Sunday 6th April
Read Psalm 103
If you don’t have a bible at home you can find the readings on a website such as www.biblegateway.com or an app such as YouVersion
I’m sure if you worship at Loanhead Church regularly you will know Matt Redman’s song based on this Psalm, “Bless the Lord O my soul” or sometimes called “10,000 reasons”
https://youtu.be/ZQqqwRqCgAw?si=r8X2xcxVT_dCeUqF
It’s a wonderful Psalm full of many reasons to praise and worship God – here’s just one:-
“He does not treat us as our sins deserve
or repay us according to our iniquities.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him” (vs 10,11)
Spend a quiet moment this morning giving thanks in prayer.
READINGS FOR THE WEEK AHEAD
As you read the Bible Stop; Read; Ponder; and Pray.
Monday 1 Corinthains 9:1-23
Paul embarks on a long section in which he highlights self-discipline beginning the chapter with questions to the Corinthians “Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? etc. while emphasising his role in their conversion. Some appear to be judging him as being lesser than some of the other apostles because he isn’t paid, he has worked for his living, he isn’t accompanied by a wife like some of the other apostles. He challenges them quite forcefully that as God’s apostle to them he had every right to be supported by them but didn’t use that right because he didn’t want to hinder the gospel he was preaching avoiding any argument that he was doing what he was doing for monetary gain.
He quotes from the Old Testament, backing up his claim by showing that the priests in the Temple received their living from the offerings of the people. He shows his self-limiting for the sake of the Gospel. A namesake of mine, the Rev Paul Steele of Cupertino Valley Church in California told his congregation that if they stopped paying him he would carry on doing exactly what he had been doing, ministering the gospel in preaching and caring because that was what God had called him for, not for the sake of getting money. A minister or pastor’s calling has always to be above monetary gain although it is right and proper that those ministered to ought to support them.
Tuesday 1 Corinthians 9:24-27
Paul completes his arguments about self-limiting and self-control by referring to athletes who train vigorously for the competitions they are engaged in. He says that he is like them not running aimlessly or shadow boxing but “beats” his body to keep it under or make it his slave because he doesn’t want to be a failure or be disqualified for not competing seriously.
Being a Christian believer involves the hardship of self-control. It is so much easier to just follow in line behind the world about us and live in the same way and for the same ends. That’s not the way, says Paul, keeping ourselves and all our desires and wants under control is the only way to be a good servant of the Lord.
Wednesday 1 Corinthians 10:1-13
This chapter starts with something that throws a “queer ball” at us because it takes us back to the Old Testament and to the deliverance of the people of Israel from Egypt. The ‘cloud’ was the presence of God with them and the ‘sea’ the Red Sea which they crossed. Paul speaks of them being baptised in the cloud and the sea becoming united with Moses in his calling. Drinking from the rock reminded them of Moses striking the rock at Horeb in Exodus 17 so that they would have water to drink. All these things happened to them yet, nevertheless, God was not pleased with them and they suffered punishment and death in their wilderness wanderings. Paul highlights the way the people ‘broke out’ when Moses was up the mountain receiving the law from God and when he came down they were indulging in revelry and immorality .
Paul says that these things in the Old Testament were written as warnings to us who are in the latter days so that if we think we are standing firm we should beware lest we fall. The verses that follow are well known about no temptation being impossible to resist because God will not let us be tempted beyond what we can bear but will provide a way of escape.
The message for us today is not to think we can’t learn from the past particularly when it comes to matters sexual. An old African Proverb says “Don’t tear down a fence before you know what it was put up for”. Wisdom will always prove itself right.
Thursday 1 Corinthians 10:14-11:1
Paul looks at the subject of eating food which was involved in the worship of idols and he reminds them of their communion participation where in the Holy Sacrament, as they ate and drank, they were participating in the death of Christ and were being united as one body. If they ate of food offered to idols they were participating in what those idols stood for, not that idols were anything of themselves, but that was what the food was for and to be involved would mean they were allying themselves with the demons behind the idols. His advice then is not to take part in an idols table where they belong round the Lord’s table.
