Morning Reads: (1 Corinthians 4:9-16); (John 1:18-28) - 'Imitate Christ and Hit Your Reset Button"
Good Morning … Great is His Faithfulness …
Psalm 18.4,1Their voice has gone out into all the earth. Verse: The heavens declare the glory of God.
The reading is from St. Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians 4:9-16
Brethren, God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death; because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels and to men. We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are ill-clad and buffeted and homeless, and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we try to conciliate; we have become, and are now, as the refuse of the world, the off-scouring of all things. I do not write this to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. I urge you, then, be imitators of me.
4:10: IRONY and SARCASM are bitter medicine, and Paul uses them here-(vv. 8-13) with full force...The three parallel statements WE ARE FOOLS, WE ARE WEAK, WE ARE DISHONORED are heaped upon each other in a stinging series...The relative comfort of the Corinthians Christians is contrasted with the persecuted, poverty-stricken and uncertain life of the apostles-(vv. 11-13; see Mark 6:4; and Mark 9:35; and Mark 10:31)…
4:12-13: THE APOSTLES have endured all kinds of humiliation, being treated as FILTH, and instead of fighting back have responded with love toward their persecutors-all for the joy of serving Christ and reconciling the world to God...
4:14-16: PAUL SOOTHES THE SORENESS of his rebuke by reminding them of his fatherhood- (see the note on Matthew 22:9-10)…As in a family, so in the Church, maturing children need parental guidance...The apostles to the Gentiles-thus to most Christians-writes IMITATE ME because he imitates Christ- (1 Corinthians 11:1)…
- THESE NOTES ARE FROM PRVEVIOUS STUDIES - THESE NOTES ARE FROM MT STUDIES DONE OUT OF THE ORTHODOX STUDY BIBLE …
The Gospel According to John 1:18-28
No one has ever seen God; the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known.
And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, "Who are you?" He confessed, he did not deny, but confessed, "I am not the Christ." And they asked him, "What then? Are you Elijah?" He said, "I am not." "Are you the prophet?" And he answered, "No." They said to him then, "Who are you? let us have an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?" He said, "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, 'Make straight the way of the Lord,' as the prophet Isaiah said."
Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. They asked him, "Then why are you baptizing, if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?" John answered them, "I baptize with water; but among you stands one whom you do not know, even he who comes after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie." This took place in Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.
1:18: NO ONE HAS SEEN GOD AT ANY TIME: No one can see the nature, or essence, of God, for to see God is to die (Exodus 33:20) : Only One who Himself is divine can see God, and the SON is the only One who can DECLARE HIM: This revelations of God's energies can be received by the faithful: Moses saw the back of God (Exodus 33:21-23): Isaiah saw His glory (see- Isaiah 6:1, John 12:41)
- THESE NOTES ARE FROM PRVEVIOUS STUDIES - THESE NOTES ARE FROM MT STUDIES DONE OUT OF THE ORTHODOX STUDY BIBLE …
- I talked more about hitting our RESET BUTTON for th New Year getting right with God reconciling ourselves to Him and His Will …
Morning Psalm Prayer Focus: Psalm 3 …
In Christ Love Jared W Campbell