Let those who unsettle you…

7You were running well; who prevented you from obeying the truth?8Such persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. 9A little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough. 10I am confident about you in the Lord that you will not think otherwise. But whoever it is that is confusing you will pay the penalty. 11But my friends, why am I still being persecuted if I am still preaching circumcision? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed. 12I wish those who unsettle you would castrate themselves! (Galatians 5:7-12, NRSV)

I wish those who unsettle you would castrate themselves! Wow! Paul really doesn’t mince words here, does he?

Those who stir up trouble should castrate themselves. But actually, this would be all of us at one point or another wouldn’t it? We all cause issues for others, but here Paul is specifically talking about those who lead you astray from following after God and being what God has created you to be.

We need to be aware of what is happening around us and focus our attention on Jesus, and let God be the focus of our lives, then we will not be lead astray. We will have the focus of seeing Jesus and following where God leads us.

A little bit goes a long way but God has protected our hearts and leads us in the ways of life. Follow and trust in God.

circumcised?

2Listen! I, Paul, am telling you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no benefit to you. 3Once again I testify to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obliged to obey the entire law. 4You who want to be justified by the law have cut yourselves off from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. 5For through the Spirit, by faith, we eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. 6For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything; the only thing that counts is faith working through love. (Galatians 5:2-6, NRSV)

Here is the thing Paul is saying, if you allow yourself to be circumcised when you were not as a part of the covenant at 8 days old, then it doesn’t do you any good and actually does harm to the mission. You see the last sentence says it all, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything. Neither of these options saves you.

It is Christ that saves us and no outward sign. When we do things for others we show that there are things that are necessary for salvation and that simply isn’t true. There is nothing we can do to make us right with God. Jesus does it all.

Trust in the promise and hold tight and do not let others convince you otherwise.

sheep among wolves

5These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, 6but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 7As you go, proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ 8Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment. 9Take no gold, or silver, or copper in your belts, 10no bag for your journey, or two tunics, or sandals, or a staff; for laborers deserve their food. 11Whatever town or village you enter, find out who in it is worthy, and stay there until you leave. 12As you enter the house, greet it. 13If the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it; but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. 14If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet as you leave that house or town. 15Truly I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town. 16“See, I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. 17Beware of them, for they will hand you over to councils and flog you in their synagogues; 18and you will be dragged before governors and kings because of me, as a testimony to them and the Gentiles. 19When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say; for what you are to say will be given to you at that time; 20for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. 21Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death; 22and you will be hated by all because of my name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.23When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next; for truly I tell you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes. (Matthew 10:5-23, NRSV)

People will not want to hear your message of love and understanding. They will not understand mercy and grace. Even those of us who have been covered with grace do not get it.

We are sent out into a world that doesn’t know the love we have received, with little to no protection and a reliance on those who do not get us. This really doesn’t seem like a wise plan.

But your mission is not to change minds or make people like you or God, your mission is to go and to share. And if they listen and welcome you, then graciously accept what they bring to you and tell them all about God’s mercy and grace. But if they don’t listen, then shake the dust off your feet, don’t even take that from them, and move along.

You are going where they will not want you, but God is always with you. So go in confidence that you are sheltered and protected even as a sheep among wolves.

Trust the promises and go!

be faithful

8“And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write: These are the words of the first and the last, who was dead and came to life: 9“I know your affliction and your poverty, even though you are rich. I know the slander on the part of those who say that they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. 10Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Beware, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison so that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have affliction. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life. 11Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches. Whoever conquers will not be harmed by the second death. (Revelation 2:8-11, NRSV)

Be faithful until death and Jesus will give you a crown of life!

We need to be aware of those around us and those who say they are followers of Christ and are actually a part of a gathering for Satan.

I read a Facebook post this past week on the rise of the number of people who say they are post-Christian, which is a survey of different generations who were raised in a Christian church but now say they do not attend and/or believe. We could take this many ways and it is hard to tell from the post the way the original survey went but is this post-Christian, or post-Christiandom? Two very different things.

People have told me they want Sunday School like we had in the 50s and 60s. Issue with this though is some people, not a large number but some, only came to worship to not be labeled a communist. The Cold War was influencing people. We need to come to worship and follow after Christ because we are drawn and actually are following Christ. It isn’t because it is right to do, or we need to be there for what we said we would do. We go to worship and are faithful to Christ because we want to be. And some “Christian” gatherings are quilting people into being there. Is there any wonder people are seeing through the facade, and saying they are post-Christian?

Have faith in the promises and follow God because you are held in God’s hand.

And Be faithful against all that is to come, because God is always with you.

enduring

“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands: 2“I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance. I know that you cannot tolerate evildoers; you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them to be false. 3I also know that you are enduring patiently and bearing up for the sake of my name, and that you have not grown weary. 4But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.5Remember then from what you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. 6Yet this is to your credit: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 7Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches. To everyone who conquers, I will give permission to eat from the tree of life that is in the paradise of God. (Revelation 2:1-7, NRSV)

We need to endure with what we have been given to do. Even when it seems we are done we need to hold fast.

