Persecution for the Children of Promise
Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. But just as then the child born according to the flesh persecuted the one born according to the Spirit, so also now. But what does the Scripture say? Drive out the slave and her son, for the son of the slave will never be a coheir with the son […]
3 Miseries of Legalism
Legalism is attempting to earn God’s approval with our works. It is man’s attempt to qualify himself to stand before God on his own merits. We are recovering legalists, for there was a time, before Christ rescued us, when we attempted to find our joy in ourselves, our salvation by ourselves. Now we trust His […]
A Rescue Mission from Prison
Christ has liberated us to be free. Stand firm then and don’t submit again to a yoke of slavery (Galatians 5:1) I read the book Ghost Soldiers several years ago on a vacation. It tells the story of what many believe to be the greatest rescue mission in military history. Nearing the end of World War […]
Legalism and a New Circumcision
When we make the results of our walk with the Lord requirements for our standing with Him, we are drifting from grace. When we hold up the personal results of our faith as requirements for others—we act as legalists. A couple of examples… As a result of their time with the Lord and conversations with […]
Two Conceptions; Two Ways to Live
For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave and the other by a free woman. But the one by the slave was born according to the impulse of the flesh, while the one by the free woman was born as the result of a promise… Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of […]
Don’t Love a Good Thing Less
My heart, and yours, has a tendency to love other things more than God. We have a proclivity to cherish the blessings, the good things He gives, more than Him. To fight this, we sometimes decide to abandon the good things altogether. When confronted with our idolatry, we can convince ourselves we should love a […]
The Faith of a Servant or a Son?
Many people relate to God as a slave and not as a child. They seek to appease Him with their good deeds, to earn His favor with their good works, and to justify themselves before Him with their own righteousness. For years John Wesley approached God this way before trusting Christ and Him only for […]
10 Reasons to Be Thankful
In the Book of Galatians, we find the apostle Paul was astonished and unsure of what to do with the Galatian believers. At one point, they were overwhelmed with God’s grace expressed toward them. But they had drifted from grace and were attempting to earn God’s approval and qualify themselves to stand before Him with […]
Would we have Tozer, Wesley, or Luther if Twitter were around?
I have been preaching through Galatians at the church where I serve as interim pastor, and lately I have wondered if I would be benefiting from Martin Luther’s commentary on Galatians if Twitter were around when he served the church. When you look at all Luther said, clearly not everything he said was great. In […]
The Heart Behind a Viral Christmas Video
Last week a Christmas commercial went viral. The embedded video is from Sainsbury’s, a retailer in the United Kingdom. The commercial depicts the story of the famous Christmas Truce of 1914. The First World War had only begun months before, and the fighting between the Germans and the Allies was very fierce. Hope for a […]