Ezekiel 24 -- This One Had To Have Shaken Ezekiel To His Core

I mourned with Ezekiel this morning.  God had continued to use things in his life as illustrations for the people of Judah, and this one hurt.  God told him:  “I am going to take you wife from you, the woman you look at with love.  She will die suddenly, but you must not be sad or cry loudly for her or shed any tears.  Groan silently; do not cry loudly or shed any tears.”  God also told him not to do any of the traditional things they normally did for funerals and mourning.  She was the desire of his eyes and God was taking her from him as a lesson to the nation of Judah.

That’s a hard lesson.  Did Ezekiel tell her?  If so, what were her thoughts about the part she was chosen to play?  How his heart must have ached and yet God did not permit him to show it.

In his sadness and despair, he then had to tell the people that God had allowed the invading army to overrun Jerusalem and destroy it and everyone in it that very day.  The Temple, which they thought gave them strength despite their sinfulness, had become the desire of their eyes, and it would be destroyed.  They would not be allowed to mourn for their murdered children either.

How this message he was given to deliver must have almost destroyed his heart!  And yet, because of God’s sovereignty, the only proper response would have been, “Yes, Lord …”  And in those two words we see Ezekiel’s response and what our response is supposed to be as well.  God has chosen, and God knows best.  God loves us more than we know, and more than we could ever love Him, and He has planned His best for us if we will but follow.  That’s the only answer I have.

Father, I trust You, and sometimes my little heart can’t understand.  At those times, all I know to do is to hold onto Your hand, and repeat, “I trust You, Lord.”

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Ezekiel 23 -- What God Was Going To Do To Get Their Attention

God told a story of two sisters, who presented Samaria (the capital of Israel) and Jerusalem (the capital of Judah).  He described in terrible ways how they had both traveled to Egypt in their youth and become prostitutes with the Egyptians before returning to the Promised Land and becoming prostitutes there for other nations as well.  The story actually describes their spiritual adultery, when they left God for the idol worship that other nations around them practiced.

As I was reading, God seemed to lead me to wonder what it would have been like to be in Jerusalem at that time, hearing all this about my nation, and that was really saddening.  Then I began to think about how any sin separates us from God, and as I read on my heart was saddened by the fact that this story, from God’s point of view, could describe His heartbreak as He sees any of us committing sins against Him.  As Christians, we are the bride of Christ, and therefore any sin amounts to spiritual adultery.  It’s not often that I’ve stopped and really understood that.

In verse 27, God said, “I will put a stop to the sinful life you began … so that you will not desire it or remember it anymore.”

I found myself longing for that to happen in my own life.  Those pet sins that each of us seem to harbor, that we almost cherish and don’t want to give up, that draw us away from God regularly – what would it be like not to desire them anymore?  It would be relief.  And it would draw us closer to God.

Father, please put a stop to sin in my life that draws me away from You.  I’d love to not desire it or even remember it anymore, instead basking in Your love for me!

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Ezekiel 21 & 22 -- The Fury Of A Holy And Righteous God

God gave Ezekiel a catalog of the sins that were being committed by His people in His Holy City.  They included bloodshed; idolatry; murder; contempt of parents; oppression of strangers, orphans, and widows; desecrating the temple; breaking the Sabbaths; slander; lewdness; immorality; adultery; incest; bribery; usury; and extortion.  That makes Jerusalem sound worse than just about any major world city today.  But there was one other sin that he mentioned that really caught my attention:  forgetfulness of the Lord God – “And you have forgotten me, says the Lord God.”

How many times do we do this and not even think about it?  Each time we choose to think an unclean thought and let our minds roam at will around it, rather than immediately fleeing the temptation, we are choosing to forget God, and we are just as guilty as they are – myself included. 

In chapter 21, Ezekiel was told to warn the people of God’s judgment for their unrepentant attitudes toward sin.  Ezekiel describes the fearfulness of God’s coming judgment  which will satisfy the fury of Jehovah, as my commentary described it.

God’s own people were running rough-shod over His commands, and they felt no remorse over their actions.  God had had enough.  Will He also lose His patience with us?

