Galatians - The Park Forum

March 16, 2018March 13, 2018

Surrender

Scripture: Galatians 2.20
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Reflection: Surrender
By Matt Tullos

Surrender: The releasing of every solution, tool, and self-saving strategy.

Jesus walked to the cross in total surrender.

He explained it this way: “No one is taking it from me; I lay it down of my own free will. I have the authority to lay it down, and I have the authority to take it back again. This is what my Father has commanded me.”
John 10:18 (HCSB)

There has always been a controversy around who killed Jesus. But Jesus was clear. He gave up His life as an offering. As we remember the brutal account of Jesus’ death, He invites us to see the cross as an embraced undertaking.

We are His prize and He snatched us away from the enemy through the brutality of an unthinkable surrender. He loved us enough to engage himself in a 33 year passage toward an unspeakable end.

In this act we see how real love works and He is inviting us to enter this story, to live, die, and live again. When we live like Jesus, life is ever before us as an opportunity to surrender everything. What does that look like for you? Only Jesus knows and He will reveal it to you soon enough.

Arise – go! Sell all you possess. Give it directly, personally to the poor. Take up My cross (their cross) and follow Me, going to the poor, being poor, being one with them, one with Me.
Little – be always little! Be simple, poor, childlike.
Preach the Gospel with your life – without compromise! Listen to the Spirit. He will lead you…
Do little things exceedingly well for love of Me.
Love… love… love, never counting the cost
Go into the marketplace and stay with Me. Pray, fast. Pray always, fast.
Be hidden. Be a light to your neighbor’s feet. Go without fear into the depth of men’s hearts. I shall be with you. Pray always.
I will be your rest.
— Catherine Doherty’s Little Mandate

The image of the cross is an image of absolute surrender.

When we enter into the story of Christ we see a point in time when we cannot use our hands to control anything. Our will, determination, ambition, and skill are nailed to the holy cross of Christ. While the world’s system teaches us how to control others and change ourselves, the cross has no such purpose. On the cross, our hands are not busy. They are surrendered.

The cross compels us to die to that old foe that the world calls “a self-made man.” Everything that feeds our own power, pride, ego, and self-determination has to go. It simply must. God is not improved by our efforts. He is glorified by our surrender.

When absolute and complete surrender takes hold of you, you will experience the bliss of satisfaction in Him. Whatever you have or don’t have… it wholly means nothing when you have given it all to Him. You live. You breathe. You worship. You give.
This is enough.

Survey the state of your heart. What things inside stand as barriers between you and God’s complete possession of all that you are?

*From a series Matt Tullos wrote called 39 Words. A few of these posts (including today’s) are available in audio form via Soundcloud. — John

Prayer: The Request for Presence
Send out your light and your truth, that they may lead me, and bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling. — Psalm 43.3

– Prayer from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.

Full prayer available online and in print.

Today’s Readings
Proverbs 3 (Listen – 3:05)
Galatians 2 (Listen – 3:44)

This Weekend’s Readings
Proverbs 4 (Listen – 2:37) Galatians 3 (Listen – 4:39)
Proverbs 5 (Listen – 2:08) Galatians 4 (Listen – 4:13)

March 15, 2018March 11, 2018

What Slavery We Choose :: Throwback Thursday

Scripture: Galatians 1.10
Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.

Reflection: What Slavery We Choose :: Throwback Thursday
By Richard Baxter (1615-1691)

Consider what slavery you choose, when you make yourselves the servants of every person, whose censures you fear, and whose approbation you are ambitious of. “You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of human beings.” Do not needlessly enthral yourselves.

What a task have people-pleasers! They have as many masters as beholders! No wonder it takes them from the service of God. For the “friendship of the world is enmity to God” and “anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.” (James 4.4)

They cannot serve two masters, God and the world. You know people will condemn you, if you be true to God. If, therefore, you must have the favor of people, you must take it alone without God’s favor.

