My Online Faith Journal

"to the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling, whith all who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours. . .." 1 Corinthians 1:2      In reading through the letter of 1 Corinthians, you can really hear the concern and love that Paul has for these people.  He has been a year and a half with them.  Which was an unusually long time for him to stay in one place.  He has developed a love and concern for them.  And even though he will address many problems in this letter, the overwhelming tone in the first few verses is positive.  In the last part of verse 2, he indicates he is not just writing to them, but to all who call upon the name of our Lord.       Despite the fact that there are divisions and lawsuits and sins in the church of Corinth, Paul reminds them of who they are in Christ.  They are those who are sanctified.  The word "sanctified" here means to be &qu

 I am starting a study of the books of 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians.  In doing so, it is important that a person who is studying the Bible consider the culture, the history and the context of a passage or book.  It helps us make sense of what we are reading and why the author wrote the way that he did.   In 1 Corinthians, we see Paul write as a pastor.  He spent 18 months in Corinth ministering to the people there and starting a church there.  We see the story of Paul founding this church in Acts 18:1-17.   It is important to realize what the church of Corinth was like and why Paul wrote to them like he did.  Paul most likely wrote this letter from Ephesus 1 Corinthians 16:8 around 55 A.D..  The letter of 1 Corinthians is most likely the second letter Paul wrote to Corinth, the first has been lost (1 Corinthians 5:9).       The city of Corinth had been destroyed back in 146 B.C. and rebuilt by Julius Caesar as a Roman colony in 46 B.C..  It was known for its three harbors (L

   At the church I was at this morning, the pastor was talking about God wanting to fill up the empty places in our lives with Himself.  He mentioned that often we are not filled with the Spirit.  We may be living off of last year or last week's message instead of hearing from him today.  Our cup may be half full.  At the end of the sermon, the pastor poured a bucket of water into a small cup and water went everywhere.  The kids were thrilled.     The Bible does mention a struggle, a struggle that if we are not careful as christians you can become complacent about.  Paul said this in Romans 7:15-18 "For that which I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate.  But if I do the very thing I do not wish to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that it is good. So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which indwells me. For i know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh, for the wishin