Father, our sins as a nation are reaching epidemic proportions.  I groaned last night, as Ezekiel did, as I kept hearing more and more information about what America no longer seems to stand for.  Please help me to not be guilty of forgetting You.  Let purity be the watchword in my own home.  Raise up leaders who honor You and follow Your commands, and who acknowledge You as God and acknowledge Your right to rule over us.  As a nation, let us not be forgetful of You, inviting the fearfulness of Your coming judgment to satisfy the fury of a holy and righteous God.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Ezekiel 19 & 20 -- What God Will Do For His Name's Sake

In one of the previous times I’d read chapter 20, I’d noted that God had said three different times that He’d done what He’d done “for the sake of My Name so it would not be dishonored.”  The last thing God wanted to happen was for the people of other nations to laugh at the Israelites’ reliance on Him because it might appear that He couldn’t fulfill His promises.

God’s name is everything.  It speaks of His power and His character, His holiness and His uniqueness.  It was so sacred that the Jewish people would not even speak it out loud, and to prevent that from happening, they removed all of the vowels when they wrote it down, lest they be inadvertently pronounced by someone who didn’t know what they were reading.

In Biblical times, a name described the person, telling one much about him or her.  What could possibly describe our God?  How could one name thoroughly represent all that He is?  We are limited in our understanding of Him by the very limits of our languages here on earth.

One thing is certain – God was willing to deal with even idolaters to cause them to turn back to Himself.  No one was beyond grace.  That condition in and of itself would seem to be putting a limit on what God was willing or able to do.  He wanted none to perish, lest the rest of the world say He failed.  Yet He also had to balance that against His holiness.  A holy God cannot tolerate sin in His presence.

Father, I’m so thrilled that You so zealously guarded Your name and Your reputation.  With the same care that You took back then, You pursued me and brought me back to You – all for the sake of Your name!

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Ezekiel 17 & 18 -- God IS Fair

I love Chapter 18, because it is titled “God Is Fair”.  For several years, before I read my Bible regularly, I really wondered about that, and in fact I couldn’t find anything that really said He was fair until I found this chapter years ago.

The people of Israel had a saying, stated in verse 2, which blamed their sins on the failures of their ancestors.  It was based on Exodus 20:5 where God had directed that the consequences of sin could be passed down to several generations.  They had taken it to mean that they could blame their sinfulness on their ancestors.  But God here clearly states that individuals are held responsible for their own sins.  Yes, they might still suffer consequences from the sins of others, but never the guilt of those sins.

God clearly says that obedience is what He desires from us, and that includes belief in what His Son did on the cross for us.  He wants us to change our hearts and lives when we do sin, stopping our habitual sins, and He promises us a new heart and a new way of thinking.  He also says He will forget our sins when we come to Him in repentance and ask forgiveness.

I’ll bet the people were by now realizing that by claiming God was unfair had really slipped up.  They’d been able (in their own minds) to blame their sin on their ancestors, and now God had disavowed them of that notion.  Now they didn’t like having to be personally responsible for their own conduct.  It highlights what God says elsewhere that the human heart is deceitful above all else!

Father, I have no one to blame for my own sin except myself.  You offer ways of escape and limits on temptation.  If I choose not to utilize them and to sin anyway, I am to blame.  As You say here, You are fair.  It’s always been me trying to cheat the system, as have all the people on earth since You created us.  I’m sorry.  Help me not to try to blame my sins on anyone else.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Ezekiel 16 -- God's Description Of His People In Jerusalem As A Prostitute

The history of God’s people in Jerusalem from His perspective is not a pretty sight.  He portrays them as an unwanted newborn tossed out in a field.  He picked up the baby and gave it life and made it grow.  God betrothed the young woman to Himself and intended for her to have a beautiful life, richly clothing her.  “Your beauty was perfect because of the glory I gave you,” God said.

She trusted in her own beauty, though, rather than in God, and like a prostitute, she used the desire the other nations felt for her blessings from God to draw them in to sin sexually with them, committing spiritual adultery against God by worshiping their idols.  Unlike a prostitute, who gets paid, she paid others to have sex with her!

That speaks of an absolute lack of any self-esteem and seeking to fill the God-shaped hole in the heart with anything or anyone but God.

