Dave Dishman

When my sons and daughter graduated from college I honored them with a gift—a sword from Toledo, Spain. For hundreds of years Spanish steel was considered the best in the world for weaponry. On each sword I had a verse engraved that I felt was appropriate for the receiver. On my son’s swords I used the same lines from 1 Corinthians:

Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.

Paul’s words to a struggling church create a seal of approval to pray over young followers of Jesus, especially young men. Our society encourages men to make some money, play video games, bet on sports, and party on the weekend. Yet men are created for so much more. We’re to stay attentive and alert to the world around us, remain solid in the faith, and take care of others. It’s good to be strong, just do so with love.

Here’s powerful blessing for those younger in the faith. Engrave it on steel, carve it in wood, or tattoo it across your chest. No matter what it takes, fix it in the hearts of our sons and daughters.

I Corinthians 16:13-14

Photo by Chris Linnett

Ancient philosophers depicted the gods living on Mount Olympus, gloriously unconcerned with everyday people. But where does the God of the Bible live?

For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.“

God dwells in a magnificent, sacred place with the saints and angels, far above my imagining. At least this is my visualization of his home. But notice where else he spends his time. God resides with the contrite—those who are remorseful and repentant. He settles in with the humble, the broken, the average, the modest of heart. He makes it a practice to sit with the lowly.

The triune Creator of the universe doesn’t lounge around Mount Olympus cracking nuts and playing croquet. He ain’t spending a lot of time with proud and arrogant people either. Rather, God comes to you and me when we humble ourselves, confess our sins, and ask for the peace of his company.

Where does God live? With all of us who need his presence and aren’t afraid to admit it.

Isaiah 57:15

Photo by Louis Galvez

Sometimes I’m lost in thought and my wife leans over and asks, what are you thinking? She assumes I’m thinking about her, or our kids or grandkids, or pondering a deep theological concept. So I mumble something along those lines. But what I’m actually thinking about is whether Mizzou’s new quarterback is as good as the hype? Could the Tigers challenge for an SEC championship with him at the helm? And as a follow-up, how’s the offensive line looking?

My thoughts rarely run deep. Instead they hit on sports, money, politics, what’s for supper, etc. The mundane things of life. Fortunately for me, the Lord’s reflections expand to the skies:

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

It’s not hard for the Lord to supersede my thoughts, or even the thoughts of history’s greatest thinkers. The Lord muses higher and richer, into the heavens.

I often overlook the reality that the Bible sitting on my shelf holds God’s thoughts as revealed to his prophets and disciples. Within its pages I get a glimpse of what’s on his mind. Which is why it’s so valuable to study the Scriptures and discover what the Lord is thinking.

Isaiah 55:8-9

Photo by Dominic Kurniawan Suryaputra

Paul expressed his frustration with the group of young believers in Corinth. They just couldn’t make the jump from their former ways to maturity in Christ.

At one point he calls them babies: Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready.

He pushes them to grow up: When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.

Then he chides them for naive thinking: Brothers and sisters, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be adults.

Paul yearns for this young congregation to flourish in grace and knowledge and the practice of their faith. He longs for them to develop into fully mature followers of Jesus. They are not there yet, so Paul keeps hammering away.

But notice the one aspect of life Paul hopes they remain infantile—in regard to evil. Corinth was a cosmopolitan seaport. Wicked walked the streets arm in arm with corrupt and immoral. The world pressed in from all sides.

Paul strove to build neophytes into thinkers who allowed the Holy Spirit to guide and direct them. He then juxtaposed these qualities with a refusal to engage in the seamy side of life. In other words, don’t get good at being bad. Paul reminds us that adults in the faith know when act like a grown-up and when to think like a child.

I Corinthians 3:1-2; 13:11; 14:20

Photo by Luke Jones