Galatians 2:1-2 – Paul in chapter 1 insists that the Gospel he preaches came not from men but from Jesus, yet here he says that he went to Jerusalem to present his Gospel to the leaders there, “in order to make sure I was not running or had not run in vain“. Even though he was confident in what Jesus had given Him, knowing that Jesus had spoken also to them (and first), he wanted to be sure that they were in agreement.
Galatians 2:4-9 – He who once a zealot for the law, to the point of punishing law breakers with death, now just as zealously defends the Gospel of freedom and refuses to allow those who would claim we must still submit to the law any ground.
Galatians 2:11-14 – The church needs men of boldness like Paul, who for the sake of the purity of the Gospel will stand up, publicly, to leaders whose “conduct [is] not in step with the truth of the gospel“. Paul paid a price for his convictions as do those today who dare to call false gospel false. Of course, Paul’s standing for the Gospel ultimately cost him his life at the hands of those outside the church, but I imagine that day he ruffled a few feathers among the brothers that day.
Galatians 2:20 – “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” I struggled with this before becoming a Christian and I’ve since heard others express the same struggle. The commitment to Christ is complete and total surrender. From the outside, it seems as if you will loose your very identity, becoming some religious clone of every other Christian, robotically living the same life as any other disciple. As this verse says, we are no longer ourselves, but Jesus in the flesh. It’s scary and it sounds boring.
But while there is truth to those ideas, that I die and succumb to Christ, that does not produce like Jesus like duplicates in the way that a photocopier does. The beauty of God’s creation in humanity is that His will and Jesus can be expressed in a huge number of ways. We are still individual expressions of the will of the Father, when we surrender to Him and live out Jesus instead of us, the real us He created is revealed. on two disciples are alike, just like no two sinners are and none of us are a complete expression of who He is. Only when we come together as the church to we begin to fully experience and express Him.
Far from being boring, when we let go and surrender to Jesus, only then we are able to live up to our potential, becoming, finally, all that He created us to be.

Once again, it’s been over a month since my last QT entry (and, yes, since my last time sitting down with the Bible. Sigh. I’m diving into Galatians and then back to the OT, perhaps for the minor prophets, I’m not sure yet. I’m open to your OT suggestions.
Galatians 1:1 – Paul pauses, briefly, to point out (or remind them) that he is an apostle, not because men decided he should be, but because Jesus himself had come to him and mad him one.
Galatians 1:3 – Paul reminds us of several things in this short greeting. 1) This age is evil. (So don’t be surprised when men do evil things.) 2) Christ gave himself for our sins to deliver us from said evil. (Amen!) and 3) That was God’s idea and desire. (Amen again!)
Galatians 1:6-9 – I think this passage ought to give us more pause than it seems to. Paul says if anyone preaches a different gospel than what was originally given, they should be cursed. To that many would say “Amen!”, yet we see many gospels in what is broadly seen as Christianity today. We see a gospel of prosperity, that God want’s you to have stuff, we see a gospel of works where we must perform to get into or stay in God’s favor, we see the self help gospel and more. if we agree that there is but one true gospel and that those who preach another ought to be cursed, then we should be sobered and consider hard the gospel that we preach. Is it the gospel or another? Or is it the Gospel plus our own pet convictions and doctrines?
So, should we be timid in proclaiming it, lest we get it wrong? No, the fact that it is so precious and so frequently mis-preached means that, while being careful to preach only what is from Christ, we ought to, in fact we must, proclaim it constantly in order to keep it fresh in our minds and the minds of those around us that any gospel that is false me be immediately seen as such.
Galatians 1:11-24 – Paul says that he did not stop to consult any man, even the leaders in Jerusalem, before he started preaching the Gospel. So, it wasn’t Man’s, it was straight from Christ, through Paul, to the people. There was no need to consult with the leaders, to craft a position or draw up a statement. The Gospel needed no polish or spin then, nor does it today.

