Dear Friends, Today I am reading I Corinthians 2:1-12: When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come proclaiming the mystery of God to you in lofty words or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I came to you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. My speech and my proclamation were not with plausible words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God. Yet among the mature we do speak wisdom, though it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to perish. But we speak God's wisdom, secret and hidden, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written, "What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him--" these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For what human being knows what is truly human except the human spirit that is within? So also no one comprehends what is truly God's except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the gifts bestowed on us by God. Devotional Thoughts: As Christians, we have a different perspective on our experiences than folks in the world who do not know Jesus. In this chapter of First Corinthians, Paul wants us to remember that perspective and to incorporate it into every aspect of our lives--Paul calls it the "mind of Christ." There is an old rule --politics and religion don't mix. AND very often with certain people in our families, or in our social circles we might say, "We just know NOT to discuss politics or religion." I am going to meddle just a little bit and talk politics and religion. Please know everything I say is couched in love and hopefully with the "Mind of Christ." In the political arena, how do we adopt the mind of Christ? The recent State of the Union address was viewed and filtered by Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, Tea Party, and those of us who do not fit into any one category. Some folks viewed the State of the Union address through the lens of an African-American, or a female voter. Some of us didn't watch the State of the Union address

         

 

because we knew that it would be "all lies" or "all form and no substance" or maybe even "a show for the camera." Whatever our situation, we all bring our own lens, or view, to our life experiences. And every person's experience is different. We watch and we listen through our own filters, and what we get is often incomplete or imperfect. We have our view of the important things in our lives, such as religion, and we have our unique view of even the incidental things that happen in our lives. I LOVED the youth Super Bowl party. I had a wonderful time with Drew and Sharon Cradic and Frankie and Steven hosting our youth, but I also loved it because we have a youth group that primarily is made up of GIRLS. The SuperBowl was viewed through the lens of girls! So our conversation was vastly different than if we had had football players, lifelong football fans, or even a room full of men who all understood the flags, the umpires (That's what they are in football, right?), ... you get the drift right? I don't know what channel ESPN is, nor do I know what channel The cooking shows are, but I DO know what channel, what time, what episode, Downton Abbey is showed on. The Winter Olympics are quite appealing to me, primarily because I love snow. I will not watch them as a skier, an ice skater, or a ski boarding enthusiast. But I do love to watch them. Since we all come to every moment in our lives, every event whether important or not, with our preconceived ideas, notions, opinions, experiences, I do understand that the media provides commentators to give us the "takeaway." I also understand that every expert, every commentator, every announcer, every reporter brings his or her conceptions and agendas to each experience. Nothing is totally unbiased. It is important to me that you know that I am a Peyton Manning fan. I don't know what quarterbacks do, even though my father was a quarterback on his high school football team. I didn't know until recently that Peyton had left the Colts. I'm honestly not sure he ever played for the Colts, to be quite honest. BUT... I like Peyton because in my view he has integrity. My hope was that he would behave with integrity following the loss of the SuperBowl. And to my best knowledge, he did. All that to say, that Paul invites us to add another voice, another view, another filter to all the others that we use to interpret our experiences. Paul is talking to the church at Corinth about discernment--the gift that comes from God as we live our lives in the Spirit of God. This gift of the Spirit is like putting on a new pair of glasses. Nothing changes, but everything is transformed. We see everything differently, clearly, spiritually. We see what we saw before, but it looks different. We see possibilities where we previously saw roadblocks. We understand truth that before was mumbo-jumbo. We learn new words and understand them. And we see what we could not see before. Formerly drab corners of the world become beautiful. We are forever linked to people we did not think we would ever know, much less love. And we are no longer responsible for judging anyone for anything! (I especially like this part!) God is our judge; our decisions are based not on our understanding of the world's desires but God's desires! We have the mind of Christ. So my prayer for us is that when we hear or say, "I will let you make up your own mind about that," we mean "I hope you take on the mind of Christ as you decide how to approach this experience." Maybe next year we will watch the State of the Union address with the mind of Christ. Maybe we will watch the SuperBowl with the mind of Christ. Maybe we will watch the Olympics with the mind of Christ.

MAYBE.... we will love God and neighbor with the mind (love) of Christ!

~ ~ ~ Please pray:

• Please pray for Shirley and Tom Palmer. • Please pray for Barbara Marrs, upcoming surgery • Please pray for John Collins, upcoming surgery • Please pray for all soldiers at home and abroad (Steve Robinson requested)

Calendar:

• Thursday Feb 6: Leadership Pillar, Finance Committee, Spiritual Development Pillar 7 pm

• Saturday Feb 8: Evening at the Charles

• Sunday Feb 9: Sunday School in Fellowship Hall with Operation Christmas Child missionaries, (Missions Month)

• Sunday Feb 9, Staff Parish Relations Committee, 5:30

• Sunday Feb 16 2:30 Wesley Memorial UMC District Day of Discipleship.

• May God bless you this week and in the days to come!!!

"Preach the gospel at all times and when necessary use words." -- St Francis of Assisi Blessings, Jane Taylor First United Methodist Church Johnson City TN