1 Corinthians 15 is a powerful testimony and study on the importance of Christ’s resurrection for our salvation! But not only does it add insight into His resurrection but it also provides us with some insights into the understanding of soul sleep, which is the belief that after a person dies they “sleep” in the ground ’till the second coming of Jesus.

I see several verses, but two very powerful ones to affirm this view:

Verse 53 states,

“For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.”

When must we put on the imperishable? Before we inherit (go to) the Kingdom of God (see verse 50).

Well when does the perishable become imperishable?

Verse 52,

“in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.”

When will those who die be made “imperishable” and able to go to the Kingdom of God? At “the last trumpet.” That would mean that the righteous that die don’t go straight to heaven when they die because they have not yet been made imperishable, and they won’t be ’till the last trumpet.

And when does this last trumpet occur and when are the dead resurrected imperishable?

Verse 23 & 24a…

 “But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming, 24 then comes the end…”

Y’all the Bible is clear the dead in Christ sleep ’till the END…the last trumpet…at which point they and those who are alive and have put their faith in Jesus will be made imperishable and be taken to the Kingdom of God in Heaven!

My one comment on chapter 16 is this…which believe me I don’t want to fault anyone…and I don’t have a problem with it…but this is just my opinion.

I don’t believe typical tithe &offering appeals in church are a Biblical practice…they aren’t wrong…but no one should defend them like they are their for Biblical reasons…

“Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I directed the churches of Galatia, so do you also. 2 On the first day of every week each one of you is to put aside and save, as he may prosper, so that no collections be made when I come.” -1 Corinthians 16:1 & 2

I know some have believed that this means that people are to go to church on Sunday. That is a far reaching extrapolation. What Paul is saying is at beginning of every week we should all plan how we are going to give to the work of God with our finances that week. Paul is saying our giving should be something done with forethought not something done in the spur of the moment.

There are special offerings special moments where an appeal is made. But the best Biblical practice is for each of us to prepare to give not to be reactionary in our giving, which an offering appeal in church lends itself to the latter and not the former.

Better than appeals would be personal testimonies of financial faithfulness!

Tomorrow’s Reading: Exodus 9-12

The story I have preached more than any other story in the Bible is in Mark chapter 10. It is the story of Blind Bartimaeus–

“Then they came to Jericho. And as He was leaving Jericho with His disciples and a large crowd, a blind beggar named Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the road. 47 When he heard that it was Jesus the Nazarene, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” 48 Many were sternly telling him to be quiet, but he kept crying out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” 49 And Jesus stopped and said, “Call him here.” So they *called the blind man, saying to him, “Take courage, stand up! He is calling for you.”50 Throwing aside his cloak, he jumped up and came to Jesus. 51 And answering him, Jesus said, “What do you want Me to do for you?” And the blind man said to Him, “Rabboni, I want to regain my sight!” 52 And Jesus said to him, “Go; your faith has made you well.” Immediately he regained his sight and began following Him on the road.” -Mark 10:46-52

To me the question Jesus asks Bartimaeus is the question that Jesus puts before all of us at various times in our life. Not because He is unaware of what the answer will be, but because He wants us to have our opportunity for our faith to be strengthened. There is something about verbalizing our request before God that not only demonstrates, but also encourages our faith as He answers.

I want you right now to think about what you desire the Lord to do for you. If you were standing before Him now on that Jericho road and Jesus asked, “What do you want Me to do for you?”

Share that with Jesus now! Pray for that in faith!

Tomorrow’s Reading: 1 Corinthians 15 & 16

Some things I jotted down as I read through Jeremiah 12-16:

In Jeremiah 12, Jeremiah has one perspective, that the wicked are prospering, God on the other hand has the perspective they have not prospered at His hand but due to the invitation submitted through the wicked acts of the people of God. In other words, they through their actions have embraced the wicked people along with the wickedness and unlike God wicked ways are not a kind a master.

But at the end of Jeremiah 12 God shows us that He will rid the land of the wicked, but He will also uproot Judah from her wicked ways and hopefully as a nation they will appreciate this and return unto God!

In Jeremiah 13 I wrote down something that is not a Biblical point at all, but it made me chuckle and I had to make note of it…I recently read an article that asked, “What is the true value of the belt?” and the premise of this short article was questioning does the belt really hold up our pants or do we hold up the belt. I feel that in this live action drama that God asks Jeremiah to be a part of in Jeremiah 13 we get the answer,

“For as the waistband clings to the waist of a man, so I made the whole household of Israel and the whole household of Judah cling to Me,’” -Jer. 13:11a

There you go a fashion answer in the Bible, we hold up the belts…no wonder I still have a hard time with my pants sliding even though I wear a belt 🙂

On a more serious note in Jeremiah 13 verse 17,

But if you will not listen to it,
My soul will sob in secret for such pride;
And my eyes will bitterly weep
And flow down with tears,
Because the flock of the Lord has been taken captive.

