Growing In Faith: Leaving Behind The Carnal Life

And I brethren, could not speak to you

as to spiritual people but as to carnal,

as to babes in Christ. I fed you with milk

and not solid food; for until now you

were not able to receive it, and even

now you are not still not able; for you

are still carnal. For where there are envy,

strife, and divisions among you, are you

not carnal and behaving like mere men?

1Corinthians 3:1–3

            Paul had come to Corinth before, and taught the Corinthian the deeper points of doctrine  by Paul on his first visit to Corinth.  Corinthians were, in part, well being sincere converts, yet they were far from maturity of judgment and experience, therefore they were prone to carnal passions.  In the beginning pole topped the Corinthian church in simpler terms so that they could understand and by this time, they should have been able to understand the deeper things of doctrine.  This was not done by the Corinthian church in this was seen by the carnality in the church.  Even today, we see divisions, strife, envy, and allowances of immorality seen in the forms of homosexuality, divorce without Scriptural reason, and not putting away those who are unscriptually sound.  Factious, which means in unnaturalness, or pretensions, and so often a slavish love of fads acting upon human principles, for those involved in such things are guided by their own pride and passions and not by the principles of true religion that is Christianity.  As Matthew Henry recorded in his work on first Corinthians: "It is to be lamented, that many who should walk as Christians, live and act too much like other men".[1]is evident that there is carnality in the church and this can be seen by the acts of some professors, and preachers, who show themselves to be carnal, by a vain -- glorious emulations, eagerness for controversy, and disposition to despise and speak evil of others.  This is simply sin, and it is not of grace.  It is distasteful, yet it is a duty of God's servants to expose that which is calculated to deceive and injure His people.  The effective way of doing this removal of carnality is to let in the light of truth.  You must first address the problem so that you may know what may be the solution.  This takes courage, and conviction.  What is required in teaching is to hold to a steady guidance of the mind and conscience of a believer about the foundation of his peace and acceptance with God, and how to exercise his faith in this life.  To declare and vindicate the truth and to give true instruction and edification is to show a love of sincerity and to enable others to extricate from their minds those difficulties that are leading them into carnality.  We are to direct their consciences so that they will inquire of God, and seek after abiding peace with God and establish their minds in the truth.  Nevertheless, no matter the difficulty involved in teaching the truth, I respectfully urge each Christian to make real effort to gird up their loins of their minds and to seek the truth prayerfully and by the reading and study of God's Word.  Paul as did other Bible writers had doctrinal instruction as the foundation by which they issued precepts to regulate and guide a Christian’s walk.  We are to be reminded that as saints we have the exceeding riches of God's grace, and that the love of Christ may constrain us so that we are urged to walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called. the justice of God and his truth give us no cause to complain because our full satisfaction was given to us by a mediator, Jesus Christ. Think upon this:  Jesus Christ is Lord of all and yet was made subject to the law, not to just obey the law, also to be subject to the curse of the law, and by this we are made righteousness of God: "For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Corinthians 5: 21). should not we'd be in a in devout meditation  of these things, to break out into the praises of a justifying God, and sing with the church?  God has pardoned His elect, and teaches us to grow in maturity: "Who is a God like You, pardoning iniquity in passing over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage" (Micah 7:18)?  Think upon this and you will be humbled; God chose rather than to punish the sins of the elect made him righteous before Him by means of His Only Begotten Son, rather than them to suffer and go unpunished.  The abyss of God's love, a love by which He spared not even His dearest Son, in order to spare sinners! The Corinthian church while living in a culture of great immorality, idolatry, and various theologies from men who came from all around the world to cross the isthmus had not allow them to grow to maturity and allowed for certain worldly and carnal exercises in the church.  Take a look at your church and see whether or not this is true of your church and if so what can you do to eliminate the problem.  First, examine yourself and see whether, or not you are doctrinally sound, not by what some men teach and preach, rather allow Scripture to interpret scripture in teaching the truth.  If the problem cannot be resolved then you have the responsibility to remove yourself to a church that is teaching the truth of God's Word.  This will require great courage, and commitment to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Behold, on the mountains

            the feet of him who

brings good tidings, who proclaims peace!

            O Judah, keep your appointed feasts,

perform your vows.  For the wicked one

            shall no more pass through you,

he is a truly cut off.

                                    Nahum 1: 15

Proclaim good tidings: the Gospel

Richard L. Crumb

---

[1] Henry, Matthew: Matthew Henry commentary on the holy Bible, 1 first Corinthians; Royal publishers, Inc., Nashville, Tennessee: 1979; p, 90.

The Reality Of Redemption

But as it is written:

"Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,

nor have entered into the heart of man the things

which God has prepared for those who love Him"

but God has revealed them to us through His Spirit.

For the spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.

