and doomed if I don’t!”

“I don’t know about you, but I’m running hard for the finish line. I’m giving it everything I’ve got. No lazy living for me! I’m staying alert and in top condition. I’m not going to get caught napping, telling everyone else all about it and then missing out myself.”

Oh Lord,

I love you with all my heart, mind and soul.  Because of our communion each morning, I am compelled to learn from Your Word, grow by direction of Your Holy Spirit and listen to You guide me through living each day for you.  You live in us.  You call and send us.  You provide opportunities to tell your Good News.  I know you are with us, compelling us to run this race and not miss a thing of your glory and power working in us.  Thank you, Lord.  I listening!

In Jesus Name, Amen

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

WHERE’S THE BEEF?

Posted on January 17, 2022 by randscallawayffm

Many years ago, there was a famous, often repeated commercial about meat.  A mature lady would go up the counter of a competitor’s fast-food chain and shout, “Where’s the beef?”  The slogan’s suggestion was obvious.  The fast food she tried was deficient in its beef product alluding to the fact that her favorite burger place did have the desired meat.  The commercial wasn’t so much about the meat as it was putting down the competition.

Are we like that as Believers in Jesus?  Can we become competitive in seeking holiness?  Do we hurt each other in this competitive to be the best?  Paul answers that question.  He shows us it’s not about the meat.  It’s also not worth the “beef” or argument about meat.  It’s all about our heart’s motive, sensitivity and compassion.

CORINTHIANS—CALLED AND SENT

1 Corinthians 8, The Message

Freedom with Responsibility

1-3 The question keeps coming up regarding meat that has been offered up to an idol: Should you attend meals where such meat is served, or not? We sometimes tend to think we know all we need to know to answer these kinds of questions—but sometimes our humble hearts can help us more than our proud minds. We never really know enough until we recognize that God alone knows it all.

4-6 Some people say, quite rightly, that idols have no actual existence, that there’s nothing to them, that there is no God other than our one God, that no matter how many of these so-called gods are named and worshiped they still don’t add up to anything but a tall story. They say—again, quite rightly—that there is only one God the Father, that everything comes from him, and that he wants us to live for him. Also, they say that there is only one Master—Jesus the Messiah—and that everything is for his sake, including us. Yes. It’s true.

7 In strict logic, then, nothing happened to the meat when it was offered up to an idol. It’s just like any other meat. I know that, and you know that. But knowing isn’t everything. If it becomes everything, some people end up as know-it-alls who treat others as know-nothings. Real knowledge isn’t that insensitive.

We need to be sensitive to the fact that we’re not all at the same level of understanding in this. Some of you have spent your entire lives eating “idol meat,” and are sure that there’s something bad in the meat that then becomes something bad inside of you. An imagination and conscience shaped under those conditions isn’t going to change overnight.

8-9 But fortunately God doesn’t grade us on our diet. We’re neither commended when we clean our plate nor reprimanded when we just can’t stomach it. But God does care when you use your freedom carelessly in a way that leads a fellow believer still vulnerable to those old associations to be thrown off track.

10 For instance, say you flaunt your freedom by going to a banquet thrown in honor of idols, where the main course is meat sacrificed to idols. Isn’t there great danger if someone still struggling over this issue, someone who looks up to you as knowledgeable and mature, sees you go into that banquet? The danger is that he will become terribly confused—maybe even to the point of getting mixed up himself in what his conscience tells him is wrong.

11-13 Christ gave up his life for that person. Wouldn’t you at least be willing to give up going to dinner for him—because, as you say, it doesn’t really make any difference? But it does make a difference if you hurt your friend terribly, risking his eternal ruin! When you hurt your friend, you hurt Christ. A free meal here and there isn’t worth it at the cost of even one of these “weak ones.” So, never go to these idol-tainted meals if there’s any chance it will trip up one of your brothers or sisters.

WHAT DO WE LEARN?

We can only know and understand small pieces of life.  God knows it all.  Know God.

“…our humble hearts can help us more than our proud minds.”

“Real knowledge isn’t that insensitive.”

God doesn’t grade us on our diet.  (Hallelujah!)  God looks at the heart and sees the truth.  He always has and always will.  From the heart, comes the motive for everything we do. 

“Christ gave up his life for that person. Wouldn’t you at least be willing to give up going to dinner for him—because, as you say, it doesn’t really make any difference? But it does make a difference if you hurt your friend terribly, risking his eternal ruin! When you hurt your friend, you hurt Christ.

Be still and know God.  Let God take the lead in all we think, say or do.  The closer we come to Jesus, the closer we become to our brothers and sisters who believe.  This bears repeating, like a commercial over and over in our heads, “When you hurt your friend, you hurt Christ.”

It’s not about the meat, it’s about pleasing Jesus, our Savior and who wants to be Lord of our lives.  The more He becomes Lord over our lives, the more we become like the One we follow.

Lord,

Help us to understand what you are teaching us today as we live in this highly oversensitive, overthinking world.  It’s not about us.  It’s about YOU honing your character in us so we think more of others than ourselves. Help us all to love like you love, show compassion and mercy like you extended to us while we humbly walk with You, the One who knows it all.  That’s the meat of our existence!

In Jesus Name, Amen

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

MAY ALL (Single or Married) BE TO THE GLORY OF GOD!

Posted on January 15, 2022 by randscallawayffm

We live in a “Corinth” world of sexual perversion where evil thoughts confuse minds and draw us farther away from what God wants for us.  We must always remember that all God wants is HIS best life for us which is life forever with Him.  With God, we are protected “under the shadow of his wings” like an eagle protecting her brood.  With God, all our needs are provided for daily as we walk with Him.  With God’s Plan we are saved from all our sins because of His Son, Jesus who sacrificed His life for ours.  So come at this reading from Paul with God’s point of view as He looks over us with His amazing love that goes deeper and wider than we can imagine. 

As we study 1 Corinthians 7, please keep in mind that Paul is replying to definite questions posed to him from the Corinthian congregation. He is not spelling out a complete “theology of marriage” in one chapter.

CORINTHIANS—CALLED AND SENT

1 Corinthians 7, The Message

To Be Married, to Be Single . . .

7 Now, getting down to the questions you asked in your letter to me. First, is it a good thing to have sexual relations?

2-6 Certainly—but only within a certain context. It’s good for a man to have a wife, and for a woman to have a husband. Sexual drives are strong, but marriage is strong enough to contain them and provide for a balanced and fulfilling sexual life in a world of sexual disorder. The marriage bed must be a place of mutuality—the husband seeking to satisfy his wife, the wife seeking to satisfy her husband. Marriage is not a place to “stand up for your rights.” Marriage is a decision to serve the other, whether in bed or out. Abstaining from sex is permissible for a period of time if you both agree to it, and if it’s for the purposes of prayer and fasting—but only for such times. Then come back together again. Satan has an ingenious way of tempting us when we least expect it. I’m not, understand, commanding these periods of abstinence—only providing my best counsel if you should choose them.

