November 3 – Standing Firm to the End

He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  1 Corinthians 1:8 (NIV)

Our verse today is a promise from the first letter the Apostle Paul wrote to the believers in Corinth. The Christians at Corinth had become God’s children when they listened to Paul’s preaching to them and believed in Jesus as a result. Paul knew that as he traveled he would leave believers behind and he knew that they would face trails and temptations and that God would take care of them. None of us can live our Christian lives by ourselves in our own strength but we can trust in God to help us stand firm in the face of testing. His promise is that He will keep us firm and He will keep us that way until the very end when because of Him we will be counted blameless. No matter what the situations are that we face today our Lord knows our needs. He knows when we feel weak and we can receive strength when we remember that God has promised to keep us firm in our faith to the end – and He will do it.

 

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September 26 – One Fitting Boast

“And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” – 1 Corinthians 1 :30-31 (ESV)

Man trusts in his understanding and seeks for peace and by its own devices apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. Even when converted, they trust in their education and look at the Words and Cross of Christ with too little reverence and love. For them the call to believing faith it is too simplistic. Like the Greeks of antiquity, they trust their reason above God’s wisdom and fall into mixing God’s revelation with their learned philosophies. When they find that the two cannot fit together, they dismiss revelation and faith. So, when they stumble over the simplicity of the truth of Christ crucified they create one of their own to suit their “intellectual” understanding. In the early church such teaching was false and lead into Gnosticism* giving birth to many heresies still plaguing seekers today. As faith believers we are redeemed and not only are given salvation by God’s wisdom, rather than by our own, but we are also graciously given (“by His doing”) a measure of His divine wisdom, as well as imputed righteousness, sanctification from sin, and redemption by God in order that, above all else, the Lord will be glorified.

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*GNOSTICISM: A variety of second-century AD religions whose participants believed that people could only be saved through revealed knowledge, or γνῶσις (gnōsis). Gnostics also held a negative view of the physical or material world. Early church fathers, such as Irenaeus, deemed Gnosticism heretical.

NOTE ON OUR ABSENCE: 90 Seconds with God’s Promised missed posting for three days. This was due to illness for 5 days that kept us from the process. God is good and the publication of these daily devotions is possible only by the grace and mercies of God and when done is only for His Glory.

 

May 15 – Help to Understand

“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.” 1 Corinthians 2:12  (ESV)

Some may consider the words “we have received…” to refer to the apostles and other writers of the Word of God. That is so but not exclusively. The is the promise made first to the disciples which would enable them exclusively to write the inspired words of God. But also to help all who believe and receive to understand the written inspired word of God.   We know that when a person accepts Jesus Christ as Savior, the Lord sends His Holy Spirit to live in that person. We also know that the Holy Spirit brings much into our lives. One of His functions is mentioned today in our selected verse. God knows that we are naturally very earthly minded. On our own we do not understand God very well. Nor do we understand the wonderful advantages of being children of God. We don't know the wonderful benefits God has provided for us. That's one of the reasons why we need divine help in knowing what is available to us as we trust. Let's be sure that our hearts and minds are open to what the Holy Spirit wants to teach us about this every day. 

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August 28 – Faster Than A Blink

“Behold, I am telling you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.” – 1 Corinthians 15:51-52 (NASB)

We do have a special kind of promise about what will one day happen. It’s not based on how we act or behave but we’re promised how long this promise will take to happen. There is another underlying promise: All who are in Christ Jesus by grace through faith (also a gift) are promised to one day be changed. Our present state, which is physical, mortal and perishing will be transformed into immortal and like that of Jesus after His resurrection. We all know how every person on earth is destined to a physical death but, there is this exception for those who are alive when Jesus returns for His believers – also called His Bride and the Church. When He returns He will take up believers who have passed and are buried and those yet alive. We do not know when but it is imminent, nothing else has to happen first. It will be faster than fast. An eye twinkle is a reflected particle of light seen in the eye. It’s reflected light entering the eye and then being reflected and it occurs in about a billionth of a second.  Faster than a blink, it happens.  

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May 17 – Power to Perfect the Weakness

“But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” 2 Corinthians 12:9

Weakness is bad, right? None of us seek to be seen as weak even if we are weak. Yet, these words were written as a testimony by the Apostle Paul. Paul tells of a prayer he had earnestly prayed three times asking God to remove a problem that he called “a thorn in the flesh.” We do not know just what it was while many who also do not know speculate with assumptions. What we do know is that God knows what is best for us and everything that He does for us is for our best even when it's not what we asked for. God knew what was best for the Apostle Paul. God also knew the perfect solution for his problem.  Paul acknowledged his weakness; it had a purpose – to glorify God.  Paul learned to even boast of his weaknesses. If we are true children of God we will want more than anything else, that God's name will be glorified. We want to realize His power is perfect and all he does is perfect. When God does not do just what we ask of Him, He always gives us the grace and power to overcome.

