CHOSEN

Posted on February 15, 2022 by randscallawayffm

We are chosen by God to live freely in this world.  God chose us to have an intimate, unconditional loving relationship with Him, the Creator of all!  God so loved us that He sent His Son to save us from our bonded, entangled sin, and set us free for life.  Forever!  We cannot do that for ourselves. 

We are chosen to love God back because He first loved us.  We are invited and chosen to abide in God’s love and protection with provisions and salvation for life everlasting with God.  We are chosen to be His people who come for all nations.  We are chosen to be equal in His Kingdom.

God chose to love us.  Because God’s love and character is pure, holy, kind, patient, always wanting the best for us, is always for us and not against us, He gives us the will and power to choose to love Him back—or not.  He allows His people to make a decision to choose all that is Him or to choose what is not Him.  This decision is a matter of life or death for us!  We must daily choose God or not.  Choose wisely.

Like a Father who loves his children in the most excellent way, He wants us to love Him back, not out of sacrifice, duty or obligation, not because he told us to, but because we readily choose to love Him with a desire to be with Him.  Coming to him to fulfil a check list is not love at all. God sees and knows our hearts well.  He created them!  Nothing to hide from God!

Loving God, realizing the full extent of the love of Jesus for us, changes how we love Him back and how we love each other.  The opposite of love is hate and is the character of evil.  So, in this life, there are only two choices.  Love or hate.  Free or bound.  Joy or misery.

Dear Friends, why would be choose anything or anyone less than the love of God?

GALATIANS—FRUIT BEARING

Galatians 5, The Message

The Life of Freedom

Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you.

2-3 I am emphatic about this. The moment any one of you submits to circumcision or any other rule-keeping system, at that same moment Christ’s hard-won gift of freedom is squandered. I repeat my warning: The person who accepts the ways of circumcision trades all the advantages of the free life in Christ for the obligations of the slave life of the law.

4-6 I suspect you would never intend this, but this is what happens. When you attempt to live by your own religious plans and projects, you are cut off from Christ, you fall out of grace. Meanwhile we expectantly wait for a satisfying relationship with the Spirit. For in Christ, neither our most conscientious religion nor disregard of religion amounts to anything. What matters is something far more interior: faith expressed in love.

7-10 You were running superbly! Who cut in on you, deflecting you from the true course of obedience? This detour doesn’t come from the One who called you into the race in the first place. And please don’t toss this off as insignificant. It only takes a minute amount of yeast, you know, to permeate an entire loaf of bread. Deep down, the Master has given me confidence that you will not defect. But the one who is upsetting you, whoever he is, will bear the divine judgment.

11-12 As for the rumor that I continue to preach the ways of circumcision (as I did in those pre-Damascus Road days), that is absurd. Why would I still be persecuted, then? If I were preaching that old message, no one would be offended if I mentioned the Cross now and then—it would be so watered-down it wouldn’t matter one way or the other. Why don’t these agitators, obsessive as they are about circumcision, go all the way and castrate themselves!

13-15 It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don’t use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that’s how freedom grows. For everything we know about God’s Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That’s an act of true freedom. If you bite and ravage each other, watch out—in no time at all you will be annihilating each other, and where will your precious freedom be then?

16-18 My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by God’s Spirit. Then you won’t feed the compulsions of selfishness. For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us that is at odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible with selfishness. These two ways of life are contrary to each other, so that you cannot live at times one way and at times another way according to how you feel on any given day. Why don’t you choose to be led by the Spirit and so escape the erratic compulsions of a law-dominated existence?

* * *

19-21 It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on.

This isn’t the first time I have warned you, you know. If you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God’s kingdom.

22-23 But what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.

23-24 Legalism is helpless in bringing this about; it only gets in the way. Among those who belong to Christ, everything connected with getting our own way and mindlessly responding to what everyone else calls necessities is killed off for good—crucified.

25-26 Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives. That means we will not compare ourselves with each other as if one of us were better and another worse. We have far more interesting things to do with our lives. Each of us is an original.

AS THE CHOSEN, WHAT ARE WE CHOOSING?

Friends, what are we choosing?  Our behaviors daily reflect what we truly believe in our hearts.   (See Romans 12:1-2 for help.)

Do I feel chosen?  Am I choosing wisely?  Am I seeking the Spirit’s wisdom and help?

Lord,

Thank you for choosing us to be set free by you.  Thank you for loving us so much you created a plan to save us knowing we could not save ourselves.  Thank you for always wanting the best for us.  Thank you for abiding in us—by our choice.  Thank you for being with us, guiding us in all decision making and problem solving.  Thank you for breaking all chains of the entanglements of the sins of our former life.  Thank you for building your character in us.  We are not there yet, but you do not give up on us!  Thank you for forgiveness, perfect love, less fear, more grace, less judgement, more mercy.  Thank you for setting me free.  I choose You because you chose me.  I love you with all that is in me because of your great love for me that brings life, joy and peace.  Continue to grow your character traits in me so I will bear the fruits of your work!

In Jesus Name, For Your Glory, Amen

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JOINT HEIRS—BELIEVE IT!

Posted on February 14, 2022 by randscallawayffm

Legalese has always baffled anyone who is not a lawyer.  It takes a person who knows that language well to explain what is really being said.  A great lawyer will splice and dice the enormous number of words to a simple sentence of meaning for the client.  Paul, a learned man, is doing just that for us in this passage. 

Bottom line:  When we repent of our sins, believe with a heart to follow Jesus, we become children of God.  Since Jesus is God’s Son, that makes us “joint heirs” with Jesus!  We claim the inheritance with Jesus—in full relationship with God with life forever with Him!

Why then, would we walk away from our inheritance and follow anyone else?  Apparently, others did as soon as Paul left their community.  Many turned to heretics who twisted the Law while trying to turn people’s heads back to mere tradition without a relationship with God through Jesus.  Many still do that today.  Heartbreaking.

IT’S TIME TO GROW UP!

Paul reminds believers or our free, Kingdom living, given to us by Jesus who died and rose again for us, making us “joint heirs”.  Don’t give that up for legalism that drags us away from our intimate relationship with God, our Father! 

GALATIANS—FRUIT BEARING

Galatians 4, The Message

1-3 Let me show you the implications of this. As long as the heir is a minor, he has no advantage over the slave. Though legally he owns the entire inheritance, he is subject to tutors and administrators until whatever date the father has set for emancipation. That is the way it is with us: When we were minors, we were just like slaves ordered around by simple instructions (the tutors and administrators of this world), with no say in the conduct of our own lives.

4-7 But when the time arrived that was set by God the Father, God sent his Son, born among us of a woman, born under the conditions of the law so that he might redeem those of us who have been kidnapped by the law. Thus we have been set free to experience our rightful heritage. You can tell for sure that you are now fully adopted as his own children because God sent the Spirit of his Son into our lives crying out, “Papa! Father!” Doesn’t that privilege of intimate conversation with God make it plain that you are not a slave, but a child? And if you are a child, you’re also an heir, with complete access to the inheritance.

8-11 Earlier, before you knew God personally, you were enslaved to so-called gods that had nothing of the divine about them. But now that you know the real God—or rather since God knows you—how can you possibly subject yourselves again to those tin gods? For that is exactly what you do when you are intimidated into scrupulously observing all the traditions, taboos, and superstitions associated with special days and seasons and years. I am afraid that all my hard work among you has gone up in a puff of smoke!