7 Sometimes I wish everyone were single like me—a simpler life in many ways! But celibacy is not for everyone any more than marriage is. God gives the gift of the single life to some, the gift of the married life to others.

8-9 I do, though, tell the unmarried and widows that singleness might well be the best thing for them, as it has been for me. But if they can’t manage their desires and emotions, they should by all means go ahead and get married. The difficulties of marriage are preferable by far to a sexually tortured life as a single.

10-11 And if you are married, stay married. This is the Master’s command, not mine. If a wife should leave her husband, she must either remain single or else come back and make things right with him. And a husband has no right to get rid of his wife.

12-14 For the rest of you who are in mixed marriages—Christian married to non-Christian—we have no explicit command from the Master. So this is what you must do. If you are a man with a wife who is not a believer but who still wants to live with you, hold on to her. If you are a woman with a husband who is not a believer but he wants to live with you, hold on to him. The unbelieving husband shares to an extent in the holiness of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is likewise touched by the holiness of her husband. Otherwise, your children would be left out; as it is, they also are included in the spiritual purposes of God.

15-16 On the other hand, if the unbelieving spouse walks out, you’ve got to let him or her go. You don’t have to hold on desperately. God has called us to make the best of it, as peacefully as we can. You never know, wife: The way you handle this might bring your husband not only back to you but to God. You never know, husband: The way you handle this might bring your wife not only back to you but to God.

17 And don’t be wishing you were someplace else or with someone else. Where you are right now is God’s place for you. Live and obey and love and believe right there. God, not your marital status, defines your life. Don’t think I’m being harder on you than on the others. I give this same counsel in all the churches.

18-19 Were you Jewish at the time God called you? Don’t try to remove the evidence. Were you non-Jewish at the time of your call? Don’t become a Jew. Being Jewish isn’t the point. The really important thing is obeying God’s call, following his commands.

20-22 Stay where you were when God called your name. Were you a slave? Slavery is no roadblock to obeying and believing. I don’t mean you’re stuck and can’t leave. If you have a chance at freedom, go ahead and take it. I’m simply trying to point out that under your new Master you’re going to experience a marvelous freedom you would never have dreamed of. On the other hand, if you were free when Christ called you, you’ll experience a delightful “enslavement to God” you would never have dreamed of.

23-24 All of you, slave and free both, were once held hostage in a sinful society. Then a huge sum was paid out for your ransom. So please don’t, out of old habit, slip back into being or doing what everyone else tells you. Friends, stay where you were called to be. God is there. Hold the high ground with him at your side.

25-28 The Master did not give explicit direction regarding virgins, but as one much experienced in the mercy of the Master and loyal to him all the way, you can trust my counsel. Because of the current pressures on us from all sides, I think it would probably be best to stay just as you are. Are you married? Stay married. Are you unmarried? Don’t get married. But there’s certainly no sin in getting married, whether you’re a virgin or not. All I am saying is that when you marry, you take on additional stress in an already stressful time, and I want to spare you if possible.

29-31 I do want to point out, friends, that time is of the essence. There is no time to waste, so don’t complicate your lives unnecessarily. Keep it simple—in marriage, grief, joy, whatever. Even in ordinary things—your daily routines of shopping, and so on. Deal as sparingly as possible with the things the world thrusts on you. This world as you see it is fading away.

32-35 I want you to live as free of complications as possible. When you’re unmarried, you’re free to concentrate on simply pleasing the Master. Marriage involves you in all the nuts and bolts of domestic life and in wanting to please your spouse, leading to so many more demands on your attention. The time and energy that married people spend on caring for and nurturing each other, the unmarried can spend in becoming whole and holy instruments of God. I’m trying to be helpful and make it as easy as possible for you, not make things harder. All I want is for you to be able to develop a way of life in which you can spend plenty of time together with the Master without a lot of distractions.

36-38 If a man has a woman friend to whom he is loyal but never intended to marry, having decided to serve God as a “single,” and then changes his mind, deciding he should marry her, he should go ahead and marry. It’s no sin; it’s not even a “step down” from celibacy, as some say. On the other hand, if a man is comfortable in his decision for a single life in service to God and it’s entirely his own conviction and not imposed on him by others, he ought to stick with it. Marriage is spiritually and morally right and not inferior to singleness in any way, although as I indicated earlier, because of the times we live in, I do have pastoral reasons for encouraging singleness.

39-40 A wife must stay with her husband as long as he lives. If he dies, she is free to marry anyone she chooses. She will, of course, want to marry a believer and have the blessing of the Master. By now you know that I think she’ll be better off staying single. The Master, in my opinion, thinks so, too.

WHAT IS LEARNED?

Some liberal critics have accused Paul of being against both marriage and women. These accusations are not true, of course.  Rather, he was referring to what Jesus taught when He was on earth (Matt. 5:31–32; 19:1–12; Mark 10:1–12; Luke 16:18). Paul had to answer some questions that Jesus never discussed; but when a question arose that the Lord had dealt with, Paul referred to His words. Instead of disclaiming inspiration, Paul claimed that what he wrote was equal in authority to what Christ taught.  In other words, Paul took his cues from His Master, Jesus Christ with the guidance of His Holy Spirit living in Paul.

Marriage requires a measure of maturity, and age is no guarantee of maturity.

Paul emphasized living for the Lord. He did not suggest that it was impossible for a man or a woman to be married and serve God acceptably, because we know too many people who have done it.  As if he were doing premarital counseling, he is suggesting that two people, devoted to the Lord and His work, will need to consider that obstacles and family distractions ahead of time and be able to deal with life together with God. 

It is possible to please both the Lord and your mate, if you are yielded to Christ and obeying the Word. Many of us have discovered that a happy home and satisfying marriage are a wonderful encouragement in the difficulties of Christian service.  Randy and I have been married for over 50 years now.  Most of those years, from our early twenties, were dedicated to God and His work.  We helped each other in our callings from God.  Together we were stronger.

Finally, remember that marriage is for life (vv. 39–40). It is God’s will that the marriage union be permanent, a lifetime commitment. There is no place in Christian marriage for a “trial marriage,” nor is there any room for the “escape hatch” attitude: “If the marriage doesn’t work, we can always get a divorce.”  Randy and I cringed when we would hear these words in his premarital counseling of couples.

For this reason, marriage must be built on something sturdier than good looks, money, romantic excitement, and social acceptance. There must be Christian commitment, character, and maturity. There must be a willingness to grow, to learn from each other, to forgive and forget, to minister to one another. The kind of love Paul described in 1 Corinthians 13 is what is needed to cement two lives together.