James 4:2 – “You desire and do not have, so you murder.” Was murder really a big issue here? I suspect that James was exaggerating.
James 4:1-3 – I recently read a posting (OK, part of it since I was too disgusted to finish it) claiming that to doubt that God was going to give us what we desire (healing, in that context) wasn’t even faith. In fact, it was sinful to consider that perhaps God wouldn’t heal when we ask Him to, according to the writer. I’m not going to look it up to link to, because it was, frankly, evil – a heretic interpretation of this passage and others that promise that God will grant our requests.
it is a simplistic interpretation of James 4:2 to say if we ask for it we will receive it. Note the next verse where James says it is possible to ask wrongly, for our own desires. God is not our servant, like some almighty Jeanie there to simply grant our requests. No we are His servants, created to do His will, not the other way around. We are top submit our will to His, and to interpret this passage in any way outside of that context is evil and preys on the desperation of people in despair.
To claim that healing (or anything else) is there for the taking if our faith is strong enough, our prayers sincere enough or any other such nonsense is not only a bastardization of James’ intent, it’s a viscous slap in the face to righteous, God fearing men and women who have suffered and endured hardships and illnesses.
So, what is James’ point in James 4:1-10? Almost the exact opposite. When we think in the ways of the world, concentrating on what we think we need or what we want, we stand opposed to God. James calls it adultery in verse four. It’s our selfish, worldly thoughts that drive us away from God. Get humble, submit to Him, don’t audaciously assume that He will submit to you.
James 4:13-16 – The entire chapter,in some ways, is about arrogance. We assume that we know what we need or that we know better than another. We follow the ways of the world instead of submitting to God. This passage really drives that point home, everything we plan to do is subject to the will of the Father. If He is willing, we will work, get married, have a family, grow old. It’s humbling to consider how easily God can change the course of our lives, even end them. The old line that Mom would give us “I brought you into this world, i can take you out.” brings on a sobering new meaning when God is speaking.
Do we live with that knowledge in our minds?
James 4:17 – So, James ends this chapter – OK, he didn’t write in chapters, we imposed that on his writings – he ends this section with “So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.” At first, this appears to be a bit incongruous to me. What does this have to do with the preceding verses?
Clearly, James’ audience was busy perusing their own interests, making plans, and battling each other in their attempts to achieve success. Along the way, they were passing over opportunities to do the right thing.
How many times along the way in life is there opportunity to do the right thing, yet we are too busy to even notice, let alone act? Many times, too many times. The old adage about stopping to smell the roses comes to mind, but instead we need to slow down and look away from our plans and our desires and humble ourselves enough to see what God sees along the way. There are many opportunities to do the good we ought to do, if we’d only be aware.

James 3:1 – “Not many … should become teachers” James says, yet it seems that many want to teach or assume that they have something to teach. In some ways it makes me wonder even about blogging. So many folks with blogs. Should we assume to teach? Is there a difference between simply sharing one’s thoughts and observations that assuming to be a teacher? I guess, but I the warning still applies. James warns that teacher will be “judged with greater strictness” so anytime we share anything we ought to do so with humility and care, mindful of the impact our words can have. We ought to share what we do in the hopes to help, but not assuming that we have something that others need to hear. The difference, as always, is not in the specific actions but in the heart behind them. Too many proclaim with great confidence that God is saying so and so or that God wants such and such out of someone. We ought to be careful and slow to claim that we know the will of God outside of what He has put in writing for all of us.
James 3:2-12 – It’s in this context that James goes on to warn about the dangers of the tongue. He expounds from warning about what we teach to warning about what we say in general. What we say can do great harm and great good, and it is very easy to go from one to another. One who can truly control his tongue is an amazing man indeed, he says in verse 2.
We easily speak as if we know what God would have us say. We easily and carelessly throw our opinions around as if they do no harm. Certainly, we can become so careful that we say nothing and influence no one, and I wonder if I often fall into that trap, thinking that it is better to avoid the possibility of offense rather than speaking my convictions. James warns us, however, how easy it is to do harm with our words. In fact, he notes how man has tamed the most powerful creatures in nature, but still hasn’t figured out how to control his tongue (James 3:7-8).
The tongue is a powerful tool, able to instruct in the ways of God and able to tear down those it is used against. Just like any other power tool we might use, we must respect it and use it with care or we can destroy not only the work we intend to do with it, but the people involved.
James 3:13-18 – One might call this a mini-primer on how to tell if a leader is of God or not. Is he seeking peace or seeking his own advancement? Is he gentle, open to reason, merciful, impartial and sincere? We must not judge those who claim to lead us in the Lord by the world’s standards – monetary success, size of their following, praise of others – instead, we should look to his character.

