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Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Thirsty Thursday: Quinching my thirst for God

This blog is being used by me to get out what I feel I am learning and being called to share with others... to help others grow and to encourage others to post comments so that I too may grow as we all become closer to God.

My last blog mentioned that I had just started 1 Corinthians, since then I have read it twice and feel that there is much to be shared, last night I started to ramble to Tricia about this book and found it hard to translate my thoughts and feelings into words, she had patience with me and I hope that any taking the time to read this have that same patience and share any thoughts they are called to share.


So... all quotes are from 1 Corinthians (so I am only listing chapter and versus) and here is what I have to share:


My life as I have known it was being lived for the wrong reason. I have spent my entire life focusing on me: who I should date/marry, where I should work, what I should major in at college, what type of car I should buy, what to name my children. This life isn't about my relationship with "earthly possessions" it is supposed to be about God and how we can glorify Him and grow closer to Him. Paul goes as far as to say that single people should stay single as marriage and family distract us from our real purpose, focusing on God. And I agree, to the point he states that if we feel we are living our life to serve God and happen across someone we feel compelled to marry, then get married. Where certain people go wrong, I believe, is searching for a spouse while they are searching for God and that is a problem because you can't devote your heart to two things, you can't have two masters.

Paul also hits hard on the topic of love. He states in 13:13 Three things will last forever - faith, hope and love - and the greatest is love. We need to truly love each other and to great eachother with Christian love (16:20). For if we love each other we won't due harm to each other. When Paul speaks on lawsuits he states in 6:7 that we should just accept the injustice and leave it at that... let yourselves be cheated. Again, he is focusing on the point that this life is meant to be lived for God and that our battles over earthly possesions do nothing more than distract us from our primary purpose. God will judge those that wish to take you to court as well as you. Be in fear of that!

It is humbling to know that God will make the wisdom of this world look foolish and that he also uses those who are weak to make a stand or those who are foolish to shame the wise. 1:27 Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful. 28God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important. 29As a result, no one can ever boast in the presence of God.

So, I had this post all laid out on what I wanted to say until I went to work and a coworker referred to me as a deep well of sarcasm (which is completely true). However, it made me realize that no one (to my knowledge) has referred to me as a light shining bright for God. It made me realize that what I truly got from reading 1 Corinthians was that we all need to be living our life for God and a good test for us is the response in how Christians and non-Christians refer to us. We can say we are Christians and tell others we are Christians but the true test is when a person knows you are a Christian without you having to tell them.

Everyone knew where Paul stood on his relationship with God and that is how he was able to change so many lives and bring people to Christ. How are we supposed to bring people to God if they don't know where we stand on the issue? They can only know through our actions and relationships with those around us. Will we great and treat each other with Christian love? I intend to.

So, what has 1 Corinthians taught me? Paul defineately hit home on the fact that the most important thing we can do in this world is love God, live our life for God, search for a relationship with God... everything else is secondary but by doing that we will live a life that glorifies God and continues to spread the Good News. God will one day show how the rich are poor and the poor are rich.

I will end with this, as I have found that the rambling I did with Tricia has returned and I feel that if I put all my thoughts onto this blog it will be much longer than anyone would read, love God and enjoy the role that He has give you as we are all part of one body and just like a body we are made up of different parts that play different roles. Find the role He has given you, listen to what the Spirit is whispering in your ears calling you to do and act on it... don't be ashamed to stand up and do what you are being called to do. Be the lamp lighting a room for all to see.

My next post, next Thursday, shall be on Ecclesiastes... I hope that you will join me in reading it, let me know if you want to get together to discuss what you feel you are learning too.

Thanks for reading, God bless.

3 comments:

Josh said...

Very well put, Matt.

Joel and Leslie said...

Good stuff. Totally agree with the sarcasm comment in my life and asking if my sarcasm takes away from people seeing God in me.

Littau family said...

Wow Matt, you hit on so many good things! Some of this stuff are things we've read so many times, but I like how you got real and put things into something we can zero in on and focus. Keep Sharing, I feel my heart being tugged with this stuff! -Mike