Today Our Daily Bread 1 Corinthians 10 ++

Scripture selections are taken from the Rock Church Daily Bread Reading schedule for each month. “Lena’s Journalin’” are Lena’s comments on the specific passages from her Daily Journal.

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1 Corinthians 10:1-33
Warnings against Idolatry
1I don't want you to forget, dear brothers and sisters, F49 what happened to our ancestors in the wilderness long ago. God guided all of them by sending a cloud that moved along ahead of them, and he brought them all safely through the waters of the sea on dry ground. 2As followers of Moses, they were all baptized in the cloud and the sea. 3And all of them ate the same miraculous F50 food, 4and all of them drank the same miraculous water. For they all drank from the miraculous rock that traveled with them, and that rock was Christ. 5Yet after all this, God was not pleased with most of them, and he destroyed them in the wilderness.
6These events happened as a warning to us, so that we would not crave evil things as they did 7or worship idols as some of them did. For the Scriptures say, "The people celebrated with feasting and drinking, and they indulged themselves in pagan revelry." F51 8And we must not engage in sexual immorality as some of them did, causing 23,000 of them to die in one day. 9Nor should we put Christ F52 to the test, as some of them did and then died from snakebites. 10And don't grumble as some of them did, for that is why God sent his angel of death to destroy them. 11All these events happened to them as examples for us. They were written down to warn us, who live at the time when this age is drawing to a close.
12If you think you are standing strong, be careful, for you, too, may fall into the same sin. 13But remember that the temptations that come into your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will keep the temptation from becoming so strong that you can't stand up against it. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you will not give in to it.
14So, my dear friends, flee from the worship of idols. 15You are reasonable people. Decide for yourselves if what I am about to say is true. 16When we bless the cup at the Lord's Table, aren't we sharing in the benefits of the blood of Christ? And when we break the loaf of bread, aren't we sharing in the benefits of the body of Christ? 17And we all eat from one loaf, showing that we are one body. 18And think about the nation of Israel; all who eat the sacrifices are united by that act.
19What am I trying to say? Am I saying that the idols to whom the pagans bring sacrifices are real gods and that these sacrifices are of some value? 20No, not at all. What I am saying is that these sacrifices are offered to demons, not to God. And I don't want any of you to be partners with demons. 21You cannot drink from the cup of the Lord and from the cup of demons, too. You cannot eat at the Lord's Table and at the table of demons, too. 22What? Do you dare to rouse the Lord's jealousy as Israel did? Do you think we are stronger than he is?
23You say, "I am allowed to do anything"—but not everything is helpful. You say, "I am allowed to do anything"—but not everything is beneficial. 24Don't think only of your own good. Think of other Christians and what is best for them.
25Here's what you should do. You may eat any meat that is sold in the marketplace. Don't ask whether or not it was offered to idols, and then your conscience won't be bothered. 26For "the earth is the Lord's, and everything in it." F53
27If someone who isn't a Christian asks you home for dinner, go ahead; accept the invitation if you want to. Eat whatever is offered to you and don't ask any questions about it. Your conscience should not be bothered by this. 28But suppose someone warns you that this meat has been offered to an idol. Don't eat it, out of consideration for the conscience of the one who told you. 29It might not be a matter of conscience for you, but it is for the other person. Now, why should my freedom be limited by what someone else thinks? 30If I can thank God for the food and enjoy it, why should I be condemned for eating it? 31Whatever you eat or drink or whatever you do, you must do all for the glory of God. 32Don't give offense to Jews or Gentiles or the church of God. 33That is the plan I follow, too. I try to please everyone in everything I do. I don't just do what I like or what is best for me, but what is best for them so they may be saved.
FOOTNOTES:F49: Greek brothers. F50: Greek spiritual; also in 10:4. F51: Exod 32:6. F52: Some manuscripts read the Lord. F53: Ps 24:1.