James 2:1-7 – The way of the world, and frankly too often the church, is to look at those ho are poor as failures. They made bad choices, or are not that bright, or else they wouldn’t be in that spot. James calls these things ‘evil thoughts’ in verse 4. If we are honest with each other, there are people that we are tempted to do the same with. They are harder to love because they are needy or maybe just annoying. Do you avoid them in the fellowship (or the workplace, school, wherever)? I know that I am tempted to. I see them on the caller ID or at church or wherever and I hope they won’t want to talk to me or I’m tempted to let the call go to voice mail. Oh, I know what I ought to do, so I take the call or have the conversation. But is that what Jesus or James would have us do, gut it out for the sake of doing the right thing?
Instead, I should pray to see them as Jesus does and have his heart to give to them. This goes back to that John Piper list of 5 ways to handle it when you don’t want to do what you ought. Instead fo gutting it out, we ought to pray for God’s heart.
I was tempted to leave most of this out, because, frankly, it’s embarrassing to admit. I have a hunch that many others have these same thoughts and temptations, however, and as disciples of Jesus, we need to be called higher. Jesus spent most of his time here with those who were outcast by society, why should we do any different? The only way we can do as He did, however, is to pray for the transforming work of the spirit in our hearts.
James 2:12-13 – James calls us to live under the law, not the old law but the “law of liberty”. In other words, as Paul taught, we are free to live God’s way as opposed to being slaves to disobedience. So we should live as one with the freedom, finally, to do the right thing.
What does being judges by the law of liberty mean? It means being judged on our mercy, according to James 2:13. So, having been set free and shown mercy, we must do the same. If we do not, we will not be shown the mercy we claim to embrace.
James 2:14-26 – Some like to point to this passage as saying that good works are required for salvation, even saying that James said that Abraham and Rahab were “justified” by their works. But if you read it properly, James is not saying that at all. he merely points out that the two go hand in hand. Faith without the “good deeds” to back it up is a lie, it simply isn’t faith. And note, he never talks about “Good deeds” apart from faith. The two are inseparable. If you claim one without the other, you deceive yourself.

Last night at church we had a little exercise centered on Jeremiah 36. There, King Jehoiakim is read a scroll that God had Jeremiah write. It was the words of God, delivered through Jeremiah (and a scribe and a servant) to the King. As the servant read it to the Kind,every few columns the King would slice it off and throw it into the fire pot. He was defiantly showing how little he cared about teh words of God, throwing out that which he didn’t like. (Frankly, I don’t think he was editing as much as discarding it outright, a distinction without a difference.)
So, we asked ourselves, what parts of the Bible would we like to discard? What bits could we do without? We may not burn them or physically rip them from the pages, but we ignore them, skim over them or simply focus on something else.
Martin Luther is rather famously known to have had trouble believing that the book of James should be in the Bible and last night it would seem that many of our congregation would agree as passages in James, or even the whole book,were targeted for removal.
The point of the exercise was not to edit the scriptures but to point out that we need to accept and submit to all of it. The words God gave to Jeremiah were given that perhaps the people would turn back to God. Jehoiakim defiantly ignored God’s word, and he paid a price for it. Perhaps then we should pay more careful to those passages that we find the most challenging. It’s in that spirit that I decided to start a study of James.
James 1:2 – This was one of those passages. Consider it a joy to be tested? We decided that we might even be OK with the trials, but would like to reserve the right to grumble and complain about them.
Frankly, this is something that even the world understands, however. “No pain, no gain”, right? How many times have you heard stories of folks who grew and triumphed out of severe trial? The fact is that not only has God decreed that his people shall learn from trails and testing, but he has set up the world that way. We grow through challenges, we learn through failure. Why then, not embrace it? Why not revel in the trials that God brings to strengthen us and make us steadfast, lacking nothing.
James 1:5-8 – James says if we lack wisdom, ask for it and God will give it to you. Have you ever connected that with James 1:2-4 where ‘lacking nothing’ starts with trials and testing? So, if we ask God to grow, we shouldn’t be surprised to see hardship come. If wee resist the trials, we resist God who is giving us what we asked for. We like to think that if we ask God for wisdom he will magically bestow it upon us, we will wake up the next morning wise beyond our years. The lessons of history is that God does not do that. Over and over, God’s people learned through trials. David being chased by Saul, Paul on the road to Damascus, Moses through the desert and many more. Jesus promises that God will prune us, Paul says that he disciplines those he loves.
So if you ask of God, be ready to joyfully receive the trials that will produce the growth you’ve requested.
James 1:12 – I always took this passage as a call to endure, to hold out until the trial is over. In the proper context, however, James is saying that being faithful isn’t simply enduring, it’s embracing the trail as a gift from God for our growth. The blessing comes from God through the trial, not in spite of it. If we can keep this in mind, how will it transform – and redeem – the trials we face?
James 1:13 – He makes a distinction here between trials and temptations. God sends us trials, but not temptations. We need to recognize the difference. Flee the temptations bot embrace the trials.
James 1:19-20 – I find myself needing to remember this a lot. A whole lot. I am quick to become angry by nature. God has given me victory over much of it, but I have far to go.
James 1:22-27 – And now we start to get into the bit that gave Luther fits. James says that our religion is worthless if we simply listen, we must act upon what we hear. How many do just that, they go on Sundays, maybe even Sunday School, Wednesdays and Bible study groups. Yet their daily life is not transformed by what they hear. It’s easy to point fingers, but we all know how easy it is to get sucked into the world, forgetting what we learned that Sunday or studied even that morning (or, ahem, lunch hour) in our Bibles. James calls us to a higher faith than mere belief, he calls us to the faith that Jesus did. After all, he called men to act out their faith in serving the poor, denying themselves and seeking the lost.
Faith must produce something in our lives or else it is not faith at all, or else it is merely philosophy, and a powerless one at that.

