*** SHOW NOTES (not fully edited or a transcript) ***

Lead:

When you don’t understand something, what do you do? Today, the madness behind the method of “wait for it to click.”

Intro:

<pilot’s voice> This is your captain speaking. We’ve begun our descent into Las Vegas. On the ground today you can expect a high of 140 degrees. We hope you enjoy your stay in Sin City, and thank you again for flying with End Times Airlines.

When you think of Corinth, you might imagine it a bit like the Las Vegas of the Roman empire. It was one of the bigger cities situated on a trade route, known for both wealth and the temple of Aphrodite wherein you’d find hundreds of cult prostitutes. If fact, the city’s reputation for licentiousness was such that to “Corinthianize” was to participate in that which is morally degrading…and that will give you some background for the stuff that Paul addresses in his letter that we start into today.

Before we get there, though, a few housekeeping bits:

First, welcome to all our new listeners. You’ll find we just keep it real here, have a high view of the Bible, and try to illuminate ideas and skills that likely aren’t part of a typical Sunday morning, all in service to Jesus and helping others engage with the truth claims of the Christian worldview.

Too, for all of you, it’s been awhile since I’ve shared some cheap resources, but there are a couple great books that are in the blog post that corresponds to today’s podcast…just go to forthehope.org, search for episode 926, and scroll down to the bottom.

Finally, starting into a new book in the Bible means a new video from The Bible Project, too. You’ll find that at the bottom of each post, too.

Sponsor:

You! Please consider “liking” our FaceBook page?

Bible:

Passage: 1 Corinthians 1-2
Translation: NLT (New Living Translation)
Verses: 47
Words: ~997

All Our Minds:

The apostle Paul was a deep, heavy thinker, known for sophisticated argumentation. And as I was thinking about how, since we’ll be reading Paul for awhile, I remembered an experience that I had in college the first time around.

My first degree was in music, and when I started studying music theory, the professor gave us some advice that we can use when renewing our minds with God’s thoughts: he said, “Memorize the concept and wait for it to click.”

And he was exactly right. Sometimes even though an idea was hard to understand in the moment, I’d memorize the concept (like what a Neapolitan sixth chord was). Sometimes you really get it right away, but sometimes it would be much later would that you’d experience an “aha!” moment.

In Christianity, we believe in a God who, by definition, is hard to wrap our heads around. It makes sense…He’s the Creator who brought something into nothing, made us in His image, gave us free will, and mounted a rescue plan that included becoming incarnate…Jesus being fully God and fully human. How’s God one and three? How is He sovereign over all and we still have free will? How is it that His Holy Spirit indwells and transforms us when we put our full trust in His feely offered gift of unmerited grace? And what about this Bible that has some weird stuff mixed in with moments of obvious beauty?

Here’s a little paradox that I’d encourage you to embrace…and wait for it to click. God isn’t some distant force…He’s a real person (or more accurately, one essence in three persons). He is present with us, but He’s distinct from, the cosmos. Put another way, the cosmos isn’t God. Philosophically that’s called monism — the idea that all is one and one is all. But God couldn’t create Himself…logically that’s a pile of horse hooey, a self-defeating statement. God can’t do something that’s illogical like make a square circle or a married bachelor.

My point is that this: His very nature is relational. He didn’t need us for relationship…to need something would, logically, mean that He is less than perfect. But He did want a relationship with us.

So what’s one thing we know about relationship? It benefits from quality time. And it’s why we hang out with Him in the way that He has chosen to reveal Himself, the Bible, and listen. We feed our hearts and minds every day and trust that, if for some reason we don’t totally get it today, it will click.

The bottom line

The Bible isn’t an answer book for every question in the world…it’s whole purpose is to point to the person and work of Jesus, giving us everything needed to know what is needed for us for our relationship with Him — either restoring that relationship by accepting and trusting in Him, or growing it by hanging out with Him. You may not always perfectly understand, but wait for it. It’ll click.

Wisdom:

Passage: Psalm 111-112
Translation: NLT (New Living Translation)
Verses: 20
Words: ~328

Love you!

-R

ForTheHope is a daily audio Bible + apologetics podcast and blog. We’ve got a passion for just keepin’ it real, having conversations like normal people, and living out the love of Jesus better every single day.

Roger Courville, CSP is a globally-recognized expert in digitally-extended communication and connection, an award-winning speaker, award-winning author, and a passionately bad guitarist. Follow him on Twitter -- @RogerCourville and @JoinForTheHope – or his blog: www.forthehope.org.

Sources and resources:

Thank you for supporting this ministry should you choose to use the Amazon affiliate links below.

Recommended:

The Story of Reality, Greg Koukl — Love this book. A killer intro to the Christian worldview that is philosophically and theologically sound while being accessible to all readers.

How to Read the Bible Book by Book, Fee & Stuart — Just bought this myself (and haven’t read it), but Fee’s book on how to read the Bible for all it’s worth is a mega-best-selling classic.

Today’s translation: NLT - New Living Translation

Not cited today, but one of my faves! —> Crossway Bibles, The ESV Study Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008).

#926: 1 Corinthians 1-2 | Wait for it to click | Psalms 111-112