Nashville, Tennessee, United States - The Upper Room Daily Devotional “Opportunity” for Thursday, 4 December 2014 - Scripture: 1 Corinthians 1:26-31

Nashville, Tennessee, United States - The Upper Room Daily Devotional “Opportunity” for Thursday, 4 December 2014 - Scripture: 1 Corinthians 1:26-31 Take a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life. I don’t see many of “the brightest and the best” among you, not many influential, not many from high-society families. Isn’t it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, chose these “nobodies” to expose the hollow pretensions of the “somebodies”? That makes it quite clear that none of you can get by with blowing your own horn before God. Everything that we have—right thinking and right living, a clean slate and a fresh start—comes from God by way of Jesus Christ. That’s why we have the saying, “If you’re going to blow a horn, blow a trumpet for God.”
Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.[1 Corinthians 1:26 (NRSV)]
Our church in Bulgaria lives on the margins of society, despite the fact that our church buildings in the larger cities are often situated near the demographic centers. Because of our church locations, many people would think that we must be one of the more influential mainline Christian denominations in our country. But the reality is completely different. We are a minority church with seemingly little influence.
For some of our people this seems like a discouraging situation. But in fact, this is our chance to focus our attention beyond our own existence and survival. Our downtown churches are very close to the poor and marginalized in our local communities. We can understand their despair, pain, and fear of being social outcasts. We can be faithful in sharing the good news among the people who need it most — the poor, the orphaned, the sick, and those with addictions.
We discover our true call to ministry when we look beyond our church walls and the labels we Christians give one another. Then we have a great opportunity to welcome those who have no power — those who feel weak and marginalized — into the Body of Christ.
The Author: Daniel Topalski (Ruse, Bulgaria)
Thought for the Day: The closer we are to people in need, the closer we are to God.
Prayer: Dear God, give us loving hearts to serve others. Amen.
Prayer focus: Inner-city churches
____________________________