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Hi everyone! I hope you’re having a good week! It’s hard to believe we’ll be into March in a couple days, though I’m glad to see the weather turning gradually warmer.
Yesterday was certainly nice—and I’m grateful, because we had to help our daughter move to a new apartment. (It’s always more pleasant to do that when it isn’t dumping water on us as we carry boxes and furniture.) Diane and I are feeling grateful on many fronts. As you’re all aware, it can be hard to find housing these days, and even harder to find it at an affordable rate. So, we’re thankful for God’s gracious answer to a lot of prayers in helping our daughter not only to find a place, but to find an excellent place at an excellent price.  Our Lord is good!

Of course, this was just a reminder of a pattern we’ve seen over our whole lives. I was telling someone earlier this week that Diane and I have moved 8 times since we were married. Of those 8 occasions, at least 5 or 6 involved quite dramatic answers to prayer and unfolding circumstances that, in my opinion, were nothing short of miraculous. So, when we think about moving from one house to another, we always think about God’s faithfulness, His extraordinary care, and the surprising and wonderful ways He answers prayer. I don’t know how many times our daughter will move in the next 40 years, but I hope she will be able to look back and say the same thing: “God’s hand was clear each time, and I know He is faithful.”

Maybe that’s one of the reasons God seems to like moving people.  You’ve noticed that He does, right? Certainly, in the Bible our Lord seems to be moving people all the time. The first thing we learn about Abraham is that God calls him to relocate to a new home. Jacob and family move to Egypt, then God moves the nation of Israel back to Canaan again. Ruth, one of Jesus’ near ancestors, moved from Moab to Israel—which was a huge cultural jump as well as a relocation across the river. The situation was less happy when Israel was taken, quite against their will, into exile, but that too was an opportunity to see God’s faithfulness even in hardship. Of course, it also became a chance to remember His promises and for many to move back to Canaan when the time was right.

Jesus was born during a lengthy trip. The trip turned into a stay in a new place, then to a move to Egypt, then to another back to Galilee. Jesus called His disciples to a traveling life of ministry. We see this first in the Gospels, then at more length in Acts, especially with the travels of Paul.

If we followed the church across history, we’d see more of the same. Not everyone gets relocated as part of their walk with God. But many people have, and many still do. I know many members of our church could tell stories of the ways that God has moved you from home to home, city to city, and country to country, across oceans and across languages and cultures. And I know that if we had time to share stories, we’d all have stories to tell about how faithful God has been, how His wisdom has proved itself over the long haul, and how often He has answered prayers, provided, and guided in ways that went beyond what we expected.

It would be good for us to create more opportunities to share those stories. Meanwhile, it’s healthy just to remember them—as Diane and I have been prompted to do again this week! May you be encouraged as you think about your own stories, as well.

On a different note, this week we continue our “journey” through the book of 1 Corinthians. I’m happy to say that we’ve arrived at chapter 12, which takes us into my favorite part of the book. This week we dip our toes into the rich and important subject of the Spirit’s gifts to God’s people. As many of you know, this has been a subject of special interest for me over the years. There is much more that could be explored than we’ll have time to consider on Sunday morning, but it will still be good to reflect a little on the subject.

If you’re wanting to read ahead, I recommend reading through the whole of chapter 12. If I could offer one main suggestion as you do, I’d encourage you to ask yourself: based on what I’m reading in this passage, what questions do I think the Corinthians may be asking Paul, which prompt this response? What problems may they be facing, that Paul is trying to help them resolve? The topic of “spiritual gifts” has been widely discussed, and sometimes hotly debated in churches over the past 100 years, and we’re inclined to come to 1 Corinthians 12 looking for answers to all the things that were being discussed in the church we attended when we grew up, or in a local debate between our Pentecostal and non-Pentecostal friends.  Fair enough. Those things are worth some reflection. But remember, Paul wrote this chapter almost 2000 years ago on the other side of the world. He had never heard of modern Pentecostalism or the Charismatic movement or “cessationism” or other ideas that we often focus on today. Our first task is to understand what Paul was dealing with, as a way of making sense of what he says in these verses. Then (!) we’re in a better position to deal with our 20th and 21st century questions. (This, of course, is part of reading in context. )

I look forward to dipping into this material together on Sunday. Meanwhile, have a wonderful week.