November 30, 2010 (Colossians)

Jesus is everything to us - or at least He should be.

"For God, in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, and by him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of his blood on the cross. This includes you, who were once so far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions, yet now he has brought you back as his friends. He has done this through his death on the cross in his own human body. As a result, he has brought you into the very presence of God, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault. But you must continue to believe this truth and stand in it firmly."

What an amazing amount of truth in such a little segment. God lived in Christ. Think about that - really think about that statement. The truth of the gospel is contained in that. That is why the death of Christ was so crucial - because God punished Himself - He died to sin so that we could live through Christ. Through Christ, God reconciled everything to Himself. I used to be God's enemy, but now I am His friend. I am holy and blameless without a single fault. He has brought me into His very presence. All of that is proclaimed as truth and as being so. The last line of that paragraph is key - But you must continue to believe this truth and stand in it firmly.

"For this is the secret: Christ lives in you, and this is your assurance that you will share in his glory."

"And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to live in obedience to him. Let your roots grow down into him and draw up mourishment from him, so you will grow in faith, strong and vigorous in the truth you were taught. Let your lives overflow with thanksgiving for all he has done."

And then, the first part of Chapter 3 - again, so rich in truth and in how we are supposed to act:

Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. ² Let heaven fill your thoughts. Do not think only about things down here on earth. ³ For you died when Christ died, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. ⁴ And when Christ, who is your real life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory.

⁵ So put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you. Have nothing to do with sexual sin, impurity, lust, and shameful desires. Don’t be greedy for the good things of this life, for that is idolatry. ⁶ Because of these sins, the anger of God is coming. ⁷ You used to do these things when your life was still part of this world. ⁸ But now is the time to get rid of anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language. ⁹ Don’t lie to each other, for you have stripped off your old sinful nature and all its wicked deeds. ¹⁰ In its place you have clothed yourselves with a brand-new nature that is continually being renewed as you learn more and more about Christ, who created this new nature within you. ¹¹ In this new life, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave, or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us.

¹² Since God chose you to be the holy people whom he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. ¹³ Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. ¹⁴ Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony. ¹⁵ And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful.

¹⁶ Let the words of Christ, in all their richness, live in your hearts and make you wise. Use his words to teach and counsel each other. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts. ¹⁷ And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father.

November 28, 2010 (Acts 20-28)

I haven't been very faithful about blogging. So pretty much all of Romans is unrecorded. I guess I just start again today. Pretty much this short blog will be based on Chapter 20:

²⁴ But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God.

Do I feel that way? Is my life worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned to me? Is the problem that I'm not sure what my assignment is? I guess all of us have the assignment of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God.

Paul had a profound dependance upon God as evidenced by this next verse:

³² “And now I entrust you to God and the message of his grace that is able to build you up and give you an inheritance with all those he has set apart for himself.

That's pretty much all that any of us can do with the events/people in our lives - entrust them to God and the message of His grace. God help us to do just that.

November 21, 2010 (Romans 1-2)

Paul makes the gospel message pretty clear as he starts off the book of Romans. Jesus was born as a man, but was shown to be the Son of God when God raised Him from the dead. Simple message, really:

^1:3 The Good News is about his Son, Jesus, who came as a man, born into King David’s royal family line. ⁴ And Jesus Christ our Lord was shown to be the Son of God when God powerfully raised him from the dead by means of the Holy Spirit. ⁵ Through Christ, God has given us the privilege and authority to tell Gentiles everywhere what God has done for them, so that they will believe and obey him, bringing glory to his name.

We are to tell - the Holy Spirit is to convict - and we (and they) are to believe and obey, thereby bringing glory to God's name.

Paul was a prayer warrior. I think that is why he was so greatly used of God. He showed his dependence upon God by his prayers to God. God, please help me to follow his example:

⁸ Let me say first that I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith in him is being talked about all over the world. ⁹ God knows how often I pray for you. Day and night I bring you and your needs in prayer to God, whom I serve with all my heart by spreading the Good News about his Son.

And it wasn't all about him. Yes, he wanted to see the others to encourage them, but he also wanted to be encouraged by their faith.

¹¹ For I long to visit you so I can bring you some spiritual gift that will help you grow strong in the Lord. ¹² When we get together, I want to encourage you in your faith, but I also want to be encouraged by yours.

