The Devotional

Papa “J” Says

One day is as a thousand years to God. Does that mean anything to us time conscious people? If we've not become dull of hearing, we can search out the matter since God has placed eternity in our heart! Ecclesiastes 3:11

There are a lot of amazing stories that parallel some practical truth from the Word of God. One only needs to look for them. For example; Charles Lindbergh tells of an event when he was flying over Newfoundland in the fog. He noticed that the wings of the aircraft were beginning to collect moisture and were freezing up. (What I noticed about his next comment is the difference between victory and tragic failure). “This great adventure is going to come to an untimely end. What shall I do?” Many people panic and lose the vision in a crisis, also many are ignorant of the danger, or make wrong decisions. Notice what Charles did! His moment of challenge turned to a moment of inspiration. He took the plane higher, to an altitude that was above the fog and there in dazzling light of the sun the ice melted and his journey continued. Have you ever felt that your life is like living in a fog? You don't have to answer that because the question is rather rhetorical. Yes, we've all been there, the path of victory is always “up”. Ask God to give His Light, He is above the cloud in your heart, ask Him; go ahead ask Him and He will answer you! Luke 11:9-13.

1 Corinthians

1 Corinthians 12:15-25 Here is a very unique portion of scripture, the question that come to mind is: Does the apostle refer to individuals of the church, that one of us is a foot and another is the eye? Or is he relating to the church as a whole? I believe he is talking about the church and the ministries within the universal and local church setting. Notice that there are nine temporal needs of the church and nine parts of the human anatomy. The foot, hand, ear, nose, weaker parts, unrepresentable, presentable, less honorable parts and the body as a whole.

1 Corinthians 12:26 We know from experience that some people, even our self at times desire the quality of being our best, and this is not to say that we should not strive or contend for faith. (Jude 1:3). But, when it comes to fitting in to the body of Christ, which is what these three chapters of 1 Corinthians is all about, the striving should be one of allowing God the Holy Spirit to fit us spiritually in place so that the church does not suffer.

1 Corinthians 12:27 We the people (Members of the church) are individual members of the universal body of Christ and His Ministries at the present time are designed to further the gospel of the LAMB of God who takes away the sin of the world. Through the Power of the Holy Spirit and the Spiritual needs of the church you and I will function in a temporal spiritual need, until that need is not required for a season. Then when the need arises again, someone else may spiritually fill that need, since we may be serving in another area. If we are spiritually observant, we see this going on in our churches all the time.