Yeast

Interesting. Paul is warning the Galatians against being misled so that they lose sight of Jesus, lose sight of the Truth and become deceived. In Galatians 5:9, he uses the proverb  ‘A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.’ but this is not in the Bible.

Nevertheless, yeast symbolises sin in the Old Testament; is cited as obduracy in belief by Jesus; and, by Paul, sin which disrupts the church's worship of God.

For us in a Western world, this seems almost counterintuitive.

Our bread is not chapatti or tortilla, injera, or even traditional Irish sodabread or heavy German sourdough ryebreads.
No, we depend on yeast for the light, soft, delicious spongy wheat bread.

Interesting.

The pleasures of the world can indeed distract and detract from our pursuit of Jesus. I remember Romans 12:2 "Don’t be like the people of this world, but let God change the way you think. Then you will know how to do everything that is good and pleasing to him."

That is freedom: "It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don’t use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that’s how freedom grows. For everything we know about God’s Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That’s an act of true freedom." (vv 13 - 14)

"Live freely, animated and motivated by God’s Spirit. Then you won’t feed the compulsions of selfishness." (v19)

And if I am NOT animated and motivated by God's spirit? Then it is chaos: "It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time:... a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; ...magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on.

This isn’t the first time I have warned you, you know. If you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God’s kingdom."

Children of a loving father God

Galatians 4:8 - 9

"Before you knew God, you were slaves of gods that are not real. But now you know God, or better still, God."

Don't let myself be deceived, distracted, discouraged, disheartened by deviation and diversion...my life in God is not about what I do, the rules and regulations I keep, but about who I am... a child, a daughter, of my loving heavenly father who wants nothing more but a close relationship with me...

And so: "Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you.

... The moment any one of (us) submits to .. any...rule-keeping system, at that same moment Christ’s hard-won gift of freedom is squandered. ...

...When (we) attempt to live by (our) own religious plans and projects, (we) are cut off from Christ, (we) fall out of grace. Meanwhile we expectantly wait for a satisfying relationship with the Spirit. For in Christ, neither our most conscientious religion nor disregard of religion amounts to anything. What matters is something far more interior: faith expressed in love." (Galatians 5:1 - 6, The Message)

Loved

Galatians 4: "You can tell for sure that you are now fully adopted as his own children because God sent the Spirit of his Son into our lives crying out, “Papa! Father!”

We don't speak: it is Jesus' spirit which speaks through us: for "In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans." Romans 8:26

Romans 8:15 "For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him."

There is no fear when I am a child of God. I need to REMEMBER WHO I AM.

"Dear Lord, I’m choosing to remember who I am in You — no matter what I face today. I want to live out the truths You’ve taught me and help those around me do the same."

Proverbs 10:7: "The name of the righteous is used in blessings, but the name of the wicked will rot." (NIV)

Psalm 119:33-34: "Teach me, LORD, the way of your decrees, that I may follow it to the end. Give me understanding, so that I may keep your law and obey it with all my heart." (NIV)- See more at: http://proverbs31.org/devotions/devo/remember-who-you-are/#sthash.hImp6bsB.dpuf

Remember. Keep focused. Keep dependent.

"I want to know only one thing. How were you given God’s Spirit? Was it by obeying the Law of Moses or by hearing about Christ and having faith in him? 

How can you be so stupid? 

Do you think that by yourself you can complete what God’s Spirit started in you?

Have you gone through all of this for nothing? Is it all really for nothing? 

God gives you his Spirit and works miracles in you. But does he do this because you obey the Law of Moses or because you have heard about Christ and have faith in him?"

How to live in the TRUTH? The truth that nothing I do by my own efforts can save me... the truth that I have to put myself aside and humble myself completely...the truth that I CONSTANTLY have to consider MY 'self' as useless as dead and 'all' I need to do is rely on Jesus?