God has put “walls” around marriage, not to make it a prison, but to make it a safe fortress. The person who considers marriage a prison should not get married. When two people are lovingly and joyfully committed to each other—and to their Lord—the experience of marriage is one of enrichment and enlargement. They grow together and discover the richness of serving the Lord as a team in their home and church.  As stated earlier, Randy and I are a team “that no man can come between”.  We are God’s and God is ours.

While both Paul and Jesus leave room for divorce under certain conditions, this can never be God’s first choice for a couple. God hates divorce (Mal. 2:14–16), and certainly no believer should consider divorce until all avenues of reconciliation have been patiently explored.  God comes from the point of view of complete love for all of us.

In summary, each person must ask himself or herself the following questions if marriage is being contemplated:

1. What is my gift from God?

2. Am I marrying a believer?

3. Are the circumstances such that marriage is right?

4. How will marriage affect my service for Christ?

5. Am I prepared to enter into this union for life?

Lord,

Thank you for this lesson that tells us of the nuts and bolts of marriage and of singleness.  Thank you for your Holy Spirit who lives in us to guide us to Your Best Life for all of us.  Help us to hear you with minds ready to obey you.  Put blinders on our eyes so we are not distracted by worldview thinking.  Help us to consider all obstacles and pitfalls before making the leap of marriage.  But over all may we trust you, dear Jesus, in every decision we make in life.  God, you have us. God, you have our backs.  Why follow anyone else but You who created the universe with the Perfect Plan to save us and give us your best?  I love you, Lord, heart, mind, body and soul.  My body—Your Temple.  It’s you first.

In Jesus Name, For Your Glory, Amen.   

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

HOW DARE YOU!

Posted on January 14, 2022 by randscallawayffm

As loving parents who see there kids about to do something that will cause great pain or even lead to death, we get right to the point and bluntly shout, “Stop that, now!”  “Stop!”  “Take my hand, NOW!”  Right?

With the same love as a parent, Paul is blunt as he gets right to the point quickly in this part of his letter to the believers in Corinth.  The city is full of sin behaviors, unbelievers in God who worship idols, indulge in sexual promiscuity to the point of abuse, dishonoring each other in all kinds of perverted ways, along with taking each other to court for every disagreement.  It is not surprising that this behavior is carried into the new church of people who are young in the faith and who have not fully left that life behind.  They have carried in the “old, dead life behaviors” and are trying to attach it to their new, growing life in Christ. 

Paul tells them in no uncertain language that the old, dead, worldly Corinthian life behaviors have to go because they do not match their new belief!  He tells them what to do, how to live for Christ, which honors God.  He helps them (and us) to realize the depth of God’s love as He cherishes our own bodies in which He wants to live and abide. 

CORINTHIANS—CALLED AND SENT

1 Corinthians 6, The Message

1-4 And how dare you take each other to court! When you think you have been wronged, does it make any sense to go before a court that knows nothing of God’s ways instead of a family of Christians? The day is coming when the world is going to stand before a jury made up of followers of Jesus. If someday you are going to rule on the world’s fate, wouldn’t it be a good idea to practice on some of these smaller cases? Why, we’re even going to judge angels! So why not these everyday affairs? As these disagreements and wrongs surface, why would you ever entrust them to the judgment of people you don’t trust in any other way?

5-6 I say this as bluntly as I can to wake you up to the stupidity of what you’re doing. Is it possible that there isn’t one levelheaded person among you who can make fair decisions when disagreements and disputes come up? I don’t believe it. And here you are taking each other to court before people who don’t even believe in God! How can they render justice if they don’t believe in the God of justice?

7-8 These court cases are a black eye on your community. Wouldn’t it be far better to just take it, to let yourselves be wronged and forget it? All you’re doing is providing fuel for more wrong, more injustice, bringing more hurt to the people of your own spiritual family.

9-11 Don’t you realize that this is not the way to live? Unjust people who don’t care about God will not be joining in his kingdom. Those who use and abuse each other, use and abuse sex, use and abuse the earth and everything in it, don’t qualify as citizens in God’s kingdom. A number of you know from experience what I’m talking about, for not so long ago you were on that list. Since then, you’ve been cleaned up and given a fresh start by Jesus, our Master, our Messiah, and by our God present in us, the Spirit.

12 Just because something is technically legal doesn’t mean that it’s spiritually appropriate. If I went around doing whatever I thought I could get by with, I’d be a slave to my whims.

13 You know the old saying, “First you eat to live, and then you live to eat”? Well, it may be true that the body is only a temporary thing, but that’s no excuse for stuffing your body with food, or indulging it with sex. Since the Master honors you with a body, honor him with your body!

14-15 God honored the Master’s body by raising it from the grave. He’ll treat yours with the same resurrection power. Until that time, remember that your bodies are created with the same dignity as the Master’s body. You wouldn’t take the Master’s body off to a whorehouse, would you? I should hope not.

16-20 There’s more to sex than mere skin on skin. Sex is as much spiritual mystery as physical fact. As written in Scripture, “The two become one.” Since we want to become spiritually one with the Master, we must not pursue the kind of sex that avoids commitment and intimacy, leaving us more lonely than ever—the kind of sex that can never “become one.” There is a sense in which sexual sins are different from all others. In sexual sin we violate the sacredness of our own bodies, these bodies that were made for God-given and God-modeled love, for “becoming one” with another. Or didn’t you realize that your body is a sacred place, the place of the Holy Spirit? Don’t you see that you can’t live however you please, squandering what God paid such a high price for? The physical part of you is not some piece of property belonging to the spiritual part of you. God owns the whole works. So let people see God in and through your body.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—WHAT LEAPS OFF THE PAGE!

“God honored the Master’s body by raising it from the grave. He’ll treat yours with the same resurrection power. Until that time, remember that your bodies are created with the same dignity as the Master’s body. You wouldn’t take the Master’s body off to a whorehouse, would you? I should hope not.”

SAME DIGNITY as the Master’s Body—Friends, this goes much deeper than the lessons preached at church camp…”Don’t take fellow believers to court”, “Don’t have sex until marriage”, along with other don’ts.  Look deeper into what God is saying through Paul.  We hear God telling us the Truth and the Reason why He sent His Son to save us—

“You are mine, bought at the high price of the sacrifice of My Son, not just your heart, mind and soul—ALL of you which includes your body in which I created.  So, don’t take me where I cannot go with you.”

Before we go or do anything what if we first asked, “Is this a place or experience God will be honored?  That’s the bottom line of Paul’s warning to all of us who truly believe who want to grow more intimately in our relationship with God.

God so loved the world that HE GAVE His Son to save us from all sin.  Our thanks to Him is displayed in our behaviors.  God wants us to give back ALL of who we are to Him.  “God owns the whole works. So let people see God in and through your body.”  (See also Romans 12:1-2).

It’s all about God and His Son living in and through us.  “Just because something is technically legal doesn’t mean that it’s spiritually appropriate.”  Good advice and well played, Paul.

