The Everyday Prayer

Re:Verse passage – Galatians 2:1-10 (day three)

“Then after an interval of fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem…”

What happened to Paul in that interval of fourteen years? Scholarship is of several opinions. Timelines are sometimes notoriously thorny in biblical studies. But overall, one can see that a substantial amount of time elapsed between Paul’s cataclysmic life-rearrangement and his full engagement with the church. Why? Because change happens in one’s life at the speed of trust. What appear as instantaneous existential shifts have in fact been long in the making. Moses fearlessly faced Pharoah only after he had spent 40 years in desert exile contemplating his life (which prepared him for the burning bush encounter). Abraham ascended Moriah only after he had known God for the better part of a century. Whether 100 years, 40 years, or 14 years, change takes time in you. That doesn’t bother God.

Re:Verse passage – Galatians 2:1-10 (day two)

(for He who effectually worked for Peter in his apostleship to the circumcised effectually worked for me also to the Gentiles) vs. 8

This parenthetical statement is tucked in Paul’s clear statement that he had been clearly called to minister to the Gentiles with a clear recognition that Peter had been called to minister to the Jews. Paul will later write about being all things to all people, and the need to recognize your audience and the context in which you are speaking. Thinking globally, there are many different expressions of worship that occur each week. Some may look so completely different from our own expression that it may seem strange at best, and even wrong to some. Paul is very clear on this point. When we bring our own baggage, rules, traditions (however good they may be) and add them to the gospel…we diminish the gospel. Paul knows his audience, and he knows the gospel. Everything else is subordinate, and much is unnecessary. Think about this the next time you are in a conversation about differences in denominational difference,  culture, or tradition. Wrestle over the gospel, not over the guitar.

Re:Verse passage – Galatians 1:11-24 (day seven)

But when God, who had set me apart even from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace. Galatians 1:15

Paul is telling us about himself, but he is also giving us insight into our relationship with God:

You are chosen. The Psalmist uses similar language saying, “You knit me together in my mother’s womb” (Psalm 119:13). Before the beginning of time, God had a plan for you. He created you unique and perfect. In that perfection, He set you apart for a specific purpose… or purposes.

You are called. God extends to you an invitation to join Him in this work that He has set you apart for. Every person has a calling. For some, it is to come into a relationship with Him, but His calling doesn’t stop at salvation. Being set apart is synonymous with sanctification, and we know that sanctification is the process of our spiritual maturation on this earth. The calling may be different, but it will never stop. He is always calling His chosen ones to join Him in His work.

When the prophet Isaiah heard this calling, He said , “Here I am. Send me!” (Isaiah 6:8) The Lord has chosen and called you for a specific purpose today. Will you be able to say, “Send me!”?

Re:Verse passage – Galatians 1:11-24 (day six)

…it pleased him to reveal his Son to me so that I would proclaim the Good News about Jesus to the Gentiles. Galatians 1:16

Paul realized in Jesus, that it was never God’s ambition that Gentiles become children of Israel but that they become children of God, resulting in a global multi-ethnic family united in Jesus.

Jesus does not undo or abandon the law but fulfills it (by his life, death, and resurrection) for all those who believe, and that is good news! Furthermore, through Jesus the promises God made to Israel are now available to the whole world, which was his intent all along.

Aren’t you thankful?

Re:Verse passage – Galatians 1:11-24 (day five)  

“For you have heard of my former manner of life in Judaism, how I used to persecute the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it; and I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my countrymen, being more extremely zealous for my ancestral traditions.”

Does God save “good” people, or does He save “bad” people? The answer according to Paul, is YES!!  Both!!
I like the words of Tim Keller as he expounds on this truth.

The gospel calls us out of religion as much as it calls us out of irreligion. No one is so good they don’t need the grace of the gospel, nor so bad that they cannot receive the grace of the gospel.

There is hope and salvation available for all of us who will repent and believe. That is Amazing Grace!!

Re:Verse passage – Galatians 1:11-24 (day four)

He who once persecuted us is now preaching the faith which he once tried to destroy.

We most often notice God’s sovereignty when we’re out in creation, considering how he cares for the birds and the flowers, or when some sort of catastrophe is avoided, and we thank him for his protection. Paul shows us here, though, that we come face to face with the sovereignty of God every day when we interact with each other.

Paul had his whole life turned around by the revolutionary power of the gospel of Christ. And when he looks back, he sees that God was with him from the beginning – even in his mother’s womb, even when he was trying to destroy the Christian church – with a calling to bring the gospel to all the world. The power of the gospel in Paul’s life is the sovereignty of God on display.

When the people spoke with awe about the difference they saw in him, they were testifying to the power of God. He can and will use anyone he chooses to accomplish his purposes on the earth. That same sovereignty is revealed in us, too. When the redeemed of the Lord say so, we testify to his sovereign power. And when we think someone is too far gone, Paul reminds us that with God, nothing is impossible.

Re:Verse passage – Galatians 1:11-24 (day three)

“For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.”

“The Revelation of St. John the Divine” is the heading of the last book in all the old King James Bibles. Turns out St. Paul clocked in a little ahead of St. John in the revelation experience. Paul had given his whole life to the pursuit of his faith. From boyhood, he learned the scriptures from Gamaliel. Paul studied diligently to become a scholar of scholars, literate in the most influential philosophical and theological bodies of knowledge the world had ever produced. He put all that intellectual and spiritual fire into making the world safe from the Jesus Way. His encounter with Jesus completely undid him. It took Jesus himself to bring Paul through that trauma and into God’s work.