Our Faith Stands in the Power of God.

1Co 2:1  And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. 

1Co 2:2  For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. 

1Co 2:3  And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. 

1Co 2:4  And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: 

1Co 2:5  That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. 

Our faith must stand in the power of God.

1Co 1:18  For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. 

The power of God is the preaching of the cross, our faith must stand in the cross, in Jesus Christ and him crucified and nowhere else.

Each day we recognize that the world we live in is far from the world that we long for. As soon as Satan deceived Adam and Eve the glorious, perfect world was gone. They were thrust out of the perfect garden and put into a world that would be harsh. They chose to abandon God, to disobey God, to desire to be something other than created in the image of God, but rather gods themselves. All that was decided when Eve yielded to the temptation and disobeyed the single test that existed for loyalty, for acceptance of being created.

Often we talk about how parents must discipline their children and how God disciplines us, but we don't talk about children wanting to be their own parent too much. Yes, we know of cases where children who are older will sometimes go to court to be emancipated from their parents and take on their own responsibility for their own wellbeing, but this is rather rare in the grand scheme of things. Children will test their parents all the time, driving them to their limits of patience. And sometimes a parent may tell a child - fine, take care of yourself.  No, this analogy isn't perfect by far, but think about it. Created beings knowing they are created, knowing the Creator -NOT abandoned by Him, still decide they don't have everything they need because they aren't gods, they aren't creators themselves, they don't know evil. There is something being kept from them and they have to know what it is. It doesn't matter that they are told it is very harmful to them, they still want to know. A child comprehends they aren't in a position to parent themselves, they can't feed or clothe themselves, they can't put a roof over their own heads- the majority of children could never afford to take care of themselves in that way- they need a caretaker, someone older than them, someone more knowledgeable than they are. Yet, the children of God, albeit, adult children given a wealth of knowledge and ability still determine it is not enough.

Bottom line, every day we wake up to live in a world that is sinful, painful, and not the world we know should be. We live upon this earth as pilgrims, as travelers, as temporary sojourners, because we know there is a much better world for us.  Satan would have us not desire the world to come because he wants each and every one of us to be as Adam and Eve were, and yield to him. Satan doesn't want us preaching SALVATION from this sin-filled world and our sin-nature. Satan would have us preach anything but salvation found in Jesus Christ our Lord. Satan doesn't care a bit if we preach salvation by any other means, he is the master of deception and if he's got a person deceived he could careless how it comes about, through what method.

Paul's entire life after being converted to the truth was spent preaching to other how they too could find salvation in Christ Jesus and Him crucified.

Paul didn't care about how good he could speak, or if he seemed wise, all he cared about was declaring the testimony of God. He was determine to preach nothing else save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.  Paul was weak, Paul had fears, Paul trembled along with all those he was preaching too. He did NOT use words that enticed, that caught the attention of others through worldly wisdom. Paul lived a life that demonstrated the SPIRIT and power-God's power!  Paul taught that NO one should ever have faith in mankind, but their faith had to be in the POWER of GOD alone! Paul didn't want a single person having faith in what they perceived as being Paul's wisdom, according to Paul he had no wisdom, and he didn't want any wisdom of his own. He only wanted the power of God. He wanted God to live in Him, to work in Him, to be His everything!  He longed for any words he spoke to be given the power of GOD so they could be used by GOD to bring others to know His power, to know Christ crucified.

1Co 2:1  And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. 

1Co 2:2  For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. 

1Co 2:3  And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. 

1Co 2:4  And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: 

1Co 2:5  That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. 

Our faith must stand in the power of God.

1Co 1:18  For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.