THE OLD HAS GOT TO GO!

Posted on April 12, 2018 by randscallawayffm
Ephesians – Belief and Behavior
 
Ephesians 4 closet cleanseI am purging old stuff, stuff I do not need to live with any longer! It is a chore to clean out every nook and cranny, closet and cabinet, but so necessary to make room for better things to do with my life. What are those better things? I heard you ask. I will have less distractions in my life. I will have less to dust, clean and put away. I will have more space to stretch out and enjoy life without clutter. I will generally have less to care for that gives me nothing back for my time of caring. I can be ready to immediately pick up and go when life calls for travel near or far. Yes, the old has got to go that ties me down to get ready for the new to come. I want to be free from the old stuff.
 
Whoa, isn’t it that way with our lives? We keep hanging on to the old memories of past hurts, past disappointments and past betrayals. We remember our sins and go over them so much in our minds that we succumb to sinning in the same ways again! We wallow in our sin because of our selfishness of wanting and gripping to control. Then the cycle of disappointment continues. We wallow in guilt because of the old stuff keeps staring us in the face. Our focus is on our old stuff of life instead of refocusing on the author and finisher of our new life!
 
If we want life to change we must say yes to purging the old life with it’s past baggage. Purging what needs to go in our lives isn’t as easy as cleaning out a closet but necessary to living a new, robust life in Christ. Yes, there is a lot of old stuff I need to get rid of…from the inside out. How about you?
 
Paul helps us see what God wants us to keep and what must go. Read and be blessed. We can’t do purging alone, we need the help and power of the Holy Spirit guiding and directing. Peace and joy will come in ways we never expected, no matter what the circumstances are that surround us.
 
“Make a clean break”, says Paul. And much more….”Get rid of it! AND then take on an entirely new way of life–a God-fashioned life, a life renewed from the inside and working itself into your conduct as God accurately reproduces his character in you.” Wow! God does the work in us…if we let Him.
 
Ephesians 4, The Message (Part two)
 
14-16 No prolonged infancies among us, please. We’ll not tolerate babes in the woods, small children who are an easy mark for impostors. God wants us to grow up, to know the whole truth and tell it in love—like Christ in everything. We take our lead from Christ, who is the source of everything we do. He keeps us in step with each other. His very breath and blood flow through us, nourishing us so that we will grow up healthy in God, robust in love.
 
The Old Way Has to Go
17-19 And so I insist—and God backs me up on this—that there be no going along with the crowd, the empty-headed, mindless crowd. They’ve refused for so long to deal with God that they’ve lost touch not only with God but with reality itself. They can’t think straight anymore. Feeling no pain, they let themselves go in sexual obsession, addicted to every sort of perversion.
 
Ephesians 4 old has gone20-24 But that’s no life for you. You learned Christ! My assumption is that you have paid careful attention to him, been well instructed in the truth precisely as we have it in Jesus. Since, then, we do not have the excuse of ignorance, everything—and I do mean everything—connected with that old way of life has to go. It’s rotten through and through. Get rid of it! And then take on an entirely new way of life—a God-fashioned life, a life renewed from the inside and working itself into your conduct as God accurately reproduces his character in you.
 
25 What this adds up to, then, is this: no more lies, no more pretense. Tell your neighbor the truth. In Christ’s body we’re all connected to each other, after all. When you lie to others, you end up lying to yourself.
 
26-27 Go ahead and be angry. You do well to be angry—but don’t use your anger as fuel for revenge. And don’t stay angry. Don’t go to bed angry. Don’t give the Devil that kind of foothold in your life.
 
28 Did you use to make ends meet by stealing? Well, no more! Get an honest job so that you can help others who can’t work.
 
29 Watch the way you talk. Let nothing foul or dirty come out of your mouth. Say only what helps, each word a gift.
 
Ephesians 4 like Jesus30 Don’t grieve God. Don’t break his heart. His Holy Spirit, moving and breathing in you, is the most intimate part of your life, making you fit for himself. Don’t take such a gift for granted.
 
31-32 Make a clean break with all cutting, backbiting, profane talk. Be gentle with one another, sensitive. Forgive one another as quickly and thoroughly as God in Christ forgave you.
 
Dear Heavenly Father,
Continue to help us grow up, mature, to be more and more like Jesus taught us to live. We lay down self. We ask for Your Holy Spirit to help us purge the old ways of life so we can live a new life in the wide open spaces of Your love and care. Continue to transform me. Transform Your church. Transform the world.
In Jesus Name, Amen
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DIVERSE, NOT DIVIDED!

