Day 330: 1 Corinthians 1, 2 and 3

I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. (1 Corinthians 3:6)

Paul writes to the Christians in Corinth how neither he nor Apollos can claim all the credit for their conversion. Paul may have been the first to tell them about Christ, but Apollos had followed up with faithful teaching. Working together, they brought the message that resulted in salvation.

In John 4, Jesus teaches his disciples to be on the lookout for kingdom opportunities. He borrows two agricultural axioms. The first: Four months more and then the harvest (v. 35), is addressed on Day 310 (November 6). The second: One sows, another reaps (v. 37), was commonly used in a fatalistic sense. One might do all the hard work, but someone else would surely reap the benefit. But Jesus applied it in a new way. He taught, like Paul, that evangelism is a team sport. Paul said one plants and another waters. Jesus said one plants and another harvests. Same thing.

19th century preacher Dwight L. Moody preached in Chicago the night of the great Chicago fire. By popular account he did not give an altar call and many of those who delayed making a decision for Christ perished. Moody vowed to never again put off asking for a spiritual commitment. While I admire Moody's conviction, I am relieved that the responsibility for evangelizing lost souls is a shared one.

Are you prepared to either plant the seed, water, or harvest this week?

Day 329: Romans 13, 14, 15 and 16

Accept those whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputed matters. (TNIV, Romans 14:1)

St. Augustine is usually credited with saying: In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity.

Paul tells us there definitely are such things as non-essentials. He says we are to accept those who disagree with us on these gray areas without feeling the need to set them straight even though we think they're wrong.

Disputable matters are those about which God has not seen fit to give us detailed instruction. But even though God did not set down in black and white what we are to do or believe in regard to these things, he left nothing to the imagination about how he expects us to treat those with whom we disagree.

Too often in today's polemical atmosphere, we have taken what are rightfully matters of opinion and elevated them to the level of doctrine or even dogma. If not quarreling (feeling the need to prove someone wrong) is how Paul describes acceptance, then quarreling must be a synonym for rejection, and we will never win someone over to our way of thinking while at the same time rejecting them.

If God, rather than giving us a paint-by-numbers Christianity, chose to leave some issues to our own discretion, then perhaps even more important than defining answers to these disputed matters is how we treat one another.

Is there someone you need to accept without struggling to set them straight?

Day 328: Romans 10, 11 and 12

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. (Romans 12:2)

Occasionally I am tasked with creating worship slides for projection. Since the chorus is repeated after every verse, I simply cut and paste the original lyric into its new spot as many times as it's needed. This works fine unless there's a typo in the original slide because then all my cutting and pasting replicates that same mistake into every chorus.

Given the opportunity, our environment will imprint its values and behaviors on us. Not easily ignored, society very aggressively cuts and pastes its way of doing things into our thinking. Paul is telling us we don't have to be carbon copies of the world around us. Rather than being clones of our culture, we can reflect the character of our Creator.

When I access certain programs on my laptop, it asks, Do you want to allow the following program to make changes to this computer? There also, but much less noticeable are the prompts I receive from the Holy Spirit when my surroundings try to make deleterious changes to my programming.

The world is very determined to find its way into my brain. If I want to submit my conscious mind as well as my subconscious to the life-changing power of the Spirit, I must be intentional about connecting with God and his Word.

How will you allow God to access your mind this week?

Day 327: Romans 7, 8 and 9

In all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)

Did God one day create cancer and say, "This is great! People are going to love this once they figure out it's for their own good!"? What about tsunamis? ...child abuse? I don't think so. While I'm sure that occasionally something that appears bad could be planned by God and ultimately be a good thing after all, the truth is bad things happen to good people, and there's no sense blaming God for that.

But Romans 8:28 doesn't say nothing bad will ever happen to us. It doesn't even say every bad thing is a good thing that we are too limited to see. What it does say is that God works for our good in everything that happens. The question is, Will we let him?

When bad things happen to us, we can spend the rest of our lives being resentful, blaming anyone and everyone else for all our problems, or we can surrender those hurts to God and ask him to reveal himself to us and help us to grow through them. By submitting to God in those difficult times, we allow him the freedom to work into our lives the healing and growth we need, which brings about the abundant life (John 10:10). The end results are often determined by our response.

