The town was exceedingly cultured and every four years they held the Isthmus games.  The greatest prize was for rhetoric, not running and every four the came early to practice. These speakers were always young, handsome well-dressed, highly educated males.   In those times they were like film stars league stars rolled into one and they could really wow the crowd. Many of them were trained in Alexandria University of rhetoric.  So to this town Paul comes probably during the time of the games when hundreds of thousands of people dwelt in tents. Paul was a tent maker who along with Apollo gained some converts and gathered them together as a church. Of course just like all other Corinthians, they were divided and contentious having their own favorite speakers and comparing Paul and Apollo’s as preachers.  Paul says everything about what you think is wrong.   Paul says it pleases God that through the foolish message of the cross to save people and the message was foolish to the Greeks and the Romans. Roman gods were powerful vindictive and larger-than-life. The idea of a god that could be crucified was ridiculous and actually scandalous. The Romans at time never talked about crucifixion.  It was the worst taboo subject and they never wished that on the worst enemy as it was not about pain but about shame. Paul said it was a miracle you believed the gospel.  It was a ridiculous message to you; I was a ridiculous speaker to you, so it is a proof of Gods power at work!

Friend it was the power of God that saved them and it is the power of God that still saves us.

The advert for Wendy’s fast food store, says “if you come here hungry and thirsty you will always leave satisfied. ‘God has made us in a way that desires satisfaction. If we are hungry we are motivated to get satisfied.  If you are thirsty, you do what it takes to get a drink.   Imagine if you never felt hungry, so you never ate.  One day you just be too tired to get food or if you had to set phone reminders every four hours to remind you to eat.  We know this is true and not just about food. Righteousness is doing the right things, being right and doing right. If we do a job and do it right, we are satisfied.  We want to play well in the game in the weekend and when we do we are happy we are satisfied.   To a degree we can do all the above in every area of our natural life we are satisfied to a degree and for a while but we get thirsty again. The woman at Samaria had a husband but he only lasted two years so she had to find another husband.   She came to get drink but it only lasted a day. She had to come again to the well. So she was interested when Jesus said ‘if you drink the water I give you, you will never thirst again.  Jesus was not talking about natural thirst but spiritual thirst and spiritual water.  Because God has made man to have hunger and thirst  in their soul, men actually can’t be fully satisfied till  he is filled with what God made him to be filled with,  which is Righteousness. If you have a spiritual hunger and thirst you will be satisfied.  Lucifer was hungry and ambitious for position and power but it never got to be satisfied, even though he had the highest position possible in heaven.  Nebuchadnezzar King to the Babylonian empire, had every possible natural delight, he may have felt he was the coolest but he never was satisfied.

Friend, David worked out how to be really satisfied. Psa 17:15  As for me, I will see Your face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake in Your likeness.  Becoming one with God and like God in character, is the one thing that satisfies. And it is possible though the gift of Jesus to us.

Blind Bart was waiting for had waited a long time for this moment.  When he heard that Jesus was coming by, he lifted his voice above the babble of excitement from the gathered crowd, and shouted “Son of David have mercy on me.”  When Jesus stopped and healed his eyes blind, Bart immediately followed the Lord on the road.  The Son of uncleanness followed the Son of Righteousness.  So when God wants to heal the way we walk, He heals the eyes of our heart. What is important to understand is that the feet represent the condition of the heart in the disciple. The feet only follow our heart.  The Feet only go where heart has already been. So to direct our feet, He heals our heart.    God doesn’t start or finish with rules.  God doesn’t try to change the way we act, He changes our heart. Old Testament Israel, had a change of religion but they never had change of heart, till finally God the Father said “I’m going to show you My heart”. When the saw the heart of Father, revealed by Christ on the cross, their hearts were changed and their lifestyle changed. That is how our hearts are changed; by seeing the heart of God, in Christ.

Friends, God is not seeking to change our behavior but our identity, because a person with a new identity lives a new life.   A person with a new heart can and will change themselves.