But God also promises to remember His agreement with His people and to continue it forever.  They will feel ashamed when they remember what they’ve done to Him, and He will forgive them for all the things they have done.  That’s an unconditional promise.  Only God could have that much love.  Only God could forgive than much sin against Him.  Only God could restore such a self-destroyed relationship.  And we are to love only God.

Father, I surely can’t say that I’m any better than Jerusalem in this chapter.  I’ve disappointed and disrespected You over the years, and I too have openly rebelled against You.  I too was totally unworthy of Your grace, and yet You showed it to me anyway.  You drew me to Yourself, cleaned me up, and made me useful to You again.  I cannot thank You enough for loving me when I was so unlovely.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Ezekiel 14 & 15 -- What Part Of The Vine Am I?

God gave Ezekiel a visual image of what idol-worship was doing to His people.  Today, that same picture can be applied to carnal Christians.

God asked, “Is the wood of the vine better than the wood of any tree in the forest?  Can wood be taken from the vine to make anything?  Can you use it to make a peg on which to hang something?”

It’s easy to imagine someone taking wood from a tree and cutting it into something useful, like boards for a table or a house.  I even have a lamp, a coffee table, and a fireplace mantle made from mesquite wood.

God asks us to compare that to the wood from a vine.  My grandmother had a low chicken-wire fence separating her property from the alley, and she’d planted honeysuckle along it that over the years had covered the fence on both sides, hiding anything in the alley from the view from the house.  My cousins and I had great fun hollowing out the insides of the honeysuckle vines to make a “blind” in which to hide.  With no tools, it was still very easy to break the “wood” of the vine and get it out of the way.  Those “limbs” we removed were good for nothing, including even making a stick to chew on.  We’d gather them up and throw them into the trash barrel.

My commentary said, “A vine is good only for bearing fruit; it is not good for making furniture or even a little peg … As branches in Christ, the True Vine, our chief function is to bear fruit for God.  Primarily that means the development of Christian character as seen in the fruit of the Spirit.”

Regardless of any high opinion we may have of ourselves as to our usefulness, God wants us to part of the Vine – not the dead part underneath that has failed to move and that has been eclipsed by other branches, but the vital part out on the edges, absorbing the Sonshine and bearing fruit for Him.

Father, I want to remain closely connected to You.  I want to feel Your spiritual nourishment moving in and through me the way nutrients move through a vine to its branches.  Help me to concentrate on my main task – bearing fruit for You.  Keep me from all “unvinely” things.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Ezekiel 13 -- Where Is YOUR Wall Crumbling?

Verse 5 has caught my attention every time I’ve read this chapter.  It says, “Israel is like a house in ruins, but you have not gone up into the broken places or repaired the wall.  So how can Israel hold back the enemy in the battle on the Lord’s day of judging?”

Just as an unoccupied house will start to deteriorate on its own from neglect, our spiritual lives can do the same.  We can be just as guilty as the Israelites were of whitewashing over our sins rather than clearing out the spiritual debris causing the weakness and firmly mortaring up the breeches in our spiritual defenses to protect us from Satan’s attacks.  If we are too lazy or preoccupied to do the hard work of keeping up our defenses, we simply give Satan extra ammunition to throw at us.

Father, please help me to regularly examine my spiritual perimeter, being honest with myself and with You about where and when I’m most vulnerable to attack.  Help me to clean out, repair, and shore up those breeches to not give Satan a foothold in attacking my life.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Ezekiel 12 -- Able To Hear, But Not Listening

God’s words about His disobedient people are heartbreaking.  He said, “They have eyes to see, but they do not see, and they have ears to hear, but they do not hear, because they are a people who refuse to obey … They will know that I am the Lord when I scatter them among the nations and spread them among the countries.”

What I gathered from that was God saying, “I made them capable of obeying Me.  They had within them what it takes to hear My voice and to see what I’m doing!  Yet because of their stubborn willfulness, they are losing that ability.”

The only way for them to regain that ability was to take them out of their comfort zone to a place where they would need him again and cry out to Him and change their hearts and lives.  And God loved them enough, despite their disobedience, to take them there.