In what circumstances is God trying to work good into your life?

Day 326: Romans 4, 5 and 6

People cannot do any work that will make them right with God. (NCV, Romans 4:4)

O Lord our God, grant us the grace to desire Thee with our whole heart; that so desiring we may seek and find Thee; and so finding Thee may love Thee; and loving Thee, may hate those sins from which Thou hast redeemed us. Amen. [1]

During these few days before Thanksgiving, I find it necessary once again to thank God for his saving work in my life. Coming from a holiness movement background, it is always tempting to fall into the thinking that says my behavior earns me right relationship with God. Today I am reminded that my best behaviors are like filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6) before a perfect God.

We must remember that holiness is about loving God so much that it affects who we are, which in turn affects how we act. John wrote that we love because Christ first loved us (1 John 4:19). God, as your love pours into my life, may it flow back to you in worship and obedience. May your love for me be increased in how I love your children.

Almighty God, unto whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid: Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of thy Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love thee, and worthily magnify thy holy Name; through Christ our Lord. Amen. [2]

What motivates your good behavior?

[1] Anselm of Canterbury (1033-1109), as printed in Harry Emerson Fosdick. The Meaning of Prayer. (New York: The International Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations, 1915), 3.

[2] The Book of Common Prayer, "The Holy Eucharist: Rite One." (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990), 323.

Day 325: Romans 1, 2 and 3

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven. (Romans 1:18)

Romans 1 lets us in on the reasons for humanity's downward spiral. Verse 29 tells how bad things have gotten: They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. We have to back up a few verses to find where things went wrong: They wouldn't worship him as God or even give him thanks (NLT).

The consequence of mankind's rebellion was God's wrath. The idea of people venting their wrath paints a picture of a mindless explosion of uncontrolled anger. But that's not the wrath Paul writes about. Three times he states: God gave them over . . . to sexual impurity (v. 24); . . . to shameful lusts (v. 26); . . . to a depraved mind (v. 28).

This illustrates how poorly we understand wrath and grace. We have things backwards. We see discipline as God's wrath and his permissiveness as grace, when in fact that is exactly opposite of the way things really are. According to New Testament scholar Paul Achetemeier, God's wrath is exhibited in allowing us to continue down the sinful path we've chosen. [1] In other words, wrath means God takes a hands off posture, and allows us to push deeper into sin. In this equation, discipline becomes an act of grace, as God's loving attempt to get us back on the right track.

How does Achtemeier's explanation of wrath impact your understanding of grace?

[1] Achtemeier, Paul J. "Romans." Interpretation - A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching. Louisville: John Knox, 1985.

Day 324: Acts 25, 26, 27 and 28

We want to hear your ideas, because we know that people everywhere are speaking against this religious group. (NCV, Acts 28:22)

In 2004 Alan Sorensen and Scott Rasmussen of Stanford University evaluated the effects of book reviews from the New York Times. Not surprising, they found a positive review results in more book sales than a negative one. Perhaps more surprising is that even a negative review increases a book's sales by over 34%. [1]

This study may bear out the claim Any publicity is good publicity. P. T. Barnum is credited with expressing a similar sentiment: I don't care what they say about me as long as they spell my name right. And poet and writer Oscar Wilde is reported as saying, There is only one thing worse than being talked about, and that is NOT being talked about.

After Paul was transported to Rome and awaiting his trial before Caesar, he was free to have guests even though he was under house arrest. Local Jewish leaders told him they hadn't heard anything bad about him, but that no one had anything good to say about Christianity. Apparently that negative press made them want to hear about it all the more.

While negative press may not be the worst thing in the world, Jesus tells us: Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven (NIV 1984, Matthew 5:16).

How are you making sure your light shines positively?

[1] Sorensen, Alan T. and Scott J. Rasmussen. "Is Any Publicity Good Publicity? A Note on the Impact of Book Reviews." Palo Alto: Stanford University, 2004.