Friday Night Football

Galatians 4:1-7

 

Previous to my Senior year of high school, my Dad took a job in Morehead, Kentucky. However, I stayed and lived with family friends so that I could finish high school with my friends. At one point in the fall, my Dad returned to complete some final details for the move. While there, he attended my high school football game on a Friday night. Normally, I didn’t play much, but I really wanted to get into the game and make him proud.

 

Finally, the coach called my name and I went in on offense. It was a running play to the opposite side of the field. The runner was probably thirty yards away from me, but I was desperate to do something, anything to impress my Dad. So I picked out an overweight lineman that was huffing and puffing, and put the hardest block on him that I could. He hit the ground with a great thud, and exhaled whatever air he had left in his lungs. To this day, I don’t know if my Dad saw me do that or not, but it was for him.

 

In Galatia, there were Judaizers, who were Jewish Christians. They believed that a number of the ceremonial practices of the Old Testament were still binding, and insisted that the Gentile believers abide by these, particularly circumcision. Paul responded in today’s passage with his attack on this belief.

 

“And that is the way it was with us before Christ came. We were slaves to Jewish laws and rituals, for we thought they could save us.  But when the right time came, the time God decided on, he sent his Son, born of a woman, born as a Jew,  to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law so that he could adopt us as his very own sons.”   Galatians 4:3-5 TLB

 

Paul knew well what it meant to try to live by the Law. In Philippians he referred to himself as, “a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless”. If you read this verse carefully, you will see that Paul defined himself according to his perceived ability to obey the Law. But in today’s passage, Paul suggests a better way for believers to define themselves.

 

“Because you are his children, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts. He is the Holy Spirit. By his power we call God Abba. Abba means Father. So you aren’t a slave any longer. You are God’s child. Because you are his child, God gives you the rights of those who are his children.”      Galatians 4:6-7 NIRV

 

The Law does not define who I am. My job, my family, my church, the things that I have done, even my personality, does not define who I am. But my Heavenly Father does. I am His child, and like my earthly Dad on that fall evening years ago, I want my Heavenly Dad to be proud of me, so that someday He will say to me, “You are my son. With you I am well pleased.”

 

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=galatians%204%3A1-7&version=NIRV;TLB

 

 

The Story – Chapter 23 – Jesus’ Ministry Begins

Watch  "Who Am I" and this will make Amazing sense.

John Chapters 3 and 4

John chapters 3 and 4 hold many significant messages! The first section in Chapter 3 is titled “Jesus Teaches Nicodemus.” This Nicodemus fellow reminds me of me in ways. He went to Jesus at night when no one else was around. Nicodemus acknowledged Jesus as a teacher who had come from God. He inquired about how a grown man could be born again. His question seems surface and even quite silly. Nicodemus said, “How can a man be born when he is old? Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born!”

When I began my true and sincere walk with the Lord and started spending time in the bible, I too had many questions that likely sounded immature and unaware, but that’s exactly what I was. We all began there, no matter what our age. Nicodemus was an important member of the religious ruling class yet understood very little. We all have much to learn, and if we pay attention we will find that the more we know, the more we know we don’t know. Perhaps that’s why we are called “children of God,” and the reason He says we must be like children in our beliefs. Mark 10:15 "Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it." The Lord knows we will never be able to fully understand because of our limited human mind within this earthly realm. Seeking His heavenly world in awe and wonder as a child however, is what God wants of us.

John 3 is the place in the bible where one of the most famous verses appears. The Journey (A Bible for Seeking God and Understanding Life) states: This one sentence contains the greatest message from the greatest source, describing the greatest love, demonstrated by the greatest sacrifice ever given. John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son; that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

John 3 concludes with John the Baptist’s testimony about Jesus. Because he was there before Jesus, and baptizing, when Jesus arrived on the scene, many went to John asking about Jesus. John reminded them; “You yourselves can testify that I said, I am not the Christ but am sent ahead of him………He must become greater, I must become less.” As John the Baptist, we are here to acknowledge the Lord, and as we help to spread His word, give all the honor and glory to Him as we become less. It is not about us, but about He who sent us. We are but a vapor in the wind. It has nothing to do with what we've done,  and everything to do with who He is. 

Listen and watch “Who Am I” by Casting Crowns

Read or Listen to John 3 and 4