Paul was not ashamed of his faith in Christ. He knew that was what would bring salvation. And he reiterates that from start to finish it is accomplished by faith.

¹⁶ For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes—the Jew first and also the Gentile. ¹⁷ This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.”

Paul explains that God has put knowledge of Himself instinctively in people's hearts through creation. But we all have a choice, and some choose this:

²¹ Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. ²² Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. ²³ And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles.

But even for those that are believers, that know Christ, we daily have a choice as to whether we will acknowledge God. When we don't, the following things can creep back into our lives as well:

²⁸ Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. ²⁹ Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. ³⁰ They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. ³¹ They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy. ³² They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too.

And as we just read that list, do we say, "That's not me!?" Paul addresses that as well:

^2:1 You may think you can condemn such people, but you are just as bad, and you have no excuse! When you say they are wicked and should be punished, you are condemning yourself, for you who judge others do these very same things. ² And we know that God, in his justice, will punish anyone who does such things. ³ Since you judge others for doing these things, why do you think you can avoid God’s judgment when you do the same things? ⁴ Don’t you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you? Can’t you see that his kindness is intended to turn you from your sin?

I have seen that over and over in my life. I point out some "sin" of someone else, and then find myself doing the very same thing. Maybe that's why Jesus tells us to get the log out of our own eye and then perhaps we can see the speck in our brother's.

We can't live 'dual lives' before God. He sees everything we do and knows every thought we think.

^2:16 And this is the message I proclaim—that the day is coming when God, through Christ Jesus, will judge everyone’s secret life.

I just keep thinking about the fact that we are to be 'the salt and light' of this world. How are we doing at that? Are we (am I) truly making a difference for Christ? Do I have the boldness of Paul, preaching the 'foolish' message of Jesus? Is my life lived in such a way that it cannot be explained, humanly speaking? Do I realize that I am 'a foreigner and pilgrim' here on earth, looking for 'a heavenly city'?

Jesus, I thank you for your patience with me. I thank you that through your Spirit you are changing me, but I acknowledge how short I fall. Continue to reveal Yourself to me through your word. Continue to 'change the way I think' through your word. Continue to show me I cannot do anything on my own, but it is Your Spirit that gives life and changes life. Make me a woman of prayer and dependence upon You.

November 19-20, 2010 (II Corinthians 1-13)

It is so easy to forgot our true mission - to be the hands and feet of Jesus. And we can only be His hands and feet as we allow Him to live through us. And we must never lose sight of the fact that we are in a spiritual battle, and that the enemy of our soul has blinded the minds of those that don't believe. But Jesus can remove that veil that he has put over their hearts:

^3:14 But the people’s minds were hardened, and to this day whenever the old covenant is being read, the same veil covers their minds so they cannot understand the truth. And this veil can be removed only by believing in Christ.

Paul continues to reiterate it's not about us, it's about Jesus:

^4:5 You see, we don’t go around preaching about ourselves. We preach that Jesus Christ is Lord, and we ourselves are your servants for Jesus’ sake.

And he reminds them and us about how weak we truly are in ourselves:

^4:7 But this precious treasure - this light and power that now shine within us - is held in perishable containers, that is, in our weak bodies. So everyone can see that our glorious power is from God and is not our own.

There is something about suffering that draws us even closer to Christ. We, as a whole, have no idea what it really means to be a Christian compared to Paul and the stand that he took to bring others to Christ:

^{4:8 We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. 9 We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. 10 Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies.}

¹¹ Yes, we live under constant danger of death because we serve Jesus, so that the life of Jesus will be evident in our dying bodies. ¹²So we live in the face of death, but this has resulted in eternal life for you.

¹³ But we continue to preach because we have the same kind of faith the psalmist had when he said, “I believed in God, so I spoke.”¹⁴ We know that God, who raised the Lord Jesus, will also raise us with Jesus and present us to himself together with you. ¹⁵ All of this is for your benefit. And as God’s grace reaches more and more people, there will be great thanksgiving, and God will receive more and more glory.

¹⁶ That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. ¹⁷ For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! ¹⁸ So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.

Paul talks of how those that are in Christ have died to the old life and now live to please Christ. And all of us are 'ambassadors' - God has appointed us to represent Him to a lost and dying world:

^5:18 All this newness of life is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through what Christ did. And God has given us the task of reconciling people to him. ¹⁹ For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. This is the wonderful message he has given us to tell others. ²⁰ We are Christ’s ambassadors, and God is using us to speak to you. We his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” ²¹ For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.