Father, I know You’ve done that in my life, too.  Like a song I hear said, “I spent a week away from You last night.”  I’m so glad that You’ve softened my heart to the point where I regret disobedience and that the time I spend away from You seems lots longer than it really is.  Thank You for quickening my heart to Yours.  Keep it beating for You always.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Ezekiel 10-11 -- What God Can Do

The Spirit of God transported Ezekiel from Babylonia to Jerusalem and back in a vision.  He was told to prophesy against the leaders who remained in Jerusalem.  They had been telling everyone that the Israelites who had already been taken to exile in Babylonia were far from God, and that those remaining in Jerusalem were the loyal ones when exactly the opposite was true.

God promised to gather the remnant from all the nations back to Israel and to give them the land again.  That was an amazing promise, but what he said next was even more amazing:

“I will give them a desire to respect me completely, and I will put inside them a new way of thinking.  I will take out the stubborn heart of stone from their bodies, and I will give them an obedient heart of flesh.  Then they will live by My rules and obey My laws and keep them.  They will be My people and I will be their God.”

Father, absent the transforming power of Your Holy Spirit and Your deep love for me, my heart would be unable to love You.  Thank You for taking out the cold black heart of stone that my sin had created and for replacing it with an obedient heart of flesh.  Help me to obey You.  Thank You for allowing me to be Your child and for being my God.  I would have no other!

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Ezekiel 7-9 -- We Don't Want To Go There

God has had enough of the wanton disregard that His people have been showing for Him.  God’s righteous anger is easily seen in what He says:  “I will make you pay for the way you have lived [doesn’t that remind you of “the wages of sin is death”?], and for your actions that I hate … I will judge you for the way you have lived and will make you pay for everything you have done that I hate.  I will show no pity and I will not hold back punishment.  I will pay you back for the way you have lived … Look, they are insulting me every way they can.  So I will act in anger.  I will have no pity, nor will I show mercy … The land is filled with people who murder, and the city is full of people who are not fair [sounds like these are equal sins] … I will bring their evil back on their heads.”

So many people look upon passages like these, compare them to the peaceful words of Jesus, and decide that the God of the Old Testament was a mean, vengeful God – very different from the God of the New Testament.  Once I said that myself.  I was wrong.  Just like them, I conveniently failed to mention what the people were doing, instead blaming God for being vengeful!

But there is no shadow of turning with God.  The shadow was on us.  The people had decided that their individual freedoms were more important than His presence in their lives.  Absorbed with self, they wanted to be able to do anything they desired without consequences. 

Had God allowed that to go unpunished, what would that say about His character and His holiness?  His word and His promises would carry no weight.  He would become just like the idols that the people were worshiping, easily swayed by bribes from their subjects (or so the people thought).  That doesn’t describe God at all.  Instead, it only highlights man’s sin and his need to bring everyone around him down to his own level of misery.  God won’t do that.  He can’t.  He has to be the One constant and the One ideal in a world severely infected with sin.  We need a God like that, not one that caters to our whims.

Father, please make me miserable when the way that I live doesn’t agree with Your Word.  Cause me to ache when my sin disappoints You.  Use those hurts to lead me to repentance.  Don’t let me ever believe that I can do anything I want.  You show here what happens to those kinds of people, and I never want that to happen to me.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Ezekiel 4-6 -- Living Out A Lesson

I’m sure the Israelites were stunned to hear Ezekiel’s pronouncements from God.  After all, they’d encouraged humanism and individual rights to the point that God had become an afterthought to them.  They’d tolerated the sin of the existing inhabitants of Canaan despite God’s clear commands as they’d taken the Promised Land.  And just as God had predicted, that small remnant of idol worshipers had swayed the entire nation.

God had watched patiently as they’d run headlong into sin, establishing idol worship altars on all the beautiful mountains surrounding the City of David – His original creation, prepared for His people, now being desecrated by their sin.

