“Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

Article for February 1, 2026

Micah 6:8 8He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

God has told us through His word what is good and right and bad and wrong.  Yet the world wants and thinks it has the right to choose for themselves what is right and what is wrong.  And the people who believe, or say they believe, step aside many times and let the world rule.  Our world has turned the tables and made right wrong and wrong right.

God, who is the creator, created all things and He also created the rules we should abide by to give us peaceable lives under the care of our God.  Truthfully, we cannot really know what actions occurred when God spoke and it was created because we were not there to witness the beginning.  God creates life and sustains life on this world to be a continued life in heaven. 

God created the means to transfer us to heaven through resurrection as Jesus himself followed this decree of the Father.  Jesus is the way, but many want it their way rather than to follow God’s set way.  There are those who feel that they can control God.  They do not worry about the rude awakening they have forced upon themselves, and truthfully there will be grinding and gnashing of teeth when they do realize their mistake.

1 Corinthians 1:21 21For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.

Sometimes or maybe most of the time we spend too much time analyzing everything around us.  Misguided wisdom is not wisdom at all.  We have a hard time with faith because we want visible proofs that there is a God that we cannot see.  Missouri is known to be the show me state.  The apostle Thomas wouldn’t believe Jesus had risen from the dead unless he saw the wounds of Jesus. 

Faith is part of the wisdom of God as it hides from those who put their faith in the world rather than in God.  The problem with the worldly ways is that the world will lead us away from salvation.  The world wants peace, but it thinks to ascertain peace one should except everything bad and give up everything good. 

The word of God is the wisdom of God and the folly to those who seek other answers that do not truly exist or are misleading.  I read and follow space science.  Space science says what it thinks it knows about our universe and how planets are formed.  Then they find something different than their theories that contradicts all they thought they knew.  It happens almost daily. 

News media tells us what it thinks they know and then is forced to retract or hide the truth when the truth upends their narrative.  And politicians try to tell us what we think, and I laugh because they don’t have a clue or all the pieces to the puzzle of the masses. But then again neither do we.

We cannot explain God through our wisdom or even fathom God in our wildest imagination, so what makes us think we can control God?  People in our world are emus and ostriches; they bury their head in the sand in hopes of hiding their ignorance.  We hope by ignoring life that it passes us by and we won’t have to deal with the worldly ways.  These same people hope that you too have buried your head in the same sand they do so they can get away with their mis-directives. 

The day of the peasant is long gone, most have taken their heads, emptying the sand from them and filling their heads with knowledge.  Unfortunately, some of the knowledge we have gained is tainted with bad information. However, godly discernment may help us if we stick to God’s word.  The word is the truth, and the truth will set us free.

1 Corinthians 1:26 26For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.

I can relate to this, for I know and I am not ashamed to confess I’m not the brightest apple on the tree.  God does not look for the best, smartest, strongest, and the most dynamic to spread His word.  God chooses not from the definition of the world but from the wisdom of He has which says the who, what, and where.  Look at all those God chose to rule, to prophesy, to lead, and to be apostles.

God chooses those who will spread and preach His word through word and action.  We are a small church, but God has chosen us to minister to our small community.  Not that our light shines but that God’s light shine through us.  We continue to learn God’s word and we continue to preach in action.  And we need to constantly give the glory to God who works through us.

1 Corinthians 1:28–29 28God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.

We might not be a church chosen by the important people in our community.  That is ok, let us be steadfast in the faith awarded to us from God.  It is not that we should be the largest church in Rochester.  That is ok, let us be steadfast in the faith awarded to us from God.  It’s not that we should boast of ourselves for we have been kept humble.  That is ok, let us be steadfast in the faith awarded to us from God. 

1 Corinthians 1:30–31 30He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom and our righteousness and sanctification and redemption. 31Therefore, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

We have much to boast in the Lord our God for it is He that created life.  We boast in our God for He gave us salvation through His Only Son whom He allowed to die for our sins.  We boast in our God for He also resurrected His Son for us to know that we too will see our own resurrection as it is God who resurrects us.  We boast in our God because He loves us not because of what we do, or who we are, but because He created us to be His forever in eternity.

Matthew 5:11–12 11“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

      Remember, it is Jesus Christ who allowed Himself to be crucified for our sins.  Jesus chose for the sake of the Father to save as much of His creation; those who believe and put their faith in God.  If you think you are worthy you are not, and you think you are righteous you are not.  For we are only justified and made righteous through Christ.  So, we are only redeemed through the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ.  We are only sanctified through the Holy Spirit.  Amen.