A people-pleaser cannot be true to God because he is a servant to the enemies of his service to God. The wind of a person’s mouth will drive him about as the chaff—from any duty, and to any sin.

How servile a person is a people-pleaser! How many masters he has, and how mean ones! It perverts the course of your hearts and lives, and turns all from God to this unprofitable way.

Remember what a pitiful reward you seek. Jesus said, concerning hypocrites and people-pleasers, “they have their reward.” O miserable reward! The thought and breath of mortal people! Instead of God—instead of Heaven—this is their reward!

Their happiness will be to lie in hell, and remember that they were well spoken of on earth—that once they were counted religious, learned, wise, or honorable, and to remember that they preferred this reward before everlasting happiness with Christ!

If this is not gain, your labor is all lost, which you lay out in hunting for applause. If this is enough to spend your time for, and to neglect your God for, and to lose your souls for, rejoice then in the hypocrite’s reward.

*Abridged and language updated from Directions against Idolizing Man.

Prayer: The Request for Presence
Send out your light and your truth, that they may lead me, and bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling. — Psalm 43.3

– Prayer from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.

Full prayer available online and in print.

Today’s Readings
Proverbs 2 (Listen – 1:53)
Galatians 1 (Listen – 3:05)

September 29, 2017September 26, 2017

Peacemaking Versus Peacekeeping

Scripture: Galatians 5:22-23
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Reflection: Peacemaking Versus Peacekeeping
By Jada Swanson

What is peace? Peace is not the absence of turmoil or conflict. Rather, it’s a sense of awareness and understanding, knowing that God is in control of all. It is maintaining a quiet confidence in the midst of the daily struggles of life, as well as breathing in and embracing tranquility in the middle sheer and utter chaos.

The Bible states that Christians should live peaceful lives, making every effort to live at peace with everyone. Unfortunately, throughout the centuries many who identify as Christ-followers have not followed biblical teachings in regards to peaceful living, misinterpreting peacekeeping for peacemaking.

Peacekeeping comes about through misguided, but well-intended personal efforts. To be honest, it requires a lot of work. Peacekeepers tend to smooth things over, avoiding conflict at all costs in order to keep everyone content and the relationship intact. However, this is nothing more than pseudo-peace, and instead of healing a relationship, it fractures it even more.

The Bible says nothing about peacekeeping, but instead calls us to be peacemakers. Peacemaking approaches conflict redemptively—working through real issues in order to discover a solution or a compromise. It requires having the necessary conversations, no matter how difficult. Sometimes, the best way to build peace is to embrace confrontation as uncomfortable as this may be.

Are you a peace-keeper or a peacemaker?

As Christ-Followers, we should not waste our time or energy with peacekeeping. Instead, we should strive with all that we are to be peacemakers, someone who continuously yields to God’s Spirit in them as a result of their relationship with Jesus. Let’s stop keeping peace and start making peace, not settling for pseudo-peace, but actively pursuing real peace –– God’s peace.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. — (Matthew 5:9)

The Call to Prayer
Search for the Lord and his strength; continually seek his face. — Psalm 105:4

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Full prayer available online and in print.

Today’s Readings
1 Kings 1 (Listen – 7:52)
Galatians 5 (Listen – 3:22)

Today’s Readings
1 Kings 2 (Listen – 7:45) Galatians 6 (Listen – 2:18)
1 Kings 3 (Listen – 4:29) Ephesians 1 (Listen – 3:10)

September 28, 2017September 26, 2017

The Slavery of Plenty

Scripture: Galatians 4:6-7
Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.

Reflection: The Slavery of Plenty
By Jon Polk

Paul’s insinuation that we are slaves to forces outside ourselves is met with resistance by modern readers. We like to think of ourselves as independent beings in control of our own destinies.

We may acknowledge that those who live in countries around the world with oppressive political systems are in a form of bondage, as are those trapped by addictions to drugs or alcohol. But many who live comfortably, with good jobs, happy families and spacious homes, are reluctant to identify with the slave metaphor Paul uses to describe our fallen state.

