Thoughts for the Day

No-one understands what is truly God's except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the gifts bestowed on us by God. And we speak of these things in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual things to those who are spiritual.

Those who are unspiritual do not receive the gifts of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to them, and they are unable to understand them.

(Church in Wales Lectionary, New Revised Standard Version)

Thoughts

Working with adults and children in churches across the Midlands I would often use pictures that were optical illusions. Today I have given you such a picture, but what do you see? A vase? Or two people facing one another? This is a quite simple one but there are some that are very challenging. One of the hardest is the old woman or young woman. Give it to a group of people and half will argue it's a young woman looking side-ways, and the other half will say it's an old woman with a huge chin looking towards them. Many people will never see both pictures.

Paul in his letter to the Corinthians says the same thing in the passage above. He argues that to the world the fact that we believe that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God, who came to re-unite us with God, is utter foolishness. They simply cannot see what we see. For them Jesus was just a condemned criminal who was crucified.

But Paul also says that we believe because God gives us spiritual gifts through the work of the Holy Spirit. One of these gifts is faith and another is wisdom. Later in this letter he will return to this subject. At this stage, though we should notice that these gifts are always given to help the whole community of the church not just ourselves.

Lord Jesus Christ,
You sent the Holy Spirit to the early Church
to nurture and invigorate it.
We ask You to come and stir us up
that we may continue to grow in faith,
and Your Church may be revived
at this time of great need.
Amen.