Lord,

I offer my life to you, all that I am, all you created me to be, all the good with all the bad that needs work.  I am your work and you are not finished with me, yet.  I realize that full well.  Each day brings new opportunities to grow as I serve, to grow as I learn to love like you love us, as I grow more intimate in our relationship.  I really don’t want to go where you are not honored.  I don’t want to go where you have not sent me.  I want what you want for me, Your best, in exchange for the worst in me.  You are amazing, Lord!  Your love is amazing!  May I honor you with all my heart, mind and soul housed in this body you have created.  All of me belongs to you.

In Jesus Name, For Your Glory, Amen

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | Leave a comment

WHEN WE CAN’T LET IT GO

Posted on January 13, 2022 by randscallawayffm

Corinth was a rough and tumble city filled with the worship of many gods and evil practices.  Many, not all, who came to know God through Jesus merely added Him to their traditions of idol worship of an exhaustive list of gods.  They also continued to live the sins that were acceptable to the unbelieving world.  So, it is no wonder these sins were brought into the new church who were learning to follow in the ways of God.  It was a confusing time.

So, Paul, motivated with the love of Jesus, writes a letter to the leaders to help them understand that sin has to be dealt with but with the motive of saving the sinner!  Please note that this is a huge difference between the Pharisaical motives of power with suppressive and hypocritical judgements with man-made rules; instead this came from a broken heart for their brothers and sisters caught up in the world of sin that would destroy them.

Brokenhearted Paul made the motive clear—”You want him on his feet and forgiven before the Master on the Day of Judgment.”  God-led leaders care enough to confront the sinner so that he/she does not continue in sin.  It breaks God’s heart when we sin.  It breaks our hearts when our brothers and sisters are caught in sin that will destroy their relationship to God.  Only with the love of God and the authority of Jesus should leaders confront, but care enough to do so!  Not for you but for the brother or sister so the church Body can be made whole through Jesus’ forgiveness.  Unity is threatened in the Body of Christ when we don’t care enough to confront the sinner but leaders must be led by God, with His Holy Spirit of His love, motivated for the benefit of the sinner, giving ultimate glory to God who forgives because of Jesus. 

Paul shows the church how to do this with love for the sinner which is who Jesus was, is and always will be…” Friend to the sinners”.  The precise phrase — “friend of sinners” — is mentioned twice in the Gospels, in Matthew 11:19 and Luke 7:34. They called Jesus this because it was true. He was a friend of sinners. Jesus himself said that he didn’t come for the spiritually healthy, but for the sick. “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:31–32).

Just like he greeted children that others thought were a nuisance, he welcomed sinners that others didn’t (Matthew 19:14; Luke 7:37–39). He looked at them, as Mark says he did with the rich young man, and he loved them (Mark 10:21). He had compassion on them. And most glorious of all, he wielded his authority to speak those wondrous words, “Your sins are forgiven” (Luke 7:48).

This is all very important for us because, as some have noted recently, we Christians pattern our lives after Jesus’s example. He has, after all, sent us into the world in the same Spirit of his own mission (John 20:21–22).  As humbly, forgiven people, we are to lovingly point people to Jesus for His forgiveness.  All people. Jesus saves.  Only Jesus.

CORINTHIANS—CALLED AND SENT

1 Corinthians 5, The Message

The Mystery of Sex

5 1-2 I also received a report of scandalous sex within your church family, a kind that wouldn’t be tolerated even outside the church: One of your men is sleeping with his stepmother. And you’re so above it all that it doesn’t even faze you! Shouldn’t this break your hearts? Shouldn’t it bring you to your knees in tears? Shouldn’t this person and his conduct be confronted and dealt with?

3-5 I’ll tell you what I would do. Even though I’m not there in person, consider me right there with you, because I can fully see what’s going on. I’m telling you that this is wrong. You must not simply look the other way and hope it goes away on its own. Bring it out in the open and deal with it in the authority of Jesus our Master. Assemble the community—I’ll be present in spirit with you and our Master Jesus will be present in power. Hold this man’s conduct up to public scrutiny. Let him defend it if he can! But if he can’t, then out with him! It will be totally devastating to him, of course, and embarrassing to you. But better devastation and embarrassment than damnation. You want him on his feet and forgiven before the Master on the Day of Judgment.

6-8 Your flip and callous arrogance in these things bothers me. You pass it off as a small thing, but it’s anything but that. Yeast, too, is a “small thing,” but it works its way through a whole batch of bread dough pretty fast. So get rid of this “yeast.” Our true identity is flat and plain, not puffed up with the wrong kind of ingredient. The Messiah, our Passover Lamb, has already been sacrificed for the Passover meal, and we are the Unraised Bread part of the Feast. So let’s live out our part in the Feast, not as raised bread swollen with the yeast of evil, but as flat bread—simple, genuine, unpretentious.

9-13 I wrote you in my earlier letter that you shouldn’t make yourselves at home among the sexually promiscuous. I didn’t mean that you should have nothing at all to do with outsiders of that sort. Or with criminals, whether blue- or white-collar. Or with spiritual phonies, for that matter. You’d have to leave the world entirely to do that! But I am saying that you shouldn’t act as if everything is just fine when a friend who claims to be a Christian is promiscuous or crooked, is flip with God or rude to friends, gets drunk or becomes greedy and predatory. You can’t just go along with this, treating it as acceptable behavior. I’m not responsible for what the outsiders do, but don’t we have some responsibility for those within our community of believers? God decides on the outsiders, but we need to decide when our brothers and sisters are out of line and, if necessary, clean house.

Lord,

We have learned that we cannot confront unless we love.  Help us to love like you love us.  Help us to care enough to confront our brother or sister with your love in us, guiding us.  I am reminded from Paul to speak Truth in the Spirit of your love in us.  May our motives always be to redirect our friends to you to be saved and restored by you.

In Jesus Name, Amen

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | Leave a comment

MISFIT MESSENGERS/Mind of Christ

Posted on January 12, 2022 by randscallawayffm

Are you a leader in God’s Kingdom work?  Has God invited you to be a leader in His work to help others find and follow His Son, Jesus?  The principles of leadership come from our Master, Jesus Christ who came to earth to show us the “full extent of His love” along with how to serve.  He is the God who washes feet!  Wait, what?!  How counter culture, how weird, how out-of-this-world is this kind of thinking and behaving?  When we are called to lead, God is calling and equipping us to serve with the mind of Christ, His Son.  What is the mind of Christ, we ask?  Let’s quickly review what Jesus said and did while on earth.

“For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”  –Jesus, Mark 10:45, NIV

“Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.  The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.”  –what Jesus did to show his love, even to his enemy, John 13:1-5, NIV

“Therefore, if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

Who, being in very nature God,
    did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing
    by taking the very nature of a servant,
    being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
    he humbled himself
    by becoming obedient to death—
        even death on a cross!” 