The images that God directed him to portray were of destruction.  The profane things would be destroyed and uncleanness would describe everything that remained.  “I will use My power against them to make the land empty and wasted from the desert to Diblah, wherever they live.  Then they will know that I am the Lord,” God said.  “They will remember how I was hurt because they were unfaithful to Me and turned away from Me and desired to worship their idols.  They will hate themselves because of the evil things they did that I hate.  Then they will know that I am the Lord.  I did not bring this terrible thing on them for no reason.”

God longs for us to know Him.  He desires our close communion with Him that Adam and Eve first enjoyed in the Garden of Eden.  That had been His original plan for us.  But our sin got in the way.  We distrusted Him and His motives, as we often still do today.  Because we aren’t capable of loving with perfect love, we find it impossible to believe that He is capable of it.  And that distrust leads us to feelings of entitlement – that He is somehow holding out on us – the same thing Satan worked to convince Eve  that God was allegedly doing back in the Garden.

Who could blame God for His reaction?  No one!  He is absolutely justified in every action and reaction.  His motives are pure.  He takes us to the bottom of the well sometimes so that we will realize our sin and look up to Him for grace, mercy, and forgiveness.  He has to bring us to that point once again where we are willing to admit, “You’re God, and I’m not.”

Father, forgive me for the times I’ve ever doubted Your absolute love for me.  Help me to always trust that everything You are doing in my life is designed to bring me closer to You and closer to the life You intended for me, but which I thoroughly made a mess of, just like the people in Ezekiel’s time.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Ezekiel 2 & 3 -- Commanded And Enabled

As I read this morning, it seemed that God kept bringing to mind something I’ve read many times in my commentary:  “God’s commands are His enablements.”  In other words, when God commands us to do something, at the same time He grants us grace to get it done.  For instance, He told Ezekiel to stand up on his feet (Ezekiel was bowing before the presence and glory of God).  Then Ezekiel said, “While He spoke to me, the Spirit entered me and put me on my feet.”

God ordered him to speak His words to the Israelites and even warned that they’d be stubborn.  He gave Ezekiel confidence by saying, “But they will know that a prophet has been among them,” and three times He tells Ezekiel not to be afraid.”

God also assured Ezekiel that there would be many who would not listen because of their stubbornness.  Then God once again commands and enables Ezekiel by changing his personality.  “I now make you as stubborn and hard as they are.  I am making you as hard as a diamond, harder than stone.” 

The first thing Ezekiel had to do was buy into the message he was to deliver.  God said, “Human, believe all the words I will speak to you …”  Once again, His commands are His enablements, and Ezekiel believed.

After being empowered by God, Ezekiel was “unhappy and angry.”  That’s because he agreed with God about the condition of the people, and he now possessed the hardness of a diamond which enabled him to possess the stubbornness to want to see them change their lives despite the unpopular nature of the message.

God warned him of his own blood-guiltiness if he failed to deliver the message.  Once the people heard, then his part was done and they would be the guilty ones.  I also noticed a clear reminder that works do not save.  In 3:20, God says, “They will die because of their SIN, and the good they did will not be remembered.”

My commentary also noted in the last part of chapter 3 that Ezekiel was prevented by God from talking for awhile and this serves to show us that we aren’t to cram the Gospel down the throats of everyone, but instead to those God directs.

Father, I believe that a little of the stubbornness – that diamond-like quality You describe – is what all believers need to enable us to persevere until we break through the tough crust that sin forms around the souls of those who’ve practiced sin for years.  Please enable me to not be shy in speaking to those You direct me to, and to have that diamond-hardness of caring where they spend eternity.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Ezekiel 1 -- What Am I Hearing?

As this book opened, I was reminded of a prisoner of war, scratching a mark in the walls of his prison cell as he tried to keep up with the passing of time in captivity – “the fifth day of the month of the fifth year that King Jehoiachin had been a prisoner.”  For five YEARS Ezekiel had been away from home – Jerusalem. He was being held in enemy territory – Babylon – modern day Iraq.  Even the king had been taken captive, and Ezekiel had no word on the condition of the capital.

