Lent, Day 36: OUR JOURNEY IS ROOTED AND GROUNDED IN GOD

Scripture:   1 Corinthians 1:18-31

Focus on the Word

There are lots of folks in the world who believe the cross of Christ is pure foolishness.  To others the cross is "a stumbling block" (I Corinthians 1:23, NASB).  To people who have allowed God to be God in them, however, Jesus, His cross, His whole story, is the power of God.  Perspective is everything.  Actually, faith is everything.  So, the apostle Paul's passion was simply to keep preaching "Christ crucified" (I Corinthians 1:23, NASB).

There was no need to argue or debate the issue.  If Christ was, in fact, the power of God and the wisdom of God, that reality could not be stopped.  The counsel to the early church became, "consider your calling…God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong" (I Corinthians 1:26-27). 

Grace and salvation and mercy and forgiveness are all of God.  The world may not get it, but not getting it doesn't change a thing.  If Jesus is who He says He is, just keep telling the story.  Keep on coming to Jesus.  Keep on living the Life.  Keep on embracing "Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption" (I Corinthians 1:30, NASB).  

In Lent we remind ourselves that the journey on which we find ourselves is rooted and grounded in God.  This is His story.  His is our story.  What others do with the story is beyond the scope of our authority.  As for us, we just keep on coming back, remembering that for two-thousand years the Gospel could not be stopped.  Those who see it as foolishness or a stumbling block can't stop it today.  The power of God is with us, and even a grave can't keep Him down.     

Today’s Prayer

I am bending my knee in the eye of the Father who created me, in the eye of the Son who purchased me, in the eye of the Spirit who cleansed me in friendship and affection. 

Through Thine own Anointed One, O God, bestow upon us fullness in our need, love towards God, the affection of God, the smile of God, the wisdom of God, the grace of God, the fear of God, and the will of God to do on the world of the Three, as angels and saints do in heaven; each shade and light, each day and night, each time in kindness, give Thou us Thy Spirit.

 (A Celtic prayer)