“And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” 1 Corinthians 2:1-5
Today was the last day of Ragged class before our summer break. I handed in a final exam and two papers this morning, and then we had our last sessions for our Church in Hard Places and Systematic Theology classes. One year of Ragged down, one to go. I end today very grateful and thoughtful. Since arriving here in November, I’ve learned to a greater degree my own weakness and God’s great grace. The Lord has been with me through catching up on the fall term Ragged studies, getting used to a new culture, learning a new job, living with new people, learning a new community, being knit into a new church family, and battling physical pain. I am here by the grace of God and have made it thus far only by the grace of God. And I go forward only in the grace of God. I have come to Merkinch in weakness and fear and much trembling to show that the surpassing power belongs not to me but to the Lord. May the Lord be praised through my weakness as He uses me as a demonstration of the Spirit and of power in this summer and in the year ahead.
Andy Prime said it well today when he ended our Systematics class with an exhortation from 1 Corinthians chapters 1 and 2. Here are a couple of quotes from the end of our class time. May God soak these truths deep into us:
“I only know what I know because of God’s grace. And I only have what I have because of His Spirit. And this is all because He condescended to me, giving His Spirit to me, gifting knowledge to me. So I come weak, foolish, and trembling. I come thankful. I come boasting not in myself but boasting in the Lord.
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Our error is to use the message of the cross to make ourselves look better. And we use our ministry as competition. And we take opportunities to preach or teach or disciple as a means of climbing up a ladder. But you never graduate beyond the message of the cross and your absolute need of the Spirit. So as [some of you] you graduate [from Ragged], you are not moving on from these things but setting your life down on these things.
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Our lives are centred on Christ crucified, dependent the Spirit’s power, and all so that we may boast in the Lord. … And if that is all you remember from this class then I am happy with that. That is where all of our theology lands.”
Amen. Please pray for me and for all of us in Merkinch and 20schemes…that we would be a humble people with lives always centred on the cross of Christ, always dependant on the Spirit, and always all for the glory of the Lord.
For Christ and Him crucified,
Claire
Claire in Scotland 