Shippensburg First Church Of God Blog Site: SFCOG Updates for July 9

What do you know, Shippensburg First Church of God Family?

In Classic Greek rhetorical style, Paul poses these questions in I Corinthians 1:20—

“Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?”

Speaking of Philosophers and wise people, this reminds me of a headline that caught my attention recently about a decades-long wager made between two different intellectuals: 25 years ago, a bet was made between a philosopher and a scientist. According to the Journal ‘Nature,’ “back in 1998, neuroscientist Christof Koch bet philosopher David Chalmers that the mechanism by which the brain’s neurons produce consciousness would be discovered by 2023. Both scientists agreed publicly on June 23, at a gathering of scientists and philosophers in New York City, that it is still an ongoing quest — and declared Chalmers the winner.”

So the philosopher won the bet, because we still don’t understand or know completely how our human brains understand or know what they know.

We still don’t know how we know what we know.

Do you know what I mean? It’s ok if you don’t... And that’s kind of the point of Paul’s message to the Corinthian Church which we will study this weekend.

Paul was sure to emphasize that knowledge and philosophy have their place, but we must recognize their limitations and give God the ultimate place of authority in our lives and our Christian community. Turning back to Paul’s own words in I Corinthians 1:25 he says,

“For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.”

Having laid the ground work for love and humility, Paul addresses an issue the believers in the Church in Corinth were facing-- people were being divided and quarrelling over differing opinions about who they listened to or followed, or what they chose to eat or not eat, rather than being united in Christ.

What issues divide us today? Certainly, there are many… and yes, there are times and places for heart-felt conversations about differing opinions. There are times we must take a prophetic stand against issues within our culture. But we must always be more concerned with pursuing God through Christ, rather than proving ourselves right through our own knowledge.

Paul explains that sometimes we must humbly lay aside our freedoms or our pride for the greater good of loving God and loving others. There are times we may be utterly convinced that we have all the right answers about something, but first we must be sure we have a right relationship with God and with our brothers and sisters. We must be willing to admit we might be wrong about some things. Let’s also be sure that we look to Jesus and God’s Word for direction, and not be swayed by our culture or those who claim to speak for us but may have ulterior motives. Let us always strive after Jesus, who is The Way, The Truth, and The Life.

“Knowledge puffs up while love builds up. Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know. But whoever loves God is known by God.”

-I Corinthians 8:1-3

We will have a few praises and prayer requests to highlight this weekend—

Early Sunday morning, our Youth Missions Team will depart for Manchester, Kentucky. 11 students and 4 leaders will spend the week doing some service projects and leading a Bible School. Pray for their safety and unity as they share the love of Christ in these ways.

Merry Christmas in July! We have recently received a large number of Shoeboxes (102) that have been packed for the Operation Christmas Child ministry. These will be sent to different parts of the world to show the love of Christ at Christmastime.

We will observe the ordinances of Communion and Feetwashing on Sunday Evening at 6:30. All are welcome for this special time of worship. Pray that everyone would be blessed as we serve one another and gather at the Lord’s Table. Hope you can join us!