Word for the day by Christian Education Forum
Cross-
New Model to Discipleship
1 Corinthians 1:18-23
Vs.
21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom,
God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who
believe.
When
I was growing up, I had an uncle who would always keep us engaged with his
"magic tricks". He would pull quarters from behind our ears, swallow
grapes and bring it back up, make things disappear and re-appear right in front
of us - it was all so fun! Of course as we grew up, those tricks wore out as we
began to see the secret behind those tricks. I watched him play these tricks
again recently with my five year old niece, and it is amazing to see how those
simple, old magic tricks were just as entertaining to her as they were to me at
her age.
Since we are often brought up in a Christian home, the premise of Christianity
can easily lose its shine in our lives. The message of the cross, which was
exciting when we first learned about it, can now seem redundant after we hear
about it Sunday after Sunday. Paul was facing a similar audience when he wrote
to the church of Corinth.
The
Corinthians were wealthy people who were influenced by the Roman culture and
the many transient visitors and their teachings. The Gospel was just one of the
theories that they were exposed to, so they did not fully dedicate their
beliefs to it. They continued to fall into sexual sin, love for wealth, and a
lack of eternal hope in Christ. Paul addresses these people to remind them of
the simplicity of the message of the Cross, and how that is essentially the
power of the gospel. Salvation comes through simply believing that Jesus is the
way to forgiveness of our sins. There is absolutely nothing we can do to earn
salvation. This is a hard concept to understand for the early church, and also
for us today, because we do not live in a society that is operated by grace. We
often try to extend that to our religious beliefs and strive to pray better,
read more, and do good to other people, in hopes that it will gain us a good life
and a spot in heaven. We must understand that it is not by our actions that we
are saved, but it is by accepting Christ into our lives that influence our
actions and cause us to act like we are saved. And this is the best news ever!
PRAYER
Father
God, help us to never forget how easy You made it for us to be Your children
through Your Son Jesus Christ. Help us to be bold to share the power of the
Cross - the simple message of redemption - to everyone around us so that they
might be able to partake in Your Glory and become Your children. Amen.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
How
you live does not cause you to be saved, but how you are saved causes you to
live.
Pearl Rajan, St Paul's MTC Dallas
Christian Education Forum, Diocese of NAE of the Mar
Thoma Church