–Who Jesus was, is and always will be so we would know how to imitate him, Philippians 2:1-8, NIV

Because of showing us how to serve by His extreme example of setting aside his position, power and glory due him for the salvation of mankind, God raised Jesus to reign as King of kings and Lord of lords forevermore.  Jesus is who we imitate.  He loved and served.  As believers and followers, we love and serve.  It’s in our DNA. 

With these thoughts in mind, Paul tells the Corinthians church directly and clearly who real leaders are and who they are not.  This is a great lesson in loving, servant leadership.

CORINTHIANS—CALLED AND SENT

1 Corinthians 4, The Message

1-4 Don’t imagine us leaders to be something we aren’t. We are servants of Christ, not his masters. We are guides into God’s divine secrets, not security guards posted to protect them. The requirements for a good guide are reliability and accurate knowledge. It matters very little to me what you think of me, even less where I rank in popular opinion. I don’t even rank myself. Comparisons in these matters are pointless. I’m not aware of anything that would disqualify me from being a good guide for you, but that doesn’t mean much. The Master makes that judgment.

5 So don’t get ahead of the Master and jump to conclusions with your judgments before all the evidence is in. When he comes, he will bring out in the open and place in evidence all kinds of things we never even dreamed of—inner motives and purposes and prayers. Only then will any one of us get to hear the “Well done!” of God.

6 All I’m doing right now, friends, is showing how these things pertain to Apollos and me so that you will learn restraint and not rush into making judgments without knowing all the facts. It’s important to look at things from God’s point of view. I would rather not see you inflating or deflating reputations based on mere hearsay.

7-8 For who do you know that really knows you, knows your heart? And even if they did, is there anything they would discover in you that you could take credit for? Isn’t everything you have and everything you are sheer gifts from God? So what’s the point of all this comparing and competing? You already have all you need. You already have more access to God than you can handle. Without bringing either Apollos or me into it, you’re sitting on top of the world—at least God’s world—and we’re right there, sitting alongside you!

9-13 It seems to me that God has put us who bear his Message on stage in a theater in which no one wants to buy a ticket. We’re something everyone stands around and stares at, like an accident in the street. We’re the Messiah’s misfits. You might be sure of yourselves, but we live in the midst of frailties and uncertainties. You might be well-thought-of by others, but we’re mostly kicked around. Much of the time we don’t have enough to eat, we wear patched and threadbare clothes, we get doors slammed in our faces, and we pick up odd jobs anywhere we can to eke out a living. When they call us names, we say, “God bless you.” When they spread rumors about us, we put in a good word for them. We’re treated like garbage, the leftovers that nobody wants. And it’s not getting any better.

14-16 I’m not writing all this as a neighborhood scold to shame you. I’m writing as a father to you, my children. I love you and want you to grow up well, not spoiled. There are a lot of people around who can’t wait to tell you what you’ve done wrong, but there aren’t many fathers willing to take the time and effort to help you grow up. It was as Jesus helped me proclaim God’s Message to you that I became your father. I’m not, you know, asking you to do anything I’m not already doing myself.

17 This is why I sent Timothy to you earlier. He is also my dear son, and true to the Master. He will refresh your memory on the instructions I regularly give all the churches on the way of Christ.

18-20 I know there are some among you who are so full of themselves they never listen to anyone, let alone me. They don’t think I’ll ever show up in person. But I’ll be there sooner than you think, God willing, and then we’ll see if they’re full of anything but hot air. God’s Way is not a matter of mere talk; it’s an empowered life.

21 So how should I prepare to come to you? As a severe disciplinarian who makes you walk the line? Or as a good friend and counselor who wants to share heart-to-heart with you? You decide.

WHAT DO WE LEARN?

Servant Leadership:  Leaders in God’s kingdom are servants of those who need to know Jesus.  They humbly bow to Him and ask for direction and then do what God says.  They are all in, heart, mind and soul.

  • Servant leaders are guides, not security guards.
  • Servant leaders come alongside those they lead.
  • Servant leaders don’t ask anyone to do what they themselves aren’t willing to do.
  • Servant leaders know all believers are on equal ground with God through Jesus.
  • Comparisons are pointless.
  • Servant leaders live in “the midst of frailties and uncertainties”.
  • Servant leaders serve their enemies.  “God bless you” is the heart-felt response as opposed to retaliation when attacked.
  • Servant leaders want to grow and become more mature by Jesus’ example.
  • Servant leaders desire the mind of Christ daily.
  • Servant leaders know God and want what God wants for each day they serve on this earth.

“God’s Way is not a matter of mere talk; it’s an empowered life.” 

Lord,

Empower my life with all of you in me.  Enlarge your work of salvation in your servant.  I desire what you want me to be and do today and forever, but let’s concentrate on today.  Give us this day all you know I will need to serve well.

In Jesus Name, Amen

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | Leave a comment

THE PEDESTAL PROBLEM

Posted on January 11, 2022 by randscallawayffm

Our minds are conditioned and trained by the world to do it.  The evil one loves it when we do it.  Sports plays a huge part in fostering it.  It is called the pedestal problem.  We crave to be near someone who achieves more than we think we can, one who fulfills all our worldly dreams of success, one who is articulate, charismatic, and popular.   When we think we have found that person, we put them on a pedestal.  We begin to think they are perfect and can do no wrong.  We boast about them.  We defend them.

We do this to our church leaders and our pastors.  We hear a good sermon that touches our hearts and think what a great speaker he is!  When he speaks consistently well, we think he can do not wrong and follow him like a puppy follows his master.  Then the inevitable happens, the pedestal tips and tosses the imperfect person tumbling.  We jump into conversations that tell of his/her fall, gossip about their setback or demise and crucify the fallen from the pedestal we erected.  Sound harsh?  Maybe, but I’ve seen it happen many times. 

Paul is frustrated with the immaturity of new believers in Corinth who have put Paul and his coworker in God’s Kingdom work, Apollos, on pedestal positions of comparison.  They have also fallen prey to “greatness by association” self-promotion with these leaders.  Paul explains how childish it is to put anyone on a pedestal of praise while ignoring the One and Only who is worthy of ALL our praise and worship.  This is sinful to God and very unfair to servants of God who are led by God to lead us to Jesus’ saving grace.  We do this to our pastors and leaders is subtle and unsubtle ways.  Paul lets the church know quickly how wrong this behavior is.    

CORINTHIANS—CALLED AND SENT

1 Corinthians 3, The Message

1-4 But for right now, friends, I’m completely frustrated by your unspiritual dealings with each other and with God. You’re acting like infants in relation to Christ, capable of nothing much more than nursing at the breast. Well, then, I’ll nurse you since you don’t seem capable of anything more. As long as you grab for what makes you feel good or makes you look important, are you really much different than a babe at the breast, content only when everything’s going your way? When one of you says, “I’m on Paul’s side,” and another says, “I’m for Apollos,” aren’t you being totally childish?

