1 Corinthians 2 - Wisdom

So, I'm doing a reading plan through Corinthians with 2 of my girls and we just started, so today is 1 Corinthians 1 & 2. I forgot how much I love Paul's writing; he's so raw, it's amazing. 1 Corinthians 2: 1-5 hit me because lately I've been feeling so dumb. Seriously. I feel like any intelligence I once had has been drained out of my being and I had no idea why... until now.

1 And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. 2 For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. 4 My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, 5 so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God's power.

I have been seeking after intelligence and not wisdom. God gives intelligence to people, but if I'm not seeking after His WISDOM first, why would He bless me with intelligence? All the worldly intelligence available is nothing without Godly wisdom. I have to count it ALL AS LOSS before I can appreciate what I haven been given and glorify Him with my mind, body and spirit. I can't let MYSELF get in the way of the Gospel, and I believe that is something I've been guilty of lately. Anyway, just a random thought... something I know I need to work on, thank God for the Word of God.

Halfsies!

This last weekend I got some of the biggest news of my life! My half brother located me on facebook - prior to this weekend I had no knowledge of half siblings. And to add to the news, I have a half sister as well! Speaking as someone who has spent 24 years as an only child, I have to say that this news came as a shock. I really did not know what to think at first. But then the excitement of having siblings hit me. I have to admit that I have always dreamed about what it would be like to have a brother or a sister. Not that we grew up together or know much about each other (hey, it's been less than a week, give us a break!) but to be able to reference someone as a half sibling has been quite a thrilling part of my week thus far. In fact, I've been telling nearly everyone I have seen this week that I have half siblings. I was considering getting a t-shirt made that said "I have a half brother and a half sister, ask me how" but I decided against it. I had to hold back at the gym from bombarding all of those helpless exercisers stuck on the treadmills and stationary bikes. It did however make me think about how apathetic I have been about sharing the best news I've ever heard - the Gospel.

In the last couple of months my college group has been going through a study called "The Joy of the Gospel" and my New Orleans mission team is studying evangelism, and I can't help but notice that I want to be excited about the Gospel the way that I am excited about my new brother and sister. I want to want to tell everyone! I want to have to contain my exuberance over good news! It's not that I don't know that this is the best news that I could ever hope for - to know that I am a sinner and that sin separates me from God and puts me on a path to hell filled with death and destruction, but that He loved me so much that He sent His only Son to die on the cross for my sins, so that I don't have to live apart from God is amazing. And it doesn't even stop there! Christ was the sacrifice for my sins, He died on the cross to cover them, but not even death could hold him! He rose again and now He sits at the right hand of God... I know the implications of this! The one true, holy and perfect God calls me His own because Christ died for my sins and now I can have a relationship with Him that was impossible before I became a Christian. And now I am saved from hell! I know that heaven is a reality for me and it could be for any of those people that I walked past this week without telling the good news to. My prayer for this week is that I would be just as excited about the Gospel as I am about my new found family. And if you know Christ, I pray that this week that would be your excitement as well :)