January 4, 2022

1 When I came to you, brothers, announcing the testimony of God to you, I did not come with brilliance of speech or wisdom. 2 For I didn’t think it was a good idea to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. 3 I came to you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. 4 My speech and my proclamation were not with persuasive words of wisdom but with a powerful demonstration by the Spirit, 5 so that your faith might not be based on men’s wisdom but on God’s power. 6 However, we do speak a wisdom among the mature, but not a wisdom of this age, or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7 On the contrary, we speak God’s hidden wisdom in a mystery, a wisdom God predestined before the ages for our glory. 8 None of the rulers of this age knew this wisdom, for if they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 But as it is written: What eye did not see and ear did not hear, and what never entered the human mind—God prepared this for those who love Him. 10 Now God has revealed these things to us by the Spirit, for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. 11 For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man that is in him? In the same way, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who comes from God, so that we may understand what has been freely given to us by God. 13 We also speak these things, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual things to spiritual people. 14 But the unbeliever does not welcome what comes from God’s Spirit, because it is foolishness to him; he is not able to understand it since it is evaluated spiritually. 15 The spiritual person, however, can evaluate everything, yet he himself cannot be evaluated by anyone. 16 For who has known the Lord’s mind, that he may instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.

Pastor H.D. Jones - Something wonderful happens when you become a Christian… Paul says we have the mind of Christ.  Before salvation we are walking through this world blind and we chase after the things that this world says will bring us happiness.  Yet we are miserable because the world always disappoints us and leaves us longing for more. Something mysterious happens to us when we experience Salvation.  We have a new understanding and appreciation of this world.  We see it for what it really is… temporary.  Now in Christ we have maturity and we enjoy the deeper things of God.  I want to encourage you to dig deeper into God’s word and discuss it with other believers.  These devotionals are designed to spur on conversation that will ultimately lead to application and therefore change in your life.  God’s word is a sharp two-edged sword that separates the bone from the marrow.   Something beautiful happens in the body of Christ as we mature together.  I can’t tell you how many joyous, teary-eyed conversations I have had with those whom God has called.  Something wonderful, something mysterious, and something beautiful has happened to me because of Christ.  I wonder how much better it will be in heaven with Christ?