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Doing Good

5×5×5 Bible Plan

Read: Galatians 6
Meditation: Galatians 6:9-10

“So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up. Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone—especially to those in the family of faith.”

Shift Your Focus… Sometimes you just don’t feel like doing good! Am I right—or is it just me?

I think that’s what Paul means when he uses the word “tired.” There are times when you feel tired of doing the right thing. There are times, honestly, when you feel like being bad—like grousing at your family, running a red light when it’s late at night and there’s no one around, eating a chocolate covered peanut out of the bulk food bin without paying for it, drinking directly out of the juice container rather than using a glass—or worse!

That’s just a part of what it means to live as a fallen human being in a broken, messed up world. Doing good all the time isn’t the easiest thing to do. Giving into your fleshly feelings is.

Being a Christ-follower, however, means being ruled not by a feeling, but by a law, a higher law. Paul describes that higher law throughout Galatians when he speaks of the law of servanthood (5:13), the law of love (5:14), the law of Christ (6:2), and the law of sowing and reaping (6:7-9).

To be an authentic follower of Jesus—to live as Jesus would, to think as Jesus thought, and to do as Jesus did—means to treat these higher laws just as you would the laws that rule our universe. For instance, I’ll bet you dollars to doughnuts that you’re not going to go up to the roof of your house today and defy the law of gravity. You might feel like flying, you might feel like weightlessness would be a cool thing, but you are not going to challenge the higher law that outweighs your want of weightlessness. There is a name for people who do that—dead!

So it is with doing good. You don’t always feel like doing good, but there is a higher law that you must serve. In this case, it is the law of sowing and reaping. When you don’t feel like doing good, you remember that there will be a harvest of blessing in due season for sowing seeds of good in the present season. Therefore, serving the higher law means that you put your feelings aside and simply “will” yourself to do good.

Now, by and large, there is an interesting thing that happens when you grab your “want to” by your “will to” and do what these higher laws are calling you to do: Your feelings begin to line up behind your actions. If you act like Christ, you begin to feel good about it. And when you string enough good acts together until those corresponding good feelings begin to follow, you will to live at a pretty high level of joy. Plus, you make God pretty happy as well—and that’s always a good thing.

So go out of your way to be a do-gooder today—even if you don’t feel like it. It’s the law!

“Grab your ‘wanter’ by your ‘willer’ and make yourself do what you know you ought to do, and God will help you do it.” ~Paul Faulkner

Prayer… Father, today I will find some good things to do, because that is simply what the law of Christ is all about. I will love someone who isn’t too lovable. I will serve someone when I feel kind of selfish. I will do good for someone with no thought of repayment. By my actions, help me to fulfill your law today.

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Freed From Impossible Expectations

5×5×5 Bible Plan

Read: Galatians 5
Meditation: Galatians 5:1,13

“It is for freedom Christ has set you free.  Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery…You were called to be free.  But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather serve one another in love.”

Shift Your Focus… The big idea of Galatians is that Christ’s suffering on the cross means you don’t have to. His death was substitutionary—he took your place; his death was atoning—he paid the penalty for your sins because you couldn’t pay for them yourself; His death was sufficient—there is nothing you can do to add to it or to make it better. What all that means is that when you were saved, you were freed from a long list of do’s and don’t’s along with any other rules, regulations and requirements that you could never keep anyway. By Christ’s death, you were set free from living under that bondage of impossible expectations.

So Paul’s challenge then, is not to allow anyone or anything to enslave you again to either the works of the law on one end of the spectrum, or the works of the flesh on the other end. Religion, in this case, meeting the requirements of the Jewish law, is all about what you can do to get God to accept you, favor you, and save you. True Christianity is radically different. It is all about what was done for you. Christ has already done it all—and you can do nothing to improve upon it. Your salvation is by God’s grace through faith in Jesus’ atoning death, plus nothing else.

Therefore, you are free. You are free from the requirements of the law. You are free to do what you want, to live like you want, to eat and drink what you want, to worship like you want. You are totally free.

But here’s the deal: Don’t use that freedom to gratify the desires of your sinful nature. Rather, use your freedom to love God by serving others. After all, your freedom didn’t come cheaply! God gave his very best to deliver you—he gave his one and only Son to die on the cross for the sins of the world. Likewise, Jesus gave his all—he offered his sinless life as your substitute, taking on your sin and paying the penalty for it so you didn’t have to.

