Galatians 3:26-29 UNITY

^"26You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, ²⁷for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. ²⁸There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. ²⁹If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise."

It is quite easy to see people from other backgrounds as 'strange' because they don't behave in the same ways we do. Although there is nothing terribly wrong with our own culture or tradition, we should be careful when it gets in the way of us seeing other Christians from other places as equal brothers and sisters.

For a long time the Jews thought they were the chosen people of God because he had revealed himself to them. They were shocked when they realised God wanted EVERYONE to know him - Jews, Gentiles - including the very immoral Greeks and Romans. It was a difficult to them that Greeks and Jews were considered equal before God.

So what can we learn from this? Leave everything behind in your culture that prevents you from seeing a Christian from somewhere else, as a brother or sister.

We are now all children of Abraham, and are blessed by God so that we can in turn bless others.

Brownie Points

Galatians 3:6-14

I remember in primary school I used to do try to score points with my french teacher and I actually got pretty good at it. Good at scoring points that is, not at french. That kind of sums up what I got from this Brad's message last week. I know that for me sometimes I'll sin and then try to do something to make up for it...as if that would actually make a difference. I think that because nothing in this world is free, that there is always something attached, we fail to fully grasp what it means to know that God gives us righteousness for FREE. All we have to do is accept this. We can't gain it because there is nothing we can give God that He needs, so it is impossible to earn it. It is pointless trying to score brownie points with God because it doesn't make a difference, He won't love you any more or any less.

I would say that we should just sit back, think about what God has done for us, what He has given us and just be secure in Him. Just enjoy God, delight in Him and stop trying to get to Him because He will come to you, just where you are. Be still and know that He is God, only then can you understand what He values, what He wants and how we should respond to His love.

~Sck

Foolish and Ignorant

Galatians 3:1-5

Foolish foolish, how foolish we are to try and understand God's Word by our own strength! I was just reminded of Peter and how he is constantly jumping in and getting things wrong because he is thinking and seeing from his own perception. He just didn't understand what God was saying because it is counter-intuitive, it's not of this world, it's not what you expect. God is so much bigger than what we can see or what we expect Him to be.

I know that I'm often blinded by what I think or what I think I know about God that I miss out on what His Word really means. I've seen a lot of christians (and I myself am guilty of this) who know that we are forgiven by God and are freed by His Spirit but yet we are so legalistic. You can't do this, you must do that, you must speak like this...after a while you do what is expected of you and you expect that of others. But in fact we live according to the Spirit and there is so much that we need to learn, that in every situation you must discern what the Spirit is saying because every situation is different. Often we read one part of the Bible and conclude that...ahh, that is how God is! But we may well have missed the whole point of it. We know about God be we do not know Him.

We need to live according to the Spirit, not our own strength, we need to have His understanding, not ours. It is only through the spirit that we can know God, to be able to think properly so that we will not be foolish.

~Sck