1 Corinthians 2: 9 -- 10

(Isaiah 64: 4; 65:17)

            In our attempt to understand God we find ourselves deficient because absent is a lack of an essential element; God is not us for He is a different being.  Often Jesus makes statements that seem so hard for us to understand because they are not that which we would do as humans.  Jesus in His rebuke to certain cities where He did many mighty works and yet they did not repent Jesus then gave a prayer to His father: "At that time Jesus answered and said, ‘I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes’" (Matthew 11: 25).  How are we to understand this seemingly difficult statement: "Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your site" (Matthew 11: 26)? Carnal man, and that is what we all are, have one problem that has need to be resolved, and that problem is that by the original sin caused by Adam our souls are corrupted and we do not desire godly things.  Jesus Christ resolved that problem by His death that made payment to the debt owed to God and that debt was the death of a sinless man.  God paid that debt owed to Himself by Himself.  So often, we are so involved in our daily activities and the culture of this world that continually tries to derail us from our faith.  We cannot see the things of God nor are we able to hear the things of God unless the Holy Spirit reveals them to us and that revelation is only to those who love God.  As Paul so aptly reminds us, the spirit searches all things even those deep things of God.  Therefore, when the Spirit speaks to us He is teaching us and leading us to exercise those deep things of God: "For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him?  Even so no one knows the things of God except last Spirit of God.  Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God" (1 Corinthians 2:11 -- 12).

            So many people are so involved in the reality of experience claiming that reality, of a person's experience of redemption, is proof of their godliness, it is not; redemption is the reality and it would have no meaning for us unless it speaks the language of our conscious life.  When a person is born-again, God does a work that is hard for us to understand, and yet for those who are born again know that this is a fact: God takes us right out of our self and our experiences and identifies us with his Son Jesus Christ.  If all we are is left with is our experiences then those experiences have not been produced by Redemption.  How will I know that I am being led by Redemption?  The proof is that we are led out of ourselves all the time and we no longer pay any attention to our experiences as the ground of reality.  The only reality is what is producing our experiences and any other experiences other than that which is produced by Reality is not worth anything unless they are kept and we are kept at the source and that source is Jesus Christ.  When we allow the culture of this world to be the source of our wisdom all is that done is that we are damning up the Holy Spirit that is in us and then we begin to produce subjective experiences.  We are never to give nourishment to any experience that does not have God as its source and our faith in God as its result.  If we become subject to subjective experiences then those experiences are anti-Christian, and it does not matter what visions you may have had.  The question is simply this: if Jesus Christ Lord of your experiences, or are you trying to lord it over Him?  Are your experiences more dear to you then your Lord?  Jesus Christ must be Lord over you, and you must not pay attention to any experience that is not of Jesus Christ for if you do God will make a time that will make you impatient with your own experience.  We should have this attitude that is ingrained in us and that is this; I do not care what I experience; I am simply sure of Him.  This will take courage and being ruthless with yourself especially if you are given to talking about the experiences you have had.  If faith is not sure of its self then it is not faith.  The only faith that is true faith is that which is sure of God and this is the only faith that there is.  Paul did not speak worldly wisdom words that would tickle the ears of the hearers, words that are so eloquent producing a euphoric reaction, no, he preached what the Holy Spirit teaches: "These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual" (1 Corinthians 2:13).  We are reminded once again that we are to interpret Scripture with Scripture.  The foolishness of man is that he attempts to devise the world his way, and develops a worldview that is in contradiction to the will of God.  For if a man is not born again by Jesus Christ and only remains as a natural man then: "But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.  But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one.  For ‘who has known the mind of the LORD then he may instruct Him?’ “But we have the mind of Christ" (1 Corinthians 2: 14 -- 16).  What Paul is telling us here is that the natural man has no right to judge us in regards to our faith.  The question is are we actually living rightly true faith of God or are we living by a faith that is rooted in the subjective experience?

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,

            and in sin my mother conceive me.

Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts,

            and in they hidden part You will make

me to know wisdom.

                                    Psalm 51: 5 -- 6

May God washes whiter than snow

Richard L. Crumb

Learning To Not Be Shaken By This World's Wisdom

And my speech and any preaching

were not with persuasive words

of human wisdom, but in

demonstration of the Spirit

and of power, that your faith

should not be in the wisdom of men

but in the power of God.

