I do believe it is a snow day for many of you - at least in Chestermere!! The Trans-Canada highway was closed for awhile there (trust me - I was stranded in the city on Saturday night!). The drifting snow was too much to contend with. The joy of living in Alberta! Really, we have become wimps though. We live in heated houses (most of the time! I keep losing my heat) and drive in heated cars and busses. We have warm brand name winter clothing to guard us against the cold and go about life largely unconcerned with the cold - not a lot changes because it is winter besides out hobbies and outdoor activities. We have actually made winter into a tourist destination with our skiing and winter activities. I suggest we are wimps because we whine about the cold but do we really know cold? Even in the past few years winters have been tamer than they were even 10 years ago. Consider what it was when the first settlers came and planted themselves here: no running water, no indoor plumbing, no heat source besides a fire, no big houses, no parkas or Sorel® boots to protect their bodies from the cold! Heaven forbid - no pizza delivery or even a Safeway® for convenience!!
Okay, enough about the cold! On to some God talk!!
I was reading from Galatians this morning and decided it was worth sharing. Today's reading comes from the Message (which is considered a paraphrased version of the Bible. A guy named Eugene Peterson took the Greek and Hebrew Bible and translated it into the language we most commonly use today).
The book of Galatians was written by the Apostle Paul (who has a really cool story! He started as someone sent out to kill Christ followers because they 'were trying to destroy God' [at least that's how the Pharisees saw it] and God struck him blind [for awhile] and showed him a better path, so to speak! Paul was one of the forefathers of the Christian church - he went around and told people about Christ and started churches all over the place. This guy walked distances you'd never dream!!). This book is a letter to one of the churches he founded and this is one of the chapters in that book (letter). The italics are my thoughts to you.
Galatians 6
Live creatively, friends. (I love that call!!) If someone falls into sin, forgivingly restore him, saving your critical comments for yourself. You might be needing forgiveness before the day's out. (We are all dirty, rotten sinners, are we not? Who are we to judge??) Stoop down and reach out to those who are oppressed. Share their burdens, and so complete Christ's law. (You know - 'Love your neighbor as yourself') If you think you are too good for that, you are badly deceived.
4-5Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that. Don't be impressed with yourself. Don't compare yourself with others. Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life. (We need to look at ourselves and consider where we need to grow - "An unexamined life is not worth living" - Socrates)
6Be very sure now, you who have been trained to a self-sufficient maturity, that you enter into a generous common life with those who have trained you, sharing all the good things that you have and experience.
7-8Don't be misled: No one makes a fool of God. (How can you fool someone who knows your thoughts before you even think them??) What a person plants, he will harvest. The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others—ignoring God!—harvests a crop of weeds. (Luke 12:2-3 says, "The time is coming when everything that is covered up will be revealed, and all that is secret will be made known to all. Whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered behind closed doors will be shouted from the housetops for all to hear!" (NLT) Even if you live one way on the surface, the 'secret' life will come into light. I have seen it happen over and over again!!) All he'll have to show for his life is weeds! But the one who plants in response to God, letting God's Spirit do the growth work in him, harvests a crop of real life, eternal life.
9-10So let's not allow ourselves to get fatigued (tired) doing good. At the right time we will harvest a good crop if we don't give up, or quit. Right now, therefore, every time we get the chance, let us work for the benefit of all, starting with the people closest to us in the community of faith.
11-13Now, in these last sentences, I want to emphasize in the bold scrawls of my personal handwriting the immense importance of what I have written to you. These people who are attempting to force the ways of circumcision (A certain religious act that God called Abraham and his people to perform. It was a physical action that showed their dedication to the Lord) on you have only one motive: They want an easy way to look good before others, lacking the courage to live by a faith that shares Christ's suffering and death. All their talk about the law is gas. They themselves don't keep the law! And they are highly selective in the laws they do observe. They only want you to be circumcised so they can boast of their success in recruiting you to their side. That is contemptible! (The book of Acts shares a debate about whether people needed to become Jewish before they could become Christian. The prayerful decision was 'no'. Christianity is about a relationship with Christ, not religious acts. God's people became more concerned with the acts and forgot the relationship. That was what Jesus was fighting with the religious leaders of his day).
14-16For my part, I am going to boast about nothing but the Cross of our Master, Jesus Christ. Because of that Cross, I have been crucified in relation to the world, set free from the stifling atmosphere of pleasing others and fitting into the little patterns that they dictate. (Paul is suggesting that if we accept a life following Christ we have been crucified as well. Christ was hung on the cross for all to see - crucifixion was meant to be humiliating and to put people on display. Living as Christ followers can make us stand out as different, which can be humiliating when you're a teenager but is a rather small price to play for what Christ did for us!!) Can't you see the central issue in all this? It is not what you and I do—submit to circumcision, reject circumcision. It is what God is doing, and he is creating something totally new, a free life! All who walk by this standard are the true Israel of God—his chosen people. Peace and mercy on them! (Yay!!)
17Quite frankly, I don't want to be bothered anymore by these disputes. I have far more important things to do—the serious living of this faith. I bear in my body scars from my service to Jesus.
18May what our Master Jesus Christ gives freely be deeply and personally yours, my friends. Oh, yes!
AMEN!! Now, Go live it!
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