Posted on April 11, 2018 by randscallawayffm
Ephesians – Belief and Behavior
 
As in most of Paul’s letters we come to the middle where God’s Word to us shifts from declaring who we are in Christ (belief) to what we do in Christ (behavior). I love how God uses Paul to clarify exactly who we are and what we do. There is no reason, other than selfishness on our part, to wonder in confusion or wander around in the dark.
 
Read carefully and think of all the opposite things we selfishly do just to have our own way. Paul says to run on the less traveled road to disciplined lives. Pour yourselves into others in acts of love, alert at noticing differences and quick at mending fences. Yes, this is the opposite of what the world hounds us with every day in the media…as if we needed more help to be selfish!
 
Paul also reminds us that we are individuals with different gifts and purposes given by God. We are not all the same. We are Gods’ Masterpiece, one of a kind! We are not expected to be the same as someone else. But we are also One. Holy diversity, our individual contributions, should breed unity in the Body of Christ!
 
We were all created with an inner desire to love someone back and that someone is God. We are also born into a desire to please self. Hence the daily battle with self. Since sin and self (thinking we are God) separated us from God, he made a way through Jesus’ work on the Cross to deliver us from sin and self. Jesus taught us a different way to think and behave. He also taught us to come together with our diversity to become one in Him. “You have one Master, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who rules over all, works through all, and is present in all.”
 
Ephesians 4 one“EVERYTHING you are and think and do is permeated with Oneness.”
 
“But that doesn’t mean you should all look and speak and act the same.” Diversity, not division! In other words, we leave out the math equation of division and only use multiplication in God’s Kingdom thinking and behaving!
 
“God wants us to grow up, to know the whole truth and tell it in love—like Christ in everything.”
 
This is such rich and wonderful information in this chapter alone that we will take it in two bites. This is part one….read and ponder. Believe and pray for help to behave like we say we believe.
 
Ephesians 4, The Message
 
To Be Mature
 
1-3 In light of all this, here’s what I want you to do. While I’m locked up here, a prisoner for the Master, I want you to get out there and walk—better yet, run!—on the road God called you to travel. I don’t want any of you sitting around on your hands. I don’t want anyone strolling off, down some path that goes nowhere. And mark that you do this with humility and discipline—not in fits and starts, but steadily, pouring yourselves out for each other in acts of love, alert at noticing differences and quick at mending fences.
 
4-6 You were all called to travel on the same road and in the same direction, so stay together, both outwardly and inwardly. You have one Master, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who rules over all, works through all, and is present in all. Everything you are and think and do is permeated with Oneness.
 
7-13 But that doesn’t mean you should all look and speak and act the same. Out of the generosity of Christ, each of us is given his own gift. The text for this is,
 
He climbed the high mountain,
He captured the enemy and seized the booty,
He handed it all out in gifts to the people.
 
Ephesians 4 like JesusIs it not true that the One who climbed up also climbed down, down to the valley of earth? And the One who climbed down is the One who climbed back up, up to highest heaven. He handed out gifts above and below, filled heaven with his gifts, filled earth with his gifts. He handed out gifts of apostle, prophet, evangelist, and pastor-teacher to train Christ’s followers in skilled servant work, working within Christ’s body, the church, until we’re all moving rhythmically and easily with each other, efficient and graceful in response to God’s Son, fully mature adults, fully developed within and without, fully alive like Christ.
 
What do we learn?
–Plenty. We just need to do it with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us who is waiting to help. Tap into the Power of God’s Holy Spirit living in us.
–Think. What are the opposite activities of pleasing self? Do that.
–Refer to Philippians 2.
 
Dear Heavenly Father,
Your Word is full of wisdom and clarity for those who believe. Help us to behave in ways that build each other up, to love like you love, to walk the road less traveled. We need your help. So, we ask knowing we will receive help. We repent of self and the sin self desires. Forgive us. Keep us alert to living the opposite way of self. Transform me. Transform your church. Transform the world.
In Jesus Name, Amen
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HOW DEEP THE FATHER’S LOVE FOR US

Posted on April 10, 2018 by randscallawayffm
Ephesians – Belief and Behavior
 
Ephesians 3 love of ChristWe hear about the deep love God has for us demonstrated on the cross where Jesus took all sin of all people and paid the debt in full. We see God in the world created for us to journey for a little while. We see His love expressed in the little things others do for us and us for them. Giving and receiving love, we learn, is a joyful activity in our lives as Christians. This joy stems from the Father, giving us a glimpse of His love for us. We feel His Presence when we are troubled and perplexed about life. We experience His love and care when we go through heartache. We feel His strength as we go through and get to the other side of our troubles. How deep is the Father’s love for us?
 