1 Corinthians 2: 4 -- 5

            Looking back into the history of Christianity in early America especially after the year 1776 A.D. we can find that there was not only a great movement of people from the East Coast moving towards the West Coast into new lands, we can also find they also became more liberal in their thinking about God and the Scriptures.  Men such as Charles G. Finney went about preaching a new form of Christianity that men themselves could come to Jesus Christ by their own power.  Other men such as the Wesley brothers, especially Charles, there was a movement towards a more socialistic form of Christianity.  Now I speak of these men, I speak of their actions and not of their salvation because salvation is solely between a man and God.  While we do find though that they were teaching that by our might we can come to God and this was limiting thinking about the power of God.  Many men who had eloquent speech and had words that were so enticing that many followed them only to follow a man's wisdom.  Paul was telling us that he did not come to the Corinthian church with man's wisdom but rather he demonstrated the power of God and of the Holy Spirit who operates in the lives of Christians.  It is not by some form of outward power that many go about preaching.  Such as things like praying for a healing and expect that God will do exactly what they prayed.  It is not that God will not answer prayer, it is whether or not we simply have faith in that God will display His power however He wills to display it and it is not by the will of man that God is forced to act.  We must understand that if in our preaching the gospel, we go about substituting the clear knowledge and clear interpretation of the Scriptures and we use our wisdom.  If we use man's wisdom for the knowledge of a way to salvation a way to get power from God, or a way to have confidence in the power of God, all that done is a hindrance of getting people to know and come to the reality.  Here seems to be a hindrance in the lives of people: WE DO NOT MAKE TIME TO STUDY GOD'S WORD!  We will make time for almost anything else: running kids to sports activities, to even events that are fun and enjoyable but so often take us away from sitting down with our children and teaching them about God and how to use the word of God in their life.  I'm not speaking against doing things with our children that are fun and enjoyable rather I am saying are we actually setting aside time, not moments of time as important as that may be, rather time to actually sit down and study God's Word with our spouse and with our children?  You see we must first ensure that we are rooted and grounded in our faith in God.  As I have said before, inspect what you expect, and never rely simply on the clearness of our exposition, or another's exposition, ensure that you are relying on the Holy Spirit.  We must rely with all conviction and commitment upon the certainty of God's redemptive power and allow Him to create His own life in our souls.  It is this; once you are rooted in the reality of God then nothing can shake you and cause you to waver and vacillate from your faith in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  If our faith is in experiences, our experiences, then those things that may happen to you are likely to upset your faith.  Remember this, God and the reality of God in redemption is never upset and nothing can change what he has willed for His children.  Our trust is not in the eloquent of speech by others, although it is nice to have those who can speak well speak to us, rather it is that we examine all things by the Word of God.  What is missing in today's lives so often is critical thinking.  We are so willing to accept things that make us feel good rather than doing those things and believing those things that are in opposition and contradiction to God.  Our faith is based upon the security of Reality when we get into a personal contact with Jesus Christ then there is nothing in this world that can move us away from our faith.  So often we think that sanctification is simply an outward work, those things that we exercise, and it is true that in our sanctification we should be moved to do good things according to God's Word.  But God does not put his approval upon human experience and believe that sanctification is merely an experience.  We cannot forget that sanctification itself has to be sanctified: "And for their sakes I sanctified Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth" (John 17: 19).  As did Paul and the principles that he has set forth for all Christians is that he, and we, deliberately set aside himself, ouself, and gave, give our life, his life to be a sanctified life to God and for God's service.  This is so that God can use us as His hands and feet.  Is your life demonstrating Jesus Christ, and not by some outward false demonstration of His power?  Is it by simply doing the everyday mundane things, things like simply mowing the lawn, fixing the fence or gate?  Is it by cleaning the house, doing our work at work as it should be done, in other words, are we actually living as what we are, ambassadors for Jesus Christ knowing that others whom we may never know or see are watching this in determining whether or not we are really Christians or just Christians in Word only.  So often, we work so hard at being a Christian when it is simpler.  As I have often said and learned, it is simply by putting our pants on every day and going about life and living according to his principles, precept come and his commands that when the Bible says do a thing to it, and what is says not to do a thing, don't do it.  It is that simple!

We grope for the wall like the blind,

            and that we grope as if we

 had no eyes; we stumble at noonday

            as at twilight; we are as dead men

in desolate places.  We all growl like bears,

            and moan sadly like doves;

we look for justice, but there is none;

            for salvation, but it is far from us....

The Redeemer will come to Zion, and to

            those who turn from transgression

in Jacob, says the LORD.

                                    Isaiah 59: 10 -- 11; 30

Our hope is in God

Richard L. Crumb

Courage, Conviction, And Committment

And I, brethren, when I came to you,

did not come with excellence of speech

 or of wisdom declaring to you

the testimony of God.