Now if you truly understand the profound implications of that costly gift, you will never cheapen God’s grace by indulging your own sinful desires. You will never use your freedom from the requirements of the law to live a spiritually slothful or self-indulgent life. If you truly grasp grace, you will offer all of your life for the rest of your life as one continual offering of grateful worship to God. How? By loving God with all your heart, soul, and mind!  And that wholly devoted love is expressed in its highest form by loving your neighbor as yourself. (Galatians 5:14; Matthew 22:37-39)

If you will make that your highest priority—or as Paul says in Galatians 5:16, if you “live by the Spirit” then “you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.” What are those sinful desires? Galatians 5:19-21 lists them out:

“Sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

Out of gratitude for God’s grace, those must be put to death. And when you do, when you offer your life as a living sacrifice of gratitude and worship to God, then fruit of the Spirit will be produced in abundance in your life: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” (Galatians 5:22-23)

It is for freedom that Christ has set you free, Paul says. So use your freedom in a way that reflects your deep, profound, and inexhaustible gratitude to God for the amazing grace that has set you totally and forever free.

“Spirit filled souls are ablaze for God. They love with a love that glows. They serve with a faith that kindles. They serve with a devotion that consumes. They hate sin with fierceness that burns. They rejoice with a joy that radiates. Love is perfected in the fire of God.” ~Samuel Chadwick

Prayer… Father, thank you for the free gift of spiritual freedom. My freedom cost you your very best, so I never want to abuse it by cheapening your grace with self-indulgent living. Rather, I want to use my freedom to serve you by serving others in love.

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Worship: Exalting God or Feeling Good

5×5×5 Bible Plan

Read: Galatians 4
Meditation: Galatians 4:9-11

“You are observing special days and months and seasons and years! I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you.”

Shift Your Focus… Every so often a well-intentioned Christian will strongly suggest to me that the church ought to incorporate a certain practice within our worship. These people are usually passionate about Jesus and are committed to personal discipleship, but they are convinced that if we don’t observe this new worship expression—often rooted in some obscure Old Testament passage—then we aren’t truly worshiping and will not experience the presence of the Lord among us.

Over the years, I have seen everything from “Jericho marches” to “holy laughter” to “slaying in the Spirit” just to name a few.  Years ago, I had a close ministry friend who was convinced that since our church didn’t participate in the Old Testament Feast of Tabernacles, we were under God’s judgment. At about that same time, a Bible teacher in the church had come to believe that it was wrong of us not to include a Passover Seder during Holy Week. At various other times I have had people tell me that we should be waving flags during our singing or blowing a ram’s horn as our call to worship. I could probably fill a chapter in a book with the variety of things that, according to these folks, we should be incorporating in our worship expressions. Sometimes I wonder what the next craze-phase will be: Ritual circumcision? Sacrificing goats? Reconstructing the Ark of the Covenant?

Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t think these ideas are completely weird—except for those last three; they’re pretty weird! I do think that sometimes it is helpful to incorporate some of these things into our worship as a way of teaching the roots of our faith and giving us a stronger foundation for our worship. What I have trouble with, however, is when people insist those expressions are necessary to true worship.

The Apostle Paul was pointing out that to do so was to slip back into the tutelage of the law. It was to willingly give up our freedom in Christ and come again under the domination of that from which Christ’s death and resurrection has set us free. The only scriptural requirements I can recall for those of us who live under the new and better covenant are pretty broad—and strategically so.

Jesus himself addressed this issue with the woman at the Samaritan well. A discussion was being had about the proper place and style of worship when Jesus made this declaration about new covenant worship:

“The time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way. For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.” (John 4:23-24)

If you want to observe a feast, go ahead. If you want to wave a flag, go ahead. Just don’t make it into a law. And don’t draw attention away from Christ and on to yourself when you do it. Remember, worship is about exalting Christ, not feeling good, although you will feel good when your exalt Christ. Whenever you worship, wherever you worship, in whatever way you worship, just remember that the Father wants your heart. As Lamar Boschman said,

“When I worship, I would rather my heart be without words than my words be without heart.”

God is still seeking men and women who will worship him out of sincerity of the heart rooted in the foundation of his new covenant truth.

“Worship is first and foremost for His benefit, not ours, though it is marvelous to discover that in giving Him pleasure, we ourselves enter into what can become our richest and most wholesome experience in life.”  ~Graham Kendrick

Prayer… Father, keep me from backsliding into law. May grace and truth always season my worship. May you find in me a worshiper who gives you my heart and who stays cemented in your truth.