However, although we may not recognize it, we are far too easily enslaved by our possessions, our comfortable way of life, or our status and authority.

Christians can find it difficult to resist the temptation to return to our old selfish ways. Paul is concerned for the Galatians because they “are turning back to those weak and miserable forces” (v. 9).

In his commentary on Galatians, Martin Luther acknowledges this difficulty, referring to our old nature as slaves to the Law.

If it thrusts its nose into the business of justification we must talk harshly to the Law to keep it in its place. The conscience ought not to be on speaking terms with the Law. The conscience ought to know only Christ. To say this is easy, but in times of trial, when the conscience writhes in the presence of God, it is not so easy to do.

The Holy Spirit living in us reminds us that we are daughters and sons of God through the sacrifice of Christ, who was sent by God to set us free. We are no longer slaves to our selfish nature or to the cultural forces of materialism and security that seek to draw our attention away from God. Luther encourages us,

If we could be fully persuaded that we are in the good grace of God, that our sins are forgiven, that we have the Spirit of Christ, that we are the beloved children of God, we would be ever so happy and grateful to God.

As we begin to grasp the depth of what God has done for us through Christ, we find ourselves on the road to freedom, discovering our true satisfaction in God alone.

A Request for Presence
For God alone my soul in silence waits; truly, my hope is in him. — Psalm 62:6

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Full prayer available online and in print.

Today’s Readings
2 Samuel 24 (Listen – 4:48)
Galatians 4 (Listen – 4:13)

September 27, 2017September 25, 2017

Love, Suffering, and the Struggle for Racial Equality

Scripture: Galatians 3:28
There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Reflection: Love, Suffering, and the Struggle for Racial Equality
By John Tillman

Racism was not “solved” in the 60s during the civil rights era. As we read from Dr. Hayashida’s remarks from forty years ago, we see clearly the struggle was still ongoing in 1978, and we must acknowledge that it is still ongoing today.

I believe ethnic minority Christians need encouragement. For although they are Christians, the biting reality remains that they are still ethnic minorities, people who continue to contest for equality in all phases of American society….

Laws are changing. But laws and societal restructuring represent mere surface modifications. Many living in American society are experiencing no great transformation of racial attitudes. It’s easier to melt steel than it is to soften the rigid sinews of a warped heart. Because of slow-changing racial attitudes, then, I feel ethnic minority Christians must be encouraged to understand their spiritual identity in Christ Jesus.

Dr. Hayashida goes on to encourage minority Christians to study 1 Corinthians 13 and to embody the “suffering” verbs in the King James translation: suffereth, beareth, believeth, hopeth, and endureth.

It is this bountiful love of God that powers an individual to endure his hurts.

I’m not suggesting that Christians stand idly by while evil and injustice run rampant. But a Christian is asked to endure while actively working for justice, which I recognize is often slow in coming. We must suffer for Christ’s sake—a task for the strong, not the weak.

Racism must never be thought of by Christians as a problem solved by some previous era or some significant historical event. History has taught us that racism springs to life anew in each generation. In the current racial struggles that our world is facing, denial equals complicity.

When we work for racial equality we are not doing political work—we are doing God’s work. We must struggle and suffer together with God as we engage in his work of bringing freedom and equality to every people. As we do, God suffers and works with us.

The Bible reveals a God who shares in the travails of his people…I know of no other religion that makes such ado about a transcendent God who grieves for and with his people (the saints) and all people (non-believers, as Jesus weeping for the stiff-necked city of Jerusalem).

As God suffers for mankind, learn to share his sensitivities. God truly identifies in your sorrows. You are not alone. God is with you. May we be with him.

A Reading
…Anyone who does not take his cross and follow in my footsteps is not worthy of me. Anyone who finds his life will lose it; anyone who loses his life for my sake will find it. — Matthew 10:38-39

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Full prayer available online and in print.

Today’s Readings
2 Samuel 23 (Listen – 5:38)
Galatians 3 (Listen – 4:39)