Or I determined not to know anything among you

except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

1 Corinthians 2: 1 -- 2

            As a Christian we are confronted by the culture of this world and its pressures to conform to the ideologies talked and practiced by those who will not believe upon our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  To practice our Christian faith takes courage and conviction, more than that, we are to be committed to God and His Son Jesus Christ and this we can do by the power of the Holy Spirit that dwells in all Christians.  One of the most harm done to Christians is to make them lose faith in their ability to remain committed.  We see this lack of commitment by the not honoring of vows and oaths in such things as in marriage with easy divorces in great number that are occurring in the Christian church.  Divorces done by such things, as irreconcilable differences, and those irreconcilable differences not based upon God's Word.  It takes courage to holdfast against wrongs to our convictions and to our commitments and yet this is what God has called us to be as his ambassador and witness to His gospel.  We see the world as one that is so troubled and filled with terror from almost every angle that we become timid and allow those things quiet as from speaking the gospel.  Paul wrote to the Corinthians approximately 55 A.D., and this is only some 20 -- 22 years from the crucifixion of Jesus Christ: not a long time.  Paul called by Jesus Christ on his way to cause more persecution and terror to the Christians in recognizing that the one with whom he was persecuting wives gone, Jesus Christ, the one who came, died upon a cross and was the promised Messiah, in a short time began to preach the gospel.  Imagine this, a person who is well-known for his opposition to the Christianity that was now being formed in many churches and cities that many people would be afraid and would have a hard time putting their faith into what he was now preaching.  When Paul entered into the city of Corinth there he would meet a bustling city full of commerce, many people going to and fro and many people who were involved in the worship of Apollos and Aphrodite, a licentious people who were enjoying their wealth and their world standing as an important city within the Roman Empire.  This was a port city and as we can testify to by many testimonies given over the years port cities are not known for being as a church rather more of a place where anything goes, a place where there would be much debauchery, drunkenness, and prostitution.  This is what Paul met when he came there in 51A.D and could cause great fear to speak out against such things that were being practiced in this city.  This can also be our objection in this day when we are faced with most things that are in our present-day culture that are in opposition to the gospel.  People are not willing to listen to what you may have to say in regards to Jesus Christ and salvation.  But as Paul said he did not come to them with a great excellency of speech even though he was a scholar and an orator.  Paul was not saying these things out as some abject humility, what he was saying is this; if he came with great excellency of speech to impress people he would rather veil the power of God for he did not come to impress people with his excellency of speech.  Many people even today are enthralled that are involved in some forms of group euphoria because they have become so impressed by a person's excellency of speech.  To believe in Jesus Christ is a miracle that only produced by the efficacy of redemption and not by some impressive speech, or by some wooing, and winning, rather only by the sheer unaided power of God.  God redeems and sanctifies, calls, and enables, and this by His creative power giving faith for a person to respond to the preaching of the Gospel.  It is never because of some personality of a preacher.  When a person is wooed to believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ to be impressiveness and exquisite diction with impressive an excellent words all that is being done is a hindrance of the gospel of God.  It must be remembered, a preacher is a representative of God.  The preacher is there to present the gospel of God.  If we are being flattered by what we do or why what we hear and if I think by preaching the gospel and I should be flattered, then all I am a coming is a trader to Jesus Christ because I would be preventing the creative power of redemption from doing its work.  Paul did not come to the Corinthians and he has written those things which we now have in our hands for us to read and as he did to the Corinthians he does for us, he comes without the excellence of speech or the wisdom of this world.  Paul comes to us with one thing and one thing only, and that is the testimony of God in the fact that Jesus Christ crucified and is the Savior, the promised one when God gave the promised to Adam.  Our faith should not be in anything other than the wisdom of God and the power of God.  Anything else in this may be and is often misused to mislead people to do things that are not of God and often are nothing more than ways to fatten the wallets of those who are preaching such things that are in opposition to what Paul is telling us to do and not to do.  Who are you following?  Is it some preacher?  Is that a man from the past like John Wesley, or John Calvin, or Martin Luther, or Augustine, or in any other person?  Are you willing to test them with the Scriptures rightly interpreted by allowing scripture to interpret scripture and not man to interpret scripture?  How important is this: the most important as the culture of this world had invaded the Corinthian church it can also see that there has been an invasion into the modern-day church as well.  Purity, purity, purity, this is what we must ensure so that we, and our children and others are not being led off into some form of false teaching.  This is our responsibility; this should be our curry to and conviction to holdfast to our commitment.

            With all of this in mind we will not enter into an in-depth study of this book and allow scripture to interpret scripture so that we can change anything that needs to be changed from our inside that is making us to practice things outside that are not of God.  Paul is going to tell us that we need to purge out the old leaven, and I hope this is what you're willing to do so that you are the witness, and massacre, of the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Do not say, "A conspiracy,"

            concerning all that this

people call a conspiracy, nor be

            afraid of their threats,

nor be troubled.  The LORD of hosts,

            Him you shall hallow;

let Him be your fear, and let Him

            be your dread.