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God’s Sufficiency For Your Shortcomings

5×5×5 Bible Plan

Read: Galatians 3
Meditation: Galatians 3:3

“After starting your Christian lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by our own effort?”

Shift Your Focus… Are you as guilty as I am in trying to get God to like you more?  Even though I have been a Christ follower most of my life and have come to increasingly appreciate the grace of God as I get older, I still find myself steering back into the same ol’ ditch of human effort to gain favor with God.

If I don’t feel good about some ministry effort, I’ll redouble my energy on the next activity.  If I preach a dull sermon, I’ll work myself silly so the next one will be on the same level as the Sermon on the Mount—although that never seems to work. If I fall into a sin that I’ve promised to never do again, I find myself thinking of how I can make up for it—something akin to Protestant penance.  If I am feeling unsuccessful, I will unleash a torrent of feel-good activity to compensate for my lack.

Sounds pretty goofed up doesn’t it?  Well not so fast!  I’ll bet you do the same thing.

Here’s the deal: No matter what you do, you cannot get God to like you any more than he already does. In fact, Romans 5:8 says he loves you so much that even when you were still in sin, he sent his Son to die for you. That’s how much he likes you!  Zechariah 2:8 declares you to be the apple of God’s eye—don’t ever forget that!

So if you’re a Christ follower, relax!  Chill out. You’re in. You’re on your way to heaven.  You’ve got the Holy Spirit living within you. You are saved, forgiven, empowered, and favored by God. Reframe your thinking: Instead of focusing on your shortcomings, focus on God’s sufficiency. That’s what you’re depending on anyway. God loves you, warts and all. Allow him to work on your warts, but enjoy his unconditional love—it will change your life.

“He rides pleasantly enough whom the grace of God carries.”  ~Thomas A. Kempis

Prayer… God, your grace is more than enough for me. It is greater than all my sins, and sufficient to compensate for all my shortcomings. Your grace is carrying me, and it will carry me right into your eternal arms at the end of my days. For that I thank you.

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Elephant In The Room: Having Difficult Conversations

5×5×5 Bible Plan

Read: Galatians 2
Meditation: Galatians 2:11

“When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong.

Shift Your Focus… There was an elephant in the room, and someone needed to point it out. Never being one to shy away from difficult conversations, Paul was just the guy to do it. So he confronted Peter, the great Apostle, boldly, unequivocally, and publicly.

Peter had gotten caught up in trying to impress certain followers of Christ who were quite legalistic in their approach to faith. They were still following many of the Jewish customs, both in their daily lives and in their public worship. Peter, himself a preacher of the Gospel of salvation by grace through faith to the Gentiles, now reverted back to his old ways, acting like one of the Jewish Christians right in front of the Gentile believers. This was hypocrisy pure and simple, and it sent the dangerous message to both the Jewish and Gentile believers that observance of the Law was still necessary to faith, or at least, and just as bad, could add to it.

So Paul took Peter on, and rebuked him to his face for all to see and hear. Paul’s message was hard to hear, but the truth, and it was needed!

We would do well to learn from Paul how to have difficult conversations. Rather than being so “nice” that we allow destructive words or actions to slip under the radar, we must be lovingly courageous enough to confront with courageous love. There are times when so much is at stake that to avoid confrontation just to maintain a relationship or to keep the peace becomes sin on our part, and it will lead to untold damage in the lives of those who need to be directed by our words.  Paul’s confrontation put his friendship with the Apostle Peter at risk, but more important than a friendship was the health, well being and doctrinal purity of the Antioch fellowship—not to mention the spread of the Gospel and the future growth of Christianity.

So how should one go about having these kinds of conversations? First, we need to make sure that what needs to be confronted rises to the level of a moral offense and is not merely a disagreement over personal preferences. Second, if possible, we need to have the conversation with the offending party in private. Third, the confrontation needs to be public if it has created a public perception that the wrong behavior is acceptable. Fourth, the conversation needs to be bold, but graceful, and done to bring about reformation and reconciliation. Finally, when we confront, our conversations need to be weighted toward solutions rather than focused only on criticism.

Difficult conversations should be rare, but when they are called for, we must be committed to speaking the truth in love rather than preserving the status quo. Someone’s eternity may be riding on it.

“Truth demands confrontation; loving confrontation, but confrontation nevertheless.” ~Francis Schaeffer

Prayer… Lord, give me the courage to love people enough to confront them when it is the only way that they will grow into the character of Christ.  Help me to be ready to speak the truth in love, with humility, and always seasoned with grace.

