Growing with Grace Daily Devotions

Today is Sunday! The blogger rests. Worship at your place of worship. See you tomorrow!

Growing with Galatians Daily Devotion (6 July 2013)

"And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, 'In you shall all the nations be blessed.'” (Gal 3:8)

If you watch TV on a high definition screen, each image of your favorite show is made up of approximately two million tiny dots called pixels. Currently, my favorite show is Top Gear (BBC America). On the one hand, I could press my nose right up to the screen to try and see the individual pixels that make up Top Gear. If I do this, I will never enjoy the new season and will likely need an ophthalmologist. On the other hand, I could sit on my comfy couch at a reasonable distance from the screen. I won't see the pixels from the davenport, but I will enjoy the antics of Jeremy, Richard, James, The Stig, and "the star in a reasonably priced car." I see the big picture when I take a step back from the screen because a pixel is not the big picture.

God blessed Abraham with a son (Isaac). That blessing was a pixel, not the big picture. God told Abraham to take a step back if he wanted to the big picture. God told Abraham to take a step back and look up at the stars. Every star was a blessing God had in store for Abraham. To see the enormity of the big picture, Abraham had to take a step back to see the billions and billions of blessings including Isaac. In fact, Abraham couldn't fully love Isaac until he saw Isaac's place in God's big picture...and his own! Abraham and Isaac were each single stars in God's vast firmament.

You take a step back, too. Look at your Bible. Abraham was a pixel. Isaac was a pixel. David was a pixel. All the blessings of the Bible were pixels. Don't stare at the pixels, step back and see the big picture. Every blessing in the Bible is a pixel. The pixels combines to form a single big picture: the face of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the big picture.

Take a step back. Consider your life. If you are at all like me, you stare at the day to day pixels and miss the big picture of God. Don't get so focused on the small matters of life that you miss the big picture. The big picture is Jesus Christ. Hebrews 12:2 says we should “fix our eyes upon Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith....”

Are you staring at pixels or seeing the face of Jesus Christ? Are you seeing big picture?

Growing with Galatians Daily Devotion (5 July 2013)

[Abraham] “...believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”? (Gal 3:6)

Abraham believed God. Way to go Abraham! There's more to the story than just "Abraham believed God." Abraham doubted God at times, too (read Genesis 12, you'll see). Abraham both believed and doubted. And Abraham isn't alone in the Bible. In Mark's gospel, a man who asked Jesus to heal his son said, "Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief" (Mark 9:24). Like Abraham, this man believed and doubted. Jesus even chose an apostle who became known for his doubting: Doubting Thomas. Thomas believed...and doubted. These believers, Abraham, the man from Mark's gospel, and Thomas were human beings just like you and me. All believers doubt sometimes and believe sometimes.

Even though we doubt, God is greater than our doubts. Abraham was saved. Thomas was saved. Jesus healed the man's son in Mark's Gospel. We doubt, but God remains faithful. Our doubt does not negate God's goodness, greatness, and grace. God loves doubters! Jesus died for doubted. The key lesson from the doubt-belief of these men is that in spite of times of doubt, they kept on believing. God didn't give up on Abraham and Abraham didn't give up on God.

Don't you give up on God because you sometimes doubt. God will never give up on you. You are just like Abraham, the man from Mark's gospel, and the apostle Thomas. God never gives up. Love never fails (1 Corinthians 13:8). As the rock band Journey said, "Don't stop believing!"

Growing with Galatians Daily Devotion (4 July 2013)

Galatians 3: 1-3 O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. 2 Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? 3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

Foolishness is a form of insanity. Foolishness is continuing to do things that have not worked in the past, are not working in the present, and will not work in the future. Foolishness, like insanity, is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. The Galatians in the past tried to earn salvation by obedience to rules and laws. It didn't work. Living legalistically only made them guilty and unhappy. Feeling guilty and unhappy, they sinned more and not less.

In other words, they were just like us. Legalism didn't work then, doesn't work now, won't work tomorrow, and never will work. Nonetheless people keep returning to it. Worse still, people keep imposing failed legalism on others. Legalism, like misery, loves company. As one radio personality is fond of saying, "I'm not happy till you're not happy." That’s legalism: everyone is unhappy. So, where is legalism making you guilty and unhappy? Leave the law behind and live a life of grace, compassion, mercy and forgiveness. Where are you being foolish? Stop doing over and over again what has not worked in the past. Ask God to show you new ways. God gladly gives wisdom to those who ask (James 1:5). Ask today.

Growing with Galatians Daily Devotion

Gal 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me (ESV).

I am not who I was. Before I met Christ, I was one person. Afraid. Angry. Hurting. Darkened. That person died when Jesus died. Occasionally, ok daily, ok hourly, ok minute by minute, ok ok second by second, that dark person tries to rise from the dead like some Hollywood zombie. Worse, I even help dig him up sometimes. Still, even though I fail and fall, in spite of my frailty, I still say that I am not who I was before. I am not who I was. And while that is good, there is something even better. I am not yet who I one day will be. I am not fully the person God will one day make me. I am in between this world and the next. I am in between cross and crown. Paul calls this “in-between-ness” "the life I now live in the flesh." How shall we live this life in between cross and crown? How shall I live on earth but destined for heaven? Since we believe Jesus loved us and died for us, we will love others the same way Jesus loved us. This is how we will live our life in the flesh until we rise as Jesus is risen.

Growing With Galatians Daily Devotion

Gal 2:16 yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. (ESV)

To be justified is to be declared innocent by a judge. The idea is that a justified person is innocent, good, worthy of love and respect, and valuable. Paul is saying that a person is not declared innocent, good, worthy of love and respect, and valuable because of what he or she has done. The reason no one is declared innocent? No one is. Instead, a person is declared innocent, good, worthy of love and respect, and valuable because of Jesus Christ. Jesus is innocent and those who believe in Him are too. Not because we are perfect (we aren’t), but because Jesus is perfect. Since everyone is justified in the same way (through Christ), none of us is better (or worse) than anyone else. In the light of our sameness in Christ, whom have you disrespected? Whom have thought unworthy of love? Whom have you undervalued? Whom have you ignored? Turned away from? Remember, we are ALL justified in the same way. The greatest and the least are level in Jesus Christ. If we are all the same, we see each other eye-to-eye and face-to-face. We look down on no one.

Growing with Galatians Daily Devotion

Galatians 2:13 And the rest of the [divided congregation] acted hypocritically along with [Peter], so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. (ESV)

People sometimes say, "The church is just a bunch of hypocrites." They are surprised when I, a pastor, say, "You're right. The church is a bunch of hypocrites, but there’s a worse problem. The worse problem is that some of them are unaware of their hypocrisy." What is a hypocrite? A hypocrite is someone who defends certain moral standards, but does not live according to those very standards. They talk the talk but don't walk the walk. The church is full of frail humans who do not ever fully live up to their own beliefs and they know it. They are hypocrites and know it. Knowing their hypocrisy, they become humble and nonjudgmental toward others. These people are not the problem. There are others in the church who act as if they are NOT hypocrites, but they are. They act as if they actually walked the walk they so loudly talk. Believing in their own moral superiority, or at least acting as if they believed it, such people are proud and judgmental. These people are a big problem for the church and for themselves. St. John writes "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us" (1 John 1:8). The church is a place filled hypocrisy and the height of hypocrisy within the church is its failure to admit its hypocrisy. The church is a hospital for hypocrites, not a quarantine for the righteous alone. The church should be more like Hypocrites Anonymous. Each of us should confess, "Hello, my name is...and I am a recovering hypocrite. St. John continues, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).