What the MZ Generation's Turn to Buddhism is Teaching Us

1 Corinthians 3

Think for a moment about the people who have shaped your faith. Maybe it was a pastor whose sermons opened the Scriptures for you in a way you had never experienced before. Maybe it was a mentor who walked alongside you through a dark season. Maybe it was a teacher, a book, a podcast, or a small group leader. These people matter. Their work is real. Paul never says otherwise. But here is the question chapter 3 is pressing on us: Has the servant become the source? The church at Corinth was fractured along exactly those lines. Some said, "I follow Paul." Others said, "I follow Apollos." They had taken gifted, faithful teachers — and turned them into tribal identities. Their spiritual lives had become organized around human figures rather than around Christ. Paul names the diagnosis bluntly. > "Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly — mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready." — 1 Corinthians 3:1–2, NIV Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2601934/support]

1 Corinthians 2

Daily Meditation | June 4, 2026 1 Corinthians 2:1–16 — Nothing Except Christ Crucified > "For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified." — 1 Corinthians 2:2 (NIV) Paul had just come from Athens. He had stood on the Areopagus, delivered a philosophically sophisticated address, and watched most of his audience walk away (Acts 17:32–34). When he arrived in Corinth, something had crystallized in him. He would not try to out-argue the culture. He would not dazzle them with rhetoric. He came, as he puts it, "in weakness and fear, and with much trembling" (v. 3). That is a startling admission from the greatest Christian theologian who ever lived. But Paul is not apologizing. He is making a theological point that runs straight through the heart of this entire letter. The Foolishness That Is Wisdom Corinth was a city in love with eloquence. Traveling sophists were celebrities. People paid to hear brilliant speeches the way we might pay for a concert. Into that world, Paul walked in with one thing: a crucified Messiah. From the vantage point of Corinth, this was absurd. And yet Paul says:  > "My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God's power" (vv. 4–5). This is not anti-intellectualism. Paul is one of history's most brilliant minds. He is making a point about source and foundation. If the Corinthians came to faith because Paul had out-debated them, their faith would stand on Paul's cleverness. But faith grounded in the Spirit's conviction — faith that has encountered the risen Christ through the proclaimed cross — stands on something no argument can dismantle. John Stott once described this as a triple weakness: a weak message — Christ crucified — proclaimed by weak preachers full of fear and trembling, received by weak hearers, socially despised by the world. And yet through that triple weakness, God demonstrated his almighty power (Stott, as paraphrased in Woodley, Preaching Today, Christianity Today). Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2601934/support]

1 Corinthians 1

Where do you find your significance?  We build our answers so carefully—out of résumés, reputations, academic credentials, and ministry accomplishments. But in his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul lands like a stone in still water, completely flipping the world's value system upside down. Before Paul addresses a single problem in this messy, fractured church, he does something radical: he reminds them of their identity. Because lasting transformation is never driven by shame or fear. It is driven by knowing who you are in Christ. Identity always precedes behavior. In my latest blog post, we dive into 1 Corinthians 1:1–31 to explore the difference between a "try harder" spiritual life and a "trust deeper" faith. Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2601934/support]

The Grace That Reconciles (Genesis 50)

According to Keller, if you ask the average person today why they're skeptical of Christianity, the objection is rarely intellectual. It's seldom "I have trouble believing in miracles." What you're more likely to hear is this: Why did God let this happen to me? If He's good, why did He allow this? In other words, the objections are personal. And the story of Joseph — all the way to its final chapters in Genesis 47 through 50 — tackles those objections head-on. What the narrative of Joseph shows us, again and again, is this: with God, silence is not absence, and hiddenness is not impotence. Often, when things look like they're going the most wrong, God is working the most for our good. That is the claim we're going to examine today. Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2601934/support]

Understanding the Times

> Of Issachar, men who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do, 200 chiefs, and all their kinsmen under their command. (1 Chronicles 12:32, English Standard Version [ESV]). 1 Chronicles 12 records a moment of massive national transition. Following the crisis and power vacuum left by King Saul's death, the fractured tribes of Israel unified at Hebron to crown David as their new king. Among the twelve tribes, one group stood apart — not for their military strength or their numbers, but for something rarer: wisdom. The sons of Issachar were men "who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do" (1 Chronicles 12:32, ESV). In a moment of national transition, their clarity was a gift to an entire nation. We live in such a moment. The world's financial architecture is undergoing changes more profound than most people realize, and the people of God are not exempt from the need to understand them. This is not a call to anxiety. It is a call to wisdom. Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2601934/support]