Family Discipline, Family Rescue
Note from Jesus Dear Beloved, In My family, there are times when direct discipline from the Father is necessary in the lives of His children (1 Corinthians 11:32; Hebrews 12:5-11). Throughout your New Testament, you can find different forms of discipline, correction, and rescue that My followers are instructed to use to reclaim those who have gone astray (Matthew 18:12-20; Romans 16:17-18; Galatians 6:1-2; 2 Thessalonians 3:6-15; James 5:19-20; Jude 1:20-25). Today’s verses contain Paul’s strong words about a serious need for discipline. The new believers in Corinth were tolerating immorality within their group. This disorder was a type of immorality recognized as evil even among most non-believers. It involved sexual relations between a man and his father’s wife. The Corinthians not only allowed this blatant sin to continue, but they were also boasting about being open-minded enough to accept and fellowship those participating in this ongoing sin. The apostle Paul called such sin a “tragedy” and told the Corinthians that rather than being arrogant, they should “mourn” about such a “terrible” sin in their community and that the sinner should “be removed from the community.” I know that some in Your culture frown on the discipline Paul advocates in these verses. However, Paul appropriately reminds the Corinthian Christians that his words about discipline arise out of his “deep love” for them. There are certain moral standards in the Father’s family of grace. His children must demonstrate both His righteous character and His gracious compassion, not one to the exclusion of the other. The Father’s standards of morality are not arbitrary. Immorality damages the fabric of relationships and the basis of trust in a community. Immorality also damages and hardens the heart of the person involved in it. Expelling those who were participating in this sin was necessary for the Corinthian fellowship if those in that fellowship were going to identify themselves as My disciples. However, this discipline must be done with two things in mind: This discipline was to be exercised so that the sinners could be “rescued” from their bondage to their sinful nature. In other words, it should be done so they would turn their lives around and come back to Me. This discipline was to be exercised so that My spiritual family could be freed from involvement in supporting immorality. If allowed unchecked, immorality would eventually permeate and destroy the fellowship and character of My disciples. You should not remove yourself from the world with its immorality and corruption. I don’t intend for you to take yourself out of the world or to isolate yourselves from the world (John 17:14-19). Instead, I call you through the power and guidance of the Holy Spirit to be light to the darkness of your world and to be salt to preserve the world from its rot and decay caused by sin (Matthew 5:13-16). For this to happen, you must be people of righteous character. Your lives and morals must be in tune with the character of your Father in heaven. Paul’s previous letter (see yesterday’s note for more on this) had taught the Corinthian Christians to be separate from worldliness and immorality. He makes clear in the verses today what he means. Paul is not suggesting that they withdraw from the society around them, but that as part of My body, the church, they not live by the world’s standards. There are moral standards for fellowship among My disciples. The Corinthian disciples needed to help each other live up to those standards. Rather than withdrawing from the sinful world, the Corinthian’s call was to live as My people of righteous character and gracious compassion in the world to redeem the world. That manner of living is also My call to you today. Be a people of righteous character and gracious compassion both inside the fellowship of My people and also in your relationships with those who do not yet call on Me as their Lord. Verses to Live In My church, there will always be some people who decide to continue in some types of sins — people who at one level long to honor Me, but who decide to participate in something sinful. The goal is that both these willful sinners and those who sometimes stumble and sin be transformed to become more and more like Me (Romans 12:1-2; 2 Corinthians 3:17-18). So don’t let each other settle down into sin and simply accept that sin. Love each other enough to work on rescuing each other from sin. I love what Jude wrote about this kind of support in his short little letter: But you, dear friends, must build each other up in your most holy faith, pray in the power of the Holy Spirit, and await the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who will bring you eternal life. In this way, you will keep yourselves safe in God’s love. And you must show mercy to those whose faith is wavering. Rescue others by snatching them from the flames of judgment. Show mercy to still others, but do so with great caution, hating the sins that contaminate their lives. Now all glory to God, Who is able to keep you from falling away and will bring you with great joy into his glorious presence without a single fault. All glory to him Who alone is God, our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord. All glory, majesty, power, and authority are his before all time, and in the present, and beyond all time! Amen. (Jude 1:20-25 NLT) Now for Paul’s words to the Corinthians: Because of my deep love for you, I must express my concern about the report brought to me regarding the lewd and immoral behavior exhibited in your community. This scandal has come to my attention because this kind of thing is unheard of even among the outsiders around us: I understand a man is having sexual relations with his father’s wife. You have turned into an arrogant lot who refuse to see the
31 Jul 2024
May your legacy make you remain relevant for God’s glory. Even in old age, may people seek your wise counsel and may you keep blessing those around you. Utter words that impact others positively and may your actions leave an indelible mark. Genesis 50:22-26.
