A Life Worthy

I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. The one who is throwing you into confusion, whoever that may be, will have to pay the penalty (Galatians 5:10).

When  I think of all the people I don’t want to be, this guy makes my short list.  

Beloved, your Lord adores you.  He wants nothing to come between the two of you.  He promises to defend you and to crush anything that dares to pull you away from him. He’s a big brother and a jealous lover and a protective dad all rolled into One.

And then some.

You are his, so you are safe.

Rest in that today.

Happy Thursday, Beloved.

That kind of persuasion does not come from the One who calls you (Galatians 5:8).

Here’s a good rule of thumb: if it doesn’t glorify God, it isn’t from God.

Simple enough, ya?

So when those “I’m not enough.  I gotta do more God stuff and earn His love” thoughts come sneaking in, you can be sure of something.  

They may come from society,

They may come from your own mind.

They may come from our Enemy.

They do not come from God.

He hasn’t called you to be perfect.

He has called you to be his.

Happy Tuesday, Beloved.

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value.  The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love (Galatians 5:6).

Love…an expression of faith.

I like it.

When you are trying to justify yourself through works by observing the Law, following the rules, or just being “good enough,” you are totally focused on yourself.  You kinda have to be–you’re examining everything you do to see if it measures up.  That doesn’t leave a lot of room for others on your priority list.  I know that when I’m in a Law frame of mind, even the things I do for others are recorded and evaluated on my mental “How’m I doing?” list.  Even my acts of love are examined in the light of how they help me.

But faith…now faith is inherently selfless.  It acknowledges that you have nothing to do with your own justification and must rely completely on God.  Your eyes are on him, and not yourself.  When you are in this place, God shows you the needs around you.  You act, not as a means of improving your stats on Eternity’s Scoreboard, but out of the overflow of the superabundance of enoughness in your heart.

It’s a good place.

I need to spend more time there.

Care to join me?

Happy Friday, Beloved.

You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace (Galatians 5:4).

We use that term–fallen away.  Even Paul uses it, and I’m not going to argue with Paul. But falling is an accident; you don’t do it on purpose.  I would suggest that when we try to earn our justification we are actually stepping away from the throne of grace.  It’s intentional, at least on some level.  We choose it.

Bad choice, by the way.

Of course, the choice to step away results in a fall.

Kinda like stepping off of a building

or out of an airplane.

And sin, like gravity, pulls us down

and away

and it’s really unlikely that you’re going to climb back up by yourself.

Hold tight to grace today, Beloved.

Happy Wednesday

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.  Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by the yoke of slavery (Galatians 5:1).

Today is Independence Day.  Maybe not on the calendar, but in our hearts. Today we celebrate our freedom.   Christ has set us free from our bondage to sin.  He has set us free from our need to try and earn our salvation, to somehow save ourselves.  He has set us free from the stress and worry and angst and anxiety which so often attack us.

Hear me, Beloved.  I’m not saying that those things are gone.  On the contrary, sin and self-righteousness and anxiety are still very much evident in this world and, at times, in our lives.  What I am saying is that you are no longer in bondage to them.

When Paul wrote the above verse to the Galatians he was talking about freedom from the Mosaic Law.  Some Jews had chosen to follow Christ, but still felt compelled to meet the demands of the old covenant.  Paul was pointing out that a person who has Christ no longer needs the old law, and to try and follow it is to be like a slave who, once free, returns to his chains.

I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say that, for some of us, worry and stress operate in the same way as the Mosaic Law.

It’s about power.

The Judaizers liked the Law because it gave them a sense of control over their destinies.  They had rules to follow, stuff to do, that they thought would get them to Heaven.

“But Michael, I don’t worry because I feel powerful.  I worry because I feel powerless.”

Yes, but it’s still about power.  About control.  You worry because you know you are not in control, and you desperately want to be.  Because if you’re not in control, someone else is, and there’s a part of you that just cannot handle that.

I’m in the same boat, by the way.  May I steer?  Of course not.

Sometimes trust seems beyond our grasp.  And without trust, there is no rest.

So let’s pray for trust today, shall we?  I’ll pray for you, and you for me.  Maybe we can both be set free.

Today is the day to celebrate your independence.

And your dependence.

Happy Monday, Beloved.