And now for principles in giving:

9:6-8 Remember this—a farmer who plants only a few seeds will get a small crop. But the one who plants generously will get a generous crop. ⁷ You must each decide in your heart how much to give. And don’t give reluctantly or in response to pressure. “For God loves a person who gives cheerfully.” ⁸ And God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others.

Paul's conclusion:

^13:11 Dear brothers and sisters, I close my letter with these last words: Be joyful. Grow to maturity. Encourage each other. Live in harmony and peace. Then the God of love and peace will be with you.

Good words for us all.

November 18, 2010 (I Corinthians 12-16)

Today's reading encompassed the "love chapter" - Chapter 13. Today's blog will be 'short and sweet'. I'm getting ready to walk the dog, and as I do I'll work on memorizing verses 4-7.

1 Corinthians 13

¹ If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. ³ If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.

⁴ Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud ⁵ or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. ⁶ It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. ⁷ Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

And then, a verse that every Christian worker needs to commit to memory:

^15:58 So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and steady, always enthusiastic about the Lord's work, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.

November 17, 2010 (I Corinthians 5-11)

Paul is talking about sin in the church - primarily sexual sin. Hard stuff - how do you expel a Christian from the church because of sexual sin? I guess you are supposed to:

^5:1 I can hardly believe the report about the sexual immorality going on among you—something that even pagans don’t do. I am told that a man in your church is living in sin with his stepmother. ² You are so proud of yourselves, but you should be mourning in sorrow and shame. And you should remove this man from your fellowship.

³ Even though I am not with you in person, I am with you in the Spirit. And as though I were there, I have already passed judgment on this man ⁴ in the name of the Lord Jesus. You must call a meeting of the church. I will be present with you in spirit, and so will the power of our Lord Jesus. ⁵ Then you must throw this man out and hand him over to Satan so that his sinful nature will be destroyed and he himself will be saved on the day the Lord returns.

⁶ How terrible that you should boast about your spirituality, and yet you liet this sort of thing go on. Don’t you realize that if one person is allowed to go on sinning, soon all will be affected? ⁷ Remove this wicked person from among you so that you can stay pure. Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed for us. ⁸ So let us celebrate the festival, not by eating the old bread of wickedness and evil, but by eating the new bread of purity and truth.

And then here is Paul's warning against sexual sin:

^6:12 You say, “I am allowed to do anything”—but not everything is good for you. And even though “I am allowed to do anything,” I must not become a slave to anything. ¹³ You say, “Food was made for the stomach, and the stomach for food.” (This is true, though someday God will do away with both of them.) But you can’t say that our bodies were made for sexual immorality. They were made for the Lord, and the Lord cares about our bodies. ¹⁴ And God will raise us from the dead by his power, just as he raised our Lord from the dead.

¹⁵ Don’t you realize that your bodies are actually parts of Christ? Should a man take his body, which is part of Christ, and join it to a prostitute? Never! ¹⁶ And don’t you realize that if a man joins himself to a prostitute, he becomes one body with her? For the Scriptures say, “The two are united into one.” ¹⁷ But the person who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him.

¹⁸ Run from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body. ¹⁹Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, ²⁰ for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.

But in that section, I also get more out of it than just the sexual sin part. Our bodies belong to God and He cares about how we take care of them. I can see in the passage above that it is easy to become 'a slave to food', and that is not good. I also know that I need to be more disciplined in taking care of my body by exercising. This is such a struggle for me. God, please help me!

There's one little verse again about the world:

^7:23 God purchased you at a high price, so don’t be enslaved by the world.

And now a section for me, little miss know it all:

^8:1 Now let's talk about food that has been sacrificed to idols. You think that everyone should agree with your perfect knowledge. While knowledge may make us feel important, it is love that really builds up the church. ² Anyone who claims to know all the answers doesn’t really know very much. ³ But the person who loves God is the one God knows and cares for.

Discipline - in all areas. If we could only think of this life down here on earth for what it really is - a race to earn an eternal prize.

^9:24 Don’t you realize that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize? So run to win! ²⁵ All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize. ²⁶ So I run with purpose in every step. I am not just shadowboxing. ²⁷ I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified.