~Lena’s Journalin’~
Ever feel warned by God?
This is a great one to take a God-warning from. Egypt is a type of worldly system, in which we’ve come out of , a place of darkness where deeds of sin are a daily lifestyle and where we were before we repented and made changes towards following God’s pathways. When we made that decision, God stepped in big time and delivered us from bondages, He caused our old life enemies to drown in the sea, they tried to come after us, but because we kept facing forward and crossed over to the other side and switched kingdoms and the Master to whom we obey, etc, we felt a huge sense of victory.
BUT, if we do not continue in that constant decision making process, deciding for what is God and moving forward away from what we thought was life, but is now revealed to us as not being of eternal value, we could very well end up as bad as when we began, not able to go all the way towards eternity with God’s plans etc.
Why was God not pleased? Remember faith pleases God. So they must have lost their faith along the journey, they must have said things like,” Lord, I did want to come with You, but not quite this far. I did like You and feel good around You, but now things are getting very hard for me…”.That is all a part of the growth in the walk process. If we are walking with Him, things do graduate from easy to medium to harder to expert J. There is supposed to be growth.
One HUGE deception of religion and religious establishments is- you get saved, you become happy in God and feel ooey gooey wonderful and then can stay there the rest of your days in Christ, no requirements, no requests from God (or others), no change needed, etc. Those are lies from satan. Have you noticed in the NT how Jesus’ anger was always expressed at religious works and religious mindsets? They were harder to deal with than outright blatant sin!
This passage is speaking to religious Christians who have been taught in error, to believe we cross over, then we enter the promise of heaven and we just wait for heaven someday. God created us humans to come to Him and then get His work done before they go on to heaven. And believe me if we worked with God everyday inside of His perfect will without mistakes, there’s more work available to do in our lifetimes than we can accomplish. I wonder what happens when Christians don’t ever allow themselves to go to a place where they ever do any of the work? I wonder what happens to the work? Who do we think will do it?
WHO are we living for? WHAT do we live for? ASK yourself that today and BE honest, look at your life, all of your earthly belongings, all you’ve accomplished, all you own, your family, and ask this question of yourself. Then ask God to make you brave, of so very brave to repent and change, to walk away, completely away from the kingdoms you’ve built that stand in the way of being able to join into His work, ask Him to make you brave enough to smash idols that you’ve placed on your walls, or erected in your life for some sort of family memory or some sort of security and protection.
There is NO security or protection that is real except those of the eternal nature! Everything else is a mirage, a façade, a lie.
What is pagan revelry? Any action, behavior or activity that is not centered in Christ. WWJD. Soap operas, worldly concerts, habits of the flesh, etc etc…Anything that does not represent or celebrate, or make a platform to lead others to God. It may look nice and good, but is it specifically about or unto God Most High?
We think if it doesn’t have a wicked look about it, and isn’t spitting fire at us, it’s ok. Some even explain away things that are obviously ugly looking. Does it steal, kill or destroy at all, in any way, shape or form and even by relation of past present or future? Does it at all have any hint of that or of coming out of that? Then it is clearly pagan. Make it clear now, or God will (later on). Does it bring life and invite life all around you? (THIS ONE IS BIG) If spirits from above were looking at your things or your actions or listening to your music from above with no explanation from you, would they be invited to be there with you and your things? Good spirits or bad ones? I tell everyone I talk to about this, take the roof off of your house and open it up to the skies where angels of God and demonic spirits hover. That is what our houses look like in the spirit. Spirits are looking for invitations, to land somewhere and set up housekeeping. Can they do that at your house? Are the angels of God invited without any words, just by your stuff or what they see you do? Do they see you worship and depend on God for any problems worries, cares, dependencies etc, or do they see us worry, take substances when we feel bad, watch TV to feel we have company, etc?
The spirit realm is much more real that the natural realm. How do you think the tape will be played back of our lives before God? The video crew is out there, the accuser of the brethren is out there. Going to church twice a week does NOT at all speak in the spirit realm if the life at home is not at least on the journey of matching up.
How does one get to a place where God helps in temptation? Through obedience and willingness to ask and to change and to be helped. If God sees us go to the bottle or whatever when we’re weak, why does He need to help us? We aren’t asking, we’re just going there instead of to Him, now if we ask as we reluctantly go, we maybe journeying towards recognizing Him as our source, but in the spirit realm the only way that is known is if it is seen and heard in prayer, out loud. When we depend on God, it doesn’t take years and years and years to get to a place or dependency if we are ruled by Him and His spirit. Many things take years, but there is a definitive progression, from glory to glory.

Proverbs 27:17-19
17 You use steel to sharpen steel, and one friend sharpens another. 18 If you care for your orchard, you'll enjoy its fruit; if you honor your boss, you'll be honored. 19 Just as water mirrors your face, so your face mirrors your heart.
Psalm 122:1
1 When they said, "Let's go to the house of God," my heart leaped for joy.