But in the middle of this war, God showed up.  He had a message for His wayward people that Ezekiel is about to receive.  God hadn’t forgotten them.  Instead, He was retraining them to trust Him again and to follow His commands.  In this first chapter, Ezekiel records his visions of God, and they are so far beyond his ability to describe and our ability to comprehend that what he tells us about what he saw when the sky opened sounds incredulous.  Two things seemed to be pounding his subconscious:  These were living creatures he was seeing, and they were Spirit-led and Spirit-directed.  God was directing them, not aliens (as some might suggest).  And if God was in control, Ezekiel had nothing to fear.

Father, it feels like our country is in captivity now – not off in some foreign land as Ezekiel found himself, but perhaps taken by some occupying force.  Our minds have trouble comprehending that it is actually happening, but our hearts tell us otherwise.  Like Ezekiel, I may not understand what is going on, but I can take a lesson from other times when I haven’t understood.  I simply say, “I trust You, God.”

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

1 Corinthians 16 -- Do I TRUST Him Or Not?

Paul gave the Corinthians – and us – instructions about giving to the Lord’s work.  Verse 2 says, “On the first day of every week, each one of you should put aside money as you have been blessed.”

My commentary noted some very important stuff about what was said here:

First, every believer was asked to do this.

Second, It was to be systematically done, not haphazardly.  Once we get into a habit of giving, it becomes natural for us to do so.  It also keeps us from the temptation to horde material wealth.

Thirdly, It was also to be done proportionately – “As you have been blessed.”  Those who have little were still to have a part in giving, while those who had much could give accordingly as well, not sparingly.

What an amazing work could be done if all believers simply trusted God enough to follow through with Paul’s commands!  Those in the world could so easily see the hearts of Christians as new programs touched the lives of the lost and the hurting!  After all, these collections were for the welfare of those who were being ostracized because of their faith and had lost their jobs, families … everything.

Father, I pray that You will speak to the hearts of every believer about this.  Our world would be a totally different place!  It simply comes down to trust, and I trust You, God!

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

1 Corinthians 15 -- There Will Be A Day ...

For several days now, I’ve mourned the passing of the son of a boyhood friend.  I think God saved this chapter for just such a time as this.  My thoughts had turned to what I would do if this ever happened to my one of my own sons. 

Paul says, “But God’s grace has made me what I am, and His grace to me was NOT wasted.”  What a tragedy it would be to have been given such grace, and then see it wasted on a lifetime that was not lived for Him.  Thank You for becoming my Lord and Master and helping me to live my life in a way that tells the world how much I appreciate Your grace, Father!

“If our hope in Christ is for this life ONLY, we should be pitied more than anyone else in the world.”  Even though knowing You and being called Your friend is beyond belief, You didn’t save us just for the remaining few years You give us on this earth.  Instead, You want us to be with You forever – an eternity with the One who loved us before the world was formed!  How awesome! 

“Death’s power to hurt is sin, and the power of sin is the law.  But we thank God!  He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ … Death, where is your victory?  Death, where is your sting?”  Paul knew, because Jesus had told him, that death is never an end for the Christian.  It is instead the beginning of what we’re trained on this earth to do – spend eternity with our Maker – the One who loves us and wants us by His side for all time.

I’ll be there, Father – beside You, as will my sons.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

1 Corinthians 14 -- Best Advice For Your Church?

Paul wants to point out what our church services are to be about and what shouldn’t be happening in them.  The Corinthians were shooting for the sensational and entertaining.  It was all about glitz, and Paul called them out on it.

Paul wasn’t saying that church had to be boring.  Nor was he saying that reverence and order should be the main rule.  Indeed, he even favored an open style of teaching and worship, almost tag-teaming as God spoke through different individuals.  But there was a common thread:  “ … speaking to people to give them strength, encouragement, and comfort.”  It also wasn’t only about “me”.  In fact, many times Paul urges that the ones who were only concerned with self should sit down.  He said, “The purpose of all these things should be to help the church grow strong. “  I think that could be a key factor in helping us make changes that will lead more nonbelievers to come to accept Christ, and  lead those who are already believers to take on responsibility for helping get God’s message out.

Father, move me over if I’m ever in the way of what You’re doing in our church.  Help me to understand that strengthening, encouraging, and comforting are a big part of what we’re to be doing, and don’t ever let my desires get in the way of that.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

1 Corinthians 13 -- The Love Chapter In MINISTRY

Today, I hear Paul telling about ministry without love and spirituality without love.  In youth ministry, I’ve so often heard it said, “They don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”  And that fits right in with what Paul’s saying, since he’s talking to the congregation of the church at Corinth about ministry.

