Galatians 6 "Others"

Many people including myself have used the verses at the beginning of this chapter to justify their actions when confronting others about things they are doing wrong.  What I would forget, and what other forgot was that we ned to take the Bible as a whole, in these verses it says to be careful, this means many things, it means we need to be sensitive to who we are talking to.  We need to make sure the one we are talking too want/needs help, if someone doesn't want help we only look like jerks.  We also need to make sure we take care of ourselves first.  We need to be in control of our actions as well as have the log out of our eye before we worry about the splinter in another's eye.  I try but fail to pray enough to gain the wisdom I need in these situations.  

God help me to rely more on you.

Galatians 5 "THE SECRET"

Galatians 5:16 gives us the secret to how to beat sin.

¹⁶ So I say, live by the Holy Spirit's power. Then you will not do what your sinful nature wants you to do.

Need I say more?  Figuring out how to live by this power is what we need to strive for not control; in this is where we find control. 

Galatians 4 "Slaves"

If you think about it long enough and give it serious thought, I believe we can agree that we are all slaves to what is most important to us at any given moment.  My question to myslef and you is what do you want to be a slave to?  Something that will cause you joy now and pain in the end or something that causes joy and pain now and inheritance of eternal life in the end.  We need to be slaves to Christ just as a son is a slave (in the biblical sense) to his father to recieve the inheritance of his father.  

Galatians 3 "Ten Commandments"

If we don't understand the Ten Commandments and why God sent them to us we are bound to use them in the wrong way and falter because of it just as Galatia did.  Paul, I think, clearly tells us in this chapter that the law was sent to us after the promise God gave to Abraham and before Christ; it was sent here to keep us in line until Christ came, that is clear.  When we forget these rules are not here for us to live our life by but here to keep us in line until we have our faith in Christ (in which case I believe the rules turn into a sort of list that shows us who is Christian and who is not following Christ by faith).  If we don't realise and remember this we will to use the faith we have and begin things in God's hands, in faith and then continue by our own hands with the law.  I have done this many times.  I pray and ask God for a chance, a way to prove myself and then when He gives it to me I rely only on myself and the tools previously given to me, such as the law, and not by faith.  I would also be faced with trials and turn to God to start and when I get on the right track I stop relying on God only to wind up off the tracks again.  The consistency is something I struggle with and something Galatia needed to understand too. 

Galatians 2 "After we sin we are wise"

At the end of this chapter Paul talks about how we must die before we can truely live for God.  This reminded me of a song I heard on the radio yesterday that made me think.  The line in the song was "when I am blinded I can clearly see." I would like to take this idea even futher and think that, its not the sin but, the absense of God causes us to realise what we are doing and makes us wise to our sin. So many times, not all the time, I feel I understand I am sinning and that it is wrong immediately after I sin.  For some reason, I think it is because I hit rock bottom and sinned, I am far from God and He is showing me a way out.  Our problem: We don't listen.  The world tells us to only rely on ourselves and do it on your own, don't rely on God.  

Galatians 1 "Pleasing Others"

In this chapter in the very beginning Paul talks again about how his is appointed by God, how his message is not his own and is not even human.  He received grace from God and now preaches the very message he once tried to destroy. 

Verse 10 is very interesting to me.  As Paul is talking about the message he is bringing he also says his main intention is to not preach so that he is liked by others he preaches because God calls him too.  Later in the chapter we learn that Paul is once again preaching and teaching the Galatians and they are a group of none Jews, Paul feels he has a gift to do this because he once was on their side of the fence.  What gets me is people in this world who, myself included, don't preach to others the Good news, they preach other good news, give people the wrong idea and those that rarely do show the Good news don't do it enough and though we are all great sinners it is hard for us to preach to those who aren't of faith to those who don't know Jesus.  Paul says, in my interpretation, in verse 10 if when we preach the Good news or in not preaching the Good news we are trying to please people then we are not serving the Lord.  I think it is better, though I don't always have the guts, to show the Good news to someone, in the right way, and have them hate you then to not share it at all.  Too often we trick ourselves into thinking that we don't share the Good news because we don't want to offend the other person, we don't want them to feel bad we want them to change we don't want to be the ones to tell them they aren't good enough when we have flaws too.  We tell ourselves we would be turning them from Jesus so we say nothing.  If we do it in the right way we can't push them from Christ even if they kill you they are closer to God in the long run, so pray you did do it right and then do it. 

2 Corinthians 13

Paul encourages us to be perfect to always strive for this goal.  He also says to test ourselves and see if we pass the test.  I am not sure what he means by this.  I will ask my pastor tomorrow. 

2 Corinthians 12 "Weakness is Good"

I have heard many times that weakness is good and God works better through those who are weak and when you are weak you are stronger in God, it makes it easier to trust in God.  I believe some of these comments have arrived from this chapter in 2 Corinthians.  But what I am reading is different from what I have heard from others.  Others have given me the impression that weakness is good and it is what leads to being strong in Christ.  From what I am gathering from Paul I believe that is a valid interpretation but if someone didn't read this themselves they would not understand the chapter the way it was ment to be.  I think Paul is more so saying that strength in God is brought from our response to our weakness, in that we need to embrase it, go against the worlds view that weakness is not appealing.  In reality there are few if any things more humbling than embrasing your weakness and in doing so showing the power of God.  