And how to do I do that? By constantly turning to him and asking for help. Every day. Every hour. Every minute,

Trying for every hour, at least. So here we are:

Verses 5 - 9 (Chapter 3) say, in The Message:
"Answer this question: Does the God who lavishly provides you with his own presence, his Holy Spirit, working things in your lives you could never do for yourselves, does he do these things because of your strenuous moral striving or because you trust him to do them in you? Don’t these things happen among you just as they happened with Abraham? He believed God, and that act of belief was turned into a life that was right with God.

Is it not obvious to you that persons who put their trust in Christ (not persons who put their trust in the law!) are like Abraham: children of faith? It was all laid out beforehand in Scripture that God would set things right with non-Jews byfaith. Scripture anticipated this in the promise to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed in you.”

So those now who live by faith are blessed along with Abraham, who lived by faith—this is no new doctrine! And that means that anyone who tries to live by his own effort, independent of God, is doomed to failure. Scripture backs this up: “Utterly cursed is every person who fails to carry out every detail written in the Book of the law.”"

Paul goes on: "The obvious impossibility of carrying out such a moral program should make it plain that no one can sustain a relationship with God that way. The person who lives in right relationship with God does it by embracing what God arranges for him. Doing things for God is the opposite of entering into what God does for you. Habakkuk had it right: “The person who believes God, is set right by God—and that’s the real life.” Rule-keeping does not naturally evolve into living by faith, but only perpetuates itself in more and more rule-keeping, a fact observed in Scripture: “The one who does these things [rule-keeping] continues to live by them.”

Such a temptation to think - usually unconsciously - that if I DO the right things I will FEEL right with God. And yet there is a truth in this.  We feel good when we do the right thing, just as we feel bad when we sin - the hidden lie, the small thing stolen, the unkind thought....

So perhaps it is more than feelings. Perhaps it is just about knowing God, being with him, developing relationship, as we would with anyone - finding out more about how he thinks and feels and does, finding out about his family, his background, his interests, rather than doing anything to impress.

After all, just trying to impress someone by what we do and say doesn't build relationship with them, does it? We're just showing off when we do that...

"In fact, the Law was our teacher. It was supposed to teach us until we had faith and were acceptable to God. But once a person has learned to have faith, there is no more need to have the Law as a teacher." (Galatians 3:24 - 25)

Teaching Judaism to the children at the moment, it has become more and more apparent that Judaism is a religion of good rules and regulations, a way of life: Christianity is about following a person whose heritage was that same way of life....

And so: "All of you are God’s children because of your faith in Christ Jesus. And when you were baptized, it was as though you had put on Christ in the same way you put on new clothes.  Faith in Christ Jesus is what makes each of you equal with each other, whether you are a Jew or a Greek, a slave or a free person, a man or a woman. So if you belong to Christ, you are now part of Abraham’s family, and you will be given what God has promised."

There are many reasons why I cling on to this promise: I can only pray: Lord, increase my faith.

Unity.Love.Grace,

This chapter is about unity - and it is Paul who initiated the discussions, going to Jerusalem in response to God telling him, to meet with the apostles and make sure he was on the right track.

Amazing. He'd been 14 years on his own already, doing his own 'following God' thing.  He was welcomed, included, supported ..."I met privately with those considered to be leaders of the church and shared with them the message I had been preaching to the Gentiles. I wanted to make sure that we were in agreement, for fear that all my efforts had been wasted and I was running the race for nothing. And they supported me....James, Peter, and John, who were known as pillars of the church, recognized the gift God had given me, and they accepted Barnabas and me as their co-workers. They encouraged us to keep preaching to the Gentiles, while they continued their work with the Jews.  Their only suggestion was that we keep on helping the poor, which I have always been eager to do."

And yet... the very next thing we find is that Paul confronted Peter, accusing him of doing wrong by no longer eating with the Gentiles. Peter had begun to draw back and separate himself from the non-Jews because he was worried about what the Jews would say: Paul brought this into the open and told Peter openly that he was a hypocrite and wrong to do so.