God, help us to run the race with endurance - looking to You for daily strength.

November 16, 2010 (Acts 18-19, I Corinthians 1-4)

Things haven't changed much. Back in the early church a lot of the persecution came because of business, and because of how Christianity would affect those businesses. I don't think I ever really thought of it before that 'clearly'. Here's the passage from Acts:

^{Acts 19:23} About that time, serious trouble developed in Ephesus concerning the Way. ²⁴ It began with Demetrius, a silversmith who had a large business manufacturing silver shrines of the Greek goddess Artemis. He kept many craftsmen busy. ²⁵ He called them together, along with others employed in similar trades, and addressed them as follows:

“Gentlemen, you know that our wealth comes from this business. ²⁶ But as you have seen and heard, this man Paul has persuaded many people that handmade gods aren’t really gods at all. And he’s done this not only here in Ephesus but throughout the entire province! ²⁷ Of course, I’m not just talking about the loss of public respect for our business. I’m also concerned that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will lose its influence and that Artemis—this magnificent goddess worshiped throughout the province of Asia and all around the world—will be robbed of her great prestige!"

What about today? What businesses would be affected if people were Christians? A lot of "new age" authors would be out of business; pornography publications/internet sites would be out of business (and I say that only if Christians were walking as they should - I once heard a statistic that when Christian conferences came into towns, the hotels made more money on their x-rated movie channel than at any other time); etc. As I was trying to think of other areas, it was actually hard. I think we Christians have so become like 'the world' that we aren't making that big of an impact by living any differently. The early church had a very powerful effect on the culture as explained in this passage:

^{Acts 19:17} A solemn fear descended on the city, and the name of the Lord Jesus was greatly honored. ¹⁸ Many who became believers confessed their sinful practices. ¹⁹ A number of them who had been practicing sorcery brought their incantation books and burned them at a public bonfire. The value of the books was several million dollars. ²⁰ So the message about the Lord spread widely and had a powerful effect.

And now we come to Corinthians. Paul's goal was to focus on Jesus and on Jesus alone. And he tells them that human wisdom will never bring us to Christ, but only follow the cross of Christ can do that.

^{I Corinthians 1:24} But to those called by God to salvation, both Jews and Gentiles, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.²⁵ This foolish plan of God is wiser than the wisest of human plans, and God’s weakness is stronger than the greatest of human strength.

²⁶ Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that few of you were wise in the world’s eyes or powerful or wealthy when God called you. ²⁷ Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful. ²⁸ God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important. ²⁹ As a result, no one can ever boast in the presence of God.

³⁰ God has united you with Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God; he made us pure and holy, and he freed us from sin. ³¹ Therefore, as the Scriptures say, “If you want to boast, boast only about the Lord.”

^2:1 When I first came to you, dear brothers and sisters, I didn’t use lofty words and brilliant ideas to tell you God’s secret plan. ²For I decided to concentrate only on Jesus Christ and his death on the cross. ³ I came to you in weakness—timid and trembling. ⁴ And my message and my preaching were very plain. Rather than using clever and persuasive speeches, I relied only on the power of the Holy Spirit. ⁵ I did this so you would trust not in human wisdom but in the power of God.

May our message be just as simple.

November 15, 2010 (Acts 17, I & II Thessalonians)

Several things jumped out at me again today. Several times Paul talked about the return of Christ. And it seems as if "the continual anticipation of the return of our Lord Jesus Christ" is what prompted them to "their faithful work and loving deeds". And again he reiterated that "Our purpose is to please God, not people. He is the one who examines the motives of our hearts".

Jesus told us that the world would know us by our love. And it seems as if Paul is emphasizing that as well:

^{I Thessalonians 3:12-13} And may the Lord make your love for one another and for all people grow and overflow, just as our love for you overflows. ¹³ May he, as a result, make your hearts strong, blameless, and holy as you stand before God our Father when our Lord Jesus comes again with all his holy people. Amen.

^{II Thessalonians 3:5} May the Lord lead your hearts into a full understanding and expression of the love of God and the patient endurance that comes from Christ.

What is God's will for us?

^{I Thessalonians 5:16} Always be joyful. ¹⁷ Never stop praying. ¹⁸ Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.

