Liz’s Morning Devotional: Scripture selected from Upper Room
September 24, 2024
1 Corinthians 2:1-16
1 When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I didn’t come preaching God’s secrets to you like I was an expert in speech or wisdom. 2 I had made up my mind not to think about anything while I was with you except Jesus Christ, and to preach him as crucified. 3 I stood in front of you with weakness, fear, and a lot of shaking. 4 My message and my preaching weren’t presented with convincing wise words but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power. 5 I did this so that your faith might not depend on the wisdom of people but on the power of God. 6 What we say is wisdom to people who are mature. It isn’t a wisdom that comes from the present day or from today’s leaders who are being reduced to nothing. 7 We talk about God’s wisdom, which has been hidden as a secret. God determined this wisdom in advance, before time began, for our glory. 8 It is a wisdom that none of the present-day rulers have understood, because if they did understand it, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory! 9 But this is precisely what is written: God has prepared things for those who love him that no eye has seen, or ear has heard, or that haven’t crossed the mind of any human being. 10 God has revealed these things to us through the Spirit. The Spirit searches everything, including the depths of God. 11 Who knows a person’s depths except their own spirit that lives in them? In the same way, no one has known the depths of God except God’s Spirit. 12 We haven’t received the world’s spirit but God’s Spirit so that we can know the things given to us by God. 13 These are the things we are talking about—not with words taught by human wisdom but with words taught by the Spirit—we are interpreting spiritual things to spiritual people. 14 But people who are unspiritual don’t accept the things from God’s Spirit. They are foolishness to them and can’t be understood, because they can only be comprehended in a spiritual way. 15 Spiritual people comprehend everything, but they themselves aren’t understood by anyone. 16 Who has known the mind of the Lord, who will advise him? But we have the mind of Christ.
Good Morning! Enjoy the rain today!
I am a bit unusual in that I delivered my first sermon when I was appointed as a lay speaker. Many prospective preachers preach from time to time as lay speakers. I had served as a musician, liturgist, and even once as the worship leader when I did most everything else, but preaching was a whole other thing. During Lowell’s illness, I did deliver one of his sermons once.
Lowell was the preacher, and I never considered otherwise. When God called me to pick up the cross and share the Word, I remember saying okay and calling the D.S. with my calling. He wanted me to take time to grieve and said we would talk later, but I felt God was calling me to preach now!
I was appointed as the lay supply preacher, and now it was time to preach. It was the middle of the pandemic, and nothing was “normal.” The butterflies and squirrels were active within me, but I continued to work on that first sermon with God closely by my side. That first Sunday morning, I said, “Okay God! I answered your call, now lead me through the service.”
Next week, I will complete four years of preaching the Word of God. I do not profess to be an expert, but I take heart in Paul’s words to the people of Corinth. 1 When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I didn’t come preaching God’s secrets to you like I was an expert in speech or wisdom. 2 I had made up my mind not to think about anything while I was with you except Jesus Christ, and to preach him as crucified. 3 I stood in front of you with weakness, fear, and a lot of shaking. 4 My message and my preaching weren’t presented with convincing wise words but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power.
May God continue to lead me and fill me with the Spirit and Power of the Gospel. None of us know when God will call us to do something outside our comfort zone. I pray that each of us trusts God and follows where we are lead.
Faithful God, Thank you for creating us. You have a plan that you reveal to us slowly when the time is right. Help us to trust and follow as we are led. Thank you! In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen
Thought for the day: Trust God and step outside your comfort zone.
Listen! God is calling you! Pastor Liz
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