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April 14 – The Sting Is Gone

“The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.” – 1 Corinthians 15:58 (NASB)

Our promise today is found in the last verse of  1 Corinthians fifteen. It continues instructions Paul gave in the first verses of the chapter (1 Corinthians 15:1-2). Where we are spiritually depends on what we are taught and learn and then choose to believe. The gospel Paul had preached in Corinth (1 Corinthians 2:1–2) had not changed; but he feared that along with the declension in the church regarding the message of Christ crucified and its implication for believers, the same was happening with regard to the message of Christ resurrected. False teachers work for our enemy Satan to turn people away from the truth of Jesus’s resurrection. For the proof Christ is who He claims to be is His resurrection. So the enemies will always attempt to deny the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. Paul had clearly stated the case for Christ’s resurrection and that if He did not rise from the dead our faith in Him would be useless. But his resurrection is true. Christ did not stay in the grave. He conquered the sting and power of death for all who believe. He secured our victory over death so that what we do for Christ’s Gospel is not in vain. 

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January 20 – No Partial Knowledge

“For we know in part and we prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. … For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.”  1 Corinthians 13:9-10, 12 (NASB)

Some of the words and truths we read in our Bible seem beyond our understanding. When we read the Scripture without adding anything to it or taking anything away from it, we find it always true even if we have not yet reasoned it so. There are many such dichotomies in the Bible. Most times we are not so earnest and just roll right on past them. When we do, we miss the deeper truth that God has for us. Here is a promise that we can cling to and live with that will help us understand that what we don’t understand. One day it will be clear. Paul says that what we understand now is incomplete – We only understand a part. Often the truth is deeper than our ability to know. But we have the promise that there is a day when it will be made clear. We will understand it deeply and completely. What we comprehend partially now we are promised we will understand its entirety in heaven. We do not even know ourselves fully as God does, but we will one day know ourselves completely just as God knows us.

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January 12 – Power From God To Do Good Things

“By the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.  1 Corinthians 15:10  (ESV)

Grace is not only God’s unmerited favor to do good for us when we don’t deserve it. It is also enabling power, an actual power from God that acts and makes good things happen in us and for us. God’s grace is God acting in us to make us work hard, to make us keep our commitments and resolutions (if they are appropriate).  Apostle Paul says he worked hard: “By the grace of God…I worked harder than any of them.” Paul says, “Work out your own salvation,” and adds, “for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:12–13). Grace is power from God to do good things in us and for us. This grace is promised to us. It was applied in our past and it will be applied in our future. If you have ever watched water go over a water fall and wondered why it seems endless – think Niagara Falls – that is what grace is like. It’s ever flowing over the waterfall of the present, from an inexhaustible river of grace from the future, into the ever-increasing reservoir of grace in the past.

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November 16 – Called by God

“God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”  1 Corinthians 1:9 (NIV)

The main statement of this verse is that God is faithful. The special significance of this statement here is based on the project that God is working on. Did you notice what it is that God has done and has planned for us? We read that He has called us into fellowship with His own Son, Jesus Christ.  First we know that God is the one that calls us. We cannot find our own way in.  He calls those he chooses to call.  That is how any of  the believers become members of His family. So what does that mean – to have fellowship with Jesus? It means a relationship of sharing. We enter the family of God by accepting what Jesus did for us on the cross. Once we accept with the faith God has given to us, we are full heirs with Jesus Christ. Now in His family, God calls us to a continual sharing relationship with Jesus – a daily and hourly fellowship with Him. And God will be faithful to make this fellowship real.

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September 22 – Received, Not Earned

“For who regards you as superior? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?  1 Corinthians 4:7 (NASB)

Do we have any recourse or platform from which we can claim superiority over others in receiving God’s forgiveness and eternal life?  As believers in Christ we know that what we have, we received from God.  We also know that in receiving God’s free grace to be saved we have nothing to boast about how we were saved. But this is a challenging position to hold. We have no claim to how that was done. In our daily life we are offered unending opportunities to boast of being most loyal customer. Loyalty points boost us to the front of the line and we kind of take pride in that, right? Being a Group 1 is so much better than Group 3 or 4 when boarding an airplane, isn’t it?  What it really means is maybe convenience. Buy into a favored club to get first option at a movie? The movie will start at the same time for all. Grace is not a loyalty plan. No Group 1, 2, 3, or 4 matter.  Maybe we can boast is some  things, but not about our salvation. It was given as a promise and no effort on our part gained it for us. 