In each book Paul stresses the faithfulness of God:

I Thessalonians 5:²³ Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again. ²⁴ God will make this happen, for he who calls you is faithful.

^{II Thessalonians 2:3} But the Lord is faithful; he will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one.

And in each book, he asks them to pray for him.

I Thessalonians 5:²⁵ Dear brothers and sisters, pray for us.

II Thessalonians 3:1-2 ¹ Finally, dear brothers and sisters, we ask you to pray for us. Pray that the Lord’s message will spread rapidly and be honored wherever it goes, just as when it came to you. ² Pray, too, that we will be rescued from wicked and evil people, for not everyone is a believer.

Even Paul, the one specially called and anointed by God, was asking for people to pray for him. We all need the prayers of one another. Heavenly Father, may the Holy Spirit continually guide us to pray for each other.

November 14, 2010 (Galations 1-6)

I've only read the first chapter at this point, and have to blog about this before I go any farther. Verses 3-5 sum up the Christian faith in a nutshell:

³ May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace. ⁴ Jesus gave his life for our sins, just as God our Father planned, in order to rescue us from this evil world in which we live. ⁵ All glory to God forever and ever! Amen

And then Paul goes on to berate them from turning away from the simple message of salvation:

⁶ I am shocked that you are turning away so soon from God, who called you to himself through the loving mercy of Christ. You are following a different way that pretends to be the Good News ⁷ but is not the Good News at all. You are being fooled by those who deliberately twist the truth concerning Christ.

And he tells them that he can't please both God and people:

¹⁰ Obviously, I’m not trying to win the approval of people, but of God. If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ’s servant.

Next he explains how he learned the message he now preaches. That it came from a direct revelation of Jesus Christ. And in reality, we too, when we come to know Christ, have a direct revelation from Him. The Holy Spirit enlightens us, and reveals Jesus to us, and draws us to Him. This next section reminded me of when I was saved:

¹⁵ But then something happened! For it pleased God in his kindness to choose me and call me, even before I was born! What undeserved mercy! ¹⁶ Then he revealed his Son to me so that I could proclaim the Good News about Jesus to the Gentiles.

Something happened to me! My life was changed by Jesus being revealed to me.

And now, chapters 2-6. This is difficult to write about, or to truly understand, because I fear I have fallen into the 'trap' the early Christians did. The 'law', God's word, was written to bring us to Christ, and we are not perfected by the law, but by the Spirit. The following passage shows how Paul explained it to those 'steeped' in the Jewish religion.

²¹ Tell me, you who want to live under the law, do you know what the law actually says? ²² The Scriptures say that Abraham had two sons, one from his slave wife and one from his freeborn wife. ²³ The son of the slave wife was born in a human attempt to bring about the fulfillment of God’s promise. But the son of the freeborn wife was born as God’s own fulfillment of his promise.

²⁴ These two women serve as an illustration of God’s two covenants. The first woman, Hagar, represents Mount Sinai where people received the law that enslaved them. ²⁵ And now Jerusalem is just like Mount Sinai in Arabia, because she and her children live in slavery to the law. ²⁶ But the other woman, Sarah, represents the heavenly Jerusalem. She is the free woman, and she is our mother. ²⁷As Isaiah said,

“Rejoice, O childless woman,
you who have never given birth!
Break into a joyful shout,
you who have never been in labor!
For the desolate woman now has more children
than the woman who lives with her husband!”

²⁸ And you, dear brothers and sisters, are children of the promise, just like Isaac. ²⁹ But you are now being persecuted by those who want you to keep the law, just as Ishmael, the child born by human effort, persecuted Isaac, the child born by the power of the Spirit.

³⁰ But what do the Scriptures say about that? “Get rid of the slave and her son, for the son of the slave woman will not share the inheritance with the free woman’s son.” ³¹ So, dear brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman; we are children of the free woman.

Galatians 5

Freedom in Christ

¹ So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law.

² Listen! I, Paul, tell you this: If you are counting on circumcision to make you right with God, then Christ will be of no benefit to you. ³I’ll say it again. If you are trying to find favor with God by being circumcised, you must obey every regulation in the whole law of Moses.⁴ For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace.

⁵ But we who live by the Spirit eagerly wait to receive by faith the righteousness God has promised to us. ⁶ For when we place our faith in Christ Jesus, there is no benefit in being circumcised or being uncircumcised. What is important is faith expressing itself in love.