Daily Prayer for July 31
Many, Lord, are asking, “Who will bring us prosperity?” Let the light of your face shine on us. Psalm 4:6, NIV Lord our God, with all our hearts we come before your countenance. Our hearts shall always be in your presence, asking, longing, and believing that you will guide our affairs aright. Protect us, for you are our God and Father. Protect all who are in danger or who must go into danger. Make known your great love and your living presence to the hearts of the dying. Draw our hearts together so that we may have community in you, our faith and hope set on you alone. Protect us during the night, and help us to be at peace about all our concerns because they are in your hands. Every concern of every person is in your hands. We ourselves are in your hands, Lord God, our Father, and there we want to remain. Your hands can heal and restore everything. Praised be your name! Amen. Recent articles on Plough In Search of Eternity Eugene Vodolazkin Why learn to play music if we’re all going to die? Read now Voice Exploitation Daniel Walden The expectations placed on professional singers, and on young choristers, can do real damage. How can we make singing more human again? Read now Make Christianity Strange Again Sheluyang Peng Nijay K. Gupta’s new book Strange Religion depicts the early Christians as weird yet compelling. Read now Eating Anything Caleb Coy We were good American industrial eaters – until Dad started dying. Both of us have come a long way since then. Read now Heaven on Earth Thomas Traherne Learn to appreciate all the ways we’ve been blessed and you’ll be in heaven, says a seventeenth-century country priest. Read now
Today’s Verse – John 7:30-31
[When Jesus was teaching in the temple courts, the people rejected his teaching, and] they tried to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his time had not yet come. Still, many in the crowd put their faith in him. They said, “When the Christ comes, will he do more miraculous signs than this man?” —John 7:30-31 Thoughts on Today’s Verse… The enemies of Jesus tried repeatedly to seize him. Yet the Gospel of John reminds us again and again that no one could seize Jesus until he offered himself to them at the right time according to God’s plan. Jesus followed God’s timetable just as carefully as he obeyed his Father’s will. So, we can know with absolute assurance that when Jesus died, he did so to redeem us and obey his Father’s will. The LORD did not die because he was powerless to defend himself. Jesus’ death was voluntary, a sacrifice, a triumph of his obedience to his Father’s will over his own will for preservation. Yes, wicked people were responsible, but his death was also the plan of God to redeem us! Jesus obeyed, and we are saved! He offered himself as a sacrifice at the right time, God’s time, so we could be adopted into the Father’s family and be freed of our bondage to sin, death, hell, and the evil one! My Prayer… LORD Jesus, I thank you for honoring our Father and being obedient to him and his timing in your life. Thank you for choosing to die for me and redeem me from my sin. Thank you, dear Father, for such an incredible display of love and mercy that cost you so much. Please give me a more profound sense of my worth and significance to you, because I know the great price you paid to redeem and adopt me. In Jesus’ holy name I pray. Amen. All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House.
Scour Away the Filth
Note from Jesus Dear Faithful Follower, Even when Paul first worked with the Corinthians, he sought to help them turn from the unbridled immorality that was a part of their city’s culture. This lifestyle change was a predictable challenge that My new disciples faced in most places (1 Thessalonians 1:8-10; 1 Thessalonians 4:1-12). The grip of their immoral past was hard to break. Many activities in Corinth were tied to the worship of idols and the pervasive paganism of the city. The Corinthians encountered cultic prostitution at the pagan temples. Meat bought in their city market was first sacrificed to the idols before being available for sale. Pagan celebrations involving sexual immorality and drunkenness were connected to feasts and trade guild meetings. Pagan celebrations and sacrifices went with athletic contests and theater productions. Paul tried to teach these new Christians that their lives were to be holy. Their lives were to be lived in total dedication to honor Us — Father, Son, and Spirit. This sense of holy purpose meant their bodies were sacred and should be used to glorify Us (1 Corinthians 6:18-20). Paul had repeatedly taught them, both when physically present and through letters, about their need to practice holiness in all things. This teaching meant getting away and staying far away from sexual immorality, idolatry, and paganism. In Paul’s letter that you know as 1 Corinthians, he referred to a previous letter to the Corinthian Christians and his earlier teaching about avoiding immorality (1 Corinthians 5:9). That previous teaching was very similar to what you find in a passage from 2 Corinthians included in the verses below. As you read these verses, try to think through the implications of Paul’s teachings for you in your culture. How will you apply these teachings to your world so saturated in sexual immorality, false religions, greed, and materialism? How are you going to live as My holy person in your immoral culture and influence that culture for good? How are you going to influence your culture while not letting the bad parts of your culture influence you? As you live and serve Me in the culture around you, what are the limits of Christian fellowship? These are hard questions. Rather than answer these questions for you, I am asking you to wrestle with them as you follow Me. I want your heart to belong to Me. If your heart belongs to Me, you will work through these questions seeking to honor Me with a holy life that demonstrates My compassionate concern for the lost. Think through what Paul wrote and see how his teachings apply to you. When you read his teachings this way, you will have more empathy for the