Author Archive for: meiling

Hi GAMErs!

Today’s passage is Galatians 2:1-10.  Let’s go!

Galatians 2:1-2 (NIV)
1  Fourteen years later I went up again to Jerusalem, this time with Barnabas. I took Titus along also.
2  I went in response to a revelation and set before them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. But I did this privately to those who seemed to be leaders, for fear that I was running or had run my race in vain.
 
On verses 1-2:  Paul’s goal is to show the Christians in Galatia that they are heading in the wrong direction by thinking that they need to be circumcised in order to be saved.  To help them see the error of their ways, Paul uses an interesting and commendable approach: he shares a story.  In fact, it’s his own story, the story of how years before he went through a similar struggle.  Paul shares about a time when he also wondered whether he was preaching the right thing by telling Gentile Christians that they didn’t need to be circumcised in accordance with the law of Moses.  So Paul goes to Jerusalem, along with his ministry teammates Barnabas and Titus, to ask for advice from leaders in Jerusalem. 

Hi GAMErs!

Today’s passage is Galatians 1:13-24.  Let’s go!

Galatians 1:13-16 (NIV)
13  For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it.
14  I was advancing in Judaism beyond many Jews of my own age and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers.
15  But when God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace, was pleased
16  to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles…

On verses 13-16a:  Here in verses 13-24 Paul shares his experience of how he went from trying to destroy the church of God and one of the most zealous Pharisees to a preacher of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  As Paul writes, everything changed “when God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles” (v15-16).  Notice those words: “who set me apart from birth and called me” (v15).  Long before Paul became passionate about persecuting the church or advancing in Judaism, God had a call on Paul’s life and had set him apart from birth.

Hi GAMErs!

Today we start our look at the book of Galatians, a letter written by Paul to the churches in the region of Galatia in approximately 48 to 53 A.D.  Our passage today is Galatians 1:1-12.  Let’s go!

Galatians 1:1-2 (NIV)
1  Paul, an apostle–sent not from men nor by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead–
2  and all the brothers with me, To the churches in Galatia:

On verses 1-2:  The first thing Paul does in his letter is identify himself as an apostle.  An “apostle” literally means sent one, a messenger, a person who has been sent on a mission by another.  Notice that Paul goes out of his way to say that his apostleship is a God thing, not a man thing.  He says he has been sent “by Jesus Christ and God the Father”, not “from men or by man” (v1).

Hi GAMErs!

Today’s passage is Jude 1:17-24.  Let’s go!
 
Jude 1:17-18 (NIV) 
17  But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. 
18  They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.”
 
On verses 17-18:  In the wake of false teachers appearing, Jude tells his Christian readers to remember how the apostles had previously warned them that false teachers would come.  What can we learn from this?

1.     When false teachers try to lead you away from the truth we have in Jesus, don’t be surprised.  This is something Jesus Himself warned about (for example, see Matthew 7:15; Matthew 24:11, 24).  This is also something the apostles warned about (for example, see Acts 20:29; 2 Corinthians 11:13; Colossians 2:18).

Hi GAMErs!

Today’s passage is Jude 1:8-16.  In the following passage, Jude will describe five ways that you can put your foot in your mouth – that is, five ways that you can do damage (especially to yourself) with your words.  The first one is in verse 8, the other four are in verse 16.  Let’s go!

Your words are powerful.  Here Jude describes five ways that you can put your foot in your mouth – that is, five ways that you can do damage (especially to yourself) with your words.

Jude 1:8-10 (NIV) 
8  In the very same way, these dreamers pollute their own bodies, reject authority and slander celestial beings. 
9  But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not dare to bring a slanderous accusation against him, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” 
10  Yet these men speak abusively against whatever they do not understand; and what things they do understand by instinct, like unreasoning animals–these are the very things that destroy them.