12-13 My dear friends, what I would really like you to do is try to put yourselves in my shoes to the same extent that I, when I was with you, put myself in yours. You were very sensitive and kind then. You did not come down on me personally. You were well aware that the reason I ended up preaching to you was that I was physically broken, and so, prevented from continuing my journey, I was forced to stop with you. That is how I came to preach to you.

14-16 And don’t you remember that even though taking in a sick guest was most troublesome for you, you chose to treat me as well as you would have treated an angel of God—as well as you would have treated Jesus himself if he had visited you? What has happened to the satisfaction you felt at that time? There were some of you then who, if possible, would have given your very eyes to me—that is how deeply you cared! And now have I suddenly become your enemy simply by telling you the truth? I can’t believe it.

17 Those heretical teachers go to great lengths to flatter you, but their motives are rotten. They want to shut you out of the free world of God’s grace so that you will always depend on them for approval and direction, making them feel important.

* * *

18-20 It is a good thing to be passionate in doing good, but not just when I am in your presence. Can’t you continue the same concern for both my person and my message when I am away from you that you had when I was with you? Do you know how I feel right now, and will feel until Christ’s life becomes visible in your lives? Like a mother in the pain of childbirth. Oh, I keep wishing that I was with you. Then I wouldn’t be reduced to this blunt, letter-writing language out of sheer frustration.

21-31 Tell me now, you who have become so enamored with the law: Have you paid close attention to that law? Abraham, remember, had two sons: one by the slave woman and one by the free woman. The son of the slave woman was born by human plotting; the son of the free woman was born by God’s promise. This illustrates the very thing we are dealing with now. The two births represent two ways of being in relationship with God. One is from Mount Sinai in Arabia. It corresponds with what is now going on in Jerusalem—a slave life, producing slaves as offspring. This is the way of Hagar. In contrast to that, there is an invisible Jerusalem, a free Jerusalem, and she is our mother—this is the way of Sarah. Remember what Isaiah wrote:

Rejoice, barren woman who bears no children,
    shout and cry out, woman who has no birth pangs,
Because the children of the barren woman
    now surpass the children of the chosen woman.

Isn’t it clear, friends, that you, like Isaac, are children of promise? In the days of Hagar and Sarah, the child who came from faithless plotting (Ishmael) harassed the child who came—empowered by the Spirit—from the faithful promise (Isaac). Isn’t it clear that the harassment you are now experiencing from the Jerusalem heretics follows that old pattern? There is a Scripture that tells us what to do: “Expel the slave mother with her son, for the slave son will not inherit with the free son.” Isn’t that conclusive? We are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.

MORE TO LEARN…

One of the tragedies of legalism is that it gives the appearance of spiritual maturity when, in reality, it leads the believer back into a “second childhood” of Christian experience. The Galatian Christians, like most believers, wanted to grow and go forward for Christ; but they were going about it in the wrong way. Their experience is not too different from that of Christians today who get involved in various legalistic movements, hoping to become better Christians. Their motives may be right, but their methods are wrong.

“You can tell for sure that you are now fully adopted as his own children because God sent the Spirit of his Son into our lives crying out, “Papa! Father!” Doesn’t that privilege of intimate conversation with God make it plain that you are not a slave, but a child? And if you are a child, you’re also an heir, with complete access to the inheritance.”

Don’t trade the intimacy with Papa, Father, for the entanglement of legalism that leads to the bondage of jealousy, envy, judgment of each other, comparisons, competitions of good behaviors, discord and division.  It’s not worth it.

Lord,

The evil one knows how to get at us easily.  He makes legalism look good, trapping and holding us tight from your best.  May we grow in faith, grow in wisdom to know when traps are being set and walk around those traps with you in the lead.  Thank you, Papa, Father, for the intimacy I have with you.  Thank you for listening to my words and to my heart each day.  Help me to love like you love me.  Help me to live to please you and no one else.  Keep my feet on the path. I trust you, dear Jesus.

In Jesus Name, For Your glory, Amen

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WE CRAZY!

Posted on February 12, 2022 by randscallawayffm

It is so easy to be sucked into the vortex of self-righteousness.  We are crazy, just like the Galatians, if we really think and behave as if being good and being better at being good, is what it takes to get us closer to God and set us right with God!  Stop it, right now.  If being good, (and we cannot be good enough, measuring up to Christ who is perfect), following all the religious laws, doing all the right things, making sure we follow all the rules God laid out as well as those added by man, then what was the reason for Christ’s coming to earth? 

Paul sets the Galatians (and us) straight about doing good versus being faithful.  No one is good, not even Paul.  All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.  (Romans 3:23).  Only Jesus, who knew no sin, could become the perfect sacrifice, once and for all, for our sins.  We could not do this for ourselves.  Only Jesus.

I love how Paul explains and ties together the Old Covenant Promise (Law that protected and guided) with the New Covenant (Jesus fulfilling the Promise of salvation forever).  Jesus set things right with God through his sacrifice for all our sin.  Because of Jesus we can boldly come to God, no middleman, In Jesus Name. This is all because of God’s amazing love, great grace and wonderful mercy.  God so loved us he sent His Son to save us and set us back into a right relationship with Him.  Believe and be saved, the apostles cry out.  Believers are a redeemed people!  Free to now be and do what GOD wants us to be and do.  And what God wants is His very best for each of us.

Watch as the excitement and passion builds in Paul as he explains the redeemed life of believers, complete with examples, to the crazy Galatians trying to work their way back into God’s graces…as if…it was all up to them.  Crazy.

GALATIANS—FRUIT BEARING

Galatians 3, The Message

Trust in Christ, Not the Law

You crazy Galatians! Did someone put a spell on you? Have you taken leave of your senses? Something crazy has happened, for it’s obvious that you no longer have the crucified Jesus in clear focus in your lives. His sacrifice on the cross was certainly set before you clearly enough.

2-4 Let me put this question to you: How did your new life begin? Was it by working your heads off to please God? Or was it by responding to God’s Message to you? Are you going to continue this craziness? For only crazy people would think they could complete by their own efforts what was begun by God. If you weren’t smart enough or strong enough to begin it, how do you suppose you could perfect it? Did you go through this whole painful learning process for nothing? It is not yet a total loss, but it certainly will be if you keep this up!

5-6 Answer this question: Does the God who lavishly provides you with his own presence, his Holy Spirit, working things in your lives you could never do for yourselves, does he do these things because of your strenuous moral striving or because you trust him to do them in you? Don’t these things happen among you just as they happened with Abraham? He believed God, and that act of belief was turned into a life that was right with God.

7-8 Is it not obvious to you that persons who put their trust in Christ (not persons who put their trust in the law!) are like Abraham: children of faith? It was all laid out beforehand in Scripture that God would set things right with non-Jews by faith. Scripture anticipated this in the promise to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed in you.”

9-10 So those now who live by faith are blessed along with Abraham, who lived by faith—this is no new doctrine! And that means that anyone who tries to live by his own effort, independent of God, is doomed to failure. Scripture backs this up: “Utterly cursed is every person who fails to carry out every detail written in the Book of the law.”

11-12 The obvious impossibility of carrying out such a moral program should make it plain that no one can sustain a relationship with God that way. The person who lives in right relationship with God does it by embracing what God arranges for him. Doing things for God is the opposite of entering into what God does for you. Habakkuk had it right: “The person who believes God, is set right by God—and that’s the real life.” Rule-keeping does not naturally evolve into living by faith, but only perpetuates itself in more and more rule-keeping, a fact observed in Scripture: “The one who does these things [rule-keeping] continues to live by them.”