Corinthians. You will get a clearer understanding of the challenges they faced in their day if they obeyed Paul’s teaching. You will also be better prepared to face similar challenges in your day. Verses to Live How are you going to impact your culture with My character and compassion without getting entangled and soiled with its immorality? In the verses below, you find two readings from Paul’s letters to the Corinthians. The first passage is one verse from 1 Corinthians and refers to what Paul taught in a previous letter that he wrote the Christians in Corinth. The second section is from 2 Corinthians and addresses the same matters as referenced in the first passage. The final short paragraph is Paul’s exhortation to the people based on what he had written in the previous verses. This part is at the heart of what I want you to incorporate into your life. In the letter I wrote to you previously, I made it clear that you are not to band together with those who have embraced immoral lives. (1 Corinthians 5:9) Don’t develop partnerships with those who are not followers of Jesus’ teachings. For what real connection can exist between righteousness and rebellion? How can light participate in darkness? What harmony can exist between the Anointed and Satan? Do the faithful and the faithless have anything in common? Can the temple of God find common ground with idols? Don’t you see that we house the temple of the living God within us? Remember when He said, “I will make My home with them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they will be My people. “So then turn away from them, turn away and leave without looking back,” says the Lord. “Stay away from anything unclean, anything impure, and I will welcome you. “And I will be for you as a father, and you will be for Me as sons and daughters,” says the Lord Almighty! Because we have these promises, dearly loved ones, out of respect for God we should scour the filth from our flesh and spirit and move toward perfect beauty and holiness. (2 Corinthians 6:14-18; 2 Corinthians 7:1) Response in Prayer Father, make me Yours completely. Set me apart from those who do not know You. I want to display Your grace to others and live Your holiness before them. May my whole spirit, soul, and body be kept free from any sort of sin as I await the glorious coming of My Lord and Savior Jesus, the Anointed. You, O God, are faithful. I know that You can be trusted to make this happen in me to Your glory. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen. This prayer is adapted from Paul’s prayer for the Thessalonians in 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24. ‘A Year with Jesus’ is written by Phil Ware. © 1998-2024, Heartlight, Inc. ‘A Year with Jesus‘ is part of the Heartlight Network.All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Voice™. © 2008 by Ecclesia Bible Society. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
30 Jul 2024
Remember to focus on God’s mission even as He fulfills His promise to you. Don’t be carried away. Remain humble and keep doing His will. Have the impact that He desires and serve diligently. Imagine the impact Joseph had by keeping true to His calling. Genesis 50:15-21.
Daily Prayer for July 30
For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline. 2 Timothy 1:7, NIV Lord our God, we are your children. Hear all our concerns, we pray, for we want help from you, not from men, not from anything we can think or say. May your power be revealed in our time. We long for a new age, an age of peace in which people are changed. We long for your day, the day when your power will be revealed to poor, broken humankind. Be with us, and give our hearts what will remain with us, the strength and mercy of Jesus Christ. Amen. Recent articles on Plough Voice Exploitation Daniel Walden The expectations placed on professional singers, and on young choristers, can do real damage. How can we make singing more human again? Read now Make Christianity Strange Again Sheluyang Peng Nijay K. Gupta’s new book Strange Religion depicts the early Christians as weird yet compelling. Read now Eating Anything Caleb Coy We were good American industrial eaters – until Dad started dying. Both of us have come a long way since then. Read now Heaven on Earth Thomas Traherne Learn to appreciate all the ways we’ve been blessed and you’ll be in heaven, says a seventeenth-century country priest. Read now Prison Tourism Dan Grote Dip a toe in the vast and lonely ocean that is the penal system. Read now
Today’s Verse – 2 Samuel 7:29
[King David was humbled that God had chosen him, and his “house,” his descendants, to be on the throne forever. So, David responded:] “Now be pleased to bless the house of your servant, that it may continue forever in your sight; for you, O Sovereign LORD, have spoken, and with your blessing the house of your servant will be blessed forever.” —2 Samuel 7:29 Thoughts on Today’s Verse… God had blessed King David incredibly. God had taken him from a despised little brother and shepherd boy who became a great warrior and Israel’s King. David went from an errand boy to a war hero, from a small nowhere town to become the leader of a great empire. David’s concern, however, was that God would remain close to him and his descendants, upholding the promises he had made to David. More than any other discovery in his amazing life, David had learned that the future, that every battle, and that any real hope, lies in the presence of the LORD God of Israel with him and his descendants. When God speaks, he keeps his word. When God acts, he redeems, delivers, and brings victories. So, David asked God to do what God longs to do: bless his people and keep his promises. Which reminds us that he can do the same with us! My Prayer… Trustworthy and honorable God, our Father who has sustained and blessed us, thank you for your presence in our lives and your promises for our future. Bring us into your presence with great joy, just as you promised, so that we can dwell in your house forever. In Jesus’ name, we pray with anticipation. Amen. All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House.