                                    Isaiah 8:12 -- 13

Gird yourselves, speak the gospel

Richard L. Crumb

Called To Live And Preach The Gospel

For Christ did not send me to baptize,

but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom

of words, lest the cross of Christ should be

made of no effect.  For the message of the cross

is foolishness to those who are perishing,

but to us who are being saved it is

the power of God.

1 Corinthians 1: 17 -- 18

            Before I move on in our discussion of Paul's writing to the Corinthian church it is good to step back from the moment and remember that we are called to preach the gospel.  Paul is stating to us at the very beginning of his letters that his call was to preach the gospel and what Paul means by the gospel is the reality of retention in our Lord Jesus Christ.  Paul did not muddy up the waters of the gospel for he kept it to the thing that the gospel is all about, and that is the cross upon which Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior died to redeem the children of God.  How often we are so ready to make sanctification as the end of all for preaching.  Many Christians go about doing things that seem to be so pious as that this is what Jesus commissioned us to do.  It is not!  Nowhere are we commissioned to preach salvation or sanctification; what we are commissioned to do is to lift a Jesus Christ and how do we do this by preaching Jesus Christ: "And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself" (John 12: 32).  Jesus Christ did not suffer on the cross, a difficult and exhausting act nor did he just exert his mental or physical powers under this difficulty a difficulty that led to the very point of exhaustion that ended in the redemption just to make us a saint.  What Jesus Christ did in his travail in redemption is to redeem the whole world and that redemption paid the price of justice God demanded for the whole world and applies to His children and then to place it unimpaired and rehabilitated before the throne of God.  How do we know that we have been redeemed by the travail of Jesus Christ upon the cross and this can be known by experience that the power of the reality of Reagan can while being an illustration of this power this experience is not the end of redemption.  How we must query God towards our constant requests we make for ourselves we, and for our sanctification.  We must tax him in some way due to the things that we wish and want for ourselves most things that for us are to be delivered from.  It is at this point we must reach to the very bedrock of the reality of the gospel of God and if we do so we shall never bother God any further with little personal plaints.  Paul was telling us this that it was his passion in life to proclaim the gospel of God, and it should be our passion also for the reason is only one, it was our, as it was with Paul, passion towards our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ that will keep us in a unmoved devotion to the gospel of God.

            The first chapter of the first book of Corinthians ends this way: "But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God -- and righteousness and sanctification and redemption" (1 Corinthians 1: 30).  There is a mystery of sanctification for it is in the perfection of Jesus Christ that it is imparted to us, not gradually, but instantly when by faith we enter into the realization that Jesus Christ is made unto us sanctification.  What is the meaning of sanctification?  It means nothing less than that the holiness of Jesus is being made ours manifestly.  Now don't conclude that this manifestation is simply and worked as, or things that we do, no, it is this: the marvelous secret of a holy life not in imitating Jesus, rather than letting the perfection of Jesus become manifested in our carnal and mortal flesh.  How many are running to and fro, gathering names, or carrying pieces of paper with boxes to be checked off as they go about trying to impress people with their Christianity.  Some go about praying for people who are not even close to being ready to be prayed for in this sense they do not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ so what they need is not some prayer or some special healing, rather what they need is the gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  It is not that we don't pray that our ambassadorship of the Lord Jesus Christ would have an effect upon people but it is not an experience that the people need for it is the Lord Jesus Christ and He is redemption and sanctification that they need.  You see sanctification means the importation of the holy qualities of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  What is needed is His patience, His love, His Holiness, His faith, His purity, His godliness, and this is what is to be manifested in and through every sanctified soul.  Sanctification is not drawing some power from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ the power to be wholly; no, we draw from Jesus is the holiness that was manifested in Him and that is to be manifested in and through us as Christians.  It must be remembered, sanctification is imparted to us and it is not some imitation of our Savior Jesus Christ, it is through Jesus Christ where we find the perfection of everything and the mystery of sanctification and it must be remembered as well that all the perfection of Jesus are at my disposal.  This is to say that we can raise the dead, or heal people, some charismatic and other Pentecostal type people who believe in such power, no, it means that we begin to live a life that is ordered by the will of God to live with sanity and holiness.

            Paul is pointing out to us from the very beginning of his letters that when we overreach what it means to be a Christian and add to our Christianity things that are in many ways blasphemous to God, then we are not being By the power of God.  We are keeping ourselves with our power, with our wisdom, and this wisdom is so often infected by the culture and wisdom of this world that we are not in line with the will of God.  We are to be changing ourselves from the inside out and then life is change from the inside out and living according to the precept, principles, and commands of God we are manifesting our Savior Jesus Christ to the world.  This is our work that has been assigned to us.  The question is will we join this work or will we simply sit aside waiting for the return of the Lord Jesus Christ as though that is all there is: I pray and hope not that we will tacitly and apathetically set aside the life that Jesus died and redeemed and sanctified.

