Thoughts on Galatians

Some thought and questions as I read through Galatians:

- 1:6 - "I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel - which is really no gospel at all."  How many "Christians" today are making up their own gospel or are being led astray by people claiming they have the truth, but really it is a distortion of Scripture.  We can't take parts of the Bible and leave others that we don't like.  The Truth is the Truth.

- 1:9 "If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!"  God takes it very seriously when His word is distorted or if anyone preaches anything other than the true gospel.

- 1:10b "If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ."  Who am I seeking approval from?  Am I boldly declaring the truth of God's word, or am I afraid of what others will think of me?

- 2:16 "Man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ." Nothing we can do - no good works or obedience - will justify us before God.  Only our faith in Jesus Christ and what He did for us on the cross will make us right with God.

- 2:19-21 "For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God.  I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.  The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.  I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!"

- 3:23-25 "Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed.  So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith.  Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law."

- 5:13 "You, my brothers, were called to be free.  But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather serve one another in love."

-5:16-17, 19-21 "So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.  For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature.  They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want.,. The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery, idolatry and witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy, drunkenness, orgies and the like.  I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God."

It is evident from Paul's letter to the Galatians that we are no longer restricted by the law.  We are free in Christ.  That, however, does not give us license to sin.  Even though the law no longer applies to us, if we are truly living by the Spirit as God wants us to, we will not be indulging in sinful behaviour.  Instead, we will see the fruit of God's Spirit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (5:22-23).

Am I Nurturing the Soil of My Sons' Souls?

I recently read the article "Nurturing a Child's Soul" from The Better Mom which talks about how instead of worrying about the seed we are sowing, we should be making sure the soil of our children's souls is ready to receive the seed.  The seed of the gospel is perfect already, and God will not let His Word return to Him void, so we don't need to worry about the packaging the Message comes in.  Our children will receive it if the soil of their hearts is prepared.

To quote the author of the article, "Will our child’s soul be cultivated like the good soil where the seed falls and grows and produces a bumper crop of God’s love, grace, power and purpose? Or will our child’s soul be like the rocky place or the shallow soil where the gospel either cannot be rooted or is rooted only inches deep? Will the enemy come and snatch the truth from our children because their hearts are not prepared to really embrace what God has for them? As parents, it is our responsibility and our calling to cultivate the soil of our child’s heart. To breathe life and unconditional love and understanding into them. To show them the true nature of Christ by actually living it out every day.  We are called to humbly live an authentic life devoted to the call of being a real disciple of Jesus."

This is a huge challenge for me.  Am I living every day in an authentic, godly, gracious, loving way that will attract my sons to the gospel?  Do they see Christ in me?  Are my words and actions in line with Scripture?  What a huge responsibility.  Praise God for His grace to cover over my sins and for His strength to take on the responsibility of being a godly mother.  Thank God for His Holy Spirit who dwells in me to lead and guide me.

My prayer for my sons is that their hearts would be fertile soil to receive the seed of God's Word, that the seed would take root in their hearts and produce a crop of righteousness.  I pray that they would seek and follow Jesus all their lives, that they will grow up to be strong Christian men who are not ashamed of the gospel of Christ and who boldly lead others in the way of salvation.  This starts with me and my husband cultivating the soil of their hearts through our own walks with the Lord.  God help me!

How Great is Our God

While on my way to a friend's house last night, I was struck by the splendour and majesty of our Great God.  Look at this gorgeous sunset He created.  A photo can't capture it in its full beauty.

"For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualitites - His eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse." ~ Romans 1:20

How Great is Our God, indeed.

Little Good-Byes

I have read tons of blog posts that talk about motherhood as a series of good-byes.  This one in particular, by my friend, Sarah, speaks to my heart. 

I had my own good-bye moment this morning with my oldest son, who just started grade four.  I am typically a very over-protective mother, and I have to work really hard at allowing my kids to step out on their own. If I had my way, my kids would always be with me and I would do everything for them!  (I don't do this, but I would if I could!)  I know in my head that it is the best thing for them to gain independence and confidence to do their own thing and leave the nest.  This summer, in particular, has been about letting go.  Adam has gotten very good at riding his bike, and he has a friend who lives down the road from us.  All summer, they have been biking around the neighbourhood and going to the park and playing together.  This is relatively safe, in my opinion, because we live in a quiet cul-de-sac with not a lot of traffic.

Well, Adam has been begging to ride his bike to school, which would be all well and good for me except that he has to cross a busy intersection on a main road in town to get there.  We have done practice runs together, allowing him to ride ahead of us and show us what he would do on his own and how he would cross the busy street.  We practiced locking his bike up once he got to school.  He is ready.  Unfortunately, I'm not!

Well, today was the day.  We told him last night that he could ride to school today by himself.  He was so excited!  Then late last night a news report came out about a young child in our town who had been hit by a car crossing the street at his school yesterday.  The crossing lights were flashing, the child had the right-of-way; he did everything the way he was supposed to.  Unfortunately, the woman driving the car did not.  She was going too fast through a school zone, she wasn't paying attention and she hit this small boy, who fortunately is still alive and recovering.

Of course, this drove me into panic mode as a mama.  But I wasn't about to deprive my boy the joy of being independent because of my fears.  We had a good talk this morning about making eye contact with the drivers of cars before he crossed the street and making sure he was paying attention to the vehicles to see what they were doing.

And off he went (with me praying the whole time!).  I walked his little brother to school several blocks behind him, so I could see how he was doing.  And he was a champ.  He walked his bike across all the streets.  He paid attention at the busy intersection.  He arrived to school safely and locked his bike up like a pro.

Still, it's hard to let go and allow my kids to grow up.  I know my job as a parent is to prepare my kids to not need me anymore, and this involves a series of small good-byes and letting go little by little.  How else will we have strong, independent, confident children who grow into strong, independent, confident adults?  These kids are on loan to me for a little while.  God has entrusted them into my care for a brief moment.  It is my job to train them up in the way they should go and leave them in God's hands and trust Him with them.  

A Prayer for All the World's Sons

I came across this blog post today, entitled "A Prayer for All the World's Sons" by Ann Voscamp, and it moved me so much.  This is my prayer for my boys.

"Lord, let there still be a few good men.

"Sure, in the end, there’s a small chance we’d like no rings through nostrils or studs through tongues or ivory plugs through earlobes, but the only mattering part is that he’s pierced by Your love, marked by grace, run through with mercy and one untiring sense of humor. A world tilted as wild as this one needs a little bit more of that.

"May he always know True North.

"And the way to the laundry basket and the stove and wide open big sky.

"Please, Lord, please —  only a minimal number of broken bones and emergency rooms?

"But always a heart a bit tender and broken so Your love and light can leak out. May the good lines in the books and the movies always make him liquid a bit, the way poetry can water the hard and forgotten places.
When there are guys trying to score, may he remember that real men win by going last and putting others first.

"May he be one of the real men who are dead to all ladders, who always go lower, to the least and the lonely and the lost. Everyday.

"May he love babies' toes and old ladies and loud laughing and unlikely underdogs and Jesus.

"Make him one of the Real Men braving the Truth — Because if Christ is The Truth — then where there is Truth, there is Christ, and why ever be afraid of the Truth? 

"Make him one of those Real Men who knows how to simply say sorry, how to serve without applause, and how to give grace — because Grace isn’t some soft, ethereal notion. Grace is a verb, it’s a noun, it’s a thing, it’s concrete, it’s like air. Just try living without it.

"Make him one of the Real Men fighting injustice — because he knows the peace of Christ.

"Make him one of the Real Men taking peer pressure  – because it only makes him stronger in Christ.

"Make him one of the Real Man taking responsibility for his body. Responsible men — are response-able. Make this his job. A woman has her’s. Have him focus on his. Real Men don’t focus responsibility on the women staying “pure” because none of us are pure but focus on the men not pressuring — because no one tries to crush a diamond. 

"Let Christ captivate him and not the glossy magazine covers of the Walmart checkout. Because Real Men don’t objectify alluring women. Real Men edify all women.

"Make him one of the few men saturated by the Book, who doesn’t care whether that’s cool or not, because the absolute bottom line is: Unless a man looks to Jesus, a man doesn’t know how to treat a woman.

"May he never stop looking to Jesus.

"May he feel what he feels, may he wear his heart be on his sleeve, may his life plant a million seeds of happiness before he’s planted.

"And may his face always be willing to face the wind, may his knees always be willing to bend, and may every one of his steep inclines, incline him more toward You.

"This world needs to more than a few good men to tilt and lean a lot more wildly like that.

"In the name of the Son who will never leave our sons…

"Amen."

- by Ann Voscamp

Be blessed today, and may our sons grow in the Son and reflect Him in all they say and do.

You Mean the Bible is Old?

After church today, I asked Adam what he learned about in Children's Church.  He couldn't remember anything except singing some songs.  We pressed him some more to try and find out who he learned about, which Bible story, etc.  His response: "I don't remember who, but it was someone who lived a long, long time ago - before we were even born!"  Well, that narrows it down!

Condo, Cat Pee and other Conundrums...

So we sold our house at the end of March with a 30-day possession.  Our new house will not be finished for quite some time, so we had to come up with a temporary living arrangement.  We thought it would be easy to rent an apartment for a few months, but it turns out that not many people want to do month-to-month leases anymore.

But after many phone calls, God provided us with a 2-year-old condo close to the Tri-Leisure Center.  We are so thrilled!  It even has an in-suite washer and dryer, which is perfect for us.  (The boys produce a lot of laundry!)

The last week was a bit tricky in terms of timing.  We had some friends come in last Saturday to move all of our non-essential furniture and other stuff into storage.  Then on Wednesday, we moved our "apartment stuff" into our pastor's garage.  On Thursday, we cleaned the house from top to bottom, then checked into a hotel.  The new owners took possession on Friday morning.  We stayed in the hotel again on Friday night with the plan to move into the condo on Saturday. We were essentially homeless for two days, which is a very strange feeling!

Well, all should have gone smoothly, except that the previous tenants in the condo weren't very considerate.  Ian met with the landlord on Friday evening to do the walk-through before we moved in on Saturday.  Unfortunately, the other people were still there (they were supposed to be out at noon).  They hadn't finished moving out, and the condo was filthy.  They said they would clean it before they left that night.

Needless to say, it was not even close to clean when I got there on Saturday morning.  And to make it worse, they were pet owners. There was animal hair EVERYWHERE, even in the fridge!  It was so disgusting.  And the bathroom and the boys' bedroom smelled like cat pee.  After talking to the landlord, he said he would pay me for cleaning (it took about seven hours) and that he would reimburse us for our expenses in taking care of the cat pee situation.  Did you know that it is nearly impossible to get rid of the smell of cat pee?  We found something called Nature's Miracle at a pet store, and it seems to have gotten the smell out of the bathroom, but the boys' room still stinks.

But aside from that, we're settling in and adjusting to our much smaller space.  We know it's temporary, and we know we'll appreciate our new house that much more when we finally get to move in there!