Why...

I have been in 1 Corinthians for the last month or so and I received a book I had ordered on it yesterday called Twelve Challenges Churches Face, by Mark Dever. I read the preface and a couple of pages in the first chapter this morning and already am greatly encouraged. This paragraph is from the preface.

"In this letter, 1 Corinthians, Paul astonishes the pastor (at least, he did me). When he was facing the most normal of problems (division in the church, worldliness, selfishness, and others) he reached for deeply theological responses. Paul called the Corinthian congregation to be not divided but united, not worldly but holy, not selfish but loving. That's not the surprising part. The surprising part is how he argued this with them. He called them to forsake divisions, because God is one. He called them to forsake sin, because God is holy. He called them to forsake selfishness, because God is loving. In all of this, the governing presupposition is not that the church should operate by a rule book of spiritual manners and etiquette, but that the church is a living reflection of the living God. There is one God. He is holy and has given himself in love. His church, therefore, should reflect his own character; we should be united and holy and loving or else we lie about him! That is a powerful thought." --Twelve Challenges Churches Face, by Mark Dever, page 10

This is huge! I recently heard a message that said that in most evangelical churches, we have mastered the "how-to's," but have no clue about the "whys." I am excited to get further into this book because I think it is going to deal with the latter. During this season of trials that seems to be raging in many churches, don't forget that Jesus, the head of the Church, is King! We can't see all of our stuff from His viewpoint just yet, but we can say with Paul, "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us." --Romans 8:18 (ESV)

Fighting to Focus On Him,
~Jon