We must stop and think about the depth and width and height of His love for a moment. Take all the time you need. I don’t think we will ever quite fully understand the full extent of God’s consistent, unconditional love until we meet Him face to face. In the meantime, we read and relish His Word, written by writers inspired by our Father to let us in on the secret plan He has had all along to make a way for us to be with Him forever. That Way is Jesus, His one and only Son, who left heaven to go to hell and back for each one of us. How deep the Father’s love for us, indeed!
 
Paul’s response to God’s love is to love others with a life goal to help people understand and respond to God’s Plan, The Message of Jesus Christ. So great is Paul’s passion and purpose just thinking about the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love that it drove him to his knees in prayer for others’ strength, understanding, and tenacity to stay focused on Christ.
 
Need I remind you that Paul is in a dark, nasty jail pit below the earth while writing this wisdom to the people gathered in church groups? Paul wastes little time on his situation and more time carefully sculpting the right words to tell how deep the Father’s love is for us with words and prayer for encouragement to stay strong in a current world of persecution for being a follower of Christ!
 
What is our response? Mm. How long has it been since we were driven to our knees for others, lost without the love of Christ living in them? Oh, how deep the Father’s love for us…Glory to God! Yes! Don’t give up telling, showing and experiencing God’s love!
 
“God can do anything, you know–far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, His Spirit deeply and gently within us.” Oh, yes!
 
Ephesians 3, The Message
 
The Secret Plan of God
1-3 This is why I, Paul, am in jail for Christ, having taken up the cause of you outsiders, so-called. I take it that you’re familiar with the part I was given in God’s plan for including everybody. I got the inside story on this from God himself, as I just wrote you in brief.
 
4-6 As you read over what I have written to you, you’ll be able to see for yourselves into the mystery of Christ. None of our ancestors understood this. Only in our time has it been made clear by God’s Spirit through his holy apostles and prophets of this new order. The mystery is that people who have never heard of God and those who have heard of him all their lives (what I’ve been calling outsiders and insiders) stand on the same ground before God. They get the same offer, same help, same promises in Christ Jesus. The Message is accessible and welcoming to everyone, across the board.
 
7-8 This is my life work: helping people understand and respond to this Message. It came as a sheer gift to me, a real surprise, God handling all the details. When it came to presenting the Message to people who had no background in God’s way, I was the least qualified of any of the available Christians. God saw to it that I was equipped, but you can be sure that it had nothing to do with my natural abilities.
 
8-10 And so here I am, preaching and writing about things that are way over my head, the inexhaustible riches and generosity of Christ. My task is to bring out in the open and make plain what God, who created all this in the first place, has been doing in secret and behind the scenes all along. Through followers of Jesus like yourselves gathered in churches, this extraordinary plan of God is becoming known and talked about even among the angels!
 
11-13 All this is proceeding along lines planned all along by God and then executed in Christ Jesus. When we trust in him, we’re free to say whatever needs to be said, bold to go wherever we need to go. So don’t let my present trouble on your behalf get you down. Be proud!
 
Ephesians 3 prayer14-19 My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.
 
20-21 God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us.
 
Glory to God in the church!
Glory to God in the Messiah, in Jesus!
Glory down all the generations!
Glory through all millennia! Oh, yes!
 
Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank you. Thank you for Your Word penned in an obscure place that is the wisdom and guidance for our maturing lives today. Thank you for loving us deeply, profoundly, consistently, and unconditionally. Our minds are not enough to realize the depth of your love but we will spend our eternity trying. Continue to transform me deeply and gently. Transform Your church. Transform the world.
In Jesus Name, Amen
 
And I’m singing (been in my mind while writing this)…
 
How deep the Father’s love for us
How vast beyond all measure
That He should give His only Son
To make a wretch His treasure
 
How great the pain of searing loss
The Father turns His face away
As wounds which mar the Chosen One
Bring many sons to glory
 
Behold the man upon a cross
My sin upon His shoulders
Ashamed, I hear my mocking voice
Call out among the scoffers
 
It was my sin that held Him there
Until it was accomplished
His dying breath has brought me life
I know that it is finished
 
I will not boast in anything
No gifts, no power, no wisdom
But I will boast in Jesus Christ
His death…
 
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EMBRACED

Posted on April 9, 2018 by randscallawayffm
Ephesians – Belief and Behavior
 
We sang a song yesterday at church that reminded us of how God never let’s go of us no matter what is happening to us, around us and in us. We are a sorry lot at times. As Paul writes to the Ephesians in our passage for today, “It’s no wonder God didn’t lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us.
 
Embraced. Stop and think. Feel the Embrace of God right now. Take all the time you need. Do you feel more secure now?
 
