Join us in the Project 345 reading plan as we read through the New Testament.

Context:  Paul explains that prophesy benefits the church because it is understood and clear.  Someone who speaks in tongues needs an interpreter to benefit the body.  He tells communicators in the church to “speak intelligible words with (their) tongue.”

1 Corinthians 14:8 “Again, if the trumpet does not sound a clear call, who will get ready for battle?”

Observations: It is important for teachers in the church to be clear.  The body should be able to listen and respond.

Application: I am teaching at PCBC’s youth camp today.  I must relentlessly pursue clarity.  Prayer: Lord, help me sound a clear call so our youth will get ready for battle!

Are you sounding a clear call in your church, your community, your office, your school, your home, etc.? 

Join us in the Project 345 reading plan as we read through the New Testament.

Context:  Paul is arguing for unity and diversity in the church.  Some are hands, some are feet, and all are equal before God.

1 Corinthians 12:18 “But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as He wanted them to be.”

Observations:  You are gifted just the way God wants you to be.  In addition, you are placed in a body intentionally so that your gifts will meet needs around you.  Your spouse is gifted just the way God wants him/her to be… Your parent, child, your boss, your coworker, your ministry team partner, etc…

Application:  I enter today eager to use the gifts that God has given me where He has placed me.  I will not try to be anyone else other than who God has made me to be.

Do you believe you are where God wants you to be and have the tools to do what He wants you to do?

Join us in the Project 345 reading plan as we read through the New Testament.

Context: Paul is talking about disciplining his body, so that he can become all things to all people so that they can come to know Christ.  “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize…”

1 Corinthians 9:25 “Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.”

Observation: With the Olympics coming, we will have the opportunity to see many athletes that have gone through strict training with the goal of winning a medal that is temporary.  At the same time, we have the opportunity to train spiritually to win souls (eternal) and eternal rewards.

Application: Today, I want to train spiritually.  I want to make an effort to let God work in and through me and to mature me through prayer, worship, Bible reading and loving others.

If you boiled your life down, are you training for a crown that will last?

Context: In verses 2-4 Paul has said, “I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power…”

1 Corinthians 2:5 “…so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.”

Observations:  Paul’s only point was the gospel.  Paul’s posture was fear and trembling.  Paul’s demonstration was the Spirit’s power.  Paul’s motive was for the church in Corinth to respond with faith in God’s power and not “human wisdom.”

Application: As I prepare to preach God’s Word today, I must keep the focus on the gospel and demonstrate it through God’s power and not human wisdom.

Are you sharing “Jesus Christ and Him crucified” the way that Paul did?

Context: Paul observes that the church in Corinth is divided… “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.”  He then asks, “Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?”

1 Corinthians 1:17 – “For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.”

Observations:

1. The cross is powerful on it’s own. – Praise God!
2. Paul’s mission is to exalt the work of Christ by preaching the gospel.
3. Paul does not want to try to make himself look good through “wisdom and eloquence.”

Application:  Father, I confess that I have sought to use “wisdom and eloquence” in my preaching.  Forgive me.  Help me to only lift up the cross!  May the gospel truly be central.  “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord” (1 Cor 1:31).

How can you lift up the gospel and not yourself today?

Read the New Testament with me through the Project 345 reading plan.

Context: Paul has been instructing the church in Ephesus to be careful and to live rightly.   They must not be drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit, which leads to worship.

Ephesians 5:19b-20  “Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Observations: Our hearts should always have a worship posture.  Thankfulness should be overflowing to God from our lives through declarative praise music.

Application: Today, I want to open my eyes to see God around me.  I want to allow the Spirit to fill my heart with music and to overflow with genuine praise songs.

Stop for a few minutes and let the Spirit fill your heart with songs of praise.  How would it feel to live with this mindset?

Context: After explaining the believer’s position before God through Christ, Paul shares another prayer that he has for them.

Ephesians 3:14-19 “For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory He may grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”

Observations:

• Christ dwelling in our hearts through faith is a result of God’s work through His Spirit.
• Comprehending the love of God (that surpasses all knowledge) comes from being rooted and grounded in love.
• We are filled with all the fullness of God when we comprehend the love of Christ.
• Paul prays that God would do the above in the lives of those in Ephesus.

Application: Today, I will pray this over my immediate family, my church family at PCBC and the universal church in Dallas and beyond.

Do you believe that you can be filled with all the fullness of God?  Are you living and praying towards that end? 

Join us in the Project 345 reading plan as we read through the New Testament.

Context: Paul tells the church in Ephesus that he has prayed for them since hearing of their faith.

Ephesians 1:17-19  “I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.  I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in His holy people, and His incomparably great power for us who believe.”

Observations:

1. I keep asking that God will give you a Spirit of wisdom and revelation.
   1. So that you may know Him better.
2. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened.
   1. In order that you may know:

i.     The hope to which He has called you.

ii.     The riches of His glorious inheritance in His holy people.

iii.     His incomparably great power for us who believe.

Application: I want to commit these verses to memory over the next few days.  I need to pray them over my life, my family and my church.  “Lord, give us a Spirit of wisdom and revelation so that we may know You better!”

Are you praying for other believers to know God better?  Start praying right now… 

Join Project 345 as we read through the New Testament.

Context: Paul is expressing his deep concern that the Christians in Galatia are returning to the works of the Law to try to earn a legalistic, works-based form of righteousness.

Galatians 4:9 – “But now you know God – or rather are known by God – how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable principles?  Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?”

Observations: After placing our faith in Christ, we can return to a works-based form of righteousness that enslaves us.  Only God’s grace brings freedom from the Law through Christ.

Application: I must not become legalistic in my Christian life.  I must live by grace through faith.

How can you guard your life against “turning back to those weak and miserable principles” that enslave you?

Context: Earlier in Chapter 2, Paul opposes Peter to his face for wrongly separating himself from Gentiles when he ate.  In verse 19 Paul says, “Through the law I died to the law, so that I might live for God.”

Galatians 2:20 – “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.  The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

Observations:  Paul considers himself a dead man.  He went to the cross with Christ.  His life is now all about living for God through faith in Christ.

Application: I must consciously think of myself as crucified.  Today, I will look for opportunities to let Christ have full control through faith.

What kind of sacrifices must we be ready to make to live a crucified life?