Day 28: 1 Corinthians 16 - 2 Corinthians 9

Here are some questions to consider as you listen to today's text.

1. How are we able to comfort others?
2. What is found where the Spirit of the Lord is?
3. What is the treasure in clay vessels?
4. What does it mean to be a new creation in Christ?
5. How can you be an ambassador for Christ?

Feel free to share your questions and comments.

Day 27: 1 Corinthians 10-15

Here are some questions to consider as you listen to today's text.

1. What is the problem with food offered to idols?
2. What are the limits of Christian freedom?
3. Why does Paul say that the meal that is shared is not the "Lord's Supper"?
4. List several spiritual gifts. Which is the greatest?
5. Why is it important for each person to use his or her gifts?

Feel free to share your questions and comments.

Day 26: 1 Corinthians 2-9

Here are some questions to consider as you listen to today's text.

1. What is the relationship of Paul and Apollos to the Corinthians?
2. Why does Paul consider himself a fool for Christ?
3. What errors does Paul find in the behavior of the Corinthians?
4. Why are we not "our own"?
5. Why does Paul recommend that people remain in their current status?

Feel free to share your questions and comments.

Day 25: Romans 11 - 1 Corinthians 1

Here are some questions to consider as you listen to today's text.

1. How can you be a living sacrifice?
2. Why are we to be subject to governing authorities?
3. What is to be the relationship of our behavior to that of other believers?
4. Of what is Paul willing to boast regarding his work?
5. How is the message of the cross received?

Please feel free to share a comment or question on today's text.

Chapter 18: Love - How to Really Love Other People

Mark here. Thought I would start this discussion of Miller's thoughts on loving other people with the passage from 1 Corinthians 13 that Miller talks about at the end of chapter 18. I am going to share from The Message, a contemporary restating of the Bible.

If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumpts, but I don't have love, I'm nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.

After reading this chapter of Miller's book, my attention was grabbed by that last stament - "I'm bankrupt without love." Miller talks about the realization that Christian culture often thinks of love as a commodity, withholding it from those who do not agree with us but lavishing it on those who do. Do you agree with his assessment? How have you experienced this, or is there an occasion where you yourself have used love in this fashion?

Jesus calls us to love our enemies (Matthew 5:43-44). Miller describes this as pouring love lavishly on those who we see as adversaries rather than withholding love until they change. By doing this, he says that love pulls people "... from the mire and toward healing." Can you do this? How "practical" does this seem to you or to our culture? What in our mindset do we need to change to be able to love our enemies?

Miller talked about being more able to be himself around "the hippies" than around Christians. Can you relate to this struggle? What role does love play in this struggle?

Miller struggled with how to love those who he felt were betraying God without encouraging to live apart from God. His peace came with this realization: "I loved the fact that it wasn't my responsibility to change somebody, that it was God's, that my part was just to communicate love and approval." Is this what we mean by "sharing God's love"? Should this be what we mean?