Oh, to have the courage to tell someone face to face that they are wrong. To risk the anger and condemnation and ridicule that would surely come my way. I have been on the receiving end of it, of course - and am very good at accepting blame, even when something I have done has not been intended, has been taken the wrong way or perhaps I haven't even done wrong at all - it has just been 'different'.

(That sounds like another topic altogether: 'different' doesn't necessarily mean 'wrong'.  Can we not just accept our differences?)

Galatians 2:16 "Yet we know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law. And we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be made right with God because of our faith in Christ, not because we have obeyed the law. For no one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law." This is a reminder that the one thing I NEED is to be in right relationship with Jesus: it's not about just DOING stuff, it's about who I am with him.  It's like my marriage: I can DO all the right things to invest in my marriage - serving my husband, spending time with him - but if our relationship is not right, then we do not communicate well and we do not feel 'right' with each other.


But, actually, if I know the truth of THIS; "I have been nailed to the cross with Christ. 20 I have died, but Christ lives in me. And I now live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave his life for me.21 I don’t turn my back on God’s undeserved kindness." (v19 - 21)  then I can live a life of love given freely: for I was enslaved by sin and have been SET FREE!

I can be generous, even when I feel grudging.
I can give the benefit of the doubt, even when I want to gain revenge.
I can love without expectation, even when I expect loving.

I CAN. Because HE DID. He died. For me. End.of.story.

Joy

Galatians 1:18 - 24And still the churches in Christ that are in Judea didn’t know me personally.  All they knew was that people were saying, “The one who used to persecute us is now preaching the very faith he tried to destroy!” And they praised God because of me.

Joy in knowing that an enemy has found redemption...

Pleasing God, not men...

Galatians 1:10
"Obviously, I’m not trying to win the approval of people, but of God. If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ’s servant."

Cross references:
Matthew 6:24
"No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
Romans 1:1
Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God--
1 Corinthians 10:33
even as I try to please everyone in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved.
Ephesians 6:6
Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart.
Philippians 1:1
Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all God's holy people in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons:
1 Thessalonians 2:4
On the contrary, we speak as those approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. We are not trying to please people but God, who tests our hearts.

I fall into the trap of thinking that if I please God, then people will be pleased and like me and all will be comfortable and well.

And that does indeed often happen, because God's way is good and lovely and perfect and good and lovely behaviour changes the atmosphere and the culture and makes everyone feel more comfortable and happier and it's all good, good good....

But sometimes in my world the good God way goes against the culture and people aren't happy. Love God Greatly talks about this, too...
"when pleasing man trumps pleasing God, we have a serious problem on our hands....Ultimately, you and I live for an audience of One. God is our ultimate authority, and the gospel is our primary message.

Will we speak the one and only gospel in an effort to magnify the One who died to save our souls? Or will we hold back absolute truth, cowering under the pressure of pleasing man over pleasing God?

There’s a lost world in need of the gospel – people that we will interact with even this very day. Jesus, give us opportunity and your strength to boldly proclaim that YOU are the only way…"

Let me remember God first God first God first first first....FOCUS.

Galatians 1:6 - 9

So there we were - basking in God's love and mercy and grace and peace and all in our garden of belief is lovely....the gospel, the good news, saves us and restores our relationship with God and what more could we want?

And yet.... they turned away. Paul's exasperated diatribe reveals his shock and astonishment.

When I hear of folk slipping away, no longer attending church, living lives of selfishness, I just feel sadness tinged with inevitability.

And yet... this could be me, too: "You are following a different way that pretends to be the Good News"

I take comfort in Paul's prayer of protection: that he has prayed that anyone who preaches a different message from the Gospel will be punished!  Not that I wish that on anyone, but it helps me concentrate on keeping focused on the Truth.

On Jesus.

Galatians

The salvation plan in a nutshell.

