I didn’t post yesterday. My husband and I spent most of the last two days with or praying for our dear friend, Steve Woods. His precious wife, Darlene, moved to Heaven, and she will be dearly missed. She truly left her mark on all those who knew her.
Psalm 139
Our Father has searched me and known me and is intimately acquainted with all my ways. Just reading this statement brings peace, doesn’t it?
Psalm 139 is full of all of the intimate ways our Father knows us – and all of the personal dealings He has with us as believers. Often I have shared this with young people as they are going through their self-conscious teen years. They – and you – are special to God. He has a plan for them – and you – and won’t let them go.
“You have hedged me before and laid Your hand upon me…Where can I go from your spirit?”(V. 5-7) The answer: no where. Our Father is watching over us, knowing our every move, and His loving hand is guiding us even when we don’t know about it. Even when we “make our bed in hell,” He will be there to guide us back to the light.
What a loving God!
Then we come to some of my favorite verses. “For you have formed my inward parts…I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”(V 13-14) What a confidence booster! You are fearfully and wonderfully made.
You are a unique person wrought by God Himself. Instead of trying to find all of the faults with your makeup – let your mind meditate on this. God made you the way He wants you. Of course, you aren’t like everybody else. Why would you be? You are unique – according to His plan.
This reminds me of Acts 17:26 where Paul says that God has set the “appointed times and boundaries” of all the people on the earth. The fact that we live in this century and in the places he has put us is no accident. It’s all part of God’s plan.
Then look at this: “Your eyes see my unformed substance.”(V 16) I love this verse, because it reminds me that there are parts of my makeup which I have never discovered. There are gifts and talents which He knows are there, which He put there – deep within me, and as I follow His lead, I will discover them
All of us know people who late in life started painting or writing and we were surprised, because that talent hadn’t been evident before. That’s what I am talking about. Those gifts were always there, and of course, God knew it. He was waiting for the opportunity to reveal them.
So hold up your head. Regardless of where you have been, where you are going is more important. You have a Father who adores you, and has a marvelous plan laid out for you. As you continue to walk with Him, He will open new doors for you, causing your life to become richer along the way.
I Corinthians 14
When you read this chapter, you can really get a picture of the Corinthian personality, can’t you? These people who had been – and in many respects still were – worldly, came to the Lord and received His Spirit. They seemed quick to embrace the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and they were fluently speaking in tongues. (Paul says in 1:7 “you have become short in no gift”).
Here’s the thing. They had received the baptism in the Holy Spirit, but they were trying to show off for each other. Instead of using their tongues, or prayer language, the way they were supposed to, they were trying to outdo each other. Apparently these people needed a governor on their behavior.
Paul rebukes them for getting together and speaking to one another in tongues, or getting up and giving messages in tongues. (Unless there is someone to interpret). He told them to speak in a language the people could understand when they are giving messages in church. “If the whole church comes together in one place and all speak with tongues, and there come in those who are uninformed or unbelievers, will they not say that you are out of your mind?”(V.23)
Paul is certainly not knocking the gift of tongues, as he says, “I’m glad that I speak in tongues more than you all.”(V.18). He is just trying to bring order to the services of the Corinthians.
The bottom line is the bottom verse, “Let all things be done decently and in order.”(V. 40)
Desire to prophesy, and don’t forbid to speak in tongues, but just make sure that your services are orderly. That’s the message of Paul.
Good advice, wouldn’t you say?