If that doesn't do it for you think about it this way.  Jesus Christ, God in human flesh, needed to become nothing so he could save us from our sins, the same God that spoke everything into existance needed and chose to become nothing to save us, why do we think we can do anything without embrasing what makes us nothing.  

2 Corinthians 11 "Bragging"

I feel like I read this chapter but missed a whole lot. I think it said long story short.
Brag, if you must, about the things that make you weak.

2 Corinthians 10 "Fighting"

Again it is shown to me how an amazing worker of God Paul is. He describes in this chapter how people this he is of this world; he explains that he lives in this world but doesn't fight his battles the way people of this world do. He fights with his faith. He prays and takes every excuse people have to not follow God away. I have found this, in the rare occations I use this tacktic, to work but take time. It takes talking to someone else and not explaining anything to them just ask them questions, ask them to explain thier faith compared to yours with Christ. They will see the difference and ask you questions once you show you care. "No one cares what you know till they know that you care."
Also if you are going to brag about anything let it be about the work God has done through you, not work you have done without God and not work done through other people.

2 Corinthians 9 "Giving"

God Loves a Cheerful giver, nor a giver, but a cheerful one. Just giving doesn't do anything, people without God give without cheer, because they feel they need to. People that allow God to dwell in them give cheerfully, don't give if you don't want to. My interpretation of this chapter is, the more you give the more God gives you. People in my life have said and displayed this concept for a long time, I am glad to have a more biblical understanding of it, as I didn't always believe it.

2 Corinthians 8 "Giving"

Giving is giving when it is out of wealth but the one who gives more is the one who gives out of what he doesn't have and does it in the name of the Lord.

2 Corinthians 7 "Paul's Joy"

This chapter is mainly about how Paul is overjoyed when he had met up with Titus.  They talked about the town of Corinth and how Paul's first letter had made them sad and how when Paul was there he was being given a hard time, but then Titus told Paul how they turned away from there sin and how the sadness they had was not worldly it was sadness with God which is explained to come from guilt of sin and is what brings us back to God. Paul who expresses he and his followers never wanted to make them sad is not upset for sending the letter but joyful and is happy the faith he always had in the Corinthians is complete.  

What gets me is that I have been fooled a couple of times, or atleast I thought I was, when I chose to call someone out on their sin.  How does Paul know when he can and can't say something(send a letter, or visit them).  I feel the risk of turning someone away from God has kept me from doing his will atleast once, I don't know when but I know it has happened.

2 Corinthians 6 "Devotion"

The level of devotion that Paul is displaying and describing is truly remarkable.  To find someone who does this is truly rare.  The line that I find the most interesting is when Paul says in verse 4, we serve God by holding steady.  This does not mean we are always moving forward, though we do need to be at some point if not a lot of the time, but the most important thing is not going backward, not going back to the old way of your life.  You are a new creation, treat your life as such.  This is what I think Paul is trying to say.  I believe it is better to hold strong to God and not falter in your own beliefs than bring others to Christ and spread his word; though this is what God calls us to do and we should not use the former as an excuse to not act when God is leading you.  Prime example Jonah (and the Whale).

2 Corinthians 5 "Comfort" ***

So often I find that I try to find my place in this world, to find where I belong, to find meaning for my life.  These are things I think almost all if not all of us do.  And though we kind of realise it, it doesn't slap us in the face like the first part of this chapter does;  all of these questions are not wrong to think about but all of them give off the sense of, me me me.  Where do "I" fit in to all of this stuff, this world.  Answer: You don't.  Your life means nothing compared to all of the time on this earth (Don't let life be confused with soul, God loves you that is for sure, your body is what doesn't matter).  We try so hard to satisfy the "needs" (we don't need them) of our body, trying to find comfort trying to find peace, I have yet to meet anyone that can get and keep this peace.  We are not meant to find peace in our bodies, they are not our home, there is a house for us in heaven.  The sooner we stop thinking we are worth something, the sooner we stop using drugs, drinking, taking pleasure in sexual sins (not sex in marriage, but lusting stuff like that), the sooner we forget about our lives here on earth the sooner we can find the spirit, which I have found doesn't bring comfort the way we want it to, in that it takes away all the stuff that sucks about this world, but it brings comfort in that it assures us without a doubt that there is a place for us in heaven. 

So often, being in ROTC, I hear about people who say the reason and why they are in the military is that they want to be a part of something bigger than themselves they want to protect the lives of those close to them, they want to serve.  So I ask you and I ask myself, what is bigger than God, what is better saving/protecting someones life or their soul, what is the truest form of service; does it not have everything to do with God.

Today before I read this chapter I made a choice, a choice to drop the feelings I have been having to try to bend to this world, it was leaving me empty and lonely.  I'm done with that.  I have decided to once again give my life to Christ.  This chapter assures me I am doing the right thing.  When you read this (Chris, Jeff, anyone else) please contact me somehow and congratulate me, I am excited to no longer try to control my life when I know I do a sucky job at it.  Also I wrote a new song, I like it it is a praise song.  

2 Corinthians 4 "Water"

Which is better a pretty, beautiful, million dollar pot or non-poisonous water inside the pot.  The pot and water are you, if you missed that.