Paul is sent by God - not given the job by people.
"I was chosen to be an apostle by Jesus Christ and by God the Father, who raised him from death. No mere human chose or appointed me to this work."I too am sent by God, even if he has used humans to appoint me to a position...it is to him that I am responsible and answerable to. HE is my line manager, my boss.

Paul is inclusive: he includes all the believes with him in the letter: the implication is that they agree with him and endorse what he says as he writes to the churches in Galatia.

Before all else, he wishes grace and peace for them. he wants God's kindness and freedom from anxiety, worry and strife.
Grace: derived from pleasing; favour or goodwill: kindness, kindliness, love, benignity; condescension.
a manifestation of favour, especially by a superior: forgiveness, charity, mercifulness.
mercy; clemency; pardon: lenity, leniency, reprieve.

but for the grace of God, under less fortunatecircumstances:

But for the grace of God, the brick that just fell fromthe roof would have hit me on the head!

by the grace of God, thankfully; fortunately:

By the grace of God, I won't have to deal with tax returns for another year.


to lose favor; be discredited:
He fell from grace when the boss found out he had lied.
.
have the grace to, to be so kind as to:
Would you have the grace to help, please?
.
in someone's good /bad graces, regarded withfavor (or disfavor) by someone:
It is a wonder that I have managed to stay in her goodgraces this long.

with bad grace, reluctantly; grudgingly:
He apologized, but did so with bad grace.
Also, with a bad grace.

with good grace, willingly; ungrudgingly:
She took on the extra work with good grace.

The opposite is to fall from grace,  Theology. to relapse into sin or disfavor. Paul does NOT want this for the Galatians.

And so Paul reminds us "Jesus gave his life for our sins, just as God our Father planned, in order to rescue us from this evil world in which we live. 5 All glory to God forever and ever!" (The Message)

To God be the glory. For ever. And ever. This day. This hour. This minute.

