Devotional Thoughts

1 Corinthians 5:6-8     “Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” In a previous verse, Paul has already pointed out that the brethren were puffed up (boastful, proud) over a sinful situation. He rebuked them that they had not mourned over the situation rather than trying to put a positive perspective on it. Here he tells them plainly that their boasting (glorying) is not good. As the children of God, we should always remember that unless we are boasting of our Lord and Savior, our boasting is not good either.Even if we are only boasting in ourselves a little or looking the other way just a little, it is going to have big consequences. Our...

Psalm 95:1    "O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation." "O Come, let us sing unto the LORD." I'll jump ahead a few Psalms to include with these words "I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD." (Psalm 122:1)  I love to try to sing. I'm so thankful that God placed music within us when He created man. David loved music. I can picture him on the hillsides, looking out across God's creation, and the music flowing from his heart as he would begin to praise the Lord. I think of the manner in which music would calm the soul of King Saul when he would go into one of his raging fits. There have been times in my life when I wanted complete silence. I needed that time to be still before the Lord and allow my mind to think upon good things. There are other times when I want to hear the radio playing while I'm driving down the highway. I enjoy "most types" of mu...

1 Corinthians 5:3-5     “For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed, In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, To deliver such a one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.” Although necessity had dictated that Paul physically move on from Corinth, the church there was obviously still much in his thoughts and prayers. Even as pastors today, when the Lord sees fit to move us from one congregation to another we never completely lose some feeling of attachment and spiritual responsibility for each congregation. By God’s grace, Paul was still sufficiently attuned to the Corinthian brethren that he was confident in the matter before him. Paul’s judgement was not only aimed at the man guilty of fornication. He was very concerned wit...

1 Corinthians 5:1     “It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife. And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you.” Up until this point, Paul has been dealing with a division among the brethren. This division is one that comes from putting men before God. It does not matter that the men themselves were godly and called of God to minister. Men are never to be honored for that which comes from God: the glory is His alone. While on the one hand they had all this division going on, there was something else taking place in which there seemed to be no great division. Not only was there no division, but there was no real concern over the situation. The situation was a matter of fornication, and fornication to an extent that was unheard of among those that were considered unbelievers an...