Dear Brothers and Sisters,

You are invited to come to the Wednesday evening prayer meeting and pray for the church (and other things -- 7:00 PM Wed., LHF time).

In 1 Corinthians chapter 3, the apostle Paul rebukes the Corinthian believers for being worldly. For the sake of their pride they are destroying the Church, God's temple, in which his Holy Spirit lives. The Corinthian believers are God's temple and by their factions and divisions, they are destroying that temple. As an indication of how serious a thing it is to destroy the Church, God's temple, he tells them that if anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. (1 Cor. 3:17) Then Paul tells them what they have to do to avoid destroying God's temple.

"Do not deceive yourselves. If any one of you thinks he is wise by the standards of this age, he should become a 'fool' so that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God's sight. As it is written: 'He catches the wise in their craftiness;' and again, 'The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.' So then, no more boasting about men! All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future -- all are yours, and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God." (1 Cor. 3:18-23)

This message was for the church of God in Corinth -- and it is also for us. If we are to avoid destroying God's temple, we must become "fools" so that we may become wise. Paul preached Christ crucified, which was foolishness to the world, but to those whom God has called, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. (1 Cor. 1:23,23) God's wisdom is the "foolishness" of the cross. He did things the way he did so that no one could boast. (1:26-31)

In telling the Corinthians (and us) what they had to do to avoid dividing the Church (become fools by the standards of this age), he also gave them (and us) reasons for doing what he had told them to do. He had already said that if anyone destroyed God's temple, God would destroy him. This, in itself, sounds like a good enough reason not to destroy God's temple. But really, I don't think Paul said this because he thought God might destroy the Corinthians. After all, in chapter 1 he told them that God would keep them strong to the end, so that they would be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 1:8). I think Paul's point in saying that God would destroy anyone who destroyed God's temple was to make it very clear that they could not take the divisions they were causing lightly. The reason Paul gave for them to become "fools" -- for them to stop boasting about men -- is that it made absolutely no sense at all for them to do so because all things were theirs -- people, the world, life, death, the present and the future -- all was theirs.

As believers, all things are ours also. What does it mean for all things to be yours? John Wesley says that for Paul, Apollos and Cephas to belong to the Corinthians meant that God put them there to minister to them. Matthew Henry says: "Not that saints are proprietors of the world, but that the world stands for their sake." These things are true. God did do everything for the Church. He placed all things under the feet of Jesus and appointed him to be head over everything for the Church. (Eph. 1:22)

That God did everything for the Church is very significant in itself, but there may be more to it than that. Think about what it means for something to belong to you. In our worldly thinking, to own something means that we have control of it. We can do whatever we want with it. From the time I was around six years old, I wanted to have an airplane and fly it. I tried to imagine how I could build one. Eventually I realized it probably wouldn't be practical to try to build an airplane, so I forgot about it for a while. After I grew up, a childhood friend of mine learned to fly and bought an airplane. He took me for a ride in it and my interest in airplanes and flying was renewed. When I was thirty years old I took lessons and learned to fly airplanes. I got a pilots license but I didn't own an airplane. Airplanes are expensive to buy and to operate, so sometimes people get together and form flying clubs and put their money together to purchase one or more airplanes. But when you do this, you have to share the airplane(s) with other people. You can't just, on the spur of the moment, go to the airport and take off and fly somewhere. I wanted it to be like my car. I wanted to be able to get into my own airplane and go wherever I wanted to at any time I wanted to without coordinating it with anyone else. If you own something along with one hundred other people, you can't do whatever you want to with it. Some of the joint owners may have different ideas than yours. You don't really own it because you really don't have control of it.

So, in terms of ownership and control, what does it mean that all things are ours? How can you have any sense of ownership of anything that you own along with one hundred (or one hundred million) other people? What if someone disagrees with you?

On the other hand, what would it mean if you really could do whatever you wanted to do with, as Paul says, "all things"? It would have to mean that you would never, ever want to do anything that any of the other joint owners would not want you to do. Does this sound impossible? Well, when the Church first started in Jerusalem the believers were "all together and had everything in common" (Acts 2:44). Also, "All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed any of his possessions were his own, but they shared everything they had." (Acts 4:32,33) They were certainly closer by far to "all things are yours" than we are. When Jesus prayed his high priestly prayer, he prayed for believers to be brought to complete unity to let the world know that his Father had sent him and had loved all the believers just as he had loved Jesus. (John 17:23) We know that God heard this prayer because we know that God always heard all of Jesus's prayers (John 11:42).

These concepts of unity seem impossible to us because we still see things through largely worldly, fleshly eyes. The concept of needing to control something (or someone) certainly doesn't come from faith in God. It is from the flesh. Pray for us to begin to grow and become mature -- to stop being mere infants in Christ. Jesus prayed for complete unity of believers -- even for the world to see it. So it will certainly happen. God will bring it about. We can participate in this incredible (by human standards) miracle by praying. We will see God's glory!

Come on Wednesday and pray for the Church. The Church is the overflowing abundance, the wealth beyond measure and the full and perfect nature of God who fulfills and completes everything in every way.

Grace and peace,
Dean Svoboda

PS: You can also bring you own prayer requests and pray for them with your brothers and sisters in Christ (i.e., with the Church). Bring your requests to God with thanksgiving and receive his peace.

PPS: Pass this invitation along to others in your household or to someone who doesn't have an e-mail address in the LHF directory