The Fruits of the Spirit - beautifully explained

Reposting this brilliant little explanation of the fruits of the spirit from Devotionals Daily - link at the bottom of the page. The Fruit of the Spirit
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. — Galatians 5:22-23 (NIV) Fruit is the delectable product of that which is created by the inner life of the vine. On the eve of the Crucifixion, the Lord Jesus put it thus: “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me” (John 15:4). Earlier on a Galilean hillside, He had said, “By their fruits you will know them” (Matthew 7:20). The fruit we bear as believers is evidence of His abiding on the throne of our lives. At first glance, there appears to be a grammatical error in this verse. Note carefully: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace . . .” The truth is that the fruit of the Spirit is love. Love, period. The nine fruits listed here are a cluster describing the evidence of the life of Christ within us. The fruit is singular here because it is the outcropping of one’s life within. The fruit represents what we are rather than what we do. Here we are reintroduced to the principle of being before doing. What we do is determined by who, or whose, we really are! The fruit described in Galatians is a triad: three clusters with three fruits each. They are reflected in a countenance that is obvious, conduct that is orderly, and a character that is obedient. A COUNTENANCE THAT IS OBVIOUS “love, joy, peace” Certain individuals seem to have a countenance of love, joy, and peace. The word translated “love” here is agape, God’s own love. This is the highest level of love, the kind that always seeks the other’s highest good. It is the same word we found back in the John 3:16 statement that “God so loved the world.” It is no coincidence that love is first on the list of nine pieces of fruit here. It is the fountain of all others. Everything good issues out of God’s love. Next comes joy. It is the inner joy of Christ that reveals itself through our very countenance. This is the joy spoken of by Christ to His disciples on His last night in their presence: “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full” (John 15:11). If ever there were an attribute deserving of a place next to love, it is joy. Peace makes up this triad of characteristics that are obvious in the countenance of the Spirit-controlled believer. Inner peace is God’s very special gift to us. Again, on the evening before His death on the cross, Jesus speaks these words: “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” (John 14:27). When we are abiding in the Spirit, the natural outcome is love, joy, and peace. It becomes obvious in our very countenance. A CONDUCT THAT IS ORDERLY “longsuffering, kindness, goodness” Longsuffering is synonymous with patience. This translates from a compound word in Greek meaning “far from anger.” This type of conduct, which is virtually void of a spirit of retaliation, cannot be worked up. It is produced from within. In our fast-paced, self-seeking world, patience does not seem to be in high demand. Like all the others in this cluster of fruit, longsuffering arises from love. Love’s greatest triumph is not always in what love does but—more often than not—in what love refrains from doing. The conduct of one who is abiding in Christ is also characterized by kindness. This same Greek word appears in the Ephesian epistle: “that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:7). Since Christ shows His kindness to us and He abides within us, we are to pass this kindness on to others in a conduct that is orderly. Paul then introduced the fruit of goodness. Jesus “went about doing good” (Acts 10:38). There is a genuine sense of goodness about those who are abiding in Christ and being controlled by His Spirit. This orderly conduct is seen in the lives of many who have come to Christ. Where once they may have been impatient, now they have supernatural patience. Where once they were self-centered, now they show kindness toward others. Where once they may have been self-seeking, now their actions are characterized by goodness. A CHARACTER THAT IS OBEDIENT  “faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” What better could be said of someone than that he or she is characterized by faithfulness to God! Jesus reminded us that “he who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much” (Luke 16:10). When we live a life of faithfulness, there is something inherent about it that strengthens our own sense of self-worth. Another fruit that issues out of the abiding life in Christ is gentleness. This is the same word we translate “meek” in Matthew 5:5. On the surface it sounds a bit weak. However, it is one of the strongest character traits that can exist. The word picture is of a stallion that has been domesticated. Or, as the cowboys here in Texas would say, “The horse has been broken.” Once it was a bucking bronco and now it has a gentleness about it. This Greek word speaks of power on a leash. It describes an animal that has come under the control of a master. Gentleness is the natural outflow of that life within. Finally, we come to the last piece of fruit in our cluster— self-control. It is impossible to achieve the highest level of self-control apart from God’s abiding Spirit within us. Self- control does not come by the outworking of mere fleshly energy and effort. Like all the rest of the fruit, self-control is the outcropping of the life of the Holy Spirit within us. When we come to know Christ as a personal Savior, the Father sends the Holy Spirit not only to seal us, indwell us, and fill us, but also to produce fruit through us. Your Turn But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. — Galatians 5:22-23 (NIV) Memorize this verse and meditate on a few questions: What about my countenance? Do others see love, joy, and peace in me? What about my conduct? Are patience, kindness, and goodness characteristic of who I am? What about my character? Do I exhibit faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control? The fruit of the Spirit is love! Allow Christ’s love to reign and rule in you and through you today. Being comes before doing, for what we do is always determined by who we are. * * * Please feel free to share your thoughts on today's devotional in the comments section of our blog. ~ Devotionals Daily

Living gently

I started thinking about living gently when we were studying Ephesians: in Ephesians 4:1-3 we are told to be gentle:

 ¹ As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. ² Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. ³ Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.

I wondered what it looked like to ‘be gentle’? What do you think?

Well, our example of course is Jesus.

Matthew 11:28-30 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

2 Corinthians 10:1-3

By the meekness and gentleness of Christ, I appeal to you...  I beg you that when I come I may not have to be as bold as I expect to be toward some people who think that we live by the standards of this world.  For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.

Gentleness is the mark of a Christian:

Galatians 5:22-24  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,  gentleness and self-control... Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.

Gentleness is counter-cultural. To be gentle, we are not to live as people of ‘the world’ do.

We need to pursue gentleness:

1 Timothy 6:10-11 suggests that we have to flee from pursuing money and everything that brings, instead pursuing ‘righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.’  

Proverbs 25:15 Through patience a ruler can be persuaded,  and a gentle tongue can break a bone.