My Precious Temple!
Note from Jesus Dear Beloved, As Paul used his letter to address the rivalries and divisions among My followers in Corinth, he pointed to four truths that I want you to remember. You find these truths in the verses for today. The fourth one is most sobering and important. Please take it — and take all of them — to heart. Here are the four truths for today. First, division and rivalries in a group of My disciples show My people are living by their worldly instincts rather than being led by the Holy Spirit. No matter how mature My followers claim to be, division shows that they are seeking their importance from the same things as worldly people who “live by the standards of this rebellious and broken world.” Second, claiming to be part of an important group in My movement doesn’t make a person any more important than other believers. Those groups whose leaders are well known are not more important than groups whose leaders are unknown. The greatest in My Kingdom will always be a servant. Don’t ever judge people’s value as My followers by their leaders, their founders, or their group’s reputation. Third, the Father will judge everyone’s work when I return. My disciples must refrain from trying to do the Father’s job. If someone bases his or her ministry on Me and the truth about Me, then you can know that person is truly seeking to be My servant. Furthermore, you shouldn’t try to put a value on one of My servants by comparing that servant to another one of My servants. Fourth, when people gather together into a church family, they are precious for at least two reasons: They are not only My bodily presence in the world, but they are also a holy temple where We — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — live. Everyone who is a part of a congregation was bought at the price of My life. Each has a special relationship with Us. Together, even with each one’s flaws, each is a sacred place where We dwell. So anyone who destroys the unity of Our precious people and our spiritual family will face destruction for what he or she has done. My church, My bodily presence in the world, and My people are that precious to Me. Verses to Live Paul’s words below are his plea for the Corinthians not to allow any division to continue and destroy the temple of God. These are strong, but needed words both in his day and in your day as well. My brothers and sisters, I cannot address you as people who walk by the Spirit; I have to speak to you as people who tend to think in merely human terms, as spiritual infants in the Anointed One. I nursed you with milk, as a mother would feed her baby, because you were not, and still are not, developed enough to digest complex spiritual food. And here’s why: you are still living in the flesh, not in the Spirit. How do I know? Are you fighting with one another? Are you comparing yourselves to others and becoming consumed with jealousy? Then it sounds like you are living in the flesh, no different from the rest who live by the standards of this rebellious and broken world. If one of you is saying, “I am with Paul,” and the other says, “I am with Apollos,” aren’t you like everybody else? So who is Apollos really? Or Paul for that matter? We are only servants, agents who led you to faith, and the Lord commissioned each of us to do a particular job. My job was to plant the seed, and Apollos was called to water it. Any growth comes from God, so the ones who water and plant have nothing to brag about. God, Who causes the growth, is the only One Who matters. The one who plants is no greater than the one who waters; both will be rewarded based on their work. We are gardeners and field workers laboring with God. You are the vineyard, the garden, the house where God dwells. Like a skilled architect and master builder, I laid a foundation based upon God’s grace given to me. Now others will come along to build on the foundation. Each serves in a different way and is to build upon it with great care. There is, in fact, only one foundation, and no one can lay any foundation other than Jesus the Anointed. As others build on the foundation (whether with gold, silver, gemstones, wood, hay, or straw), the quality of each person’s work will be revealed in time as it is tested by fire. If a man’s work stands the test of fire, he will be rewarded. If a man’s work is consumed by the fire, his reward will be lost but he will be spared, rescued from the fire. Don’t you understand that together you form a temple to the living God and His Spirit lives among you? If someone comes along to corrupt, vandalize, and destroy the temple of God, you can be sure that God will see to it that he meets destruction because the temple of God is sacred. You, together, are His temple. (1 Corinthians 3:1-17) Response in Prayer O Father, I remember Jesus’ prayers on the night He was betrayed. He prayed, “Abba Father, … I want Your will to be done, not Mine.” He also prayed this prayer for us: “I pray that they will all be one … so that the world will believe You sent Me.” What His prayers tell me, dear Father, is that I must seek Your will above my own will. I must seek to maintain unity in Your spiritual family so we can demonstrate Your love in sending Jesus. So I ask, dear Father, for strength to do both. I want to do Your will no matter the cost. I long to help our
29 Jul 2024
Are you ready for what God is going to do in your life? Joseph, having gone through rejection, enslavement, temptstion and imprisonment, was ready for his assignment in Egypt. Are you? Genesis 45:4-8.