Author: Pastor Mike

The Kitchen Table Devotional

1 Corinthians 15 Day 1

Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, ² by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.

1 Corinthians 15:1-2

It’s no mystery what we believe to be true; we hold fast to it and we should.  Don’t sell yourself short to believe in something just because others do, just because it sounds good.  Have a reason and know your reason.  The gospel is God’s good news about how we can know and embrace true, love, life, light, and liberty forever in Jesus.  It’s not something we earn but something we receive from Jesus because we believe Jesus and we want the life of Jesus.  Do not believe in vain. 

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1 Corinthians 14 Day 4

What is the outcome then, brethren? When you assemble, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification.

1 Corinthians 14:26

The spiritual gifts of the Spirt of God edify, helping others get up, grow up, and go up. That’s what love does, it builds up and it honors the one it touches.  True love brings clarity and credibility to a person, not excuses and exemptions about a person.  That’s true naturally and spiritually.  Love lets all things be done for edification. 

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1 Corinthians 14 Day 3

I thank God, I speak in tongues more than you all; ¹⁹ however, in the church I desire to speak five words with my mind so that I may instruct others also, rather than ten thousand words in a tongue.

1 Corinthians 14:18-19

True love brings clarity and credibility with it and that’s how it works in the spiritual realm too.  The Holy Spirit brings gifts of Jesus to live the life of Jesus in this world.  The gifts are given to minister the love of God to those God loves and that love becomes clearer and more credible as the mental begins to understand the spiritual.   That’s a active work of the Holy Spirit.  It’s a powerful and wonderful thing.

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1 Corinthians 14 Day 2

But now, brethren, if I come to you speaking in tongues, what will I profit you unless I speak to you either by way of revelation or of knowledge or of prophecy or of teaching?

1 Corinthians 14:6

True love brings clarity and credibility with it.  Love lives of something bigger than self and it cannot be quiet.  In fact, love cannot be known by itself, it’s communal.  Love cannot be known isolation but is fully known in revelation.  God so loved the world that He sent His Son.  Love doesn’t travel by itself but takes others with it.  So, the gifts then are meant to communicate the love of God to others, not just to me.

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1 Corinthians 14 Day 1

Pursue love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. ² For one who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God; for no one understands, but in his spirit he speaks mysteries. ³ But one who prophesies speaks to men for edification and exhortation and consolation. ⁴ One who speaks in a tongue edifies himself; but one who prophesies edifies the church.

1 Corinthians 14:1-4

True love brings credibility and clarification with it.   Once we’ve learned to submit to the love of God, God situates us to be the love of God in this world.  Now all the gifts and the fruit and the power of the Holy Spirit are essential, not just electives.  The presence of the Holy Spirit brings us the ability to know love and be God’s love in our world speaking and sharing God’s love with others.

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1 Corinthians 13 Day 4

For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.

1 Corinthians 13:12

Have you ever noticed that there is always more to discover where love lives?  There’s always an end to lies but love just keeps on opening windows and doors to new discoveries in this life.  But one day we will meet love face-to-face in the eyes of our Father and then we will know all things.  I can’t even imagine what that moment will be like or how we could take in all in, in that moment.  I think even heaven will be a continued discovery of all that God has, feels, and is.  Love is the blessing of submission to God.

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1 Corinthians 13 Day 3

Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away.

1 Corinthians 13:8

 There it is.  Love never fails!  Why live in anything else than the love of God?  Do life His way and live in love.

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1 Corinthians 13 Day 2

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, ⁵ does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, ⁶ does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; ⁷ bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7

Love is because God is.  Without God we would not know what love is and we find out what love is when we submit to God and trust in His love for us.  Anything contrary to love means that I’m leaning on someone or something other than God.  Trust Him, He loves us.

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1 Corinthians 13 Day 1

​¹ If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I have the gift of prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. ³ And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.

1 Corinthians 13:1-3

The crux of the issue is love.  Only what’s done in love will last and if we don’t know love, we can’t give love.  Love belongs to those who can submit to His love.  If we can’t receive love, we can’t release love.  Receiving love requires submitting to the One who loves us and opening our hearts to believe and receive His love for us.  Let God love you today!

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1 Corinthians 12 Day 4

But God has so composed the body, giving more abundant honor to that member which lacked, ²⁵ so that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. ²⁶ And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.

1 Corinthians 12:24-26

It’s been said that church is where you go to discover God’s dreams and where you go to defeat hell’s discouragement.  God has plans of abundant honor for anyone who believes and can submit to obey Him.  This life isn’t a one man show, but life lived with others who believe and care for each other too.  In that environment we discover the dreams of God for each and all of us.