13-14 Christ redeemed us from that self-defeating, cursed life by absorbing it completely into himself. Do you remember the Scripture that says, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”? That is what happened when Jesus was nailed to the cross: He became a curse, and at the same time dissolved the curse. And now, because of that, the air is cleared and we can see that Abraham’s blessing is present and available for non-Jews, too. We are all able to receive God’s life, his Spirit, in and with us by believing—just the way Abraham received it.

* * *

15-18 Friends, let me give you an example from everyday affairs of the free life I am talking about. Once a person’s will has been signed, no one else can annul it or add to it. Now, the promises were made to Abraham and to his descendant. You will observe that Scripture, in the careful language of a legal document, does not say “to descendants,” referring to everybody in general, but “to your descendant” (the noun, note, is singular), referring to Christ. This is the way I interpret this: A will, earlier signed by God, is not annulled by an addendum attached 430 years later, thereby negating the promise of the will. No, this addendum, with its instructions and regulations, has nothing to do with the promised inheritance in the will.

18-20 What is the point, then, of the law, the attached addendum? It was a thoughtful addition to the original covenant promises made to Abraham. The purpose of the law was to keep a sinful people in the way of salvation until Christ (the descendant) came, inheriting the promises and distributing them to us. Obviously this law was not a firsthand encounter with God. It was arranged by angelic messengers through a middleman, Moses. But if there is a middleman as there was at Sinai, then the people are not dealing directly with God, are they? But the original promise is the direct blessing of God, received by faith.

21-22 If such is the case, is the law, then, an anti-promise, a negation of God’s will for us? Not at all. Its purpose was to make obvious to everyone that we are, in ourselves, out of right relationship with God, and therefore to show us the futility of devising some religious system for getting by our own efforts what we can only get by waiting in faith for God to complete his promise. For if any kind of rule-keeping had power to create life in us, we would certainly have gotten it by this time.

23-24 Until the time when we were mature enough to respond freely in faith to the living God, we were carefully surrounded and protected by the Mosaic law. The law was like those Greek tutors, with which you are familiar, who escort children to school and protect them from danger or distraction, making sure the children will really get to the place they set out for.

25-27 But now you have arrived at your destination: By faith in Christ you are in direct relationship with God. Your baptism in Christ was not just washing you up for a fresh start. It also involved dressing you in an adult faith wardrobe—Christ’s life, the fulfillment of God’s original promise.

In Christ’s Family

28-29 In Christ’s family there can be no division into Jew and non-Jew, slave and free, male and female. Among us you are all equal. That is, we are all in a common relationship with Jesus Christ. Also, since you are Christ’s family, then you are Abraham’s famous “descendant,” heirs according to the covenant promises.

QUESTIONS AND THOUGHTS OF REFLECTIONS

Am I working hard to be good enough for God?  How and why? 

Am I living redeemed and free, accepting God’s grace, exploring the wide-open spaces of God’s destination for me?  Or am I still in chains to sin and/or crazy religiousness?

Is my faith based and proven in my mind by my works?  Or do works flow from me based on my faith in the One and Only who saved me?  There is a huge difference.

Dear Friends, yes, we can be crazy at times, chasing after goodness as if that was what God wanted most from us.  Jesus said, “no one is good, only God.”  We are not God.  Only God is God.  When we realize it is not up to us and accept what Jesus has done for us, we will be set free to live truly redeemed!  That burden was lifted at the resurrection of Jesus to life everlasting!  Whew!  It’s not up to us!

God’s central focus is that we love Him with all our hearts, all our minds and all our souls.  (Deuteronomy, quoted by Jesus)  Repent and be saved from all sin by Jesus Christ, not by our measure of being good.  Wake up and ask God what He wants daily and then do it.  But BE with Him first.  God just wants us to BE in relationship with him, to love Him back.  He takes care of the rest! 

From Genesis to Revelation, God wants His people to love Him back.  That is the main theme and focus.  (And isn’t that what most loving parents want from their children?)

Thank you, Paul.

Lord,

Thank you for Paul’s explanation to your church, groups of people learning to grow in your character, in your love, mercy and grace, in Your Name, for Your glory, all because we love you back.  We love you because you first loved us and sent your Son to save us.  Thank you, Lord.  I am redeemed!

In Jesus Name, Amen

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PRETENDING IS FRUITLESS

Posted on February 11, 2022 by randscallawayffm

Pretending comes natural to us.  Just watch children at play and you will see them transform in their thoughts and actions to be super heroes, teachers, policemen, nurses, doctors, cowboys or soldiers.  Sometimes they will become their favorite animal!   Some will emerge as leaders with willing followers in their pretending.  It fun to watch!

As adults, sometimes this pretending gene in our DNA appears in our behaviors when trying to look good to others, or appear as if we are just like them so they will like us, as well as those occasions when we want others to follow in our ways we will pretend to be something we are not.  “Fake it ‘til you make it” is not in the vocabulary of God’s Kingdom work. In the end, it is fruitless. Truth has a way of rising to the top of every situation.  When truth is revealed, we look foolish in our pretense. 

Paul sees pretending as fruitless and hurtful in the mission to help others know and follow Jesus.  Paul is not perfect and readily admits his imperfections.  So, when he sees another revered leader caught up in pretense, Paul calls him out.  Know that Paul has great respect for Peter, the called and sent apostle who knew Jesus, walked with Him and learned from Him.  So, Paul reminds him that there is no reason to pretend to be someone you are not. Our relationship with Jesus Christ is central to our lives!  Our relationship with Him bears the fruits of His character forming in us.  Our relationship with Jesus sets us right with God.  There is no other relationship that can do that!  Our relationship with Jesus forms all other healthy, loving, relationships that are true and right, and pleasing to God.

Paul loves and cares for Peter enough to confront him.  This coming together saved their relationship because of the relationship they both had with God through Jesus Christ, His Son.  Relationships built on Jesus bear all kinds of fruit in our lives!  Love is central.  God is love.  Love God.  Love Each Other.  Jesus commanded it.  Stop the hypocrisy, pretending, becoming chameleons who change colors to match the scenery.    Be who we say we are—believers in Jesus who behave like him more and more.  We are not perfect, admit it.  But we are perfectly forgiven, set free from hypocrisy, bound by others’ expectations.  That is a prison that is hard to escape! 

Here is the secret, Paul says, “Christ in us!”  Jesus lives IN all who believe in Him.  Follow Jesus who is central to living free lives from the sin of pleasing others.

GALATIANS—FRUIT BEARING

Galatians 2, The Message

What Is Central?

1-5 Fourteen years after that first visit, Barnabas and I went up to Jerusalem and took Titus with us. I went to clarify with them what had been revealed to me. At that time I placed before them exactly what I was preaching to the non-Jews. I did this in private with the leaders, those held in esteem by the church, so that our concern would not become a controversial public issue, marred by ethnic tensions, exposing my years of work to denigration and endangering my present ministry. Significantly, Titus, non-Jewish though he was, was not required to be circumcised. While we were in conference we were infiltrated by spies pretending to be Christians, who slipped in to find out just how free true Christians are. Their ulterior motive was to reduce us to their brand of servitude. We didn’t give them the time of day. We were determined to preserve the truth of the Message for you.

6-10 As for those who were considered important in the church, their reputation doesn’t concern me. God isn’t impressed with mere appearances, and neither am I. And of course these leaders were able to add nothing to the message I had been preaching. It was soon evident that God had entrusted me with the same message to the non-Jews as Peter had been preaching to the Jews. Recognizing that my calling had been given by God, James, Peter, and John—the pillars of the church—shook hands with me and Barnabas, assigning us to a ministry to the non-Jews, while they continued to be responsible for reaching out to the Jews. The only additional thing they asked was that we remember the poor, and I was already eager to do that.

11-13 Later, when Peter came to Antioch, I had a face-to-face confrontation with him because he was clearly out of line. Here’s the situation. Earlier, before certain persons had come from James, Peter regularly ate with the non-Jews. But when that conservative group came from Jerusalem, he cautiously pulled back and put as much distance as he could manage between himself and his non-Jewish friends. That’s how fearful he was of the conservative Jewish clique that’s been pushing the old system of circumcision. Unfortunately, the rest of the Jews in the Antioch church joined in that hypocrisy so that even Barnabas was swept along in the charade.

14 But when I saw that they were not maintaining a steady, straight course according to the Message, I spoke up to Peter in front of them all: “If you, a Jew, live like a non-Jew when you’re not being observed by the watchdogs from Jerusalem, what right do you have to require non-Jews to conform to Jewish customs just to make a favorable impression on your old Jerusalem buddies?”

15-16 We Jews know that we have no advantage of birth over “non-Jewish sinners.” We know very well that we are not set right with God by rule-keeping but only through personal faith in Jesus Christ. How do we know? We tried it—and we had the best system of rules the world has ever seen! Convinced that no human being can please God by self-improvement, we believed in Jesus as the Messiah so that we might be set right before God by trusting in the Messiah, not by trying to be good.

17-18 Have some of you noticed that we are not yet perfect? (No great surprise, right?) And are you ready to make the accusation that since people like me, who go through Christ in order to get things right with God, aren’t perfectly virtuous, Christ must therefore be an accessory to sin? The accusation is frivolous. If I was “trying to be good,” I would be rebuilding the same old barn that I tore down. I would be acting as a pretender.

19-21 What actually took place is this: I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn’t work. So I quit being a “law man” so that I could be God’s man. Christ’s life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not “mine,” but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going to go back on that.

21 Is it not clear to you that to go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God? I refuse to do that, to repudiate God’s grace. If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION—

Can I declare like Paul, “I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central.”

Does my behavior match my answer?  How?

Lord,

You are God and I am not.  Jesus came to set us right with You.  I believe that and accept that He did exactly that.  I am now redeemed and free to please only You.  May my life reflect who is living now in me, which is you, dear Jesus!  May no pretense enter my relationships.  Help me to love like you love me, unconditionally, full of grace and mercy with complete truth.  My relationship with you is the most important relationship of life.  You are life!  Help me to keep it simple and central to my behavior.  Help me to bear the fruits of your character growing in me.

In Jesus Name, For Your Glory, Amen

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I WAS, BUT THEN GOD…

Posted on February 10, 2022 by randscallawayffm

“When men and women get their hands on religion, one of the first things they often do is turn it into an instrument for controlling others, ether putting or keeping them ‘in their place.’  The history of such religious manipulation and coercion is long and tedious.  It is little wonder that people who have only known religion on such terms experience release or escape from it as freedom.  The problem is that the freedom turns out to be short-lived.”  –Eugene Peterson, Introduction of Galatians, The Message

Paul of Tarsus was doing his diligent best to add yet another chapter to this dreary history when he was converted by Jesus to something radically and entirely different—a free life in God.  Through Jesus, Paul learned that God was not an impersonal force to be used to make people behave in certain prescribed ways, but a personal Savior who set us free to live a free life.  God did not coerce us from without, but set us free from within.

It was a glorious experience, and Paul set off telling others, introducing and inviting everyone he met into this free life.  In his early travels he founded a series of churches in the Roman province of Galatia.  A few years later Paul learned that religious leaders of the old school had come in to those churches, called his views and authority into question, and were reintroducing the old ways, herding all these freedom-loving Christians back into the corral of religious rules and regulations.

Paul was, of course furious.  He was furious with the old guard for coming in with their strong-arm religious tactics and intimidating the Christians into giving up their free life in Jesus.  But he was also furious with the Christians for caving in to the intimidation.

His letter to the Galatian churches helps them, and us, recover the original freedom.  He also gives direction in the nature of God’s gift of freedom—most necessary guidance, for freedom is a delicate and subtle gift, easily perverted and often squandered.

Let’s begin this journey while prayerfully and carefully examining our own motives.  Are we living a life bound by religious tradition or are we freely abiding in a beautiful relationship with our Savior and Lord.  Relationships that are forever loving and abiding are hard to keep quiet about, aren’t they?

GALATIANS—FRUIT BEARING

Galatians 1, The Message

1-5 I, Paul, and my companions in faith here, send greetings to the Galatian churches. My authority for writing to you does not come from any popular vote of the people, nor does it come through the appointment of some human higher-up. It comes directly from Jesus the Messiah and God the Father, who raised him from the dead. I’m God-commissioned. So I greet you with the great words, grace and peace! We know the meaning of those words because Jesus Christ rescued us from this evil world we’re in by offering himself as a sacrifice for our sins. God’s plan is that we all experience that rescue. Glory to God forever! Oh, yes!

The Message

6-9 I can’t believe how you waver—how easily you have turned traitor to him who called you by the grace of Christ by embracing an alternative message! It is not a minor variation, you know; it is completely other, an alien message, a no-message, a lie about God. Those who are provoking this agitation among you are turning the Message of Christ on its head. Let me be blunt: If one of us—even if an angel from heaven!—were to preach something other than what we preached originally, let him be cursed. I said it once; I’ll say it again: If anyone, regardless of reputation or credentials, preaches something other than what you received originally, let him be cursed.

10-12 Do you think I speak this strongly in order to manipulate crowds? Or court favor with God? Or get popular applause? If my goal was popularity, I wouldn’t bother being Christ’s slave. Know this—I am most emphatic here, friends—this great Message I delivered to you is not mere human optimism. I didn’t receive it through the traditions, and I wasn’t taught it in some school. I got it straight from God, received the Message directly from Jesus Christ.

13-16 I’m sure that you’ve heard the story of my earlier life when I lived in the Jewish way. In those days I went all out in persecuting God’s church. I was systematically destroying it. I was so enthusiastic about the traditions of my ancestors that I advanced head and shoulders above my peers in my career. Even then God had his eye on me. Why, when I was still in my mother’s womb he chose and called me out of sheer generosity! Now he has intervened and revealed his Son to me so that I might joyfully tell non-Jews about him.

16-20 Immediately after my calling—without consulting anyone around me and without going up to Jerusalem to confer with those who were apostles long before I was—I got away to Arabia. Later I returned to Damascus, but it was three years before I went up to Jerusalem to compare stories with Peter. I was there only fifteen days—but what days they were! Except for our Master’s brother James, I saw no other apostles. (I’m telling you the absolute truth in this.)

21-24 Then I began my ministry in the regions of Syria and Cilicia. After all that time and activity I was still unknown by face among the Christian churches in Judea. There was only this report: “That man who once persecuted us is now preaching the very message he used to try to destroy.” Their response was to recognize and worship God because of me!

Paul was and then God stepped and through His Son, Jesus Christ, set Paul free!

What is my testimony?  What is your testimony about the day Jesus came in and changed everything?

I was.  But then God…

Lord,

I cannot speak enough about what you did to change my life from rules to relationship with you that is holy, loving, gentle, kind, compassionate.  You show me grace and mercy daily and for all this I am so grateful.  I have no desire to live without you.  I love you with all my heart, mind and soul.  It is your voice I want to hear above all other voices in this world, especially the voice that wants to draw me away.  Thank you, Lord for your abiding forever love, continued guidance, always renewing and refreshing my spirit each day.

In Jesus Name, For Your Glory, Amen

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“I’M A CHRISTIAN! … But Am I Really?”

Posted on February 9, 2022 by randscallawayffm

I am very fortunate to be a part of an online grow group with friends who want to excel in their walk with Jesus.  One young lady amused us one evening as we talked about what God really sees in our hearts as we live each day.  She spoke honestly about those days when God’s Spirit causes her to evaluate what is really in her heart.  She said it became clear to her as she praying one day with maybe a bit too much pride.  She had always declared to the world, “I am a Christian!”  But suddenly her spirit stopped her to ask, “But am I really?”

What this young, beautiful lady was pondering, “Am I really becoming more and more like Christ?”  She began evaluating her behaviors and testing her thoughts and beliefs, just like Paul is asking the Corinthians believers to do.  It is so easy for us to be pious and proud, missing the point of following Jesus altogether.  To only find and accept Jesus is to merely be impressed with Jesus is easy.  To follow Jesus is a deep commitment to the most important relationship we will ever have with letting go of what we think to take on what He wants us to be and do.  This is harder but more rewarding that life itself.  This loving relationship grows with each new day.  And there is a bonus!  In following Jesus, the more we realize the deep love Jesus has for us!  Then the deeper and more intimate and loving our relationships become with each other!  The beat goes on…and on, so to speak when Jesus becomes the beat of our hearts!

We decided at the end of her testimony that we all need to fall before the Lord daily, asking Him what HE wants to do in us so we will be more and more in every way like Him.  This is a lifelong, daily journey, not just a quick-trip-fix to church.  Church is a gathering of all kinds of people who celebrate together what God is doing in all who find and follow Jesus!  But personally, it’s daily.

This is pretty much what Paul is teaching the church.  Test what we know about Jesus, evaluate our behaviors and see if it matches what we say we believe about Jesus.  Jesus is alive in all who believe, accept and follow Him! 

We see Paul’s passionate caring in his prayer of declaration;

“We don’t just put up with our limitations; we celebrate them, and then go on to celebrate every strength, every triumph of the truth in you. We pray hard that it will all come together in your lives.”

In Christ, He is our strength in our weakness, for He is our confidence.  He is our everything!  Jesus living in us.

CORINTHIANS—CALLED AND SENT

2 Corinthians 13, The Message

He’s Alive Now!

1-4 Well, this is my third visit coming up. Remember the Scripture that says, “A matter becomes clear after two or three witnesses give evidence”? On my second visit I warned that bunch that keeps sinning over and over in the same old ways that when I came back I wouldn’t go easy on them. Now, preparing for the third, I’m saying it again from a distance. If you haven’t changed your ways by the time I get there, look out. You who have been demanding proof that Christ speaks through me will get more than you bargained for. You’ll get the full force of Christ, don’t think you won’t. He was sheer weakness and humiliation when he was killed on the cross, but oh, he’s alive now—in the mighty power of God! We weren’t much to look at, either, when we were humiliated among you, but when we deal with you this next time, we’ll be alive in Christ, strengthened by God.

5-9 Test yourselves to make sure you are solid in the faith. Don’t drift along taking everything for granted. Give yourselves regular checkups. You need firsthand evidence, not mere hearsay, that Jesus Christ is in you. Test it out. If you fail the test, do something about it. I hope the test won’t show that we have failed. But if it comes to that, we’d rather the test showed our failure than yours. We’re rooting for the truth to win out in you. We couldn’t possibly do otherwise.

We don’t just put up with our limitations; we celebrate them, and then go on to celebrate every strength, every triumph of the truth in you. We pray hard that it will all come together in your lives.

10 I’m writing this to you now so that when I come I won’t have to say another word on the subject. The authority the Master gave me is for putting people together, not taking them apart. I want to get on with it, and not have to spend time on reprimands.

* * *

11-13 And that’s about it, friends. Be cheerful. Keep things in good repair. Keep your spirits up. Think in harmony. Be agreeable. Do all that, and the God of love and peace will be with you for sure. Greet one another with a holy embrace. All the brothers and sisters here say hello.

14 The amazing grace of the Master, Jesus Christ, the extravagant love of God, the intimate friendship of the Holy Spirit, be with all of you.

In Jesus Name, For His Gory, Amen!!

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PUSHED TO OUR KNEES IS THE BEST PLACE TO BE!

Posted on February 8, 2022 by randscallawayffm

When the world crashes down around us, when we finally come to the end of the ropes of control we cling to and when life, as we thought it once was is not; our response will reveal the true colors of our faith.  How strong is our faith?  How much do we rely on our faith in God?  How much have we coasted along in our lives, relying only on self because we thought we had full control over life?  Is our first response blame?  It seems natural and immediate to blame circumstances, people and current conditions.  Is our first response self-loathing? As humans, most of us like being “in charge”, independent, with thoughts and words that display “you can’t tell me what I don’t know, who I am or what I cannot do!” attitudes.  We like to be strong—or at least appear strong.  “Never let ‘em know your weakness” is the world’s mantra.

Then there’s Paul.  Saul/Paul was a learned, fierce Pharisee who thought he had complete control over his life and the lives of others.  He deemed himself a vigilante of God’s Law, convinced that forcing others to their knees, beating them into submission against the teachings of Jesus is what God wanted.  Or did Paul simply love the power over people? Either way, with this mindset, he forced others to submit to The Law, as he interrupted it.  God was not considered in the equation. Relationship with God and others was considered weakness.  (Sound familiar as worldview thinking today?)

Then Jesus changed everything in Paul.  Jesus, in all His glory, came to Paul right in the middle of the road. Paul was traveling with a posse aimed at more terrorizing of believers in Damascus.  Jesus stopped Paul dead in his tracks and blinded his eyes.  Paul fell helplessly to his knees and heard Jesus ask, “Saul (his Pharisee name), why do you persecute Me?” 

This encounter with Jesus Christ, revealing His glory and His message to Paul, left Paul with a physical weakness.  We are not sure what the “weakness” was exactly. Many theologians and historians think, because of his “blinding encounter” it could have affected his eyesight.  Paul prayed for this “thorn in the flesh”, this “thing” that was troublesome to him to be taken away, but God didn’t take it away. 

Paul is honest about his strengths and weaknesses to the Corinthians.  Paul admits he is weak, which was counter to worldview thinking then and is now.  Paul goes further in his “testimony” about his weakness actually becaming a gift.  Wait, what?  Yes!  This “weakness” was a constant reminder of the grace and strength of Jesus Christ in him, who was not only his Savior but now his Lord.  The “weakness” reminds Paul daily that he is no longer in charge.  Jesus is in charge.  Jesus changed everything about Paul from the inside out and outside in.  Paul’s new life message comes from seeking to become more and more like Jesus. “I want to know Christ and share in his sufferings”.  (Philippians 3:10)

Yes, Jesus is Paul’s everything. Paul’s passion for others to know Jesus comes from Jesus who stopped him on the road that day.  Jesus is how Paul bore the beatings, slander, gossip, humiliations and imprisonments.  Paul was tenacious in his work to tell others to also become more and more, in every way, like Jesus.  

