ADORATION – Reflect on God’s Greatness
UNITY When Scripture speaks about God’s attributes it never singles out one attribute as more important than the rest. Every attribute is completely true of God and God’s character.
John can say that “God is light” (1 John 1:5) and then a little later say also that “God is love” (1 John 4:8). Each attribute is simply a way of describing one aspect of God’s total character or being. God himself is unified, completely integrated, and infinitely perfect in all of these attributes.
The reality of God’s unity transcends our understanding, but if all of God could be understood by our minds, He would cease to be God.
Praise God for His Unity
Praise God that He is perfect in love and perfect in justice all the time. Praise God that He executes wrath and He is merciful. Praise God for His unity. Praise God that He is completely all of Himself at all the times.
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.
- Ask God to bring your unbelieving friends to faith in Christ. Pray for opportunities to share the gospel.
- Pray for Sudanese Arabs. Pray that all unreached people groups across Sudan would have access to the truth, the life, the hope, and the joy that are only available through Jesus Christ.
- Ask God to speak to you as you read the scriptures.
SCRIPTURE READING:
1 Corinthians 3 New Living Translation
Paul and Apollos, Servants of Christ
Dear brothers and sisters, when I was with you I couldn’t talk to you as I would to spiritual people. I had to talk as though you belonged to this world or as though you were infants in Christ. 2 I had to feed you with milk, not with solid food, because you weren’t ready for anything stronger. And you still aren’t ready, 3 for you are still controlled by your sinful nature. You are jealous of one another and quarrel with each other. Doesn’t that prove you are controlled by your sinful nature? Aren’t you living like people of the world? 4 When one of you says, “I am a follower of Paul,” and another says, “I follow Apollos,” aren’t you acting just like people of the world?
5 After all, who is Apollos? Who is Paul? We are only God’s servants through whom you believed the Good News. Each of us did the work the Lord gave us. 6 I planted the seed in your hearts, and Apollos watered it, but it was God who made it grow. 7 It’s not important who does the planting, or who does the watering. What’s important is that God makes the seed grow. 8 The one who plants and the one who waters work together with the same purpose. And both will be rewarded for their own hard work. 9 For we are both God’s workers. And you are God’s field. You are God’s building.
10 Because of God’s grace to me, I have laid the foundation like an expert builder. Now others are building on it. But whoever is building on this foundation must be very careful. 11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one we already have—Jesus Christ.
12 Anyone who builds on that foundation may use a variety of materials—gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay, or straw. 13 But on the judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person’s work has any value. 14 If the work survives, that builder will receive a reward. 15 But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss. The builder will be saved, but like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames.
16 Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you? 17 God will destroy anyone who destroys this temple. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.
18 Stop deceiving yourselves. If you think you are wise by this world’s standards, you need to become a fool to be truly wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God. As the Scriptures say,
“He traps the wise
in the snare of their own cleverness.”
20 And again,
“The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise;
he knows they are worthless.”
21 So don’t boast about following a particular human leader. For everything belongs to you— 22 whether Paul or Apollos or Peter, or the world, or life and death, or the present and the future. Everything belongs to you, 23 and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.
SCRIPTURE REFLECTION:
If you have trusted Christ alone for your salvation you are eternally safe. Your faith foundation will last through time and eternity. What you build on that sure foundation unfolds over a lifetime. Paul uses two categories of building materials in this chapter. One category is precious, valuable materials…the other cheap, common, and ultimately worthless materials. There are two opposite errors that Paul is avoiding here. One is that we cannot ever be truly secure in our salvation. But if the faith foundation for our lives is Christ then we are eternally secure. The other error is that since we are eternally secure then it doesn’t matter what we do with our lives. Of course it matters what we do with our life choices. The one who is eternally secure and is growing in that security will also grow in love for the one who has made him or her secure. That love will empower life choices that will build on the precious foundation of Christ.