 Can we cover ourselves with gentleness?

Colossians 3:12-13  says that, because there is no distinction between any of God’s chosen people, we must clothe (y)ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience,  bearing with each other and forgiving whatever grievances  we may have against one another, just as Jesus has forgiven us. 

1 Peter 3:3-4 Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. ⁴ Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight. 

Can we have a gentle attitude?

Philippians 4:4-6

 ⁴ Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! ⁵ Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.

1 Peter 3:14-16   Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, ¹⁶ keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.

To do all this, being gentle demands strength. Gentleness needs self-discipline.

Consider how it is the opposite of violence:

1 Timothy 3:2-4

 Now the overseer must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. ⁴ He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him with proper respect.

Proverbs 15:1  A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.

Our instinct is to retaliate. It requires inner strength to refuse to react.

Yet gentleness comes from a position of weakness:

quotes about Jean Vanier (founder of L’Arche, communities where handicapped people live together) from Living Gently in a Violent World: The Prophetic Witness of Weakness

Vanier's communities emphasize great humility and gentleness of a sort that is unique in the world - a humility that comes from weakness. He seeks to treat those who we see as "handicapped" as equals. His is not a condescending love; but it is a love that says, "you are as important as I am and I have weaknesses just as you do." It is a radical departure from the conservative who tends to ignore the downtrodden and the liberal who tends to condescend toward others in telling them what's good for them.

This kind of love is actually very much in tune with the love of Christ

So, do we appear gentle in every respect? A challenge!

Am I trying to win the approval of men–or of God?

It’s January – and in the post-Christmas melee of an end to festivities, departure of my children back to their grown-up, independent, far from home lives and start of a new term, so back to work – I am struggling a little. So ‘little’ things become ‘bigger’ than they would do normally. In particular, a strained relationship. A once-close friend now seems distant – she has enthusiasms, so perhaps her enthusiasm for me has waned. Or perhaps I’ve done something to unwittingly offend her. Or perhaps it’s just that she’s going through the menopause. Or perhaps I’m just imagining it, and busyness is the reason that my overtures of friendship are being declined. I know I should perhaps clear the air, but then fear that, if there is nothing the matter, I will have made Everest out of a pimple, which will then cause more problems…(my friend has other strained and difficult relationships, so I don’t want to put myself straight into that category with an untimely word). So I wait. And pray.
And then I thought of this verse from Galatians 1:10:Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ. This is in the context of Paul speaking out the truth of the Gospel, but it got me thinking. Who am I trying to please?
In grieving over this strained relationship, I realised my energies were going into pleasing myself. It doesn’t feel comfortable – I just want to be back on easy terms again. Instead, to please God, I need to do several things.
1. I need to love my friend. I need to keep on reaching out in support and friendship ‘as if’ nothing was wrong.
2. I need to confess any hurt I feel, bringing it to God. I am guilty of thinking more of myself and my feelings than of her.
3. I need to focus on doing what pleases God. If it is to speak truth, then I am to speak truth. If it is to do something good, then I must do that. I need to fix my eyes, not on the strained relationship, but on Jesus.
So I pray for patience, perseverance, courage and above all love. For love covers over a multitude of sins. Especially mine.

Living in freedom

It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don't use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that's how freedom grows. For everything we know about God's Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That's an act of true freedom. If you bite and ravage each other, watch out—in no time at all you will be annihilating each other, and where will your precious freedom be then?

My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by God's Spirit. Then you won't feed the compulsions of selfishness. For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us that is at odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible with selfishness. These two ways of life are antithetical, so that you cannot live at times one way and at times another way according to how you feel on any given day. Why don't you choose to be led by the Spirit and so escape the erratic compulsions of a law-dominated existence?

Galatians 5:13 -18

I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.

The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20(NIV)

What actually took place is this: I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn't work. So I quit being a "law man" so that I could be God's man. Christ's life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not "mine," but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going to go back on that. (The Message)

FREEDOM!