Posts with the tag “grace”

And so we come to the end of our journey through Galatians. What a fruitful journey it has been? Or has it? Certainly it has been an enjoyable time – what is not to enjoy about digging into the grace of God week after week. To be constantly reminded that God loves us because he loves us. That God’s love is not, and has never been, dependent on our religious activity. That we were chosen before the beginning of the world, that before we were even a glint in our parent’s imagination we had a fixed place in the mind of God. This is grace, this realisation that our foundation is secure and that from that foundation we can now live to please GOD. But has this journey been fruitful?  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

Timothy tells us that scripture equips us for good works, and Paul in Ephesians tells us that Christ saved us for good works. God has an adventure for us to take part in and scripture is one of the key ways he equips us for that adventure. Reading scripture is not meant to be a religious duty, it is meant to be a vital energy giver for deepening our relationship with God and seeing the Kingdom of God break out in every area of our lives.  Read More