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Twisting The Pure And Simple Gospel

5×5×5 Bible Plan

Read: Galatians 1
Meditation: Galatians 1:8

“Let God’s curse fall on anyone, including us or even an angel from heaven, who preaches a different kind of Good News than the one we preached to you.”

Shift Your Focus… Every once in a while, it’s so obvious you can’t miss it.  Most of the time, however, it is a subtle, almost imperceptible, theological slight of hand.  What I am talking about is the twisting of the pure and simple Gospel.

It happens a lot—more often than you might think. To think that Satan would sit quietly by and allow the Good News to be preached in its simplicity and purity Sunday after Sunday from pulpits and in Sunday School classes or in weekly home group Bible studies would require the willingly suspension of disbelief on your part. Satan knows the fundamental power of the Gospel, so he goes after it early and often, trying to pervert it in any way he can.

That’s why Paul writes so many of his letters. That’s why he continually calls believers to alertness. That’s why he gives this sober warning here in the opening verses of Galatians. If anyone, a preacher, teacher, Bible study discussion leader, even an angel from heaven for that matter, brings a Gospel message other that salvation by grace through faith in the atoning death of Christ on the cross and his physical resurrection from the dead, then let the curse of God fall upon them.

So be alert. Be discerning. Check out the sermon to see if it lines up with God’s truth.  Don’t swallow everything you hear, hook, line and sinker. Don’t be afraid to ask questions if you aren’t sure about what was said. Never let anyone mislead you into thinking that your salvation is based on observing certain laws or good works or righteous acts or sinless perfection. On the other hand, reject anyone who teaches you that sin doesn’t matter, or whose teaching abuses God’s grace, or who takes advantage of your spiritual liberty by leading you into questionable practices.

Stick to the basics: Salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone.

And don’t be afraid to vet what you hear from your spiritual leader, as much as you love and respect him or her.  It will keep both you and them faithful to the most important truth in the universe—the Good News!

“It is a remarkable fact that all the heresies which have arisen in the Christian Church have had a decided tendency to ‘dishonor God and to flatter man.’” ~Charles Spurgeon

Prayer… Lord, I believe that you died on the cross as the only possible substitute for my sins.  It is only through your sacrificial death that I can receive forgiveness and be made righteous before God the Father.  I believe that you rose from the grave after three days, that you now live before the Father to ever intercede on my behalf, and will return one day soon to take me home to be with you forever.  It is by the grace of the Father than I have been saved from sin through the gift of faith that has led me to put trust in your redemptive work. I completely trust in you as my Savior and fully follow you as my Lord.

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This World Is Not My Home

5×5×5 Bible Plan

Read: Hebrews 13
Meditation: Hebrews 13:14

“For this world is not our permanent home; we are looking forward to a home yet to come.”

Shift Your Focus… After serving as a missionary for forty years in Africa, Henry C. Morrison became sick and had to return to America. As the great ocean liner docked in New York Harbor, there was a great crowd gathered to welcome home another passenger on that boat. Morrison watched as President Teddy Roosevelt received a grand welcome home party after his African Safari.

Resentment seized Morrison and he turned to God in anger, “I have come back home after all this time and service to the church and there is no one, not even one person here to welcome me home.”

Then a still small voice came to Morrison and said, “You’re not home yet.”

And neither are you!

As we used to sing in the little country church I grew up in, “This world is not my home, I’m just passing through. My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue.”

And that is the truth, my friend. Heaven is not just some pie-in-the-sky theology the preacher spouts about to make you feel better. It is the promise of our Lord himself and the clear teaching of Scripture. In fact, nothing else the Bible says, promises, or calls you to do makes sense without the assurance of eternal life, the reality of life after death and the imminence of heaven. Without heaven, the birth, life, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus was wasted. Without heaven, the church, our worship, world evangelization and the sum of the Christian life are all irrelevant. But thanks be to God, the promise of heaven is our blessed hope, and as Paul says in Romans 5:5, this hope will not disappoint!

So as you go about your day, don’t let yourself feel too at home in this world—there is a better one coming sooner than you think.

“God destines us for an end beyond the grasp of reason.”  ~Thomas Aquinas

Prayer… Lord, don’t let me get too earth bound.  Keep reminding me that heaven is my real home, and help me to live every day on earth with that in mind.