We as Christians are all supposed to be in ministry.  We are to focus on the lost and hurting of this world, and just as a hurt puppy will snap in self-defense at anyone he fears may cause him additional pain, those hurting in this world naturally raise their own self-defenses.  Love is God’s way of breaking through those defenses.

That’s were patience and kindness are most important.  Within the one ministering, jealousy, bragging, and pride take our eyes off the Master as we struggle to instead see ourselves.  As we react to the hurting, the lost, and the lonely, they will easily be put off by rudeness and selfishness, and they’ll even attempt to upset us so that we will give a little of that back, allowing them an excuse to pull away yet again.

Where evil attempts to hide the truth, we have to diligently persevere so that the truth will not remain hidden, and if backlashes do occur, we’ve got to patiently expect and accept them knowing that healing can be a start-and-stop process.  No matter what happens, our byword has to be:  “I trust You, God!”  That trust will give us the hope we need to keep going when we feel like quitting.

So many times, I think Satan tempts us by playing the “me” card, wanting us to refocus on self and take our eyes off of the ones God is sending our way.  But those are childish reactions.  As we grow spiritually, those are the kinds of things we should put off as we put on Christ in our daily lives.

“When I became a man …” in verse 11 implies that I have indeed matured, particularly spiritually.  And a man doesn’t act like a child.  Satan would have us believe that we are still not men, because that gives us an excuse for childish reactions.

Father, there is such wisdom in Your words today!  They help me to position myself to do a better job of both helping others and representing You.  Keep me from the temptations of childish reactions, and allow me to show Your love in everything I do.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

1 Corinthians 12 -- Perfectly Made As God Intended

The Corinthians had decided there was superstar status Christians could achieve based on spiritual gifts, particularly when one was able to speak a foreign language he’d never studied or if he could understand the same.  It was beginning to sound like a two-class society, and those without that gift were feeling left out and insignificant.

Paul went through a list of spiritual gifts, listing the language gifts last.  He wanted them to see that God had instituted a diversity of gifts for a reason, and any longing or desire for a gift we hadn’t been given really amounted to coveting, which is sin.

Verse 18 seemed to get to the heart of the matter, and about it, my commentary said, “In His matchless wisdom, God has arranged the different members … in the body just as He please.  We should give Him credit for knowing what He is doing.  We should be profoundly grateful for whatever gift He has given us and joyfully use it for His glory and for building up others.  To be envious of someone else’s gift is sin.  It is rebellion against God’s perfect plan for our lives.”

Father, I do not have many of the gifts Paul mentioned here.  But I’ve come to understand over time that You have me right where You want me, and You have uniquely gifted me to allow me to fulfill the plan You have for me.  My only response should be praise for Your wisdom and provision as I do my best to fulfill Your plan for me.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

1 Corinthians 11 -- Opinions Or Fact?

“In the things I tell you now, I do not praise you, because when you come together, you do more harm than good.  First I hear that when you meet together as a church you are divided … (It is necessary to have differences among you so that it may be clear which of you really have God’s approval.)”

My commentary makes a distinction between strong opinions and actual facts, saying that the sinful nature of our flesh often leads us to accept opinion as fact when in fact it is not.

In many churches, for instance, worship styles can cause divisions.  Since scripture mentions worship with hymns and songs of praise, there is no scriptural basis for accepting on and excluding the other.  Yet this issue has severed to divide many churches, whether by actual splits or dissention within the ranks.  In actuality, as Paul says, these are matters of opinion only, and he cites the cause of the divisions as carnality among the members – living as the world does and not as Christians should. 

My commentary says, “Divisions are proof that some have failed to discern the mind of the Lord.”  A quite natural response is usually, “Yes, and it’s the other group that has failed in their discernment.”  The strong opinions would seem to say otherwise.