We all need a healthy hug from time to time. A healthy embrace has benefits in all kinds of ways. God knew that and science proves it. Research shows that hugging (and also laughter) is extremely effective at healing sickness, disease, loneliness, depression, anxiety and stress. Research shows a proper deep hug, where the hearts are pressing together, can benefit you. The nurturing touch of a hug builds trust and a sense of safety. And that’s just from each other. Think more, now of the spiritual embrace of God who never lets go!
 
Because of Christ, Paul, inspired by God, writes, “Christ brought us together through his death on the Cross. The Cross got us to embrace, and that was the end of hostility.” Before Christ, Jews and non Jews would not embrace each other as humans. After Christ, who embraced us, paid for all sin, once and for all changed the game. Walls between humans must fall. We now must embrace each other with the same love God embraces us.
 
God embraced us. We now, through Christ, embrace each other in Christ. “Christ came and preached peace to you outsiders and peace to us insiders. He treated us as equals, and so made us equals. Through him we both share the same Spirit and have equal access to the Father.” None of us are wandering exiles. We all belong to Christ!
 
God embraced us. We embrace each other. Love God. Love Others. Intense mercy. Incredible Love.
 
Ephesians 2 belongEphesians 2, The Message
 
He Tore Down the Wall
1-6 It wasn’t so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. You let the world, which doesn’t know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It’s a wonder God didn’t lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah.
 
7-10 Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It’s God’s gift from start to finish! We don’t play the major role. If we did, we’d probably go around bragging that we’d done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.
 
11-13 But don’t take any of this for granted. It was only yesterday that you outsiders to God’s ways had no idea of any of this, didn’t know the first thing about the way God works, hadn’t the faintest idea of Christ. You knew nothing of that rich history of God’s covenants and promises in Israel, hadn’t a clue about what God was doing in the world at large. Now because of Christ—dying that death, shedding that blood—you who were once out of it altogether are in on everything.
 
14-15 The Messiah has made things up between us so that we’re now together on this, both non-Jewish outsiders and Jewish insiders. He tore down the wall we used to keep each other at a distance. He repealed the law code that had become so clogged with fine print and footnotes that it hindered more than it helped. Then he started over. Instead of continuing with two groups of people separated by centuries of animosity and suspicion, he created a new kind of human being, a fresh start for everybody.
 
16-18 Christ brought us together through his death on the cross. The Cross got us to embrace, and that was the end of the hostility. Christ came and preached peace to you outsiders and peace to us insiders. He treated us as equals, and so made us equals. Through him we both share the same Spirit and have equal access to the Father.
 
Ephesians 2 hands19-22 That’s plain enough, isn’t it? You’re no longer wandering exiles. This kingdom of faith is now your home country. You’re no longer strangers or outsiders. You belong here, with as much right to the name Christian as anyone. God is building a home. He’s using us all—irrespective of how we got here—in what he is building. He used the apostles and prophets for the foundation. Now he’s using you, fitting you in brick by brick, stone by stone, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone that holds all the parts together. We see it taking shape day after day—a holy temple built by God, all of us built into it, a temple in which God is quite at home.
 
You Never Let Go (by Matt Redman)
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
Your perfect love is casting out fear
And even when I’m caught in the middle of the storms of this life
I won’t turn back
I know You are near
 
And I will fear no evil
For my God is with me
And if my God is with me
Whom then shall I fear?
Whom then shall I fear?
 
Chorus:
Oh no, You never let go
Through the calm and through the storm
Oh no, You never let go
In every high and every low
Oh no, You never let go
Lord, You never let go of me
 
And I can see a light that is coming for the heart that holds on
A glorious light beyond all compare
And there will be an end to these troubles
But until that day comes
We’ll live to know You here on the earth
 
Ephesians 2 embrace of graceLet the embrace of God flood our souls today!
 
Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank you for Your embrace because of your mercy and love. Thank you for your embrace, allowing us to hear and feel the beat of your heart in our chest because of reading Your Word and listening to Your Spirit in us. Thank you for never letting go of us. We trust you now with all our heart, mind and soul. Continue to transform me. Transform your church. Transform the world.
In Jesus Name, Amen
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BROUGHT TOGETHER

Posted on April 8, 2018 by randscallawayffm
Ephesians – Belief and Behavior
 
Ephesians is one of the most prolific writings by Paul to the church. I love reading and pondering over the words that provide wisdom and clarity while showing us what is healthy to a growing life as individuals seeking to do life together as the Body of Christ. God brings all things together. He is God and we are not. He guides. We obey. Every detail of our lives contributes to what Paul describes as God’s plan worked out by Christ, “a long-range plan in which everything would be brought together and summed up in him, everything in deepest heaven, everything on planet earth.”
 
