Isaiah 37:1-38:22, Galatians 6:1-18, Psalms 65:1-13, Proverbs 23:24
Today is the 21st day of September welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it’s wonderful to be around the Global Campfire together with you today as we gather from all of the different regions of the world and come and find our place, move forward together in the Scriptures. And our next step forward in the Scriptures will lead us back into the book of Isaiah. We’re reading from the Christian Standard Bible this week. And today Isaiah chapters 37 and 38.
Commentary:
Okay. So, we concluded Paul’s letter to the Galatians today, which will have us moving into new territory tomorrow. But as we finished Galatians today, we kind of got another list. And Paul’s writings allow us to kind of frame things in lists, although I don’t know that the life of faith can be put on a laundry list or a grocery shopping list per se, but we were talking about different paths yesterday - the path of the flesh or the sinful nature and the path of the Spirit and the fruit of the Apirit. And, so, as Paul brings this to a close Paul has like five closing statements that describe for us what living in the Spirit looks like, the posture of it all. So, I’m gonna go back and allow Paul to just speak for himself, and reread those postures, but as we do, let’s go ahead and examine ourselves. Are these postures our postures? Because if these are postures of life in the Spirit following Jesus then certainly, we need and want those postures. So, let’s take a look. Paul says, “let each person examine his own work and then he can take pride in himself alone and not compare himself with someone else. For each person will have to carry his own load.” What Paul seems to be instructing us is that we keep our eyes on our own lives understanding that our own lives matter and that us, fulfilling our life’s mission is important. We’re not going to get an identity comparing ourselves to somebody else. We’re not going to get anywhere by wishing we had somebody else’s life. This life is a gift from God. And Paul says, “let the one who is taught the word share all his good things with the teacher.” In other words, be generous with those who lead you on the path. They have needs too. And then Paul says, “don’t be deceived, God is not mocked, for whatever a person sows he will also reap.” Super famous passage, super famous concept, right? You reap what you sow. And Paul fleshes this out. “Because the one who sows to his flesh”, right, the sinful nature path, the path we don’t want to be on, “the one who sows to his flesh will reap destruction from the flesh, but the one who sows to the Spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit.” This is what we were talking about yesterday because it was the same letter and Paul was bringing it to a close and it took until today to close the letter. But there are two paths, the path of the sinful nature and the path of the Spirit. And Paul tells us, look if we’re going to invest in and sow into the path of the flesh then we will reap destruction from the flesh because we will reap what we sow. But if we so to the Spirit, then the harvest is eternal life from the Spirit. Again, stark contrast, easy choice. May we follow the path of the Spirit because that is the path that is going where we want to go. And then Paul says, “let us not get tired of doing good, for we will reap at the proper time if we don’t give up. If we don’t give up brothers and sisters, we will reap at the proper time if we don’t give up. Therefore, Paul says, “as we have opportunity, let us work for the good of all, especially for those who belong to the household of faith.” The reality is that we cannot perform or be involved in the postures of the Spirit, unless it is being cultivated from within us. We can pretend externally to be whatever we want to pretend to be. The fruit of the Spirit comes from being cultivated with in us. And this begins by simply paying attention, but it’s paying attention to the things that matter within us. The things…I mean like if we walk this path and invest in sow into the Spirit and reap the fruit of the Spirit, then we are going to be transformed. It is going to change so much about us. And all the sudden that fruit begins to spill out of our lives and changes people’s awareness of us all around us. And although there’s plenty of theology to talk about in the book of Galatians, the way that this ends is so encouraging. There is a way to do this. There are postures that we can examine ourselves with to see if we are walking that path. There are paths that will lead us where we don’t want to go and there are characteristics that denote what path we’re on. We just have to pay attention. And if we’re being honest, we know right from wrong. If we’ve been walking with Jesus at all we know what is going to lead us toward and away from him. Paul has given us some language for that, language for us to process, wrestle through, consider. But we know right from wrong. May ee do what is right.
Prayer:
Father, thank You for this letter to the Galatians. And as we leave it for this year and move forward tomorrow, we pray that You would plant it in our lives because it is telling us to plant the fruit of the Spirit in our lives. Holy Spirit we can’t plant Your fruit without You. We can just be willing vessels and we can weed this garden so that the soil is good. Help us pay attention to what we are doing we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.
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And that’s it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.
Community Prayer and Praise:
Will post later in the day…