5-9 Who do you think Paul is, anyway? Or Apollos, for that matter? Servants, both of us—servants who waited on you as you gradually learned to entrust your lives to our mutual Master. We each carried out our servant assignment. I planted the seed, Apollos watered the plants, but God made you grow. It’s not the one who plants or the one who waters who is at the center of this process but God, who makes things grow. Planting and watering are menial servant jobs at minimum wages. What makes them worth doing is the God we are serving. You happen to be God’s field in which we are working.

9-15 Or, to put it another way, you are God’s house. Using the gift God gave me as a good architect, I designed blueprints; Apollos is putting up the walls. Let each carpenter who comes on the job take care to build on the foundation! Remember, there is only one foundation, the one already laid: Jesus Christ. Take particular care in picking out your building materials. Eventually there is going to be an inspection. If you use cheap or inferior materials, you’ll be found out. The inspection will be thorough and rigorous. You won’t get by with a thing. If your work passes inspection, fine; if it doesn’t, your part of the building will be torn out and started over. But you won’t be torn out; you’ll survive—but just barely.

16-17 You realize, don’t you, that you are the temple of God, and God himself is present in you? No one will get by with vandalizing God’s temple, you can be sure of that. God’s temple is sacred—and you, remember, are the temple.

18-20 Don’t fool yourself. Don’t think that you can be wise merely by being relevant. Be God’s fool—that’s the path to true wisdom. What the world calls smart, God calls stupid. It’s written in Scripture,

He exposes the hype of the hipsters.
The Master sees through the smoke screens
    of the know-it-alls.

21-23 I don’t want to hear any of you bragging about yourself or anyone else. Everything is already yours as a gift—Paul, Apollos, Peter, the world, life, death, the present, the future—all of it is yours, and you are privileged to be in union with Christ, who is in union with God.

WHAT DO WE LEARN?

  • Leaders are servants of God.  Only God is to be worshiped.  Only.  God.
  • There is only one foundation upon whom we build our lives—Jesus Christ.
  • Leaders are imperfect, led by God’s Holy Spirit, always growing, called and sent by God to follow Jesus while helping others find and follow Him, too.
  • We are all saved by grace, redeemed to grow to be more and more like our Master, Jesus.  We are all called to help people find and follow Jesus, too.
  • We invite people, like ourselves, to accept Jesus as Savior and point them to Jesus as Lord of their lives.
  • God changes lives.  God causes us to grow.  This is His work in each of us.
  • In obedience to God, we provide the environment where God can do His best work in all of us. 
  • God has gifted all of us with abilities to help with specific tasks in His Kingdom work.
  • Our bodies are temples where God resides to all who invite Him in.  We take care of the “house” where God lives.
  • God is wisdom.  Seek God and ask for wisdom, “skills for living”, for this life.  He will provide all we need when we ask.
  • We have nothing or anyone to boast about, only Christ, who saved us from all our sins.  No man/woman can do what Jesus has done for us.  Complete redeeming, reconciling forgiveness is freely given by God because what Jesus Christ did on the cross.
  • There is no greater love than the love God has for those who believe in His Son. 

Lord,

Thank you, thank you, thank you.  May our only boast be always about You and what you have done for all who believe.

In Jesus Name, Amen

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

THE SIMPLICITY OF SALVATION

Posted on January 10, 2022 by randscallawayffm

“Where does poo come from?” A little boy asks his dad. 

“Well, son,” his father says, “food passes down the esophagus by peristalsis. It enters the stomach, where digestive enzymes induce a probiotic reaction in the alimentary canal. This contracts the protein before waste enters the colon. Water is absorbed, whereupon it enters the rectum finally to emerge as poo.”

“Wow,” the boy says. “So where does Tigger come from?”

Sometimes we go overboard with our explanations while failing to answer the simple wonderings of people, no matter what age.

As we tell the story of Jesus and how God and His Holy Spirit works in our lives, we get flustered at times, don’t we?  There is so much that God has done, is doing and will do in our lives, that it is mind boggling to explain.  So, how do we explain to others the relationship we have with God through Jesus?  Theological explanations are not the answer.  To say, “you just know when you know” doesn’t touch the surface of understanding for a person who doesn’t know.  So, what is the answer when telling the Good News of salvation?  Paul advises us to keep it simple.

CORINTHIANS—CALLED AND SENT

1 Corinthians 2, The Message

1-2 You’ll remember, friends, that when I first came to you to let you in on God’s sheer genius, I didn’t try to impress you with polished speeches and the latest philosophy. I deliberately kept it plain and simple: first Jesus and who he is; then Jesus and what he did—Jesus crucified.

3-5 I was unsure of how to go about this, and felt totally inadequate—I was scared to death, if you want the truth of it—and so nothing I said could have impressed you or anyone else. But the Message came through anyway. God’s Spirit and God’s power did it, which made it clear that your life of faith is a response to God’s power, not to some fancy mental or emotional footwork by me or anyone else.

6-10 We, of course, have plenty of wisdom to pass on to you once you get your feet on firm spiritual ground, but it’s not popular wisdom, the fashionable wisdom of high-priced experts that will be out-of-date in a year or so. God’s wisdom is something mysterious that goes deep into the interior of his purposes. You don’t find it lying around on the surface. It’s not the latest message, but more like the oldest—what God determined as the way to bring out his best in us, long before we ever arrived on the scene. The experts of our day haven’t a clue about what this eternal plan is. If they had, they wouldn’t have killed the Master of the God-designed life on a cross. That’s why we have this Scripture text:

No one’s ever seen or heard anything like this,
Never so much as imagined anything quite like it—
What God has arranged for those who love him.

But you’ve seen and heard it because God by his Spirit has brought it all out into the open before you.

10-13 The Spirit, not content to flit around on the surface, dives into the depths of God, and brings out what God planned all along. Who ever knows what you’re thinking and planning except you yourself? The same with God—except that he not only knows what he’s thinking, but he lets us in on it. God offers a full report on the gifts of life and salvation that he is giving us. We don’t have to rely on the world’s guesses and opinions. We didn’t learn this by reading books or going to school; we learned it from God, who taught us person-to-person through Jesus, and we’re passing it on to you in the same firsthand, personal way.

14-16 The unspiritual self, just as it is by nature, can’t receive the gifts of God’s Spirit. There’s no capacity for them. They seem like so much silliness. Spirit can be known only by spirit—God’s Spirit and our spirits in open communion. Spiritually alive, we have access to everything God’s Spirit is doing, and can’t be judged by unspiritual critics. Isaiah’s question, “Is there anyone around who knows God’s Spirit, anyone who knows what he is doing?” has been answered: Christ knows, and we have Christ’s Spirit.

WHAT DO WE LEARN?

For children, ask questions first to see where they are and what they are really asking.  This give you time to pause, pray and ask the Holy Spirit to give you the words in simple form with wisdom to answer what the child is really asking.  Ask questions before responding to all ages.