All of Paul’s letters begin with who we are in Christ then turns the light switch on to how to live out what we believe in our behavior. His letter to the Ephesians blatantly expresses the relationship of belief and behavior. We must live what we say we believe and must believe what God has said and clarified for us through Christ, His Son. We have no excuse. But we cannot do it alone. We must rely on the work of the Holy Spirit in us to help us.
 
May the reading and pondering of Ephesians bless you as it does me. May we be blessed with wisdom, insight and understanding. I pray we grow up a little more and love more and more like Christ. May our beliefs match our behaviors more accurately in the coming days as Christ transforms us from the inside out.
 
Ephesians 1 clarityEphesians 1, The Message
 
1-2 I, Paul, am under God’s plan as an apostle, a special agent of Christ Jesus, writing to you faithful believers in Ephesus. I greet you with the grace and peace poured into our lives by God our Father and our Master, Jesus Christ.
 
The God of Glory
3-6 How blessed is God! And what a blessing he is! He’s the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in him. Long before he laid down earth’s foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!) He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son.
 
7-10 Because of the sacrifice of the Messiah, his blood poured out on the altar of the Cross, we’re a free people—free of penalties and punishments chalked up by all our misdeeds. And not just barely free, either. Abundantly free! He thought of everything, provided for everything we could possibly need, letting us in on the plans he took such delight in making. He set it all out before us in Christ, a long-range plan in which everything would be brought together and summed up in him, everything in deepest heaven, everything on planet earth.
 
11-12 It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone.
 
13-14 It’s in Christ that you, once you heard the truth and believed it (this Message of your salvation), found yourselves home free—signed, sealed, and delivered by the Holy Spirit. This signet from God is the first installment on what’s coming, a reminder that we’ll get everything God has planned for us, a praising and glorious life.
 
15-19 That’s why, when I heard of the solid trust you have in the Master Jesus and your outpouring of love to all the followers of Jesus, I couldn’t stop thanking God for you—every time I prayed, I’d think of you and give thanks. But I do more than thank. I ask—ask the God of our Master, Jesus Christ, the God of glory—to make you intelligent and discerning in knowing him personally, your eyes focused and clear, so that you can see exactly what it is he is calling you to do, grasp the immensity of this glorious way of life he has for his followers, oh, the utter extravagance of his work in us who trust him—endless energy, boundless strength!
 
20-23 All this energy issues from Christ: God raised him from death and set him on a throne in deep heaven, in charge of running the universe, everything from galaxies to governments, no name and no power exempt from his rule. And not just for the time being, but forever. He is in charge of it all, has the final word on everything. At the center of all this, Christ rules the church. The church, you see, is not peripheral to the world; the world is peripheral to the church. The church is Christ’s body, in which he speaks and acts, by which he fills everything with his presence.
 
What do we learn?
–We are His and He is ours.
–His Presence is with us. He will never leave us.
–We are called to live a glorious life with Him.
–His plan from the beginning was to save us.
 
Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank you for creating us to worship You. Thank you for “THE PLAN” put in place before we were created in Your image. Thank you for clarifying who we are in You. Continue to transform me. Transform Your church. Transform the world.
In Jesus Name, Amen
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THE CROSS HAS THE FINAL WORD!

Posted on April 7, 2018 by randscallawayffm
Galatians – Freedom in Christ
 
I must confess. Music lifts my spirit and soothes my soul. I was raised in a musical family who taught me that music was important, necessary and enjoyable in life. I still have my mom’s “sheet music” from her growing up days. This makes me smile as I remember watching her play the piano and sing those catchy tunes. Our family gatherings with aunts, uncles, grandparents and cousins usually ended with gathering around the piano to sing. I grew up thinking everyone did this. I even thought every child was required to take grueling piano lessons! It wasn’t until much later in life that I found this was not the case!
 
For my family, it began with Grandpa Lacquement who was the designated song leader (early name for worship leader) of the church where I was raised. I would watch him pick out the songs we sang with great care and wisdom. His choices generally were chosen in harmony with what was being said by he preacher but also after prayer for guidance by the Holy Spirit within him. He trained us with “pray first”. Back in the day, without a “program” or bulletin, Grandpa would listen intently to the message then leaf through the index so he could choose just the right song to finish our time of worship. (Worship Lesson 101 for me.)
 
I believe music is another aspect of God’s great and wonderful creation. We were created to praise and music was created as a tool to do that in pleasing ways to Him. Great composers receive their gift of writing from God the Creator of all things wonderful. We hear harmonies in the music and can’t help but sing what we hear.
 
What I learned over the years is music that leads me to worship God while reminding me of what He has done, is doing and will do is priceless, necessary and required for me to stay focused on Him. Worship is surrendering myself to Him. He is God and i are not. Music that brings me to my knees in humble adoration of God is worship. For those being led to worship, it’s not as much about how the song is sung as much as it is about the heart that sings it.
 