The people of Ephesus were bold in their love of God and followed after God testing those who came in God’s name. But they forgot their first love and moved away from that. We need to hold tight to our fist love and allow that to carry us through and not look for more beyond that.

Follow after God and remember what God has given you to be and to do.

Share God’s love with all the world, and never lose sight of how God holds on to you.

secret made known

24“A disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above the master; 25it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher, and the slave like the master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household! 26“So have no fear of them; for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. 27What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. 28Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. 29Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. 30And even the hairs of your head are all counted. 31So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows. 32“Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven; 33but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven. 34“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; 36and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household. 37Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; 38and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. (Matthew 10:24-39, NRSV)

God knows your worth because God created you. And everything that people think they do in the dark and undercover God knows. And so will everyone else. It will be made known.

So proclaim what God has told you and do not worry about what society will do to you. Because they might be able to destroy your fleshly body, but they can not destroy you. Only God can do that. So be bold and share God’s love. Even when the world pushes back. We need to be witnesses to the love and mercy that God showers on us.

We must share God’s grace in everything we do.

Beware the yeast of the Pharisees

53When he went outside, the scribes and the Pharisees began to be very hostile toward him and to cross-examine him about many things, 54lying in wait for him, to catch him in something he might say. Meanwhile, when the crowd gathered by the thousands, so that they trampled on one another, he began to speak first to his disciples, “Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees, that is, their hypocrisy. 2Nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. 3Therefore whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered behind closed doors will be proclaimed from the housetops. (Luke 11:53—12:3, NRSV)

They wanted to catch him in something he would say. They were baiting him to say what he believed and felt and wanted to use that against him.

So many times in life we are asked questions not so others can learn about us but so they can find something to use against us.

What if we never went into a conversation with motives other than to love others and get to know them better?

Because a little yeast spoils the whole batch and once it is in you can’t get it out.

We must be careful how we are and act towards others, and not let our lives cause issues or trouble for others. We are called to love as God loved us.

Prison break

17Then the high priest took action; he and all who were with him (that is, the sect of the Sadducees), being filled with jealousy, 18arrested the apostles and put them in the public prison. 19But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors, brought them out, and said,20“Go, stand in the temple and tell the people the whole message about this life.” 21When they heard this, they entered the temple at daybreak and went on with their teaching. When the high priest and those with him arrived, they called together the council and the whole body of the elders of Israel, and sent to the prison to have them brought. 22But when the temple police went there, they did not find them in the prison; so they returned and reported, 23“We found the prison securely locked and the guards standing at the doors, but when we opened them, we found no one inside.” 24Now when the captain of the temple and the chief priests heard these words, they were perplexed about them, wondering what might be going on. 25Then someone arrived and announced, “Look, the men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people!” 26Then the captain went with the temple police and brought them, but without violence, for they were afraid of being stoned by the people. (Acts 5:17-26, NRSV)

Today is the celebration of Freedom Day, Jubilee Day, and Cel-Liberation Day, the day the Emancipation Proclamation was read to enslaved African Americans in Texas by Gordon Granger. Texas was the last Confederate State to have the proclamation announced, after the end of the American Civil War in April of that year. Texas was the most remote of the slave states, and minimal fighting meant there were few Union troops present to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation until after the war ended.

It is interesting to me that this devo falls on today. Those who were held as slaves were freed when they should have already been freed and the apostles who were imprisoned wrongly were freed. God works in ways we do not understand.

How can we help the world see that God created us all in a wonderful tapestry of beauty that needs to be seen? How can we all show God’s love to the world and love as God first loved us?

We are all called to set the captive free where ever we see that. Lift up the lowly and help those in need.

That is what God called us all to.

human beings

5Now God did not subject the coming world, about which we are speaking, to angels. 6But someone has testified somewhere, “What are human beings that you are mindful of them, or mortals, that you care for them? 7You have made them for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned them with glory and honor, 8subjecting all things under their feet.” Now in subjecting all things to them, God left nothing outside their control. As it is, we do not yet see everything in subjection to them,9but we do see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. (Hebrews 2:5-9, NRSV)

What are humans or mortals that you care for them?

Why does God care for us?

Because God created us. That is why God cares for us. We are the creation of God, knit together in our mother’s womb, and a blessing to our parents.

Each of us is a gift to the world.

And we each have a purpose here. Do not let anyone tell you different.

God created you and you are loved.

Take time to pray

12Now during those days he went out to the mountain to pray; and he spent the night in prayer to God. 13And when day came, he called his disciples and chose twelve of them, whom he also named apostles:14Simon, whom he named Peter, and his brother Andrew, and James, and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew, 15and Matthew, and Thomas, and James son of Alphaeus, and Simon, who was called the Zealot, 16and Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor. 17He came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. 18They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. 19And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them. (Luke 6:12-19, NRSV)

Jesus took time to pray. During the day and at night. Jesus spent time with the Father.

How do we take time to pray?

There are lots of things to do. We all have to-do lists longer than we want, but the thing at the top of that list should be prayer.

When you start your day with prayer and end it in prayer things will go better.

Always Say A Prayer!