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September 6 – Clearly Know

“ For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.”  1 Corinthians 13:12 (ESV) 

Do we really know ourselves?  We may think we do but probably we don’t.  If we are as most, we try to do the best we can with what we know.  In the days that Apostle Paul visited Corinth, it was a city much caught up in its own image and the pleasures that made it up.  Mirrors in that day of the 1st Century A.D. were polished brass and they reflected badly.  Paul is teaching the believers that how we perceive ourselves today is nothing like how we will once we are in heaven.  We will see ourselves clearly as if face to face.  Today, this is not so unrealistic, our mirrors work well but in that time it was a good example.  And, Paul says not only will we see ourselves for what we are in Jesus Christ, we will also know ourselves in a way that is complete.  We will know just as we are known.  We will see ourselves and know ourselves just as Christ has made us.  No longer confused children, but mature (perfect) in Christ. We will lack nothing. We will have all we are and need.

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July 3 - Blameless

“I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus, … - 1 Corinthians 1:4 (NASB)
…who will also confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. 1 Corinthians 1:8–9 (NASB)

The Apostle Paul used very long and compounded sentence in his letters. Our promises today come from one of those sentences. The passage of verses in 1 Corinthians 1:4-9. The promises are rich and many. Paul knew that believers in his time were under extreme persecution.  Living under Rome which generally allowed the practice of many religions as long as they did not disrupt the peace, Christianity became a focus of those who hated Christ and the Gospel of Jesus. In these verses the first promise is the gift of grace given to all who by faith believe in Christ Jesus. First given on the Day of Pentecost, every person who believes in Jesus receives the Holy Spirit of God indwelling them.  This is a gift of grace promised to us. The promises include enrichment in speech, all knowledge, confirmation of Christ in us, and the promise we are not lacking in any gift. Our confirmation by Jesus Christ is permanent and will last to the end.  We are promised that we will be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of God’s faithfulness in calling us into fellowship with, Jesus Christ our Lord. 

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April 28 - If He Calls, He Keeps

“He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”  - 1 Corinthians 1:8–9 (NIV)

Here is one reason we believe it is vitally important to understand that every believer who is saved by faith in Jesus has done nothing themselves to earn or attain that salvation.  We are tempted to think that we somehow had something to do in securing our position God’s Family.  It is appealing to believe that God’s invitation to us happened because we qualified by the good we do to be called.  If that is how we think about receiving the gift of eternal life, we are in jeopardy of losing the same gift by not maintaining our good works.  Because we are saved by faith and not by works, none can boast about having any part in their salvation. We have nothing to contribute and we can trust the promise God has given that it is He who called us, and it is God who reckoned us righteous in Christ Jesus. It is a great and wonderful truth of Scripture that God is faithful and will keep forever those whom he has called.  God will make certain we will keep trusting.  He will do whatever is necessary to keep us trusting.

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February 23 – Taking the Escape Route

“No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.”  - 1 Corinthians 10:13 (ESV)

Being tempted by our enemy the devil has been promised by Jesus (Luke 17:1 NLT) to all who have received Jesus by accepting His gift of salvation and eternal life.  We learned from the first letter by the Apostle Peter (1 Peter 5:8 ESV) to be on the alert because the devil is perpetually seeking to take us down.  But these are God promises in today’s verse. They help us stand firm against our enemy.  1) All temptations we encounter are common and others have experienced them.  2) God is faithful.  3) God does not allow us to be tempted beyond our ability to endure the temptations.  4) God always provides an escape route for us.  5) Because we have that escape, we can endure the temptations and we do not have to give in to them.  Next time today, and tomorrow, because it happens to all of us every day, when we are tempted, consider these promises. While the temptations come at us from the devil, the promises are from God and He empowers us to resist them one and all.  Resisting is how we fight the enemy. 