Romans 15:1-7 – Paul speaks of peace and harmony and of bearing with those who are weak, assuming (as most of us would) that we are those “who are strong” (verse 1).
This made me think of Jesus and the disciples. They were knuckleheads, selfish, power hungry and prideful. For about 99% of His time with them, they didn’t understand at all what he was doing. Only at the end, after he arose and just before he left, did they really get it.
Yet Jesus never once threw anyone out for not believing the right things or the right way. He was surrounded by folks who’s faith in him was incomplete or even misguided, yet he called them brothers,welcomed them and brought them along.
We, on the other hand, won’t fellowship with those down the street because they don’t get this doctrine or that. We stay in our little group of (mostly) like minded folks, or worse, we stay out of any group all together. We stand up and leave if things aren’t the way we think they ought to be. How unlike Jesus who was patient with their misunderstanding and did not turn them away.
The splintering of God’s church into hundreds of small like-minded groups has always troubled me. I’m not sure what can be done, but I want to do something. we ought to live out verse 7:

Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.

Romans 15:14 – Paul spent 14 chapters challenging the Romans on how they live and ought to live. Yet here in verse 14 he says “I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another.” Too often I stop and the challenge and the rebuke, even if it is only in own mind, resulting in feeling dissatisfied and that folks are not full of goodness.
Romans 16:3-16 – There’s a story behind each of these names of their relationship to Paul and of their walk with the Lord and service to his church. Wouldn’t it be great to know them all?

Romans 14:1-4 – I wonder, how would broader Christianity be different if we simply followed verse 1: “As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions.”
Verse 4 reminds us that we each must stand before God. What we believe is important in the faith, outside of the core of the gospel (yea, I know), we should explain, even try to persuade (while open to being persuaded), but ultimately it’s between the person and God as to whether he stands or not.
But look in verse 4 – who make them able to stand? It doesn’t say that they are able to stand before the Lord, rather that the Lord will make them able to stand.
Romans 14:8 – “For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.” (emphasis mine) Doug gave a great message this week on living by the spirit, framing it in terms of God owning us. (Look for it here, hopefully soon.) This reminds me of that concept, not only in the terms of ownership or even slavery and submission, which are true, but even more so in terms of belonging. We belong to Him that created it all, who is over all and in all. We are His.
Amen and hallelujah.
One could argue that that truth is not the point of the passage, and I guess they’d be right. I’d argue, however, that it’s the point that underscores the truth of the passage. We belong to God, we are His, so we have no standing to judge each other. I often remind my girls, when they want to correct their sisters, that they are not the parent. Here Paul is reminding us, when we want to correct and judge other Christians, that we are not the master. It is not our place to police the fellowship.
Romans 14:13-23 – A case could be made here that Paul is teaching a DIY Christianity. If it’s acceptable to you, it’s acceptable, if it violates your conscience, it’s sin. Certainly, not everything is good or righteous, yet I have a feeling for most of us, we restrict more than God would. Yet, here the Bible teaches us that even though it’s OK for another, it may not be OK for us. It’s hard for us to fathom, isn’t it? We want black and white, dos and don’ts, clear cut and simple.
If we think about it, it makes sense, Even if we see other we respect doing something, if we cannot imagine God accepting it, how can we do it? We should seek understanding from them and provide them with our own convictions, but in the end we both must stand before God.
Such an open ended, even vague, faith is unsettling, but that’s what God has given us. Who are we to argue?

Romans 13:1 – I wonder how scandalous these words were to the church in Rome, especially as they remembered them as the Roman government ramped up it’s persecutions of the Christians? Submit to those who had no regard for them or their rights? The Jews among them must have also bristled at submission to what they say as an invading power.
Romans 13:7 – This was the theme of our annual Hero Service last Sunday (specifcally the ‘respect’ and ‘honor’ phrases) where we make a special effort to invite those who serve our community – teachers, police, firemen, health care workers. We had a great crowd and Jesus was preached. I’m looking forward to hearing reactions this Wednesday.
Romans 13:8-10 – Love fulfills the law. To love completely and perfectly is a tall order, and as Paul states in verse 8, the debt to love is never fulfilled. We can always grow in love and find new ways of showing it.
Romans 13:11-14 – Considering the previous chapters of Romans, i read this section in a different light. Paul is not urging them to good moral behavior, but reminding them yet again that, because they have been connected with Jesus’ death and resurrection, they live not in the darkness that surrounds them, but in the light of God. So act like it.