A song that still rings in my heart from Easter’s afterglow is “The Cross Has the Final Word”. This message is simple and yet profound. Jesus work on the Cross is our salvation. His resurrection is the reason for our faith! Yes, the cross has the final word about all of life! We worship, not the Cross, but Jesus who died and rose again for us.
 
The cross has the final word
The cross has the final word
Sorrow may come in the darkest night
But the cross has the final word
 
There’s nothing stronger, nothing higher
There’s nothing greater than the name of Jesus
All the honor, all the power
All the glory to the name of Jesus
 
Paul ends his letter to the Galatians with this same message. The Cross is the final word of our faith. So, “Live creatively, friends”, Paul writes to the crazy Christians in Galatia. Don’t give up and quit on what you have been taught about Christ. Don’t compare yourself with others. Use music, words, actions to lead people to Christ. Do all to benefit all. “Because of that Cross, I have been crucified in relation to the world, set free from the stifling atmosphere of pleasing others and fitting into the little patterns that they dictate.”
 
The Cross has the final word.
 
Galatians 6 cross of JesusGalatians 6, The Message
Nothing but the Cross
6 1-3 Live creatively, friends. If someone falls into sin, forgivingly restore him, saving your critical comments for yourself. You might be needing forgiveness before the day’s out. Stoop down and reach out to those who are oppressed. Share their burdens, and so complete Christ’s law. If you think you are too good for that, you are badly deceived.
 
4-5 Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that. Don’t be impressed with yourself. Don’t compare yourself with others. Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life.
 
6 Be very sure now, you who have been trained to a self-sufficient maturity, that you enter into a generous common life with those who have trained you, sharing all the good things that you have and experience.
 
7-8 Don’t be misled: No one makes a fool of God. What a person plants, he will harvest. The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others—ignoring God!—harvests a crop of weeds. All he’ll have to show for his life is weeds! But the one who plants in response to God, letting God’s Spirit do the growth work in him, harvests a crop of real life, eternal life.
 
9-10 So let’s not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good. At the right time we will harvest a good crop if we don’t give up, or quit. Right now, therefore, every time we get the chance, let us work for the benefit of all, starting with the people closest to us in the community of faith.
 
11-13 Now, in these last sentences, I want to emphasize in the bold scrawls of my personal handwriting the immense importance of what I have written to you. These people who are attempting to force the ways of circumcision on you have only one motive: They want an easy way to look good before others, lacking the courage to live by a faith that shares Christ’s suffering and death. All their talk about the law is gas. They themselves don’t keep the law! And they are highly selective in the laws they do observe. They only want you to be circumcised so they can boast of their success in recruiting you to their side. That is contemptible!
 
14-16 For my part, I am going to boast about nothing but the Cross of our Master, Jesus Christ. Because of that Cross, I have been crucified in relation to the world, set free from the stifling atmosphere of pleasing others and fitting into the little patterns that they dictate. Can’t you see the central issue in all this? It is not what you and I do—submit to circumcision, reject circumcision. It is what God is doing, and he is creating something totally new, a free life! All who walk by this standard are the true Israel of God—his chosen people. Peace and mercy on them!
 
17 Quite frankly, I don’t want to be bothered anymore by these disputes. I have far more important things to do—the serious living of this faith. I bear in my body scars from my service to Jesus.
 
18 May what our Master Jesus Christ gives freely be deeply and personally yours, my friends. Oh, yes!
 
Oh, yes! The Cross has the final word!
 
Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank you for blessings my soul with your music that leads us to think more deeply about what you have done for us on the Cross. You have the final word. You are Truth, Way and Life. You are the beginning and end. You are God and we are not. Continue to transform me. Transform your church. Transform the world.
In Jesus Name, Amen
 
“May what our Master Jesus Christ gives freely be deeply and personally yours, my friends. Oh, yes!”
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FAITH EXPRESSED IN LOVE MATTERS!

Posted on April 6, 2018 by randscallawayffm
Galatians – Freedom in Christ
 
As a science teacher, we did the well-known “tornado in a bottle” experiment to show that air and water can change places. We used two pop bottles connected at the openings. Water is in the bottom bottle and of course air is in the top. We let them discover ways for the water and air to change places. If they just turned it upside down the air holds the water on top in place. (Oohs and ahs.) If they shook it vigorously, some water would leak down and some air would rise to the top. (The hard and slow way.)
 
Galatians 5 tornadoBUT if they spun the bottle gently, creating a spinning “tornado”, the air and the water traded places quickly and easily. By spinning, creating a tornado, we created an opening through the center (vortex) of the tornado for the air to pass through to the top, making the water “rain” down the edges of bottle below. (More oohs and ahs.) NOW, the air and water trade places. We also go on to say that the air and the water do not occupy the same space at the same time.
 
