Devotional Thoughts

1 Corinthians 15:12-14    “Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.” Are we still “preaching” today that Christ rose from the dead? Paul was not speaking of an academic presentation. He was not pointing to a debate, nor was he indicating that there was any doubt about the matter. It is important to note that Christ “be preached” that He rose from the dead. Preaching is more than just making a speech. Preaching is more than just being a good orator. Preaching implies the leadership and motivation of the Holy Ghost moving men to declare, as ambassadors of Christ, the truth that He reveals in the hearts of His people. Strong’s gives the Greek word translated as “preached” to mean “to herald (as a public crier), especially divine truth (the gospe...

1 Corinthians 15:10-11    “But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. Therefore whether it were I or they, so we preach, and so ye believed.” Paul readily admitted that he was not worthy to be called an apostle (see verse 9). This is a common theme of those who are truly called by God into His service. They do not consider themselves to be fit or able to serve Him, and truly, in our own strength, we are not. David recognized that every man in his best state is altogether vanity (Psa 39:5). There is only one thing that can change the situation for us. It is not our will or our works. We were what we were (as was Paul) according to our sinful nature, but by the grace of God we are made a new creature. By His grace alone, we are quickened from death unto life, and by His grace alone, we are called and blessed to become the s...

Psalm 139:14    "I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well." I encourage you to read the entire 139th Psalm. We will likely come back to this Psalm tomorrow. We read in Revelation chapter 4 that the four beasts around the throne of God "... rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come." Then we read of the four and twenty elders that they "... fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created." That can be found in Revelation 4, verses 8, 10, and 11. By faith we understand that whatever they are seeing is more glorious than anything we have ever laid eyes on while going through this lif...

1 Corinthians 15:7-9    “After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles. And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time. For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.” Paul began, in the third verse of this chapter, to lay out again the gospel that he had preached in the church at Corinth. He declared unto them how that Christ died for our sins, how that He was buried, and how He rose again on the third day. This was all done according to the scriptures. He then proceeds to lay out to them a list of witnesses to Christ’s resurrection, many of whom were still alive at that time. In this seventh verse, Paul continues to confirm that Jesus rose from the dead by naming further witnesses. Paul obviously felt it important to give them an over-abundance of testimony to the resurrection of our Lord. It was easy enough to believe that He had died since this was something that men...

The text for this message is Joel 3:9-17. We have been nibbling away at this book for some time now. Let us briefly review what we have learned so far. There is no definite time period given. Joel may have been a contemporary of Elijah, some 870 years before the birth of Christ, or he may have been a contemporary of Nehemiah, 450 years before the birth of Christ, or he may have lived during some period in between. As concerns prophecy in general, it may be a fore-telling of future events or it may be a forth-telling of current events, relative to the time of the prophet. We find both in this short prophecy of Joel. In the first half of this book, it appears Joel is explaining current events to his original audience. Israel had been disobedient and walked away from God. We cannot pinpoint a time in Israel’s history when this was unique. It is a problem Israel dealt with continually. From as early as the Exodus from Egypt, to as late as the return from Babylon, Israel and Judah had a hab...