The following verses in chapter 5 show the difference between following the desires of our sinful nature and following the desires of the Holy Spirit:

¹⁶ So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. ¹⁷ The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions. ¹⁸ But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses.

¹⁹ When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, ²⁰ idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, ²¹ envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

²² But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!

²⁴ Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. ²⁵Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives. ²⁶ Let us not become conceited, or provoke one another, or be jealous of one another.

And then Paul sums it all up at the end of the book in chapter 6. So much in this one little book to digest. God, please help us to live by Your Spirit instead of our flesh.

¹⁴ As for me, may I never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of that cross, my interest in this world died long ago, and the world’s interest in me is also long dead. ¹⁵ It doesn’t make any difference now whether we have been circumcised or not. What counts is whether we really have been changed into new and different people. ¹⁶ May God’s peace and mercy be upon all who live by this principle; they are the new people of God.

November 13, 2010 (James 1-5, Acts 15-16)

Wow, now we're getting into the books where there is so much to blog about I'll just have to pick a few things. I have to trust God when He says His word will not return void. I continue to read it, hoping it will continue to infuse my life and "change the way I think". Here's just one little section in James that is packed full of truth:

^1:19 Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry.²⁰ Human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires. ²¹ So get rid of all the filth and evil in your lives, and humbly accept the word God has planted in your hearts, for it has the power to save your souls.

²² But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. ²³ For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. ²⁴ You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. ²⁵ But if you keep looking steadily into God's perfect law - the law that sets you free- and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.

²⁶ If you claim to be religious but don’t control your tongue, you are fooling yourself, and your religion is worthless. ²⁷Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.

Just that one verse that I've bolded - if all of us could just do that one little verse, just do the things we know to do, the 'church' and the 'world' would be a different place.

And the last verse - another one that brings to mind all the families in our church that are adopting orphans - that is pure and lasting religion in God's sight. Maybe we can't all adopt (or can we?), but we can all refuse to allow the world to corrupt us.

And now, for a long section - so very convicting on all levels.

James 4

Drawing Close to God

¹ What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you? ² You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. ³ And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure.

⁴ You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God. ⁵ What do you think the Scriptures mean when they say that the spirit God has placed within us is filled with envy? ⁶ But he gives us even more grace to stand against such evil desires. As the Scriptures say,

“God opposes the proud
but favors the humble.”

⁷ So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ⁸ Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world. ⁹ Let there be tears for what you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy. ¹⁰ Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor.

Warning against Judging Others

¹¹ Don’t speak evil against each other, dear brothers and sisters. If you criticize and judge each other, then you are criticizing and judging God’s law. But your job is to obey the law, not to judge whether it applies to you. ¹² God alone, who gave the law, is the Judge. He alone has the power to save or to destroy. So what right do you have to judge your neighbor?

November 12, 2010 (Acts 11-14)

Do we really believe God's hears our prayers? I think we probably don't, otherwise we would spend more time in prayer to Him. That is shown in the story in Acts 12. Peter was imprisoned and verse 5 says "But while Peter was in prison, the church prayed very earnestly for him." Long story short, an angel came and miraculously freed Peter from prison:

6 The night before Peter was to be placed on trial, he was asleep, fastened with two chains between two soldiers. Others stood guard at the prison gate. 7 Suddenly, there was a bright light in the cell, and an angel of the Lord stood before Peter. The angel struck him on the side to awaken him and said, “Quick! Get up!” And the chains fell off his wrists. 8 Then the angel told him, “Get dressed and put on your sandals.” And he did. “Now put on your coat and follow me,” the angel ordered.
9 So Peter left the cell, following the angel. But all the time he thought it was a vision. He didn’t realize it was actually happening. 10 They passed the first and second guard posts and came to the iron gate leading to the city, and this opened for them all by itself. So they passed through and started walking down the street, and then the angel suddenly left him.

As a side note, I believe the Bible - in it's entirety. God can do anything at all. He can make a locked gate swing open, and then go back to a locked state. He can feed 5,000 people with just a few fish and a few loaves of bread. He can sustain His people in the wilderness for 40 years, showing grace to a disobedient people. Why do we not trust Him? Why are we so foolish? God help us to live as children that believe in a miracle working God.

