The Devotional

Papa “J” Says

Someone has coined the phrase; “Many voices, one message” If those words were ever true I am certain that the use of them today is missing the intended mark, the following paragraph will explain!

July 2008 in Madrid, Spain, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia spoke before what many in the ecumenical world hailed as a glittering array of religious luminaries. The conference was termed historic, not only because it was convened by a Muslim king from the most religiously intolerant country in the world, but because it included (along with the usual World Council of Churches representatives) a mixture of just about everything under the sun. There were Jewish rabbis, some “evangelical” leaders and mainline liberal lobbyists for inter-religious dialogue; and a cadre of Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Zoroastrians, and the like. The 300-plus boosters of religious “inclusive-ism” might have passe with no more that a nod and a “here they go again” had it not been for a defining statement by Abdullah in his opening remarks: “We all believe in one God, who sent messengers for the good of humanity in this world and the hereafter.” Perhaps in the past, even that statement would hardly have been worth noting. But in the current bog of moral and religious incoherency, Abdullah's point of view is now finding a home in what may loosely be termed evangelical circles. Author: Elwood McQuaid, Executive Editor for the Friends of Israel, published in the January/February 2009 issue of Israel My Glory, magazine. There are not many voices, but there is only “One Message. Jesse Abel, January 2010, a no-body.

1 Corinthians

1 Corinthians 12:28 The whole body of Christ is guided by the appointed under shepherds of God who are the apostles, prophets and teachers of the church. Today we have assigned titles to these men as pastors, missionaries and teachers. In the pastoral epistles, these same individuals are overseers, elders and deacons.

1 Corinthians 12:29-30 Continuing with this thought of verse 28 is the administration of those temporal needs of the church. A need for a healing or help and the possible need to administer a tongue of exhortation, with interpretation, but these needs are not like a coat hanging on a nail in the back room of the church so one can just go in and pick one off the hook to see if it fits. Not all will have the ability to help, but all will have the ability (spiritually) to be ready when the Holy Spirit endows.

1 Corinthians 12:31 We should all strive to meet the spiritual needs available to all saints and members of the local assembly. But it is not in the flesh that we strive, it begins and ends in the Spirit. This is the more excellent way and Paul is about explain in 1 Corinthians 13.