Paul knew he was in direct opposition the Satan who hated the change Jesus made in Saul the destroyer of life, to Paul who now pointed people to the Giver of Life eternal.  Paul looks at the attacks of evil as a good thing, “Satan’s angel did his best to get me down; what he in fact did was push me to my knees.”  To Paul (and to us) our real power comes from the strong position of being on our knees, praying, calling on the Name of Jesus!  Satan hates believers who fall down before Jesus, calling on His Name.  Satan knows he cannot defeat the real One and Only who is Lord.  He really hates it when believers cry out in victory, “Greater is He that is in me, than he that is in the world!”  (1 John 4:4)

So, this is Paul’s faith response when his “I’m in charge” world came crashing down.  Though left with a “weakness”, Paul saw it as a gift left behind to remind him of the wonderful, life altering, hope giving, relentless love given to him at his encounter with Jesus Christ who saved him from death to life eternal.  The following is Paul’s testimony of Jesus in his crisis of faith that changed his mind.  Forever.

CORINTHIANS—CALLED AND SENT

2 Corinthians 12, The Message

Strength from Weakness

12 1-5 You’ve forced me to talk this way, and I do it against my better judgment. But now that we’re at it, I may as well bring up the matter of visions and revelations that God gave me. For instance, I know a man who, fourteen years ago, was seized by Christ and swept in ecstasy to the heights of heaven. I really don’t know if this took place in the body or out of it; only God knows. I also know that this man was hijacked into paradise—again, whether in or out of the body, I don’t know; God knows. There he heard the unspeakable spoken, but was forbidden to tell what he heard. This is the man I want to talk about. But about myself, I’m not saying another word apart from the humiliations.

6 If I had a mind to brag a little, I could probably do it without looking ridiculous, and I’d still be speaking plain truth all the way. But I’ll spare you. I don’t want anyone imagining me as anything other than the fool you’d encounter if you saw me on the street or heard me talk.

7-10 Because of the extravagance of those revelations, and so I wouldn’t get a big head, I was given the gift of a handicap to keep me in constant touch with my limitations. Satan’s angel did his best to get me down; what he in fact did was push me to my knees. No danger then of walking around high and mighty! At first I didn’t think of it as a gift, and begged God to remove it. Three times I did that, and then he told me,

My grace is enough; it’s all you need.
My strength comes into its own in your weakness.

Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ’s strength moving in on my weakness. Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size—abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become.

WHAT DO LEARN?

  • God’s grace is enough.  More than enough.  God is always all we need.
  • God’s strength is made stronger still in our weakness.
  • Whatever our world throws at us, God is still in control. 
  • Stop focusing on what we what we think we need to the gift of salvation, power over weaknesses, and the daily strength given to us to face whatever hardships come our way.
  • God is for us, not against us.  Always.

Lord,

What a lesson of pure faith from Paul!  Help us all to take our focus from our weaknesses and look fully into your wonderful face of glory, power, strength, wisdom, love, mercy and grace.  Yes, by your grace we have more than enough.  When we are weak, you are made stronger still in us.  Thank you, Lord.  Thank you for pushing to our knees in prayer to you as a first response.  You are God.  We are not.

In Jesus Name, For Your Glory, Amen!

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ALL FOR JESUS—OR NOT AT ALL?

Posted on February 7, 2022 by randscallawayffm

“A new Barna study discovered that 38 percent of pastors have given real, serious consideration to quitting the ministry in the past year.” – Christianity Today, February 2, 2022

After reading Paul’s account this morning of doing what God called and sent him to be and do, while enduring beatings, shipwrecks, flogging, slander, and humiliations of all sorts, I wonder about what our motivations are as ministry leaders these days?  What really is causing over a third of us to consider quitting?  I wonder for myself and others, how holy are our motivations in the first place?  Why do we do what we do?  Who are we? What do we expect of others we are going and telling, making followers of Jesus?

Do we expect those we are leading to Jesus to be exactly like us?  Are we pointing people to us instead of Jesus?  Are we frustrated by the lack of growth in character by those we are trying to lead by our own standards? Are we trying to be in control of all possible situations and scenarios?  Are we discouraged by our own finances?  Are we discouraged by those who hire us to lead God’s people?  Are we humiliated by what people say about us? How honest are we with God and ourselves?  Are we asking God what HE wants? What are the real frustrations?

What is leading a third of us to throw in the towel? 

Then I think of Jesus who took the servant’s “towel” and wrapped it around his waist.  Jesus went down to his knees, bending low, taking the position of a servant and with a basin of water, washed his disciples’ feet—all those dirty feet—the beloved and the betrayer—all for the sake of saving them while showing them the FULL extent of His love.

Do we love, really love the people we serve? No matter how they respond? Does our care for people drive us or does the business of management of a group of people?  (I know, ouch.)  Are we tired of the work or just tired in the work? Are we trying to do God’s work all by ourselves?  Do we allow others to help us, even though they might do it a different way that leads to the same result?  Is gossip, slander and humiliation blinding us from the truth? These and many more questions of reflection are important to ponder by God’s called and sent. 

Maybe it’s good to begin with prayerfully asking, “God, what do YOU want?” Then stop to listen, really listen.  Be still and know God. Be still means to let go of all assumptions, let go of all that we think is in our control, close our ears to all other voices and just hear God’s voice with an honest, open, willing, sincere heart.  When we do, our minds’ eyes are lifted to see from a higher perspective.  Our wounded hearts are mended.  Our souls filled by His Spirit that refreshes, renews and restores the joy of HIS salvation.  Our love goes deeper for others when we realize God’s deep love for us. 

“Then Jesus said, ‘Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.’” 

Matthew 11:28-30, NLT

Jesus, the Master Teacher, the Supreme Servant Leader, Savior of Redemption and Lord of our lives does not ask us to go endure more than what He has gone through for us.  As I write this, tears come.  Jesus, dear Jesus, thank you.

CORINTHIANS—CALLED AND SENT

2 Corinthians 10, The Message

Pseudo-Servants of God

1-3 Will you put up with a little foolish aside from me? Please, just for a moment. The thing that has me so upset is that I care about you so much—this is the passion of God burning inside me! I promised your hand in marriage to Christ, presented you as a pure virgin to her husband. And now I’m afraid that exactly as the Snake seduced Eve with his smooth tongue, you are being lured away from the simple purity of your love for Christ.

4-6 It seems that if someone shows up preaching quite another Jesus than we preached—different spirit, different message—you put up with him quite nicely. But if you put up with these big-shot “apostles,” why can’t you put up with simple me? I’m as good as they are. It’s true that I don’t have their voice, haven’t mastered that smooth eloquence that impresses you so much. But when I do open my mouth, I at least know what I’m talking about. We haven’t kept anything back. We let you in on everything.

7-12 I wonder, did I make a bad mistake in proclaiming God’s Message to you without asking for something in return, serving you free of charge so that you wouldn’t be inconvenienced by me? It turns out that the other churches paid my way so that you could have a free ride. Not once during the time I lived among you did anyone have to lift a finger to help me out. My needs were always supplied by the believers from Macedonia province. I was careful never to be a burden to you, and I never will be, you can count on it. With Christ as my witness, it’s a point of honor with me, and I’m not going to keep it quiet just to protect you from what the neighbors will think. It’s not that I don’t love you; God knows I do. I’m just trying to keep things open and honest between us.

12-15 And I’m not changing my position on this. I’d die before taking your money. I’m giving nobody grounds for lumping me in with those money-grubbing “preachers,” vaunting themselves as something special. They’re a sorry bunch—pseudo-apostles, lying preachers, crooked workers—posing as Christ’s agents but sham to the core. And no wonder! Satan does it all the time, dressing up as a beautiful angel of light. So it shouldn’t surprise us when his servants masquerade as servants of God. But they’re not getting by with anything. They’ll pay for it in the end.