So, his practice and advice to them is that where meat is sold in the food market, without any reference to idols, they should go ahead and purchase and eat without having any scruples also if an unbeliever invites you to a meal, eat whatever is put before you without raising questions of conscience but if someone says “this has been offered in sacrifice” then don’t eat. The thing to avoid is doing anything that will injure the conscience of another. Paul says, “I am free” but for the sake of another I will restrict myself in how I live. This is the pattern of true Christian living in any way though the subject of eating meat offered to idols is no longer with us. We need to think of whare the essence of this teaching might apply in our modern lives.
Now, here is a chapter to get heads scratching – particularly as it is about heads! Paul begins by thanking them for holding on to the traditions he passed on to them but then embarks on a matter that he feels needs attention. The big question here is whether what is being spoken about is time based or generally applicable in whatever age. I would suggest that there is a mixture of both. Issues of attire vary across cultures and ages and could be seen a bit like the food subject already dealt with. In any age attire has a sexual element in both men and women; there is a definite element of male/female in attire – which Drag Queens obviously highlight and mimic. In a modern setting a woman with a short flimsy skirt and very visible cleavage would probably be felt to be inappropriate in worship; in Exodus 20:26 priests were told to wear longer garments so that their modesty would be protected as they ascended the steps to the altar. Modesty in dress so as not to make worship sexually explicit or teasing we could all understand and agree with and Paul’s teaching to the Corinthians here has that at heart. Long flowing and beautifully coiffed hair was what prostitutes delighted in whereas ordinary modest] women covered their heads in those days this is why Paul wants Christian women to exhibit modesty. Having dealt with matters sexual in the earlier chapters the apostle wanted the place of worship to be one that honoured God’s design in the creation of men and women.
Having spoken about dress he turns to more general teaching about the sexes and the relationship between men and women. He uses the word ‘head’ now in its metaphorical and not literal sense. In the order of creation as Genesis outlines it, woman is created as the ‘Help meet’ (KJV) or ‘suitable helper’ (NIV) of man (Genesis 2:20) although in Genesis 1 both together are seen as being made “in the image of God” (Genesis 1:27). There is an equality but not an equivalence between the sexes, they are the same but different, and in that difference there is a headship of the man in the same sense that in the Trinity the Father is the head of the Son – though not the superior (there are a places in the New Testament that indicate this e.g. Matt 11:27). The angry belief that submission means inferiority is not borne out in scripture either in the Trinity or in the relationship between men and women.
Paul concludes this difficult section by telling the Corinthians that his teaching on dress is common and to be observed throughout the Churches everywhere.
Saturday 1 Corinthians 11:17-22
Paul now moves onto other issues and in v17 tells them that when they meet together in their gatherings they are not beneficial but harmful. He has heard, probably from people like Sosthenes or those from Chloes household who had come to him with information and questions from the Corinthian Church (1 Corinthians 1:1&11), that there were divisions in the Church. In fact we have seen this already in the early part of the letter, some were purporting to be acolytes of various apostles like Paul or Peter or Apollos but maybe what he mentions here is more. At any rate he believes it and says that it would show up those who had and those who didn’t have God’s approval. That’s an interesting truth because although we speak about unity in the Church there are some things about which their can be no unity. Not all unities are helpful, think of the unity of the Israelites around the Golden Calf when Moses was up the Mountain (Exodus 32)
He picks up on the Lord’s Supper which he says they are not truly celebrating because when they come together to eat they are selfishly eating their own food and not sharing with those who don’t. Their meetings end up with some hungry and others satisfied and drunk. Can you imagine? He tells them to eat and drink at home and not to despise the Church of God by humiliating those who have nothing. Division in the Church which highlights have’s and have not’s is quite the opposite from what the Church should be, James points to this also in his letter when he speaks about favouring the rich over the poor (James 2:1-4).