Paul gives the greatest advise, led by the Spirit, keep it simple; “first Jesus and who he is; then Jesus and what he did—Jesus crucified.  All our words, led by the Spirit, are centered on this foundational truth.

Paul, one the most learned men in the Jewish community, felt inadequate.  What?!  We all do, when it comes to explaining the most profound truth of God and His work of salvation through Jesus Christ His Son.  What God did for us, humbles us.  That’s okay!  That feeling of humbled inadequacy causes us to turn to Him to lead us in all our thoughts, words and deeds when telling about the most important relationship we will ever have!

Paul learns himself and teaches all of us, that it is GOD and the power of His Holy Spirit at work in and through us that produces the right words, at the right time, in the right Spirit.  Relax, it’s not us speaking.  We pray and yield, deferring to the One doing the speaking through us.  More simply put; We pray, God works.

“God’s wisdom is something mysterious that goes deep into the interior of his purposes.”  What are His purposes?  “… what God determined as the way to bring out his best in us, long before we ever arrived on the scene.”  Jesus is The Way, Truth and Life.  To all who believe, God gave His best for our best life forever with Him.  

“No one’s ever seen or heard anything like this,
Never so much as imagined anything quite like it—
What God has arranged for those who love him.”

God lets us in on what He is thinking.  He doesn’t hide the way to salvation!  “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16). 

God’s Holy Spirit provides God’s wisdom for daily living in His ways.  Led by the Spirit, we walk in His Spirit. “Spirit can be known only by spirit—God’s Spirit and our spirits in open communion. Spiritually alive, we have access to everything God’s Spirit is doing, and can’t be judged by unspiritual critics.”  Don’t you love that!

“Isaiah’s question, “Is there anyone around who knows God’s Spirit, anyone who knows what he is doing?” has been answered: Christ knows, and we have Christ’s Spirit.” 

Dear Friends, what hope, assurance, wisdom, clarity wrapped up in simplicity!  Jesus knows.  That’s all we need to know.  We have Jesus’ Spirit living in us.  He will guide us to all that is good, bringing out His best in us!

Lord,

Thank you for reminding us how simple and yet how profound you are!  Thank you for answers that are easily understood and go deep filling every part of my soul.  I’m humbled by what you did for me.  I also feel inadequate to explain your love expressed in the pain of crucifixion that paid my debt of sin.  The more I think about your love, the deeper our communion goes.  Help me to pause, pray and keep it simple in my responses to others, led by Your Holy Spirit, prompted by your love in me.

In Jesus Name, For Your Glory, Amen

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

YOU MUST GET ALONG! 

Posted on January 8, 2022 by randscallawayffm

We can all hear our parents, teachers, both public and Sunday School, along with coaches and youth workers, anyone with authority over us, shouting this with frustrated, passionate voices in the heat of chaos and bad tempers.  Disagreements come in all sizes.  They are about the way a game is played, how food is prepared, how a sandwich was divided, down to my personal favorite…crossing the imaginary line in the back seat. My brother and I dared each other to cross that line!  I discovered that all kids, my kids, do the same tireless game.  “Crossing the line” can cause war in our households unless diffused rapidly.  We discover it is easy to disagree about anything and everything!

You would think as we grow older, we would become wiser with learning to deescalate the wars of dissension, getting our own way, wanting to live life on our terms at all costs without the consideration of what others think. But we haven’t completely.  Selfishness, set in our own ways, jockeying for position, seep into our being and disrupt what God wants to do through his church.  It happens at church!?!  Yes, Linda, it happens severely and painfully within the church body.  We must remember we are not perfect, only perfectly forgiven, saved by grace alone not by works, so our “works”—God’s work in and through are called into question at times by others, criticizes unmercifully and gossip ensues. 

How can we get along as the Body of Christ?  Paul helps us as he helped the church at Corinth.  Cultivate a life in common.  Our commonality is Jesus Christ, crucified for all our sins, rose again, defeating death, so that we who truly believe will live with Him forever.  Go back to basics when trivial arguments rise up.  Remember Who gave us life, saved our souls, made us whole, renewed our Spirits, and restored the joy of His salvation in us.  Remember Who matures us in our walk with Him.  Remember Who to listen to for guidance with hearts of obedience.  Remember Jesus, Savior and Lord. 

Can’t we just get along?  God desires his “kids” in the back seat, with Jesus driving in the front, to forget about the imaginary lives drawn of hatred, jealousy, envy, comparisons—all behaviors opposite of God’s character.  Yield, instead to God’s Holy Spirit.  God’s character traits are matured in us when we all yield to our commonality—Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.  His Holy Spirit then works in us to bear his character, hour by hour, day by day.  See Galatians 5 for a list of the fruits of His holy character.

Remember where we came from when Jesus embraced and saved us.  “Take a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life.”

CORINTHIANS—CALLED AND SENT

1 Corinthians 1:10-31, The Message

The Cross: The Irony of God’s Wisdom

10 I have a serious concern to bring up with you, my friends, using the authority of Jesus, our Master. I’ll put it as urgently as I can: You must get along with each other. You must learn to be considerate of one another, cultivating a life in common.

11-12 I bring this up because some from Chloe’s family brought a most disturbing report to my attention—that you’re fighting among yourselves! I’ll tell you exactly what I was told: You’re all picking sides, going around saying, “I’m on Paul’s side,” or “I’m for Apollos,” or “Peter is my man,” or “I’m in the Messiah group.”

13-16 I ask you, “Has the Messiah been chopped up in little pieces so we can each have a relic all our own? Was Paul crucified for you? Was a single one of you baptized in Paul’s name?” I was not involved with any of your baptisms—except for Crispus and Gaius—and on getting this report, I’m sure glad I wasn’t. At least no one can go around saying he was baptized in my name. (Come to think of it, I also baptized Stephanas’s family, but as far as I can recall, that’s it.)

17 God didn’t send me out to collect a following for myself, but to preach the Message of what he has done, collecting a following for him. And he didn’t send me to do it with a lot of fancy rhetoric of my own, lest the powerful action at the center—Christ on the Cross—be trivialized into mere words.

18-21 The Message that points to Christ on the Cross seems like sheer silliness to those hellbent on destruction, but for those on the way of salvation it makes perfect sense. This is the way God works, and most powerfully as it turns out. It’s written,

I’ll turn conventional wisdom on its head,
I’ll expose so-called experts as shams.

So where can you find someone truly wise, truly educated, truly intelligent in this day and age? Hasn’t God exposed it all as pretentious nonsense? Since the world in all its fancy wisdom never had a clue when it came to knowing God, God in his wisdom took delight in using what the world considered stupid—preaching, of all things!—to bring those who trust him into the way of salvation.