I think of the implications of this experiment as we try to do life without the help of God’s Holy Spirit. We shake vigorously trying to make things happen on our own and all we have to show for life is hard work and selfish desires to grab for more. We are not at peace about much of anything. Why? Our sin selves cannot occupy the same space as a Spirit-filled, directed life. We must create an opening for the sin to drain to the bottom and for the Holy Spirit to rise to the top. That is done by accepting Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord of our whole being. The being God created in the first place. (For us sin drains completely away, never to be seen again!)
 
Paul uses another analogy of the orchard to explain living God’s way, a life of freedom with selfless faith expressed in love for Christ and others. This way of living is diametrically opposed and totally opposite our self centered way of living life. Read carefully and prayerfully. It might sting a little but is full of wisdom for all of us! Remember, just as air and water, God’s Holy Spirit cannot occupy the same space as sin and self.
 
Galatians 5, The Message
 
The Life of Freedom
5 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.
 
Galatians 5 faith and love7-10 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 antithetical, 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.
 
Galatians 5 walk in the spiritThink about it more deeply…
–“Each of us is an original” created by God. He knows us well. He knows what is best for each one of us.
–“When you attempt to live by your own religious plans and projects, you are cut off from Christ, you fall out of grace.” We are bound up, holding back the power of God’ spirit in us.
–“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.” God’s Holy Spirit versus Self.
–Name the opposites as mentioned above. See the difference. Feel the freedom to leave self behind! We are such a stubborn lot. When we don’t depend on self and control of all circumstances we are set free! Let go. Let God.
–“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.”
 
Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank you for speaking through Paul to the church then and to us now. Thank you for the filling our lives with Your Holy Spirit that washes away all that is not you in us. Continue to transform me. Transform your church. Transform the world.
In Jesus Name, Amen
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FULL ACCESS

Posted on April 5, 2018 by randscallawayffm
Galatians – Freedom in Christ
 
Conventions provide badges with levels of importance to control and manage the attending crowds of people. Most are tags you wear around your neck attached to a lanyard. Some are simply pins you wear on your clothing. It must be shown readily to make sure you can get access to the event. IF you are “important” enough, you wear a badge that gives you FULL access to any event and person…even backstage! This usually means you are there to SERVE in the events I attend. I used to be an event manager so I know the importance of this kind management so the event runs smoothly for the protection and benefit of all.
 
Galatians 4 child of the KingI think about these experiences after reading Paul’s words to the people of Galatia who seem to be returning to the old ways of the religious sect’s laws without relationship that enslaved them before Christ. They were forgetting their freedom in Christ who gave FULL ACCESS to the throne of God because of His work on the cross for them. For us! Yes, we have been given FULL ACCESS to the Kingdom of God because of accepting, believing, loving and following in the ways Jesus taught us.
 
Don’t go back!, says Paul. We are free! We are heirs with Jesus, God’s Son! He is our Father, too. We are “children of the promise”! We have complete access to God because of Christ. Now grow in your relationship with Him!
 
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 paper tigers? 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.
 

Galatians 4 all access17 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 ardent 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 connivance; 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 connivance (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.
 
Galatians 4-7 heirDear Heavenly Father,
Thank you, dear Jesus, for giving ALL who believe the badge of FULL ACCESS to Your Kingdom! Thank you for dying for all our sins, defeating death and rising again, tearing down all that stands between God and us. Continue to work out Your salvation in all of us. Help us not to return to the slavery of rules and regulations but live freely in the wide open spaces of a growing relationship with You, Father in Heaven. Transform me. Transform Your church. Transform the world.
In Jesus Name, Amen
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NO MIDDLEMAN!

Posted on April 4, 2018 by randscallawayffm
Galatians – Freedom in Christ
 
When trying to get an issue resolved, either over the phone or at a store that sold you the defective item, we are not happy to hear, “Let me go ask my boss”, who most likely will merely be the next in line and not be THE boss. Time is wasted. I find it much more efficient to go to the top right away, don’t you? Ask for who’s in charge and resolve the issue quickly. No one below the boss has any real authority to make the final decision for resolution.
 
In coming to Jesus for the forgiveness of our sin we have gone to the top, the King of kings and LORD of lords. He is Savior and He is Lord. He has the final answer. His saving grace has set us free. HE is THE boss. He is our advocate and he is part of the Three-In-One. There is now no middleman. Religion is not the middleman nor any pastor or priest. As believers we can approach the Throne of God, in Jesus Name, and be heard.
 