In my Bible’s sidebar today, it said that the Corinthians had allowed some parts of their worship to become times of selfishness and bickering.  “Lack of respect and concern for others undermined their gathering for worship.”  The remedy?  “Careful self-examination of our motives along with a good dose of courtesy and love … Don’t gripe about it.  Accept it.  Realize that as you put aside your preference, another Christian is able to worship better through it.”

Father, I’d hate to be numbered among those whom Paul was having to correct here.  I don’t want to ever be guilty of drawing others away from You in worship.  Help me to always base my decisions on clear scriptural bases, and remind me that strong opinions have no place in worship of You, for they are too much about me.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

1 Corinthians 10 -- Keeping Our Hearts Out Of Egypt

Paul tells us what we can learn from the mistakes in Israel’s past.  I loved some of the descriptions in my commentary:

“Although all Israel left Egypt … yet the sad truth is that although their bodies were in the wilderness, yet their hearts were still back in Egypt.  They enjoyed a physical deliverance from the bondage of Pharaoh, but they still lusted after the sinful pleasures of that country … The children of Israel were actually examples for us, showing us what will happen to us if we also lust after evil things as they did … The Israelites did not practice self-control with regard to their bodies.  They did not discipline their bodies or put them in a place of subjection.  Rather, they made PROVISION FOR the lusts of the flesh, and this proved to be their downfall.”

Hearing all that, we might be tempted to think that, if they had God present among them on a daily basis, in the pillar of fire and the covering cloud, and still were so tempted, then what chance do we have?  Paul answers in verses 12-13:  “If you think you are strong [that you won’t be caught in sin], you should be careful not to fall [you are setting yourself up to fail].  The only temptation that has come to you is that which everyone has.  But you can trust God, who will not permit you to be tempted more than you can stand.  But when you are tempted, He will also give you a way to escape so that you will be able to stand.”

So how should we then live?  If we would think of ourselves as having weakened immune systems (in regard to sin) and stay away from those things that tempt us as such a person would avoid a quarantine wing of a hospital, we’d be smart.  And when we find ourselves in the middle of temptation, rather than thinking of even dabbling in it, we should take the method of escape God offers and run from it at once.  Here God is not promising to deliver us, but He is promising to limit the intensity of the temptation, my commentary says.  So He provides the way, but we must move our feet in that direction.  Unlike Israel, we must keep our hearts out of Egypt.

Father, how I wish You’d given us the ability to forget our past sins as You are capable of doing, for I know that it is tempting to relive them, just as the Israelites were doing.  Sharpen my senses to allow me to see BETTER when temptation is coming, including the temptation to remember, and remind me in those circumstances of the way out the You’ve provided.

Your Brother In Christ

1 Corinthians 9 -- Why We Do It

This last week, both of my sons were running in track meets – the first of this season.  It was my youngest’s first meet ever, running in two events.  His small body is so much like mine was at that age – hardly an ounce of muscle on it, and running as fast as he could, he was still outmatched by most of the already-muscular guys from other schools.

My oldest, on the other hand, has really grown and developed since last track season.  Where last year he seemed to be checking off a box that indicated he’d indeed competed in each event, this year he was going all out.  He was running to WIN.

Paul tells us in verse 24 that we should run to win in our spiritual lives.  He doesn’t mean winning our salvation, for that would be works.  Instead, he’s talking about reward for faithfully sharing the gospel.

My commentary talks about our motivation.  “Under law the motive was fear, but under grace the motive is love.  Love is a far higher motive than fear.  Men will do out of love what they would never do from terror.”

I witnessed that in my oldest’s running this week.  His work on two relay teams (on both he was running the first leg) would set the pace for the rest of his team, and I believe his caring for them pushed him in his performance.  As Christians, we should be raised to a new level of behavior, my commentary said, desiring to live a holy life, not out of fear of punishment for having broken the law, but out of love for Christ, who died for us and rose again.

Father, I want love for You and Your Son to be my sole motivation for everything I do.  I don’t want anything to be done out of a sense of duty, for that can often lead to a feeling of forced service.  Instead, I want to run a race of trying to outlove Your love for me, full well knowing it will be impossible.  But I still want to try.  For You have loved me so much by sending Your Son to die for my sins so that I can be with You both in heaven.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford