Archive for the ‘Ignited Youth’ Category

RECAP We all struggle with what other people think about us. In fact, I bet all of us consider what other people think about us before we do just about anything. Even the most anti-social person is driven to make others think that they are anti-social. The irony, of course, is that most people are not thinking about you. They are thinking about themselves. While you are considering what someone thinks about you, that someone is considering what another person is thinking about them. Huh? Take a few seconds to mull over that last sentence. Now, here is the real punch – our assumptions about what other people are thinking about us are usually way off base. Take prayer, for example. Most people who fear praying out loud are afraid, because they think they will say something wrong and others will notice. A little church secret is that most people are not really listening to you when you pray out loud. Most people are thinking about what they are going to pray when its their turn or they are day dreaming about what astronauts eat. In Galatians, we find Peter being driven by what others think about him so much

                      RECAP Have you ever wanted to say something so badly that your mouth failed to keep up with your mind? It is almost as if your thoughts are moving so fast you don’t even know where to begin.  That is where we find Paul in this section of verses. At this point, Paul’s hand would have hurt from writing so fast! Paul could say 1000 things here, but ultimately he is trying to do only one thing: Defend the Gospel. Paul knows that if he does that than the Church in Galatia will be united. Paul is not concerned about defending his reputation or giving into the demands of false teachers. Remember, the Jewish leaders wanted to add to the Gospel and Paul does not want anything added to the work of Christ because it would dilute the purity of the Gospel. However, have you ever wondered why Paul didn’t just turn the other cheek and give into to the demands of the Jewish leaders to make peace? Wouldn’t this have been the Christian thing to do? Certainly this would have unified the Galatia church because there would be

                      RECAP The book of Galatians was written in great haste and Paul’s frustrations are clear as Paul wastes no time getting to the point.  Galatians has the shortest introduction of any of Paul’s writings. What was making Paul so stressed out? It was teachers who had influenced the church in Galatia and were adding traditions and rules to the Gospel. In essence these teachers were saying, “Jesus was good enough to die for your sins, but now you need our rules to really be a Christian.” This is so serious that Paul condemns these teachers to hell! For Paul and for us, if we lose the Gospel we lose everything! If we don’t want to lose the Gospel we need to know what it is first. One way to look at the Gospel is like this – the gospel is applying or accrediting the work of Jesus to someone. In other words, imagine that Jesus had a résumé and he erased his name only to put your name at the top. His status and work experience would now be yours. This status and experience would include being the Son