Corinth

Paul loved cities. It was in the major cities of his day that he did his evangelism and church planting. He knew that if he planted a church in a city then the surrounding area would also hear the Gospel. Corinth was a major city but it was also a wicked city. I think that we would wonder about someone wanting to go to a city like Corinth (or Las Vegas) to plant a church. People often went to those cities for other activities but not Paul. He knew that if he could establish a church in Corinth then it would open up all of southern Greece for the Gospel.

By the will of God

Paul was an apostle, not by his own desire, but by the will of God. We have a free will but does that mean that we can be anything we want? All too often people desire to do something for God by their own will but if you were to stop and analyse their reasons you would find that it was more to fulfill their desires than to do the will of God. Remember, God doesn't need us to do things for Him but rather it is a privilege when He calls us to work for Him. We can make the will of God about us rather than about God.

Called to be

Today many people see the calling of God to do something but that is not how we should first see the call of God. Paul was called to be an apostle not just to do the work of an apostle.

We are first called to a person, Jesus Christ. Our calling always begins here.

Second we are called to be. We always want to do something but Jesus asks us to be something. We want to work for Him but He wants us to live in such away as to bring glory to His name.

It is always easier to do something than to be something. We seek God's calling as to what we should do, where we should live, who we should marry etc. but that is always secondary to the calling to be. Paul was called to be an apostle. He was first an apostle before he could do the work of an apostle.

Apostles

This Sunday we will begin a new series on 1 Corinthians. Paul begins this letter by saying that he was called to be an apostle. An apostle was one that was commissioned by the Lord to bring the message to the world. The question of whether there are apostles today? Some would say that the leader who holds the highest ecclesiastical office would fulfill that role while others would say that they had to be directly commissioned by the Lord Himself.
We know that the original disciples were commissioned but was Paul? He talks about his commissioning by the Lord Jesus Christ. He had a special meeting that he claimed that we was unable to tell about.
So are there apostles today? My sense is that the answer is no. There are those who claim a special commissioning but when you examine them it appears to be more man given than God given. There is a pride in the office as well as a dominating spirit which was not the spirit of the original apostles. Paul tells us that he was the least of all apostles and doesn't deserve the title (1 Corinthians 15:9). Paul was reluctant to take upon himself that role but he does remind us that he had that calling from the Lord Himself.
The other reason why I think that there are no apostles today is that the apostles were were the foundation upon which the church was built, Jesus Christ being the chief cornerstone (Ephesians 2:20). The church was established by the apostles and today we are to build upon their foundation, not lay a new foundation.

When did it become an adjective?

When I was growing up, a long time ago before the earth's crust was solid, worship was never thought of as an adjective but rather it was a verb. I want to say that it is more than a verb it is life itself. We now have worship songs, worship time, worship services, worship leaders but do we have worship? Have worship as an adjective means that we compartmentalize worship. However, we are to live a life of worship.
I saw this about sixteen years ago when my son's best friend was killed in a car accident. When the police came to their home in the middle of the night his mother told the police that she knew where her son was, he was in heaven. The police were used to people reacting so differently, becoming hysterical and beating on them in their grief. This was a life of worship. God is good in the good times and in the bad. He is always good. He is not a therapeutic God but a sovereign God of the universe.

Your God is too Small

A number of years ago J. B. Phillips wrote a book titled, "Your God is too Small." I believe that you cannot worship a God that is too small. People have referred to God as the man upstairs or another such name but this is not a god that you can worship. The God that calls us to worship Him is bigger than the universe as He created it all. There are no words in any language that can describe Him. A domesticated god is not a god that we can worship we can only worship the God who cannot be tamed. When John tried to describe God words failed him.
How big is your God? Is your God indescribable?

Worship and Doctrine

Should a worship leader have a good knowledge of doctrine? Before I go any further with this post I should point out that I just used "worship" as an adjective when it is much more than that but I will get to that in another post.
Jesus told the woman of Samaria that the time was coming when we would worship in spirit and in truth. People love the spirit part but they ignore the truth. What does that mean for our worship?
First, we must know the truth and not just the truth in abstract but the Truth as a person. Jesus is the Truth and the life. Our worship is not just with our emotions but it involves the mind.
Second, it means that the songs that we sing should speak the truth. They should be more than a catchy tune but have meaningful words. My son often said that the choruses we sing are take home theology. It is important that the words speak the truth. It is important that the one that picks the songs we sing also knows the truth.
Some people have said "no creed but Christ" but what does that mean? If you don't have a creed then what do you believe abut Christ? Who is He? The creed "no creed but Christ" is laziness and does more harm to our worship than we could imagine. We must know the truth, we must worship with our minds, we must know doctrine to worship properly.