As for me, I will call upon God,

            and the LORD shall save me.

Evening and morning and at noon

            I will pray, and cried aloud,

and He shall hear my voice.  He has

            redeemed my soul in peace

from the battle that was against me,

            for there were many against me.

                                    Psalm 55: 16 -- 18

Put your trust in God

Richard L. Crumb

Living By The Wisdom Of God

But of Him you are in Christ Jesus,

Who became for us wisdom

from God––and righteousness

and sanctification and

redemption––that, as it is written,

“He who glories, let him

glory in the LORD.”

1Corinthians 1:30–31

            This wisdom that has so invaded Christians, the wisdom of this world, the culture of this world that it at times difficult to distinguish one from the other. At times it is hard to understand the situations that we may by involved in so that we look for solutions outside of Scripture. We forget, at least in some manner, that we are in Christ Jesus, that God came to earth to save His children, and this He did by the person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ Who became man to live a sinless life and die a sinless person. We so often forget that it is God’s wisdom and by His Wisdom came for us and He has determined that we are righteous, and sanctified, redeemed, and He sees all this through the Only Begotten Son Who came for you. We need not glory in the things of this world, for our glory is in the Lord. When under some unction or distress we take initiative and believe that this initiative is inspired and we do things that seem so godly, so righteous and our feeling and emotions, and yet, not all initiative is inspired: some are simply the desire and will of men. There is initiative given by God and there is initiative that is human initiative. Enamored men by visions or some ideal and yet when we mature we find that we cannot make them real. We do things that seem to make them real, but they are not, for they are from you and not from God. What is required of God’s children is that we take courage and become convicted to a point that we allow Him to give us what He desires to inspire us. Sometimes our visions or ideals become as dead and then we do the unthinkable, we turn to men who some to speak so eloquently, and seem to have words that are of God and yet so often they are teaching false things and misleading people for their own reasons and not God’s. What we must then remember is that God’s inspiration comes with miraculous power, not to do, but lead us back to Him, to love first Him, and to wait upon Him so that what we do are from Him and not of our own religious ideals. Our overcoming is by the power of the Holy Spirit. We are more than over comers for this life is from God and is our life. When God comes to us He does not give us visions, He tells us to do the most ordinary things conceivable. This is so apt for us: When the Lord does through us what He wills to have done, He always transfigures it and works through us as His temple for that is what we are and have within this temple the Holy Spirit.

            Paul begins this discourse to the Corinthians church and why they became so invaded with the culture of their world, and using the wisdom of this world to design their religion and religious experience that before addressing certain problems Paul sets forth the foundation of their problem(s). Paul has set forth that God has chosen the foolish, and has called the foolish and by the foolish He puts to shame this world, those base things which God despises. Paul then begins his testimony: “And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God”(1Corinthians 2:1). Before I move on I must speak about the differences between certain translations for if not then you may be mislead to believe what does not seem to be the correct translation. Some manuscripts use the Greek word found in the critical text: “μυστήριον,” mystery, as in the Nestle–Aland Novum Testamentum Graece edition of the New Testament, but this is not from most manuscripts for the most manuscripts use “μαρυύριον”, testimony, and this is discussed for if the word read is mystery then a whole different understanding and practice may be and is often what people exercise in their lives and their Christian walk. Paul did not declare some mystery, or some secret, as is done by some writers and preachers that they have found some secret, some mystery as though they were inspired of God. Paul speaks that he came not with some excellence of speech, some wisdom other than the wisdom by means of the testimony of God. Paul clears up this matter: “For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1Corinthians 2:2). What we preach and teach is not some type of wisdom that is not of God, rather we teach and preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified, as this is what is needed an understanding that we are sinners, deserving of death. It was God Who came to earth for His children and if you are one of His children then it is a driving force within us to live according to His word and not the word, or wisdom of this world. Are you listening to men or women who are speaking with persuasive words, sounding go godly, so in tune with God that we follow them without taking time to inspect what we should expect? Paul adds: “And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that you faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God” (1Corinthians 2:3-5). Don’t read into Scripture what Scripture does not say, this demonstration of power is outlined for us. It was not by using human wisdom that Paul spoke and taught of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, rather in all the sufferings, and trials, and everyday living Paul relied upon the power of God through God living in Him, the Holy Spirit. Are you relying on the power of the Spirit of God for everyday living? Or are you doing things that seem righteous and of God but are that which you have derived from His word rightly translated? I pray that it is by the right use and understanding of God’s word and not by our human reason and wisdom.

So Samuel said:

            Has the LORD as great delight

In burnt offerings and sacrifices,

            As in obeying the voice of the LORD?

Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to

            Heed than the fat of rams.

