Coming to the Still Waters

  This was our one verse this Sunday.  It was also a Sunday to prepare for a candidate weekend of a possible next teaching pastor at the church where I am an intentional interim pastor.  If you listen to the second half of this sermon/talk you can get a glimpse of what I have been doing for the last 5 years.  It is humbling to be used of God in this way to walk with part of God's family through a transition. The verse above begs of application.  How do we fulfill this command?  Again we have two parties represented, the one who has received the instruction from the word and the one who has given the instruction from the word.  The one is sharing and the other needs to receive to fulfill this verse.  Both can have their difficulties. For a start we can be in attendance on a more regular basis when the instructor is teaching us the word.  We can also make sure our attention is given to the instructor whether it is a Sunday morning gathering or ...

  Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. Galatians 6:1 (NIV, 1978) If you have an opportunity to listen to this sermon, you will not only hear me with a very raspy voice from recovery of the Rhinovirus and acute bronchitis but you will also hear the overlay of some other Scriptures onto this verse.  I take the Parable of the Good Samaritan of Luke 10, the woman caught in adultery of John 8, the Galatian account of being caught between Peter and Paul of Galatian 2, and the passage about church discipline from Jesus of Matthew 18.  It was a great exercise to take the principles of this one verse and see it played out many times. 2 people are involved here.  The one caught in a sin and the one who is spiritual.  Interestingly, the bulk of the instruction in this verse and the following ones is for the one who is spiritual.  Paul is instructing those who are ...

  Paul is pointing the way for the Galatian Gentile Christians to live.  This is a two-fer post because of being under the weather.  The common cold morphed into something else that took my mind away from functioning properly to type out a blog post.  On the mend enough to catch us up on our trek through the book of Galatians. Galatians has basically 3 parts.  Chapters 1 & 2 are about the man, Paul.  Chapters 3 & 4 are about the message, the Gospel.  Chapters 5 & 6 are about the manner, the manner of life.  We have started this 3rd part. How then shall we live as Christians?  What does a Christian's life look like?  How do we navigate as "free in Christ fully justified by Him" in a world that is in "slave to the curse of the law and unjustified by works?" The first illustration is found in 5.7 (NIV, 1978) - "You were running a good race.  Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth?"   We,  freed in ...