You must be in fellowship prior to your Bible study, so that the spiritual information you receive can become a source, of blessing to your soul and produce spiritual growth.
14 But [de] God forbid [me][ginomai] that I [emoi] should glory [kauchaomai],
save [ei me] in [en] the cross [stauros] of our [hemon] Lord [kurios] Jesus [Iesous] Christ [Christos], by [dia] whom [hos] the world [kosmos] is crucified [stauroo] unto
me [emoi], and I [kago] unto the world [kosmos]. KJV-Interlinear
14 But may
it never be that I should boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,
through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. NASB
The simple truth in life is that you do not have anything to boast about, nor do you have anything to elevate or promote yourself in, because there is nothing that you are or have accomplished that was not first placed in your path and life, by God.
Jesus Christ controls history, not you, not anyone.
There are only two mechanisms through which your life can function, the spiritual mechanism or the flesh mechanism.
The spiritual process requires you to forego your fleshy side, by confession of your sins to God the Father, and thus positioning yourself inside the fellowship or spiritual environment, then reading or attending a daily bible study, and then learning that content, and then using it in your life. That is the simple mechanics of the spiritual life.
The fleshy side is simply you pursuing your own life through your own effort or by some predefined ritual, or by indifference, or by rejection of Gods method. In other words, by any means that is not Gods process.
The spiritual process is more than just learning the words. Anyone can read and understand the words. Any unbeliever, even Satan can do that, and it does them no good whatsoever.
The real value in the spiritual process, is the process. The content just helps you to keep your focus, while at the same time, God builds a spiritual structure within your soul. Note, you do nothing, really, except doing your daily study. And God does all of the work.
So, in life some have phenomenal intelligence, phenomenal abilities, phenomenal talents, phenomenal capabilities, phenomenal capacities, and on and on, while most of us have little if any of these things.
Are you better because you have great skin tone, or great talent? No.
Life now may be easier on you, if you have these kinds of advantages, but real life is not in the attributes of this world.
So, boasting of you works, boasting of your accomplishments, boasting of your deeds, boasting of whatever it is that you are proud of, are misplaced boasts, because you did not plan your own birth, you did not design your own genetics, you did not time your life in history at this point in history.
In reality, you did nothing that God did not prearrange first, for you.
There is only one person to whom you owe everything, and that person is Jesus Christ, who executes every detail of Gods divine plan for history, during history, which includes you.
So, given that God has done more for you than you could ever do for yourself, you owe God a hearing and you have a responsibility to God to grow up and learn what He intends for you to learn and what He intends for you to accomplish, through His work. Which, by the way is far more than you could do in a thousand lifetimes.
