THURSDAY, December 4th, 2008

Hey everyone! Thanks for being faithful!

A Few Thoughts From Yesterday:
Michael: "Sponsered by Jesus/ Smokin the Devil"... WHERE DO YOU COME UP WITH THIS STUFF??
Jessica: How did you go ahead? Do you read it out of the Bible?
Mallory: Did you wake up sick this morning? I DID AND I HATE IT!!!
Rachel: The Wilds is definitely a spiritually safe place... I always say that the Wilds is the closest place to Heaven on Earth!! I Love it Too!!

I Corinthians 11

1 Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.
2 Now I praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances, as I delivered them to you.
3 But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.
4 Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonoureth his head.
5 But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head: for that is even all one as if she were shaven.
6 For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn: but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered.
7 For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man.
8 For the man is not of the woman: but the woman of the man.
9 Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man.
10 For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels.
11 Nevertheless neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord.
12 For as the woman is of the man, even so is the man also by the woman; but all things of God.
13 Judge in yourselves: is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered?
14 Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him?
15 But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering.

Hold on... I have to go ask Pastor Chip about this one...

...

This is interesting stuff! Let me start with the clearest meesage: verse 1 and 2. Wow! Once again, Paul is living a lifestyle that he can just say: Follow me as I follow Christ. I would love for that to be my motto! I would love to be able to say: TEENAGERS!!!! FOLLOW ME AS I FOLLOW CHRIST! But to be honest, if I am going to say that, then I better make sure that there is nothing between me and Christ. If I want you to follow me then I BETTER BE heading stright down the path to Christ!!

Can you say that about your unsaved friends? Could you tell them: Hey! Follow me as I follow Christ!

Now, onto the interesting part...
I went and read Warren Wiersbe's commentary on this passage adn I think he does a great job at explaining a foundation that makes this passage a little easier to understand...

IN EVERYTHING THERE IS A CHAIN OF COMMAND: In school, you have students, teachers, administrators, principals, county school board, supervisor of education and so on...

In the military you will have a private, a captain, a general and so on... but the private may be a better man than the captain...

In other words, this passage explains that God did create a chain of command with people as well... however, just because one is higher on the chain does not mean that they are better, or more special.

Even God the Father is higher on the Chain than Jesus Christ, but we know that they are co-equal!

So with that being said... lets look at this passage... FIRST: Here are a few things you would need to know...

Because of the culture in these days women had to cover their heads, because women prostitutes would shave their heads, that is why it says several times that a woman without hair or with a shaved head should be ashamed...

So that does not necessarily apply to today because that is no longer a relevant issue today, however, it says that a guy should not cover his head when he is praying and even today it is culterally respectful to take your hat off when you pray, or when you sing the national anthem or some even say when you enter a building... (I personally never understood that one... maybe someone can explain it to me)

So the message is: We need to be reverent about our relationship with Christ. It is not something that we should view flippantly, instead we should carefully consider, we need to approah the throne of God in respectul Prayer.