28Dec2013- A yoke of slavery

How you doin? This recovery is taking it's toll. 6 weeks is a long time in these conditions. I feel like I'm waring Stacey and the kids out. Please be praying for us to stand our ground in Christ. Galatians 5.

Verse 1, "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery." I love straight forward instructional Scripture. This of course is easier said then done... or is it? Verses 4-6, "You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. ⁵ For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope. ⁶ For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love." This makes perfectly good sense to me. By trying to be justified through the law I've alienated myself from Christ. We are taught most of our lives that God is sovereign. I'm not about to disagree with that teaching, because I believe God is sovereign. However, I believe God is relational first. God has given us free will so that we choose Him. He is sovereign enough to create clones, robots, or slaves. He chose to create us intimately and with free will so we choose Him intimately. That's why this Scripture makes sense to me. By taking on the yoke of slavery we alienate ourselves from Christ. If we look at today's marriage counseling technique we'll see that equality in the relationship is the theme. In our marriage with Christ it's the same. God wants us to participate in the relationship. That's a good word. God gave me a vision of Audrey & Paulie in their adulthood. I call them up and invited them over for dinner and to visit with Stacey and I. They both give a list of things they did well like gave $ to the poor and helped an old lady across the street. They also give me a list of things that they didn't do like drinking and cursing and adultery. Though these things were good to hear, I hung up the phone longing for them to have accepted my invitation. I know that God gave me that vision because He wants me to know how He feels when I choose a yoke of slavery instead of an intimate relationship with Him. COME ON!!!!!!!

As you know I love tough questions. Here's one. Verse 7, "You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth?" Verses 8-9 give us the answer, "That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. ⁹ “A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.” The yeast spoke of here is the yeast of the Pharisees who yoked themselves with the law and death. They didn't know Jesus. They didn't accept the invitation to come into fellowship with our Creator through the reconciliation and redemption of His Son. I can accept the invitation. AWESOME!!!!!!!

I'm a HUGE fan of Paul and his writing. Here's one of my favorites. Verses 11-12,  
"Brothers and sisters, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished. ¹² As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!" Paul doesn't really bite his tongue on this one. I can picture his face when he wrote this. I can picture the face of those reading the letter as well. He's basically saying "if you're going to get hung up on the law... go all the way." OUCH!!!!!!!

Of course this is the "B" side of this chapter. The "A" side is "do's and don'ts". The last 10 verses is titled "Living By The Spirit". Please read it on your own. Shed the yoke of slavery and accept the invitation today.