I love the heart of Jeremiah. Oh that each of us would have that same depth of compassion for the lost when they go through trials and consequences even though when we know they are deserving of such trials and consequences. Jeremiah knew these people were wrong and yet he sobbed, he wept, the tears flowed down! That is the true heart of a pastor!

In Jeremiah 14 I found it interesting that God does not lay all the blame or consequences at the feet of the false prophets. They are teaching the people error, but God in verse 16 states that the people who listen to this error will also suffer the same consequences. Why? In other places in scripture God seems to show mercy on the people because they were led falsely astray and did not know better…why here the same consequences. I wonder if it could be because these people also had Jeremiah. They had the full opportunity to know truth and embrace truth. Maybe because of their history they knew right and wrong yet they followed after error.

I believe here the Bible is teaching…

We will not only be held accountable for what we know and did not follow, but what we could have known had we simply listened or accepted the opportunities of truth we’d been given.

So those are the notes I jotted down on these chapters. What were some of the notes God gave to you?

Tomorrow’s Reading: Mark 9 & 10

I read verses 2-5a of Job 29,

“Oh that I were as in months gone by,
As in the days when God watched over me;
3 When His lamp shone over my head,
And by His light I walked through darkness;
4 As I was in the prime of my days,
When the friendship of God was over my tent;
5 When the Almighty was yet with me,”

and I immediately thought, “Oh how the heart of God must have hurt over this sentiment of Job.” Then as I continued reading my mind went back to that thought and I began to wonder, “Does the heart of God spend a lot of time worrying about what we think or is that a component of our sinful nature that the Lord does not possess?”

I mean is God worried from an emotional position that Job misunderstands Him? Or is it only to the degree that such a misunderstanding would lead Job to sin that God’s heart would be concerned?

It seems to me like it would be the latter rather than the former but I can’t say with absolute certainty.

I also thought when I read that passage as I have through much of Job, “Wow God sure sees faithfulness different than we define it in the church.” Such a statement as Job’s in most our modern churches would have all the people worried for this individuals eternal salvation.

Interesting…

Tomorrow’s Reading (I’m 6 days behind): Jeremiah 12-16

It is interesting what comes to our minds as we read the Bible and how different thoughts and convictions hit us today I read these verse in the midst of my devotional time,

“O send out Your light and Your truth, let them lead me;
Let them bring me to Your holy hill
And to Your dwelling places.
4 Then I will go to the altar of God,
To God my exceeding joy;
And upon the lyre I shall praise You, O God, my God.” -Psalm 43:3, 4

And my heart began to praise God that He has given us music as an expression of response to Him, His truth, His light, His love! The Psalms of course are a collection of songs, so of course David would use song often to respond to the Lord, but throughout the Bible a natural and God given response to the moving of the Divine is through song. Consider this moment from the New Testament,

“After singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.” -Matthew 26:30

This text follows the story of the Last Supper–what we call Communion–at the end of this gathering, this time with Jesus…they sang a song. To the secular mind that is completely random and weird, but to the believer it should be one of the most natural components of our relationship with Jesus.

Which is one of the reasons why I find it so sad that so many people show-up to church after the music has finished and leave before the music resumes. Why would people rob themselves of this gift, this natural spiritual gift of expression God has given to His children. David said in response to the light of the Lord and the truth of the Lord he would go to the altar (the church) of God and celebrate with music.

Maybe this struck me this morning in a special way because when I woke at sunrise today my heart was anxious for the presence of God and the reminder of His love and so I stuck in my headphones and listened to the following song,

There are many leadership lessons and just good life lessons in this reading, but the one that spoke to my heart most of all, as it so often has in the past is the story of Saul in the cave and David refusing to end his life.

David knew the moment Saul died that he would be crowned king of Israel. He knew that he would no longer have to be a nomad, running from shadow to shadow to spare his own life. Yet David would not move ahead of God. This is perhaps one of the hardest disciplines in all of life and leadership, to know what the inevitable outcome of a situation is and yet have the patience to allow God to bring about that outcome in HIS time.

David’s restraint would have been impressive even if he didn’t know he was to be king, simply the self-control to not destroy his enemy and bring freedom to his life, but that he did so knowing there was great reward on the other side and that reward was God’s ultimate will, this is truly a miracle only achieved through a consecrated heart.

David again showed the same patience of waiting on the Lord in the story of Nabal and Abigail. This time though he demonstrated another gift of leadership, he was not going to show that patience, but he was willing to receive counsel. He didn’t care that the counsel came from a woman or from an unknown source, potentially even a biased source (his enemies wife), what mattered to him was the counsel. He recognized the counsel was right and true and that was enough to heed it.

Both great lessons that eventually led to God’s willing being accomplished in God’s time!

Tomorrow’s Reading: Psalms 42-44