ADORATION – Reflect on God’s Greatness
IMMANENCE OF GOD The literal meaning of the immanence of God is “to be within” or “near” in relation to God’s creation. Immanence is closely related to God’s omnipresence, in that God is always present within the universe, though distinct from it. God is ‘within’ the universe in that God is its sustaining cause. God is active within His Creation.
Genesis 3:9 But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?”
Matthew 1:23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).
Praise God for His Immanence
God calling to Adam in the garden in Gen. 3:9 showed that God made us to be near Himself. Praise God that He has drawn near to us. Praise God that he is distinct from creation but near. Give thanks to God for specific times when you experienced his immanence.
CONFESSION: Confess your sins to God and receive his continued mercy.
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9
THANKSGIVING: Giving thanks to God for his specific blessings in our lives.
“Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.” Psalm 100
SUPPLICATION: Bringing our requests to God.
- Bring your personal prayer requests to God.
- Pray for people in your life who do not know Christ. Ask God for opportunity and boldness to share the good news.
- Pray for Embrace. Ask God to use their work to rescue unborn children from abortion.
- Ask God to end abortion in Kansas, in America and around the globe.
- Pray again for the Uyghur people group. Ask God to encourage Uyghur people to be active in sharing the gospel.
SCRIPTURE READING:
1 Corinthians 2 – English Standard Version
Proclaiming Christ Crucified
And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, 4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
Wisdom from the Spirit
6 Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. 7 But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 But, as it is written,
“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
nor the heart of man imagined,
what God has prepared for those who love him”—
10 these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. 13 And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.
14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 15 The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. 16 “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
SCRIPTURE REFLECTION:
Paul doesn’t reject wisdom, he rejects wisdom that comes merely from a human mind. Clearly Scripture encourages the pursuit of wisdom. But Paul believed that ultimately Christ is the wisdom and knowledge of God. There are many things we can know without God revealing it to us. However, we cannot know what matters the most in life and in death unless God has revealed it to us.
As it is written: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him”— and God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. What has God prepared for those who love him? Do you know? He has told us? How often do you think of it? Why don’t you think right now of what God has prepared for you in the future?