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Future Website Move 3/9/2008 8:25:18 AM
I thought I'd let y'all know that I've been in the long process of yet another shovel web site change ... the biggest change yet. Because of a few important factors and changes in the current web application I've had to continually modify to make theshovel.net work I decided to pursue another course. I have already set up the framework for the new site in another location and am now copying and pasting everything from the current site over. It's long and tedious, but still enjoyable in a geeky sort of way.
It's also putting those old articles in my face as I categorize, copy and paste. There are numerous articles I will highlight here that I think will be beneficial.
Jim (aka the shovel)
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1 Corinthians Overview: Division 1/12/2008 8:02:49 AM
Divisions: in reference to "planting and watering"
Now other than the one verse where he included the names of Cephas and Christ (1:12), Paul figuratively applied what he wrote to himself and Apollos. His stated purpose was: "so that IN US you may learn not to exceed what is written, so that no one of you will become arrogant in behalf of one against the other." His approach thwarted any opportunist in the group by giving him no place to conveniently launch into his own agenda.
I suspect that numerous among the Corinthians impatiently waited for that right moment - just the mention of a name - only to realize that the opportunity passed them by. Some had schemed to go beyond ("exceed") what Paul had written in order to use it as a promotion of one above another, but Paul nipped that in the bud by writing as if it was all about himself and Apollos. Of course, there was far more to it than just silencing the opportunists. Paul used the conflict among them to highlight the night and day distinction between that which is of God and that which is of flesh, that which is permanent and that which is temporal.
While it is true that many of them had believed through Paul and then later continued to learn through Apollos in his absence, Paul was using Apollos and himself to comment on the current trend of competition for importance and authority among the community of believers.
For when one says, "I am of Paul," and another, "I am of Apollos," are you not mere men? What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one. I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth. Now he who plants and he who waters are one; but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building. According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it. For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
(1 Corinthians 3:4-11)
By figuratively applying these things to himself and Apollos, Paul placed this issue into perspective for the Corinthians. How so? By forcing a square peg in a round hole ... one that so obviously didn't fit. The very idea that Paul or Apollos could have been competitors in Christ was totally absurd. It smacked against everything Paul had ever said and everything they had known him to be. His applied presentation contrasted a hypothetical Paul and Apollos with the men they had known.
But that was not the whole of it, for there was a flip side. You see, the Corinthians would have been mentally filling in the blanks with some very familiar names, which would have resulted in yet another contradiction. Just as the Corinthians would not have been able to picture Paul and Apollos as sect leaders, they most certainly would not have been able to imagine the unnamed rivals as being fellow workers cooperating with one another. Competition between the factions led by these men gave rise to the jealousy and strife that ran rampant throughout the group. Division defined these rivals. Whereas Paul depended upon God to cause the growth, the rivals depended upon man-made divisions, jealousy and strife to strengthen those they led.
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10 Most Recent Q&A 
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Can we know Christ apart from the written word? ( Mar-16-08 )Hi Jim. It's been awhile since I've written. Are you well? It's lunch time and I just read your article, Shadow of Biblical Proportions, and have a question. You wrote about the Law being...
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