My sermon this week is on Galatians 3.26-4.7, and in my talk we looked at 5 awe-striking truths from this text, but in this devotion I've chosen to focus on the last bit of one sentence from Chapter 3 verse 27b; ... put on Christ, like putting on new clothes. If you heard the message you'll have heard me sharing an experience I had recently while praying to salvation with a friend. It was a beautiful moment as any moment of salvation is, but as I mention in the talk, it was also for me a bit of an aha-moment. As we were talking just before she invited Jesus into her life, my friend told me how it felt like she was dressed in a dress that was too small, as she was dressed in wrong clothes.  Read More

Our passage this week is right in the middle of a larger argument Paul is weaving through Galatians 3:1-4:7. Verses 15-25 can feel quite technical at times. But stick with them. Let them fuel your gratitude that God our Father has made us righteous through faith in his perfect son Jesus! Following a longer autobiographical section Paul is consider our relationship to the Law as believers in Christ. In our passage this week Paul emphasising to us the importance of God’s promise to Abraham, and he is exploring the purpose of the Law.  Read More

This week in our sermon on Galatians, I contemplated what it was like to experience the situation through Paul’s (the Apostle) eyes. To feel what he felt when dealing with the Galatians, and mirror that in my own life. It’s the best way to experience the Bible by looking at the context the passage was written in and looking at it from the writer's perspective.  Read More

My sermon this week is on Galatians 2:11-21. I focus most of our time in that message on the Confrontation between Peter and Paul, but today I want to pick out a particular verse in this passage where Paul uses some interesting language to unveil a deep truth about the gospel. In verse 20 Paul says this “For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me”. On the face of it, this is just an interesting metaphor to show the starkness of the difference of the Christian’s life, but I want to suggest to you that it’s more than that.  Read More

This week in our sermon on Galatians I spent some time working through these 10 verses a verse or two at a time. This is a great way to unpack scripture on your own or as part of a groups. The underlying principle when doing this is to remember that we are not bringing our wisdom and knowledge and asking – does the Word of God agree with me. Rather we are bringing ourselves under the Word of God and asking ourselves are we living our lives in line with God’s wisdom.  Read More

The bible encourages us to wait on the Lord (Isaiah 40) and to meditate on God’s word (Psalm 1). Over these weeks we want to encourage one another to do just that. Seek to make space for God to break in. It isn’t easy for some of us, but it is vital if our relationship with God is truly going to be our foundation for living the rest of life with real joy. You could try reading one chapter of Galatians each day and then all six chapters on Sunday.  Read More