Not to us, Lord, not to us but to Your name be the glory, because of Your love and faithfulness.
Why do the nations say, “Where is their God?”  Our God is in heaven; He does whatever pleases Him.

This is such an important thought.  In a culture that says, “It’s all about you!” we need this reminder.  From our entertainment to our politics, from our food choices even to our churches, we are constantly told that only we matter, that our desires and will are primary.

But that is not the truth.  It is not an opinion that God gets the glory; that is simple fact.  We cannot be God’s people and still take His rightful glory for ourselves.  Did you create the world or anything that is in it?  Do you make the plants grow our food?  Do you give yourself the skills you use to gain your riches?  No, in all of this it is God who originates and initiates everything we have, and so it is He who gets the glory from His children.

And next comes the hard truth that God is not bound by us at all.  He is not bound by our morality but is instead its source.  He is not bound by our expectations and in fact takes great joy in blowing them apart.  God is the unexpected one, sending an infant child where we expected a military commander, healing where we expected sickness, bringing life where we expected death, and showing mercy when we expected judgement.  God does whatever pleases Him, and often that means going against what we want or expect Him to.

When you pray, do you pray to the God of the unexpected?  The God who can do whatever He pleases?  Or are you still following a God of your own making, who follows your rules and expectations?

“Expel the wicked person from among you.”  Yikes.

While every church has a bylaw stating how to deal with immoral (“wicked”) people in their midst, I’ve seldom heard of anyone invoking it.  Few churches would expel anyone for sinful reasons, and with good reason.  Who’s to judge how wicked someone has to be before they are expelled?  What about others who are as wicked but not as public?  What is the church’s obligation to that person?  Is this still even relevant in the modern church or was this a command to an entirely different entity?

Paul gives some good insights into these questions.  First of all, he is the one who stands as judge over this person.  “Though I’m not with you physically, I’m there in spirit and have already passed judgement on them.”  Paul is an “overseer”, much more than our local pastors.  He is more a bishop or superintendent, an outside voice with authority calling this person to account.  But for what?

Yes, this person is sleeping with his step-mother, something the OT says is “detestable” (Lev. 18:8).  But more than that, the church is cheering him on.  “We’re free from the law so we can go ahead and do whatever we want.  For example, take Cletus over there who’s sleeping with his stepmom.  We applaud that!”  The act has led the entire church astray, and in so doing has ruined its reputation for morality in the community.  This is not just a personal sin but the very reputation of Jesus Christ at stake.

And the church is to kick this person out.  This was a time where there wasn’t simply another church down the block to attend like today.  If you were kicked out of the fellowship, there was nowhere else to go.  This was what the Catholic’s have called excommunication at its prime.  Given the communal nature of the early church, this was forcing poor Cletus (yes, I’ve made up that name) to leave his home, his church, and his community.

Is this still applicable today?  Do we still kick people out of the church for immorality deep enough that it hurts Jesus’ reputation?  Yes we do.  Take Willow Creek as a case in point.  But we need to be very careful, seek outside guidance, be sure the sin is unrepentant and pulling the whole of the church into sin, and even with that we pray for the salvation of that person’s soul.

Hard teaching today but one we cannot simply ignore because our culture tells us to be tolerant.  Let them be tolerant (though they aren’t), but we are called to be holy, and that is a deeply difficult task.

When we get a health scare, a job loss, financial trouble, family problems, or just need help, to whom do we turn?  Usually to an expert.  Health scares require a doctor.  Appointments, tests, medication, and we are well again.  In body, anyway.  Our spirit is still wounded with fears but we seldom recognize that.  Financial trouble requires a financial analyst.  Debt consolidation, maybe bankruptcy filings, and we’re back on stable footing.  Financially, anyway.  Our spirit is still wounded with humiliation, but we seldom recognize that.  Family problems want a therapist, phobias need a psychologist, and we turn to this world’s experts again and again.  And we walk away with a temporary fix and a wounded soul again and again.

Ps. 107 tell us to remember our history to help deal with our future.  It reminds us to tell each other our stories of salvation.

Remember when we wandered in the desert wastelands and were starving?  We cried out to God and He delivered us!  He led us to cities with lots of food!

Remember when we were imprisoned and enslaved and hard labor was the way of the day?  We cried out to God and He delivered us!  He freed us and gave us rest!

Remember when we rebelled against God and almost died?  We cried out to God and He delivered us!  He taught us how to obey and saved our lives!

Remember when we were caught in that storm at sea and we were terrified almost to death?  We cried out to God and He delivered us!  He calmed the storm and our fears together!

You see, the very God who dries up rivers and lakes and destroys entire ecosystems, the very God who blesses the land and brings rains and cool weather to replenish the land, this God of climate change and seasonal change is our God to whom we can pray.  If He can bring drought or floods, warmth and coolness with a thought, can’t He also be trusted to care for our needs when we cry out to Him?  Maybe He’s the expert to whom we should turn in times of trial and trouble.

I have an image of the judgement day that is based on this text, but only loosely.  I do not proclaim this to be truth, just my perception of a possible explanation based on 1 Cor. 3.

At the judgement seat, we will each pass through the fire.  I see a sheet of fire standing before the doorway to God.  As we pass through this sheet, the things in our lives we have built out of “straw, hay, or wood” are consumed.  These are the ungodly things, the unimportant things, the flimsy things we create in our lives, from an eternal perspective.  But the things we’ve built our of “gold, silver, and costly stones” pass through the fire unharmed and last.  These are the things God has called us to seek, to strive for, to do which last.

What in your life is straw?  Hay?  Wood?  I think of things like wealth, reputation, power, prestige, success, the good will of people.  These do not last for eternity.  These are inconsequential in the long run.  These are tools that will be useless in the world to come.  Yet these are the things this world tells us to value above all else.  And so we spend our time accumulating wealth and reputation rather than working for Godly things that will last.

What in your life is gold?  Silver?  Precious stones?  I think of things like strengthening your faith, helping others, caring for the poor, building relationships, worship, caring for our spouses and children, and especially evangelism.  These are the things that will last.  But we treat these like side dishes to life’s meal.  We do them when we have the time, or the energy, or the will leftover after we’re done seeking the straw/hay/wood of this world.

Maybe its time for a priority check in light of eternity.

I have an image of the judgement day that is based on this text, but only loosely.  I do not proclaim this to be truth, just my perception of a possible explanation based on 1 Cor. 3.

At the judgement seat, we will each pass through the fire.  I see a sheet of fire standing before the doorway to God.  As we pass through this sheet, the things in our lives we have built out of “straw, hay, or wood” are consumed.  These are the ungodly things, the unimportant things, the flimsy things we create in our lives, from an eternal perspective.  But the things we’ve built our of “gold, silver, and costly stones” pass through the fire unharmed and last.  These are the things God has called us to seek, to strive for, to do which last.

What in your life is straw?  Hay?  Wood?  I think of things like wealth, reputation, power, prestige, success, the good will of people.  These do not last for eternity.  These are inconsequential in the long run.  These are tools that will be useless in the world to come.  Yet these are the things this world tells us to value above all else.  And so we spend our time accumulating wealth and reputation rather than working for Godly things that will last.

What in your life is gold?  Silver?  Precious stones?  I think of things like strengthening your faith, helping others, caring for the poor, building relationships, worship, caring for our spouses and children, and especially evangelism.  These are the things that will last.  But we treat these like side dishes to life’s meal.  We do them when we have the time, or the energy, or the will leftover after we’re done seeking the straw/hay/wood of this world.

Maybe its time for a priority check in light of eternity.