22-25 While Jews clamor for miraculous demonstrations and Greeks go in for philosophical wisdom, we go right on proclaiming Christ, the Crucified. Jews treat this like an anti-miracle—and Greeks pass it off as absurd. But to us who are personally called by God himself—both Jews and Greeks—Christ is God’s ultimate miracle and wisdom all wrapped up in one. Human wisdom is so cheap, so impotent, next to the seeming absurdity of God. Human strength can’t begin to compete with God’s “weakness.”

26-31 Take a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life. I don’t see many of “the brightest and the best” among you, not many influential, not many from high-society families. Isn’t it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, chose these “nobodies” to expose the hollow pretensions of the “somebodies”? That makes it quite clear that none of you can get by with blowing your own horn before God. Everything that we have—right thinking and right living, a clean slate and a fresh start—comes from God by way of Jesus Christ. That’s why we have the saying, “If you’re going to blow a horn, blow a trumpet for God.”

WHAT DO WE LEARN?

Lay down all trivial pursuits, all that doesn’t matter and has nothing to do with Jesus saving our souls, His Holy Spirit growing our minds, along with God watching over the honesty and sincerity of our hearts.

“God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, chose these “nobodies” to expose the hollow pretensions of the “somebodies”.  We were nothing of real value for God’s Kingdom until Jesus gave us significance by the shedding of his blood for our sins.  We owe Jesus everything with every part of our lives.  Our whole created being belongs to Jesus.

Lord,

We get all in a tizzy about the stupidest things of this life that have no bearing on our salvation that gives us life forever with you.  Help us to see, really see what is going on, realizing who our real enemy is who plays on our selfishness.  Then help us to run from the enemy of division to you the completer, the unity of all things good.  You are Life.  You are Savior and Lord of our lives.  The closer we get to you, dear Jesus, the closer we get to each other.  We realize the depth of love you have for us also guides the amount of love we give to each other.  You love truly is without borders!  Lord, help us to love each other the way you love us.

In Jesus Name, For Your Glory, Amen! 

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

CORINTHIANS—CALLED AND SENT

Posted on January 7, 2022 by randscallawayffm

When people become believers in Jesus, they don’t at the same moment become nice.  This always comes as something of a surprise to more mature believers whose memories of their conversions and growth have been forgotten.  Though it shouldn’t.  Conversion to Christ and his ways doesn’t automatically furnish a person with impeccable manners and suitable morals.  We all are growing.  Paul reminds us in his letters to churches that growing is part of the process of following Jesus.

Eugene Peterson introduces us to the people of Corinth with whom Paul spent over a year as their pastor.  He states;

“The people of Corinth had a reputation in the ancient world as an unruly, hard-drinking, sexually promiscuous bunch of people.  When Paul arrived with the Message and many of them became believers in Jesus, they brought their reputations with them right into the church.”

“Paul spent a year and a half with them as their pastor, going over the Message of the ‘good news’ in detail, showing them how to live out this new life of salvation and holiness as a community of believers.  Then he went on his way to other towns and churches.”

“Sometime later Paul received a report from on of the Corinthian families that in his absence things had more or less fallen apart.  He also received a letter from Corinth asking for help.  Factions had developed, morals were in disrepair, worship had degenerated into a selfish grabbing for the supernatural.  It was the kind of thing that might have been expected from Corinthians!”

“Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians is a classic of pastoral response:  affectionate, firm, clear, and unswerving in the conviction that God among them, revealed in Jesus and present in his Holy Spirit, continued to be the central issue of their lives, regardless of how much a mess that had made of things.”

“Paul doesn’t disown them as brother and sister Christians, doesn’t throw them out because of their bad behavior, and doesn’t fly into a tirade over their irresponsible ways.  He takes it all more or less in stride, but also takes them by the hand and goes over all the old ground again, directing them in how to work all the glorious details of God’s saving love into their love for on another.”  (Peterson)

We who are called and sent (all of us) must realize that new believers need to grow in faith and that takes time.  Sometimes we expect too much, too soon and wonder why frustrated believers fall away and give up.  Oh, friends we must show the same love, mercy and grace as Paul demonstrates in this letter to messed up Corinthians who are new believers in Jesus. 

There is a reason that the ultimate mission of most churches is “help people find and follow Jesus”.  Finding is not as hard as teaching them to follow Jesus, not follow imperfect us, but Jesus.  Paul cares enough to confront his beloved brothers and sisters in Christ and goes over the teachings of Jesus again.  And again.  We are all messed up at once time or another.  No one is “good”, only God, said Jesus.  We are not perfect; we are only perfectly forgiven by Jesus.  We all are sinners saved only by the grace of Jesus.  We all need to learn to follow Him, be made holy by Him, who saved us for eternity.  This learning will take an eternity.  Wanting to learn makes God smile.  Our God is patient with those who learn to follow Him.

Hold all these thoughts in mind as we journey through both letters to the church at Corinth.  We being with chapter one, taking in small bites at a time, because this is good stuff to chew on.

1 Corinthians 1:1-9, The Message

1-2 I, Paul, have been called and sent by Jesus, the Messiah, according to God’s plan, along with my friend Sosthenes. I send this letter to you in God’s church at Corinth, believers cleaned up by Jesus and set apart for a God-filled life. I include in my greeting all who call out to Jesus, wherever they live. He’s their Master as well as ours!

3 May all the gifts and benefits that come from God our Father, and the Master, Jesus Christ, be yours.

4-6 Every time I think of you—and I think of you often! —I thank God for your lives of free and open access to God, given by Jesus. There’s no end to what has happened in you—it’s beyond speech, beyond knowledge. The evidence of Christ has been clearly verified in your lives.

7-9 Just think—you don’t need a thing, you’ve got it all! All God’s gifts are right in front of you as you wait expectantly for our Master Jesus to arrive on the scene for the Finale. And not only that, but God himself is right alongside to keep you steady and on track until things are all wrapped up by Jesus. God, who got you started in this spiritual adventure, shares with us the life of his Son and our Master Jesus. He will never give up on you. Never forget that.

WHAT WE LEARN FROM PAUL’S LEADERSHIP…

  • Begin with thanksgiving to God for your brothers and sisters.
  • Affirm who we are; believers cleaned up by Jesus and set apart for a God-filled life.
  • Remind believers of God’s gifts and benefits of believing and growing in His love and ways.
  • God will help us to grow.
  • God NEVER gives up on us.
  • God is always with us.

Whew, I needed these reminders, too!  How about you?  Who can we affirm with this truth today?  Pause, pray, let God provide us with opportunities to spur growth in ourselves while helping others to grow alongside us.  We are in this together until Jesus comes!

Lord,

I love how you teach us to follow as well as teaching us to seek you.  Because of your love, you never give up on us.  That truth in itself is amazing and so affirming today.  Thank you for Paul who was dramatically saved by you, dear Jesus, then called and sent to tell the good news along with the ways to live for You.  Thank you for your continued transformational growing process in me.  I’m still a work in process—YOUR work in me.

In Jesus Name, Amen

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | Leave a comment