So, back to the part about them not believing that God heard their prayers. When Peter arrived at the very place where they were praying for him, here's what happened:

¹³ He knocked at the door in the gate, and a servant girl named Rhoda came to open it. ¹⁴ When she recognized Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed that, instead of opening the door, she ran back inside and told everyone, “Peter is standing at the door!”

¹⁵ “You’re out of your mind!” they said. When she insisted, they decided, “It must be his angel.”

¹⁶ Meanwhile, Peter continued knocking. When they finally opened the door and saw him, they were amazed.

I fear we do the same. We pray, not expecting an answer from God. I'm thankful He answers in spite of our unbelief, but I have to wonder what we would see if we would truly believe.

The message that Paul gave in Acts 13 is pretty much the same message that Peter gave. He recounted the history of Israel and the prophecies and then told them of Jesus. Again, the message is the same today:

^13:38 “Brothers, listen! We are here to proclaim that through this man Jesus there is forgiveness for your sins. ³⁹ Everyone who believes in him is declared right with God—something the law of Moses could never do.

And as Paul and Barnabas left they said these pertinent words "By God's grace, remain faithful."

The following verse was the "life verse" of the Adopt a Soldier program several months into the program:

^14:23 Paul and Barnabas also appointed elders in every church and prayed for them with fasting, turning them over to the care of the Lord, in whom they had put their trust.

After the horrific day when eight soldiers from the Unit we supported were killed in an attack, we began meeting weekly to fast and pray, turning them over to the care of the Lord. What if we would have believed from the outset that our prayers would make a difference? What if the entire church would have supported these efforts in prayer? What if we would have met weekly right from the very beginning? I guess we won't know this side of eternity, but God continues to work on my heart - challenging me to a deeper walk with Him. God help me, by the power of Your Spirit to follow where You lead.

November 11, 2010 (Acts 1-10)

I love the book of Acts. It talks of how the early church was formed, as well as describes the boldness of the disciples. Chapter 2 is Peter and the apostles addressing the crowd after the Holy Spirit came and allowed all the different nationalities of people to hear the apostles speak in their native languages. The scoffers said they were drunk, so Peter addressed the crowd. The first 'funny' thing to me was that he said, "It's much too early for that. People don't get drunk by nine o'clock in the morning." So I'm glad that happened in the morning - otherwise, if it would have happened in the evening, there would have not been such a convincing rebuttal for being drunk. But the main thing I got out of this section was that during his explanation of what happened, he referenced scripture and prophecy three times. He also minced no words as shown below in his closing statement. Nothing like pointing the finger at them!

³⁶ “So let everyone in Israel know for certain that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, to be both Lord and Messiah!”

Peter's words convicted them, and they asked, "What should we do?" - And Peter's answer would have been the same today:

³⁸ Peter replied, “Each of you must turn from your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. ³⁹ This promise is to you, and to your children, and even to the Gentiles—all who have been called by the Lord our God.” ⁴⁰ Then Peter continued preaching for a long time, strongly urging all his listeners, “Save yourselves from this generation that has gone astray!”

And what was the result? An astounding amount of new believers who were devoted.

⁴¹ Those who believed what Peter said were baptized and added to the church that day—about 3,000 in all.

⁴² All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer.

Then Peter healed a man who was lame from birth. And as the people stood there in awe of what had just happened, I loved Peter's response:

¹² Peter saw his opportunity and addressed the crowd. “People of Israel,” he said, “what is so surprising about this? And why stare at us as though we had made this man walk by our own power or godliness? ¹³ For it is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—the God of all our ancestors—who has brought glory to his servant Jesus by doing this. This is the same Jesus whom you handed over and rejected before Pilate, despite Pilate’s decision to release him. ¹⁴ You rejected this holy, righteous one and instead demanded the release of a murderer. ¹⁵ You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. And we are witnesses of this fact!

¹⁶ “Through faith in the name of Jesus, this man was healed—and you know how crippled he was before. Faith in Jesus’ name has healed him before your very eyes.

I'll end with one of my favorite passages in the Bible:

^4:13 The members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, for they could see that they were ordinary men with no special training in the Scriptures. They also recognized them as men who had been with Jesus.

I'd love to be recognized as a woman who has been with Jesus.

November 10, 2010 (Mark 15-16, Matthew 27-28, Luke 22-24, John 18-21)

Today's reading was the crucifixion, burial and ressurection of Jesus. I saw a few things I had never seen/thought of before.