                                    1Samuel 15:22

Prepare now for the Sabbath: This belongs to God

Richard L. Crumb

By The Wisdom Of God He Has Called You

For Jews request a sign,

and Greeks seek after wisdom;

but we preach Christ crucified,

to the Jews a stumbling block

and to the Greeks foolishness,

but to those who are called,

both Jews and Greeks,

Christ the power of God

and the wisdom of God.

1Corinthians 1:22–24

            In yesterday’s blog, I listed what two surveys reported about abortion to show how the wisdom of man is in opposition to the truth, and contrary to the will of God.  In regard to this abomination of abortion, an abomination that is more than just killing a life, it is an abomination due to the reasons for killing a life. Most of the reasons given have nothing to do with the life of the mother, or some health issue that may make cause for the abortion. Just because health issues make this cause for abortion is not reason for killing a life under the guise that any abortion is equally the same. It is not. Human wisdom is so often jaded with excess of sexual desire and overindulgence in that which is to be set aside for marriage between a man and a woman. This subject of sex, which is so overdone by TV, or movies, and pornographic images, pictures, videos, on the computer that it is worn out and making this desire to be more vicious because the reasons given are not about the pregnancy, it is about being autonomous, that is, to have their cake and eat it too. The current reason given for abortion is that the fetus is not a person therefore, destroying the fetus before birth is acceptable. This reason that determines that the life in the womb is not a person is absolutely ridiculous. The fetus is a person and all that a person is comes about by being a fetus that contains humanness. Are we so to say that an old person has lost his/her personhood, or humanness due to their age? Did not all that they were as a human found in the fetus that is only an age of a person? It is not birth that determines personhood, it is conception.

            It is the message of the cross that we are to preach and teach for it is Jesus Christ crucified that paid the debt owed to God, and that death was the payment due, not just any death, rather the death of a man not corrupted by sin, a man who would live on this earth and be sinless and then His death would be equal to the life that died due to sin. Yet, within several denominations in the Christian religion there is preached another gospel. We find the gospel of prosperity, as I just heard on TV by Mr. Huckabee who stated that due to being a Christian that whatever you do will be successful. I not harping on Mr. Huckabee to show him to be wrong, although this type of preaching is more about what a person can do for him/herself, rather than preaching that it is turning our lives, by conversion, to Jesus Christ and we are successful, not because of our believing, rather because all Christians are called by God and Him alone through the life, death, resurrection, and ascension into heave to sit at the right hand of the Father making intercession for all those that God gives to Him. This giving of people to be the bride of Jesus Christ is only by the will of God, for His purpose, His reason. Christianity is a stumbling block to those outside of Jesus Christ. They cannot, and will not even if they could, accept the Savior as their personal Savior. The calling by the Father is by His wisdom and not ours. Yet, as many churches teach and do they seek after things that would seem so pious, so acceptable to God, such things, as to about healing, praying for strangers, speaking in some gibberish language as though this so godly, as though God would accept this over their actual language. Men and women love to be titillated, to be excited, and join in with others in some euphoric expression that to them is so Christian, so godly, so filled with piety. This desire for the exciting euphoric expression came into the Corinthian Church mostly because the men and women coming into the church brought with them their past beliefs and did not take the time to study and see what it is that is truly of God. Some Christians today attend meetings that are more like the event of Woodstock where people that attended were so enthralled by the music, and just being present where others were exuding such seemingly happiness and joy. Actually, at Woodstock much of the supposed happiness came in the form of drugs. In many churches the drug is not some pill, or smoking of marijuana, or shooting into the veins heroin, no it is the drug of preaching that turns their hearts to the thrill of the moment. This thrill that is to be found in that type of Church is not preaching what is needed to turn those called by God to Him so that they convert to Him. Jesus warned us of those who would enter into the congregation: “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves” (Matthew 7:15). Jesus did not stop there for He continues in this vein of teaching: “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons ink Your name? And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!” (Matthew 7:21–23). Examine this Scripture and notice that it is the will of the Father, His wisdom, we should be exercising in our life, not those things that make a person to feel empowered, or pious. If you are a Christian who has converted to Him then you life will seem foolish to others: “Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish thing of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and thing things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence. But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God––and righteousness and sanctification and redemption––that, as it is written, ‘He who glories, let him glory in the LORD.’” (1Corinthians 1:25–31).

            There it is: God calls His children and we as His child are to live according to His wisdom. Paul is going to address some serious issues facing the Corinthian Church and God had his letter saved for us by inspiring Paul to write as he did; the question is will be reason out by means of our own desire what we wish Paul’s writing means or will we learn from it and this by examining all; Scripture interpreting Scripture?

Preserve me, O God, for in You

            I put my trust.  O my soul,

You have said to the LORD,

            “You are my LORD,

my goodness is nothing apart from you.”

            As for the saints who are on

The earth, they are the excellent ones,

            In whom is all my delight.

