Category Archives: 1 Corinthians

1 Corinthians, Love, Relationships, Sex

God’s Text on Sex

Leave a comment

HusbandWife2In a marital relationship, both you and your spouse must communicate. I have seen too many times in counseling where one spouse refuses or withholds sex from their mate. If you are in this situation, ask yourself how you may be responsible. Guys, sex is not just for your pleasure. Ladies, you need to communicate clearly to your spouse when something is not pleasurable or not going well with your husband. God desires to give you pleasure and He desires that you be a pleasure to one another. Discuss with one another what brings pleasure and what does not. If something is not going well, please, please talk to your spouse without undermining their confidence.

It is not Biblical to deprive your spouse of sex. You should never be selfish in any way with your spouse, physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually. At times, it may be a sacrifice or an unselfish thing you do to have a physical relationship. Maybe you do it in spite of being tired, having a headache, etc. etc. A sexual problem is often a symptom of a bigger problem, which is selfishness. As Christians, should not be selfish in our lives or in our physical relationships. You entered into a covenant with your spouse and your body is no longer yours according to 1st Corinthians 7:4.

Just as Jesus Christ died for you, so should you and your spouse should die to selfishness. Not just sexually but in all ways. You should please your spouse and submit to one another’s likes as long as it is not contrary to the Word of God. Your nature is to be self-centered, but Jesus wants you to be others-centered. Friend, consider one another.

Take time with your spouse and communicate your likes and dislikes with one another. Friend, by considering one another, I will promise you that your marriage will be better than you have imagined, your spouse will be blessed and God will bless you.

Life Lesson: If you are married, you should be having sex or making love on a regular basis.

—

David McGee is the founder of Cross The Bridge Ministries as well as a pastor, teacher and author.  He may be contacted using the form here.

1 Corinthians, Conflict, Relationships, Unity, Violence

Conflict – Now That’s One Bad Relationship!

Leave a comment

duelling_pistolsThe Vice President of the United States was so angered by the refusal of the Secretary of the Treasury to apologize for remarks made that he challenged him to a duel and shot him to death.

Conflict arises in politics, the workplace, marriage, family, and churches. We all have some kind of problem in the realm of our relationships. Maybe you went into a relationship thinking that you were 100% in agreement about everything. I’m sure that bubble was quickly burst. It’s rare to have absolute agreement between two people much less between hundreds or even thousands.

When you work through differences, you build a stronger relationship. Many times, when a marriage hits a rough patch, there is a freshening of the relationship. It’s like hitting the reset button on a game console – suddenly things are working again.

Disagreements can also be distractions, especially within the church. How do you keep a church from reaching others? You create division among the members. How many churches has Satan rendered ineffective because he was able to generate dissension? Christians are easy prey when the trap is baited with prideful prejudice over unimportant matters. Division hurts Jesus and the cause of Christ.

Life Lesson: When we come together, we create problems. When we work together to solve them, we become stronger people and stronger in the Lord.

It was sad that two of our nation’s founding fathers, Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton, could not settle their differences without bloodshed and death. Yet only the strength, mercy and grace of God keeps any of us alive.

—

David McGee is the founder of Cross The Bridge Ministries as well as a pastor, teacher and author.  He may be contacted using the form here.

1 Corinthians, Control, Faith, Strength, Weakness

Strength In Weakness

Leave a comment

Talk about picking on someone with a weakness – as a baby, Mo was left in a river after an attempt to kill him was foiled. Later, as a handicapped adult, he had to flee the country, accused of murder after defending one of his compatriots.

Strength in WeaknessDid you know that God uses the plans of the enemy for our good? God uses bad things, plans of the enemy, for our good and for our blessings. You may ask, “How can this be?” After all, in the midst of pain, hardship and weakness, nothing seems right. That may be the case, but if we trust in God, we can experience exactly what Paul said, “For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

Paul is saying, “In me, I am weak, yet in the Lord, I am strong.” Not just strong but, we are God strong. We think the most blessed person has it made. No one has it made, friend. Sometimes the most blessed person is the one who has been smacked the most by the enemy, but came out better because he learned to lean on God. When we lean on God, we have unlimited power and authority to help us. In ourselves, we will never overcome anything. But in the power of Christ, we can overcome everything!

Life Lesson: When we think we can handle a situation, sometimes we are wrong. When we think the Lord can handle a situation or help us handle it, we are never wrong.

Moses ended up returning to the country he fled, had multiple audiences with the head of state, freed an entire nation of slaves, and is regarded as a major prophet.

—

David McGee is the founder of Cross The Bridge Ministries as well as a pastor, teacher and author.  He may be contacted using the form here.

1 Corinthians, Conflict, Fellowship, Love, Unity

Just Religious Noise

Leave a comment

Religious Noise - An Autoimmune Disorder - Unity NeededIt could start with fatigue, fever, weakness, distraction, depression. You don’t really know what exactly the problem is, but you just know that something’s not working right inside. Chaos occurs when your body decides to attack itself in an autoimmune disorder. Your body parts aren’t acting in unity.

What if you could actually see it happening? Let’s say your arm was mad at your foot for not saying, “Hi” in the hallway, or your liver decided to quit simply because it was jealous of the mouth? While it may seem ridiculous to imagine, this sad scenario occurs every week in churches all over the world. The Church – the body of Christ, formed to demonstrate the love and forgiveness of Jesus, turns on itself out of selfishness and pride. It shouldn’t be this way. In one of the most beloved passages in the Bible, Paul writes…

“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.” (from First Corinthians, chapter 13)

The whole chapter is dedicated to promoting love as the ultimate spiritual fruit. Do you understand great mysteries? Great, but do you love? Are you able to speak with tongues of angels? Awesome, but do you love? You see, no matter what gift we are given, if we are not acting in love towards one another, we are nothing more than religious noise. Instead of useless noise, let’s sing out a sweet song of forgiveness and love. That is a tune sure to change the world.

 Life Lesson: No matter how gifted we are or what our giftings are, if we don’t have love, we are just religious noise.

Autoimmune disorders in our physical bodies are temporary. Real love for one another is forever.

—

David McGee is the founder of Cross The Bridge Ministries as well as a pastor, teacher and author.  He may be contacted using the form here.