Some things never change - some people are convinced more by money, than by truth. The guards placed outside the tomb witnessed the angel rolling away the stone, and reported it to the officials. I have to imagine they were overwhelmed by what they had seen. But, they were convinced by a bribe of money to lie. Human nature has not changed. Bribes worked back then, they still work now.

^{Matthew 28:11} As the women were on their way, some of the guards went into the city and told the leading priests what had happened. ¹² A meeting with the elders was called, and they decided to give the soldiers a large bribe. ¹³ They told the soldiers, “You must say, ‘Jesus’ disciples came during the night while we were sleeping, and they stole his body.’¹⁴ If the governor hears about it, we’ll stand up for you so you won’t get in trouble.” ¹⁵So the guards accepted the bribe and said what they were told to say. Their story spread widely among the Jews, and they still tell it today.

Then in Mark I came across the passage I was aware of from before - the one where the angel said the following:

^{Mark 16:5} When they entered the tomb, they saw a young man clothed in a white robe sitting on the right side. The women were shocked, ⁶ but the angel said, “Don’t be alarmed. You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead! Look, this is where they laid his body. ⁷ Now go and tell his disciples, including Peter, that Jesus is going ahead of you to Galilee. You will see him there, just as he told you before he died.”

God knew that Peter, because of his failure, would no longer feel like a disciple and would no longer feel worthy. But a passage I had never seen before was this:

^{LUK3 24:33} And within the hour they were on their way back to Jerusalem. There they found the eleven disciples and the others who had gathered with them, ³⁴ who said, “The Lord has really risen! He appeared to Peter.”

Jesus Himself paid a special visit to Peter. This is the only mention of it - so we don't know what was said. But from personal experience I know that after failure, the only way to truly forgive oneself is to personally hear from God.

This next passage reminded me of things that are happening today in the realm of politics. It seems the loudest voices are the ones that are heard. And the outcome was the death of an innocent man, but that was in fulfillment of Scripture. Perhaps the same is happening today in our time - the loudest voices are the ones that are being heard, but is that in fulfillment of Scripture as well?

^{lUKE 23:23} But the mob shouted louder and louder, demanding that Jesus be crucified, and their voices prevailed. ²⁴ So Pilate sentenced Jesus to die as they demanded.

And to end, a verse that rings true today. We don't have the privilege to walk with the visible Christ, but we do have the privilege to walk with the Christ that is revealed to us through His Holy Spirit. May we continue to believe in His word as revealed to us.

^{John 20:29} Then Jesus told him, “You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me.”

November 8, 2010 (Luke 22, John 13-17)

I'm thankful for a Savior who's praying for us. Although the following verses weren't in today's reading, they compliment what I just read:

^{Hebrews 7:23} There were many priests under the old system, for death prevented them from remaining in office. ²⁴ But because Jesus lives forever, his priesthood lasts forever. ²⁵ Therefore he is able, once and forever, to save those who come to God through him. He lives forever to intercede with God on their behalf.

First in Luke 22 Jesus tells Simon Peter that He has pleaded in prayer for him. And even though Peter's faith failed momentarily, because of Jesus' prayer for him, his faith did not fail permanently. Once Peter knew he was truly forgiven by Jesus, he was freed to serve from a life consumed by grace. That passage will be coming up in a future blog.

³¹ “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift each of you like wheat. ³² But I have pleaded in prayer for you, Simon, that your faith should not fail. So when you have repented and turned to me again, strengthen your brothers.”

And then in John as Jesus gives his final "sermon" to His disciples, He again reiterates that He is not only praying for them, but for all who would believe through their ministry - (us). I don't know about you, but I am taking comfort today in the knowledge that Jesus is praying for me, that my faith will not fail and that the Father would continue to reveal Himself to me.

²⁰ “I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message. ²¹ I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.

²² “I have given them the glory you gave me, so they may be one as we are one. ²³ I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me. ²⁴ Father, I want these whom you have given me to be with me where I am. Then they can see all the glory you gave me because you loved me even before the world began!

²⁵ “O righteous Father, the world doesn’t know you, but I do; and these disciples know you sent me. ²⁶ I have revealed you to them, and I will continue to do so. Then your love for me will be in them, and I will be in them.”