Paul had specific calling for His life.  You, also, have both a general and a specific calling for your life.  You will be most completely yourself when you live into that calling.  Know that it is God who will strengthen you to do it.

1 Corinthians is just as relevant today as the day in which was written.  What is the background of the book?  When and why was it written?  What does it say to us today?  Let's take a look.

As we financially partner together in the spread of the Gospel, God supplies our need. There is a very rich promise linked to previous action in v. 19.

Can we learn contentment in this life?  What about being content when life throws hard things at us?  Paul tells his readers that he learned the secret of contentment.  Let's learn that secret, too!

The apostle Paul was well qualified to address the fact that life has troubles that bring anxiety.  So, when he provides his instruction, he is not speaking as a theoretician, he is speaking from vast personal experience.  God provides a pathway from anxiety to peace in perplexing times. 

Jesus & Paul both put a premium on right relationships among believers.  Sometimes we have to do the hard work of trying to make things right between ourselves and other people.  Remember that the Lord says when we humble ourselves, He will lift us up.  All of this for the sake of the Gospel. 

We can live energetically for Christ today with the prospect of the future hope that tomorrow holds.

Christ can be so much more to us that simply religion.  He is meant to be life...our passion, our pleasure, our pursuit and our power.  Where do you stand in relationship to Christ today?

There are so many things which people can point to which they equate with being a good Christian.  Are they the same things Paul points to?  How does our own self-righteous flesh get in the way of all we are meant to be in Christ?  Christ alone is our confidence.

With Christ as our example and the Holy Spirit as our aid, we should now shine like stars in this world, holding out the Word of Life in our own generation.