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December 13 – Power Not Just Pardon

“But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me.”  -  1 Corinthians 15:10  (NASB)

The Gift of Grace which we receive from God is not simply leniency when we have sinned. Grace is also a gift of enabling power of God not to sin. Grace is power, not just pardon. That is the promise we have in our verse today.  The Apostle Paul who wrote these words, claimed that Grace from God was the enabling power behind his work.  Grace was what made Paul's efforts not be useless efforts.  Like Paul says here, Grace is not simply the pardon of our sins; it is the power to press on in obedience.  It gives the desire, drive, and ability to work hard for our Lord. We give the credit to God for what is accomplished.,  Therefore, any effort we make to obey God is not an effort done in our own strength, but by the strength supplied by God.  Our purpose is that in everything we do God is glorified (1 Peter 4:11). It is the obedience of faith in God’s never ending supply of power that enables us to do what we should.

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December 12 – Sustainable Fellowship

“[He] will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”  - 1 Corinthians 1:8–9  (ESV)

Do we struggle with our inability to live the way Christ has called us?  We know what we are called to do or not do but we fail, so how does that affect us?  There is much that we could say but today we look at one promise in this passage. We are called by God to live according to His will.  When we fail, we confess and God forgives again and again.  But the promise here is that our faith and our position in our Lord Jesus Christ is sustained by Him and will continue to be sustained throughout our lives right up to the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.  That is the day that Jesus comes for His church.  We can trust this promise because God is faithful and He has called us into this union which cannot be broken and from which we cannot be separated. God is the one who sustains us in our fellowship with Him. That is something to think  about today, isn't it?

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December 9 – In Wisdom Was Mercy

“...but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”    - 1 Corinthians 1:23–24  (NASB)

At the time that this letter to the assembly of believers in Corinth was written, the Way of Christ was new to those who were hearing it for the first time.  There was a clear difference in how it was received between Jewish people and non-Jewish people–the Gentiles.  In  the previous verse Paul states that Jews asked for signs and Greeks (Gentiles) searched for wisdom. But he preached about Christ's death and resurrection. Both stumbled over that message and were missing the better news. The message was the promise of the power of God through His Son Jesus Christ. This good news of the gospel Paul preached needed to be heard, and once heard, received and believed.  So, the message preached to all people with no distinction is the death of the Son of God was for all sinners.  This promise was the power of God and all the sign anyone needed. It was given to us as wisdom of God.  From God's wisdom comes Mercy and the means to escape the curse of sin.

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Help from this source.

November 7 – Ability to Endure

“No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.”  -  1 Corinthians 10:13 (NASB)

Do we truly understand as Christians, our faith in God will be tested? The tribulations, temptations and testing of our confession is always bearable with God's help.  Our promises in this passage reminds us that God is watching over us for our best.  But our best does not mean the easiest path to avoid testing of our faith in God.  Our First promise is that we will never be tested by anything uncommon to the testing people face.  Others have endured the same testing that we encounter in our lives.  Our Second promise is God's faithfulness to protect us from any testing we are unable to endure.  Whatever our test is, God provides what we need to stick it out with His help. Our Third promise is that God will give us an escape plan – not always to escape the testing but to escape the consequences of failing to trust Him and falling instead for the temptation to bail out.  Our escape is the ability to endure and trust Him through it all. 

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October 22 – We Are What We Are

“But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.” 1 Corinthians 15:10 (NIV)

The context of our verse and promise today is important to know.  The Apostle Paul is expounding on the fact of Jesus Christ's resurrection.  He first lays out the witness who could testify to the truth that Christ was raised from the dead.  Paul includes himself as the last in this list of evidences.  Paul, in writing these words, was reminding his readers of the great change that came into his life when he realized how much God had done for him.  God changed him from an enemy of Jesus Christ to a close friend.  And after that God used him to get the message out to many people in many places. What Paul said is that it was God who did all this by His grace. While he wanted others to recognize the change God had made in him, he did not seek notoriety or celebrity. He declares that he didn’t deserve it. Neither do we deserve the blessings and good things God does for us. We need to recognize that God is working in each of us and we need to give Him the credit for it, so we can say with Paul, “By the grace of God I am what I am.”

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August 16 – Be a Temple

“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?  For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.” 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 -  (NASB)

Today's verse is a reminder, another lesson in the truth that we do not live our Christian lives by ourselves.  Abiding in us is the Spirit of God who we was given to us when we believed and received Jesus as our Savior.  All of us need to be conscious regarding how God works with us and within us when we accept Jesus.  God knows our needs and He knows we need help constantly if we are going to live a life pleasing to Him.  So we are reminded of the gift of God the Holy Spirit, He lives in us to make us realize what it means to be a child of God.  Our promise is this, we have been purchased, bought with a price that cost Jesus His life and we have been purchased in order to glorify God by the way we live and how we treat our bodies.  This is a tough promise to live up to but God is here with us.  He knows and He will help if we let Him.

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