“By faith in Christ you are in direct relationship with God.” This is the fulfillment of God original plan and promise to us. And that’s not all! We are joint heirs, with Jesus Christ! We are noted in the will of our Father!
 
Paul explains this wonderful privilege that we have to go directly to the top…without an earthly middleman. He finishes with,
 
“In Christ’s family there can be no division into Jew and no Jew, slave and free, male and female. Among us you are all equal. That is, we are ALL in common relationship with Jesus Christ.”
 
We are all heirs, equally, according to the promises of God!
 
Read carefully and prayerfully and be blessed by the distinction of who we are because of Christ’s work on the Cross. We are redeemed and free to go directly to God. Wow! Let that sink in.
 
Galatians 3 grace changes everythingGalatians 3, The Message (Part two)
 
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 ratified, 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 ratified 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.
 
Galatians 3 who we areIn 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.
 
Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank you for the privilege to come directly to you with everything on my mind. You always have the answers I need. Thank you for loving us so much you sent Jesus to free us. Thank you for your amazing grace that settles all issues of righteousness. Thank you for saving me. Continue to transform me. Transform your church. Transform the world you created.
In Jesus Name, Amen
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CRAZY CHRISTIANS

Posted on April 3, 2018 by randscallawayffm
Galatians – Freedom in Christ
 
We just celebrated Resurrection Sunday with gratitude, praise and worship of the One who saved us all from all sin. Many gathered in sanctuaries across America to hear the Good News. Many first time visitors gathered at our church to hear a clearly, understandable break down of John 3:16 to those who may have never heard what it means and/or needed a reminder of WHO frees us from the bondage of our sins. Our sins, nailed to a Cross, to be remembered no more. We are redeemed!!
 
Many responded to that message. Now, two days later, I wonder how many have fallen back into bondage thinking. This is the immature attitude that causes us to think we need to now work hard “to be good” to please others and hopefully please God. Satan will have a hey day with this thinking. We cannot “be good” by ourselves which will bring on the defeating notion that we are not good enough for God.
 
We are imperfect people saved by a perfect God with perfect forgiveness. God works His salvation freedom into us and through us day by day, hour by hour. We will mess up. He knows we will. He is there to pick us up and continue to teach us how to mess up less often with an assurance that He is with us always. He will never let go of His love for us. His Holy Spirt with show us the course corrections to make on our journey. So, all our trust must be in Christ. Our focus on Christ. We look ahead, not behind. Nothing more, nothing less. We are crazy to think otherwise.
 
Paul explains it well to the crazy believers in Galatia who have been led by the religious cronies to go back to following the religious rules, trying to dot every i and cross every t without building an intimate, open and free relationship with Jesus Christ, Lord and Savior. Listen in as we read. Imagine how this applies readily to we crazy Christians today. Make a decision with a commitment to focus and follow Jesus. No turning back, no turning back.
 
Galatians 3, The Message (Part one)
Trust in Christ, Not the Law
 
Galatians 3 graceYou crazy Galatians! Did someone put a hex 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.
 
Galatians 3 recoveringTell us how you really feel, Paul! What do we learn?
–It is ONLY by the grace of God, through Jesus Christ, that we are saved from sin.
–We do not work for our salvation, it is a gift. That way we cannot boast about what we did to get it!
–We live life with focus and clarity because of Christ living in us!
–By His Holy Spirit we rise from the ashes of defeat to live as free, redeemed joyful believers!
–His amazing grace is for every race! (Thank you pastor for that one!)
–Don’t be crazy…be committed.
 
“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.”
 
Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank you, thank you, thank you for saving our souls, for making us whole again, for restoring our relationship with You and for remembering our sins no more. What a Savior! What a mighty God we love and want to serve, not for kudos, but from a place of humble gratitude. I love you with all my heart, mind and soul. Continue to transform me. Transform Your church. Transform the world. Set right. Wow. Free to live redeemed!
In Jesus Name, Amen
 
Galatians 3 justifiedAnd I’m singing…Resurrecting!
 
The head that once was crowned with thorns
Is crowned with glory now
The Savior knelt to wash our feet
Now at His feet we bow
 
The One who wore our sin and shame
Now robed in majesty
The radiance of perfect love
Now shines for all to see
 
Your name, Your name
Is victory
All praise, will rise
To Christ, our king
Your name, Your name
Is victory
All praise, will rise
To Christ, our king
 
The fear that held us now gives way
To Him who is our peace
His final breath upon the cross
Is now alive in me
 
Your name, Your name
Is victory
All praise, will rise
To Christ, our king
Your name, Your name
Is victory
All praise, will rise
To Christ, our king
 
By Your spirit I will rise
From the ashes of defeat
The resurrected King, is resurrecting me
In Your name I come alive
To declare…
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