                                    Psalm 16:1–3

Praise God for He has called you

Richard L. Crumb

Hating The Wisdom Of This World: As Does God!

For it is written:

"I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,

and bring to nothing the understanding

of the prudent."

Where is the wise?

Where is the scribe?

Where is the disputer of this age?

Has not God made foolish

the wisdom of this world?

1 Corinthians 1: 19 -- 20

(Isaiah 29: 14)

            Our great God Jehovah and never makes a statement, or a promise, that he either has not already fulfilled or will fulfill them the future.  Currently, our present culture, with all the technology available now to even those who are economically poor as this technology at their fingertips.  By means of the availability and use of the technology people think that they are wise and in need of nothing else other than what man can provide and has provided.  This wisdom has led people to think autonomously and have a power within themselves so that they have little or no need for God.  We hear things like a need to find themselves, or to be empowered, everything is for them self as though they have great understanding.  The empirical facts that are so evident that we cannot eat more of them because this wisdom, or prudent type of living as people think has led to a greater lifestyle that is of a homosexual nature.  This lifestyle has the approval of those who think they are so why and so good because they are willing to accept this abnormal behavior.  Furthermore, the empirical evidence that is so abhorrent because it has to do with the killing of a life all for the reason that is then given to give validity and approval for this delivered and willful murder: they call this abortion.  Here are two surveys that demonstrate what the wisdom of this world is allowing and how far from that which is the will of God they have come and are going.  It is my desire to give the surveys even though they long for you to examine and notice of the reasons given in when God says that he will destroy the wisdom of the wise and those who think that they are prudent with some sort of understanding.  Those who are wise by the standards of this world are only trying to live the way they want to live even though it is in opposition to the commandments of God.  One quick overview that must be stated is that 98% of those who had abortions did so by their own election. 

REASONS FOR ABORTIONS: COMPILED ESTIMATES

rape	0.3 % (0.1-0.6 %)
incest	0.03 % (0.01-0.1 %)
physical life of mother	0.1 % (0.01-0.3 %)
physical health of mother	1.0 % (0.1-3 %)
fetal health	0.5 % (0.1-1.0 %)
mental health of mother	?? (0.1-8 %)
elective --too young/immature/not ready for responsibility --economic --to avoid adjusting life --mother single or in poor relationship --enough children already --sex selection	98% (87-99 %) --? (32 %) --30% (20-40 %) --? (16 %) --? (12-13 %) --? (4-8 %) --? (<0.1-? %)

http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/policy/abortion/abreasons.html

TABLE 2. Percentage of women reporting that specified reasons contributed to their

decision to have an abortion, 2004 and 1987

 (N=1,160) (N=1,900)

Reason                                                                                                                                

                                                                                                                                2004       1987

Having a baby would dramatically change my life	74	78
Would interfere with education	38	36
Would interfere with job/employment/career	38	50***
Have other children or dependents	32	22***
Can’t afford a baby now	73	69
Unmarried	42	na
Student or planning to study	28	na
Can’t afford a baby and child care	28	na
Can’t afford the basic needs of life	23	na
Unemployed	22	na
Can’t leave job to take care of a baby	21	na
Would have to find a new place to live	19	na
Not enough support from husband or partner	14	na
Husband or partner is unemployed	12	na
Currently or temporarily on welfare or public assistance	8	na
Don’t want to be a single mother or having relationship problems	48	52*
Not sure about relationship	19	na
Partner and I can’t or don’t want to get married	12	30***
Not in a relationship right now	11	12
Relationship or marriage may break up soon	11	16*
Husband or partner is abusive to me or my children	2	3
Have completed my childbearing	38	28**
Not ready for a(nother) child†	32	36
Don’t want people to know I had sex or got pregnant	25	33*
Don’t feel mature enough to raise a(nother) child	22	27*
Husband or partner wants me to have an abortion	14	24***
Possible problems affecting the health of the fetus	13	14
Physical problem with my health	12	8**
Parents want me to have an abortion	6	8
Was a victim of rape	1	1
Became pregnant as a result of incest	<0.5	<0.5

http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/journals/3711005.pdf

            I hope you are taking time to look over these surveys; companies considered the best when it comes to taking surveys did them.  We should carefully look at the reasons given and then see how they are only wisdom of this world and how they are in opposition to the will of God.  This is where I will stop this blog this day before I move on to other things because this is a current issue that must be addressed by Christians.  With this knowledge, you now armored to meet the challenge that is not only facing the world at large but also God's church.

Have all the workers of iniquity

            no knowledge, who will eat up my people

as they eat bread, and do not call upon the LORD?

            There they are in great fear, for God is with

the generation of the righteous.

                                    Psalm 14: 4 -- 5

Christian awake!

Richard L. Crumb