Many a Long and Lonely Night

16-21 Let me come back to where I started—and don’t hold it against me if I continue to sound a little foolish. Or if you’d rather, just accept that I am a fool and let me rant on a little. I didn’t learn this kind of talk from Christ. Oh, no, it’s a bad habit I picked up from the three-ring preachers that are so popular these days. Since you sit there in the judgment seat observing all these shenanigans, you can afford to humor an occasional fool who happens along. You have such admirable tolerance for impostors who rob your freedom, rip you off, steal you blind, put you down—even slap your face! I shouldn’t admit it to you, but our stomachs aren’t strong enough to tolerate that kind of stuff.

21-23 Since you admire the egomaniacs of the pulpit so much (remember, this is your old friend, the fool, talking), let me try my hand at it. Do they brag of being Hebrews, Israelites, the pure race of Abraham? I’m their match. Are they servants of Christ? I can go them one better. (I can’t believe I’m saying these things. It’s crazy to talk this way! But I started, and I’m going to finish.)

23-27 I’ve worked much harder, been jailed more often, beaten up more times than I can count, and at death’s door time after time. I’ve been flogged five times with the Jews’ thirty-nine lashes, beaten by Roman rods three times, pummeled with rocks once. I’ve been shipwrecked three times, and immersed in the open sea for a night and a day. In hard traveling year in and year out, I’ve had to ford rivers, fend off robbers, struggle with friends, struggle with foes. I’ve been at risk in the city, at risk in the country, endangered by desert sun and sea storm, and betrayed by those I thought were my brothers. I’ve known drudgery and hard labor, many a long and lonely night without sleep, many a missed meal, blasted by the cold, naked to the weather.

28-29 And that’s not the half of it, when you throw in the daily pressures and anxieties of all the churches. When someone gets to the end of his rope, I feel the desperation in my bones. When someone is duped into sin, an angry fire burns in my gut.

30-33 If I have to “brag” about myself, I’ll brag about the humiliations that make me like Jesus. The eternal and blessed God and Father of our Master Jesus knows I’m not lying. Remember the time I was in Damascus and the governor of King Aretas posted guards at the city gates to arrest me? I crawled through a window in the wall, was let down in a basket, and had to run for my life.

WE LEARN FROM PAUL—

KNOW YOURSELF:  God’s passion of love and care burns inside the called and sent for others who need to know Him and grow in His character.  Nothing will stop the called who burn with God’s passion, motivated by His deep love.

KNOW YOUR MESSAGE:  Keep The Message simple, open, and honest. It’s all about Jesus not about we who preach Jesus.  Glorify Jesus always.

KNOW THE ENEMY:  Be ready to endure those who oppose the message.  Know the real enemy, Satan and his team, who masquerade as servants of God but in reality, are not.  Satan’s goal is death to all who believe in God.  In Jesus we have Life forever.  Know the difference.

KNOW GOD:  God is for us, not against us.  We love God because He first loved us.  God knows all and is in all.  God takes the bad and produces good results.  God does not rush us but gives us peace in His Presences which is always with us.  God always provides where He guides.  God knows what we go through and leads us through the red seas of troubles that come—all while growing us stronger in faith, deeper in love for Him and others, with motivating us in our continued, tenacious service to Him, all in Jesus Name, All for His glory!

“If I have to “brag” about myself, I’ll brag about the humiliations that make me like Jesus.”

Lord,

Thank you for this lesson of spiritual endurance.  Thank you for always providing for all our needs.  Thank you for the lessons we learn in troubling times.  Thank you for restoring the joy of our salvation.  Thank your rest when we need it.  Thank you for showing the full extent of your love as expressed in others who minister to us.  Thank you for your legacy of leaders who taught us over the years.  Thank you for what you are teaching us now.  Thank you for saving my soul, listening to my heart and lifting me up to where you are so I can see Truth.

In Jesus Name, Amen

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STAND FIRM—GENTLY—LED BY GOD’S SPIRIT

Posted on February 5, 2022 by randscallawayffm

Life lessons are hard.  Being a called of God leader in His church is harder still.  Paul is discovering what this means and is learning how to respond by God’s Spirit.  It was James who wrote, “Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.”  Not only are we under the scrutiny of God, our authority who demands His Truth alone be said, but by those who want to destroy the Truth with their own opinions.  As leaders, we humans are compared to, in competition with, every word graded, along with actions evaluated with every breath we take.  We must stand firm on God’s Word, be gentle in our persuasion of telling the Truth and be led by God’s Holy Spirit.  We must pause, pray  and think before answering criticisms. 

That being said, you can do everything according to God’s plan and still be attacked by the very people in which you are leading to God.  Paul, the great apostle, who took physical beatings for telling the Good News to whom God sent him, now is taking on the complaints of the church, made up of imperfect people who want to add “God-stuff” to their lives without turning from worldview thinking and philosophies.  Paul, be led by the Spirit, responds with how to live sold out to God, in Jesus Name, for the glory of God.   Paul is criticized.  Yes, church, it happened then, it still happens now.  Paul teaches leaders how to respond.

The Spirit led Paul to use a wise approach as he wrote to the Corinthians. He was writing to a divided church (1 Cor. 1:11), a church that was resisting his authority, and a church that was being seduced by false teachers. So, first he explained his ministry so that they would no longer doubt his sincerity. He then encouraged them to share in the offering, for he knew that this challenge would help them grow in their spiritual lives. Grace giving and grace living go together.

CORINTHIANS—CALLED AND SENT

2 Corinthians 10, The Message

Tearing Down Barriers

1-2 And now a personal but most urgent matter; I write in the gentle but firm spirit of Christ. I hear that I’m being painted as cringing and wishy-washy when I’m with you, but harsh and demanding when at a safe distance writing letters. Please don’t force me to take a hard line when I’m present with you. Don’t think that I’ll hesitate a single minute to stand up to those who say I’m an unprincipled opportunist. Then they’ll have to eat their words.

3-6 The world is unprincipled. It’s dog-eat-dog out there! The world doesn’t fight fair. But we don’t live or fight our battles that way—never have and never will. The tools of our trade aren’t for marketing or manipulation, but they are for demolishing that entire massively corrupt culture. We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ. Our tools are ready at hand for clearing the ground of every obstruction and building lives of obedience into maturity.

7-8 You stare and stare at the obvious, but you can’t see the forest for the trees. If you’re looking for a clear example of someone on Christ’s side, why do you so quickly cut me out? Believe me, I am quite sure of my standing with Christ. You may think I overstate the authority he gave me, but I’m not backing off. Every bit of my commitment is for the purpose of building you up, after all, not tearing you down.

9-11 And what’s this talk about me bullying you with my letters? “His letters are brawny and potent, but in person he’s a weakling and mumbles when he talks.” Such talk won’t survive scrutiny. What we write when away, we do when present. We’re the exact same people, absent or present, in letter or in person.

12 We’re not, understand, putting ourselves in a league with those who boast that they’re our superiors. We wouldn’t dare do that. But in all this comparing and grading and competing, they quite miss the point.

13-14 We aren’t making outrageous claims here. We’re sticking to the limits of what God has set for us. But there can be no question that those limits reach to and include you. We’re not moving into someone else’s “territory.” We were already there with you, weren’t we? We were the first ones to get there with the Message of Christ, right? So how can there be any question of overstepping our bounds by writing or visiting you?

15-18 We’re not barging in on the rightful work of others, interfering with their ministries, demanding a place in the sun with them. What we’re hoping for is that as your lives grow in faith, you’ll play a part within our expanding work. And we’ll all still be within the limits God sets as we proclaim the Message in countries beyond Corinth. But we have no intention of moving in on what others have done and taking credit for it. “If you want to claim credit, claim it for God.” What you say about yourself means nothing in God’s work. It’s what God says about you that makes the difference.

