Hello, good people, and welcome to daily bible

refresh with doctor Brad Miller brought to you by voice of god

daily.com. That's where you can find over 700

episodes of this daily bible reading, which we look to

bring to you in 3 ways. One way that it is

understandable, so we read from the New Testament and we read

the message translation of the Bible. We make it relatable

by offering you a couple of points to ponder to think about, and we

make it applicable by giving you an application of the scripture to your

life. We have a prayer together, and we do so in under

10 minutes. Our reading today is from 1st

Corinthians second chapter verses 11

through 16, reading from the message. We, of course,

have plenty of wisdom to pass on to you once you get your feet on

firm spiritual ground, but it's not popular wisdom.

The fashionable wisdom of high priced experts will be out of date in

a year or so. God's wisdom is something mysterious that goes

deeper into the interior of his

purposes. You don't find it lying around at the surface. It's not

the latest message, but more like the oldest.

What god determines as the way to bring out

his best in us long before

we long before we ever arrived on the scene.

The experts of our day haven't a clue about what the eternal plan is. If

they had, they wouldn't have killed the master of the god

designed life on a cross. That's why we

have this scripture text. No one's ever seen or

heard anything like this, never so much as imagined

anything quite like it, what God has arranged for those who love

him. But you've seen and heard it because God, by his

spirit, has brought it all out into the open before you.

The spirit, not content to flit around on the surface,

dives into the depths of god and brings out what god planned

all along. Whoever knows what you're thinking and planning except for

you, yourself. The same with god, except that he not

only knows what he's thinking, but he lets us in on it.

God offers a full report of the gifts of life and salvation that he

has given us. We don't have to rely on the world's guesses

and opinions. We don't learn this by reading books or going to school. We

learn it from God who taught us person to person

through Jesus and we're passing it on to you in the same

firsthand personal way. The unspiritual

self just as it is by nature can't receive the gifts of God's

spirit. There's no capacity for them. They

seem like so much silliness. Spirit can be known

only by spirit. God's spirit and our spirits in

open communion, spiritually alive. We

haven't we have access to everything God's spirit is doing

and can't be judged by unspiritual critics.

Isaiah's question is this, is there anyone around who knows God's

spirit, anyone who knows what he is doing? He has been

answered. Christ knows, and we have

Christ spirit. What a great and

affirming, scripture lesson for this day which comes

from the revised common lectionary year c. We're in the

epiphany season. We're talking here about divine wisdom that

goes beyond human understanding, and Paul

explores this powerful relationship between God's spirit

and humanity, the human understanding of it.

So a few points to ponder to think about this. There is a

democratization of spiritual wisdom.

Paul challenges the notion that spiritual understanding is reserved for

the intellectual or for the religious, experts

or some sort of academic exercise.

And this is a radical idea, so and it suggests that divine

wisdom, wisdom of God is accessible to all people

through direct spiritual experience. It's

it's it's regardless of your education or your social status

or your religious credentials. In our modern

context, this affirms that everybody's spiritual journey is

valid. Your insights are real even when

they diverge from the traditional

religious interpretations or traditional interpretations.

Secondarily, a second point, there is limitations of rationalism.

While our contemporary world often prioritizes empirical evidence and

logical reasoning, Paul presents an alternative way of knowing.

This is an anti intellectual, but it rather suggests that

some truths transcend purely rational

understanding. And for Christians, this

validates emotional intuition and

spiritual ways of encountering God, And particularly in

matters of social justice or environmental stewardship

and human dignity, this is important.

Another thing to think about here, friends, is spiritual discernment as

a collective practice, and we do it in community with with

with with one another. Paul speaks here about we have Christ

spirit, and he's addressing the community,

not just individuals, but the corporate body.

And this suggests that spiritual discernment is best practice

in community, where diverse opinions and

perspectives and experiences all interact with one another

and contribute to a fuller understanding of God's wisdom.

The communal approach helps guard against individual

biases and promotes an inclusive

interpretation of a spiritual life. Here's your

action step. I would like for you to think about creating a wisdom

circle. That is, maybe a couple other people who

may have some yearnings like you do

for a little more depth either in Bible study or spiritual development,

and share how you've experienced God in your life in

unexpected places particularly or through some non traditional

means. And in this little circle of people, it's important that you

practice deep listening. That means without judgment,

alright, and and totally acknowledging the spirit can work

through whatever means people are sharing

their experience. We're gonna pray here in just a moment, but I did want

you to know that we have a resource for you that you may want to

take advantage of. It's called the ABC 123

Bible study guide. We provide it for you at our website voice

of god daily.com, completely free. It'll help you to

go deeper into the scriptures, and I think that's what you

wanna do. It's just simple as as abc 123,

the abc123 bible guide. Let's pray.

Loving spirit, we confess that sometimes we've limited you to our own

understanding, expecting you to fit within our comfortable

boxes of familiar patterns. Open our hearts to recognize

your presence in unexpected places and the

wisdom of those we've overlooked and the questions that

challenge our certainties and the movements for justice and

peace in our world. Help us to trust that

your wisdom often exceeds our logic and your love transcends

our boundaries. Guide us as we learn to listen to you and to each

other with open hearts and minds.

Well it's been good to be with you. My name is doctor Brad Miller here

on the daily Bible refresh, where we look to offer

you an understanding of the scriptures that is understandable, relatable,

and applicable. I'll be with you again tomorrow morning, and but

until then, remember that God's loyal love doesn't run out. His

merciful love doesn't dry up. It's created

new every morning.