WHAT WE LEARN—

Whenever I receive a critical email or text message, I have learned to set it aside in a special file until I feel I am really ready to answer it. On a few occasions, I have replied to letters too quickly, and I have regretted it. By waiting, I give myself time to think and pray, to read between the lines, and to prepare a reply that would do the most good and the least damage. 

Before responding, think of how God responds to us.  “But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness” to us.  (Psalm 86:15).

“I write in the gentle but firm spirit of Christ.”  Pause, pray, listen, respond via the Spirit.

Strap on powerful tools given to us by God for building, not tearing down—”building lives of obedience into maturity.”

Don’t miss the point of ministry!  Stop comparing, competing and grading each other.  Do what God wants and leave the growth and evaluation to Him. 

Be committed and motivated by God for His work.  “What we’re hoping for is that as your lives grow in faith, you’ll play a part within our expanding work.”

To God be the glory.  Always.  And forevermore! 

It’s what God says about you that makes the difference.  

The most freeing realization came to me one day when I read, “God doesn’t need you to do His work.” God invites us to his work. Jesus, Son of God, invited ordinary people to join Him in the work God sent Him to do as the example of how we should think about God’s work. 

Example:  Jesus could have waved his hand over the 5000 plus hungry men and women gathered on a hillside and pronounced them no longer hungry with mere words.  But He didn’t.  He involved his disciples.  He asked them, “what do you have?”, which made them pause and think. He directed them at each step after He blessed what they presented to Him.  Then it was a process of pass the fish and bread, eat your fill, collect the leftovers in 12 baskets, one for each of the Twelve disciples, (no coincidence here!), so they could feel the weight of the abundant leftovers!  Jesus did not need them to do God’s work of filling and feeding, but invited the disciples to join Him so they could realize who gets all the credit, glory, honor and praise for the work. 

Stop to remember—Jesus had to reprimand his disciples for comparison and competitions about who is the greatest frequently.  Paul had to stand firm and remind the church as well.  Ah, now we get. Right?

Lord,

We are all in this together, led by Your Holy Spirit living in us.  We make mistakes, we have setbacks, and we are critical of each other.  But then we remember what you say as you correct our course once more.  It’s Your Work.  You are the One and Only God who is for us not against us.  You sent your Son to save us from all our sins, once and for all.  We are not perfect, no one is, but through admittance and repentance, we are perfectly forgiven by you.  Oh Lord, what a wonderful Savior you are indeed!  When criticized in the work, may we be motivated by your Truth and persuaded by your love in response.  Help us to stand firm on the foundation of you, dear Jesus, who is the only Way, the Truth which leads to Life eternal.

In Jesus Name, For Your Glory, Amen

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GOD GAVE—WE GIVE!

Posted on February 4, 2022 by randscallawayffm

Let’s get right to it! GOD LOVES AN ENTHUSIASTIC GIVER OF WHAT HE HAS GIVEN TO US!  This is Paul’s message that comes from God as he teaches God’s people how to give with reasons to give.  Giving is actually for us!  Giving is in direct response to all God has provided and given to us.  God gives us a mind to give that decides how much to give with a heart that prompts us to give.  God gives us His Holy Spirit to give us wisdom with a plan to give.  Joy is in the giving.  We become like Him in our giving.  We become closer to God as we give.

Giving from what God has so generously given to us becomes pure joy when we realize His deep love for us as He teaches us to give.  Here are a few points to ponder, listed by Paul as he shares these giving truths about God with the church:

  1. All we have comes from our generous, extravagant God who owns all.
  2. Giving is one of our spiritual acts of worship to our God who gives to us.
  3. Because God loves to give to us, He loves a cheerful giver who also loves to give.
  4. God loves the enthusiasm that builds when His people come to together with a plan to give.  Last minute, emotional giving is less than what God desires.
  5. Giving reveals the conditions of our hearts to God who sees our hearts completely.
  6. Having a heart to heart with God about what to give is pleasing to God.
  7. God delights in a cheerful, thoughtful giver.
  8. God gives so we can give.  Astonishing blessings are ready to be poured out to those who give with the heart and plan of God. He will give us more to give!
  9. The heart of God is explained: “His right-living, right-giving ways, never run out, never wear out.  We cannot “outgive” God!
  10. To God be all the glory in giving.  God provides so we can provide.  “He gives you something you can then give away, which grows into full-formed lives, robust in God, wealthy in every way, so that you can be generous in every way, producing with us great praise to God.”
  11. Giving begins and ends with God who gave.  To God be the glory!
  12. Giving is far more than giving.  Giving “produces abundant and bountiful thanksgivings to God. Giving is a prod to live at your very best, showing your gratitude to God by being openly obedient to the plain meaning of the Message of Christ”.

“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 3:16

God is at the center of all giving.

CORINTHIANS—CALLED AND SENT

2 Corinthians 9, The Message

1-2 If I wrote any more on this relief offering for the poor Christians, I’d be repeating myself. I know you’re on board and ready to go. I’ve been bragging about you all through Macedonia province, telling them, “Achaia province has been ready to go on this since last year.” Your enthusiasm by now has spread to most of them.

3-5 Now I’m sending the brothers to make sure you’re ready, as I said you would be, so my bragging won’t turn out to be just so much hot air. If some Macedonians and I happened to drop in on you and found you weren’t prepared, we’d all be pretty red-faced—you and us—for acting so sure of ourselves. So to make sure there will be no slipup, I’ve recruited these brothers as an advance team to get you and your promised offering all ready before I get there. I want you to have all the time you need to make this offering in your own way. I don’t want anything forced or hurried at the last minute.

6-7 Remember: A stingy planter gets a stingy crop; a lavish planter gets a lavish crop. I want each of you to take plenty of time to think it over, and make up your own mind what you will give. That will protect you against sob stories and arm-twisting. God loves it when the giver delights in the giving.

8-11 God can pour on the blessings in astonishing ways so that you’re ready for anything and everything, more than just ready to do what needs to be done. As one psalmist puts it,

He throws caution to the winds,
    giving to the needy in reckless abandon.
His right-living, right-giving ways
    never run out, never wear out.

This most generous God who gives seed to the farmer that becomes bread for your meals is more than extravagant with you. He gives you something you can then give away, which grows into full-formed lives, robust in God, wealthy in every way, so that you can be generous in every way, producing with us great praise to God.

12-15 Carrying out this social relief work involves far more than helping meet the bare needs of poor Christians. It also produces abundant and bountiful thanksgivings to God. This relief offering is a prod to live at your very best, showing your gratitude to God by being openly obedient to the plain meaning of the Message of Christ. You show your gratitude through your generous offerings to your needy brothers and sisters, and really toward everyone. Meanwhile, moved by the extravagance of God in your lives, they’ll respond by praying for you in passionate intercession for whatever you need. Thank God for this gift, his gift. No language can praise it enough!

Lord,

Thank you, indeed, for this gift of giving.  We cannot praise you enough for all you have given to us.  You gave us Jesus.  Thank you, dear Jesus, for saving our souls, making things right with God, the Giver of Life itself.  Thank you for all you have provided.  Thank you for your faithfulness.  Thank you for your love that caused you to give.  May we love and give like you do for us.  To YOU be all the glory, honor and praise!  We can give only because you gave to us.  You are God.  Thank you, thank you, thank you for the gift of giving.

In Jesus Name, Amen

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