Category: Galatians

  • Daily Grind

    God hand blends us to serve

    I have a confession to make … I enjoy a good cup of coffee. As with most things, too much coffee is not good for you, but in moderation it does no harm.


    I will also confess that I’m no connoisseur, but I do prefer some coffees over others. I don’t know the difference between Jamaican Blue Mountain, Hawaiian Kona or any other specialty blend. I might be able to tell them apart, but that would be the extent of my ability. I couldn’t tell which one was a “better” blend; I just know that I like some blends more than others.


    In Canada, the coffee shop is the social equivalent of the British pub. It’s where people gather for a beverage and a bite over some conversation. I have been frequenting one chain for more than 30 years, I won’t identify it by name, but it has brought the expression “double-double” (meaning double cream and double sugar) into broad usage and it is not four-bucks.


    Coffee is made from the roasted and ground beans of the Arabica or Robusta coffee plant. There are many other varieties of coffee but only these two groups are used as many of the others are toxic. Within the Arabica and Robusta groups are hundreds, perhaps thousands of sub-varieties making the selection of coffee virtually unlimited, certainly too varied for my undiscerning taste buds.

    As I emptied yesterday’s filter basket and started to make a fresh pot for the day, I meditated on coffee beans.

    Coffee beans truly are an amazing thing. You can make a cup of coffee just by soaking the beans in cold water. It would be weak and flavorless, but it would still be coffee.

    Or you can roast and grind a bean blend that is to your taste fresh every day and brew with boiling hot water. Same coffee and same water, but what a difference in the results. Just the application of some heat combined with a little crushing and grinding make all the difference in the world.

    That’s the way God works in our lives too. Oh He can and will use a hardened heart like Pharaoh or Judas Iscariot, but what a difference when He works with a willing heart. Yes we’ll undergo the heat from the trials of life. Yes we will be ground and shaped. When that happens though, the sweetest of all brews results.

    But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also behave in accordance with the Spirit. Galatians 5:22-24 NET

    Now God doesn’t grow us all in the same place, nor does He heat or grind us all in the same way. Different coffees from different regions, combined, produce differing flavor coffees. It is the same with us. He chooses us, heats us and grinds us to make us the best possible “brew” with our lives.

    Are you going to work with Him to allow the most delightful cup or will you fight Him all the way and end up with a weak flavorless cup?

    Until next time, may you learn to understand the trials of life are managed by God and give thanks.

    Kevin

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  • Paul’s Path to Humility: What His Letters Reveal

    open bible with arrown suggestion the growth in Paul's humility

    In most circumstances, I am a generally confident man. Often, that confidence has stepped over the line into arrogance. That’s not a trait I’m proud of, especially since we are called to humility and meekness.

    So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.  Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Philippians 2:1-8 ESV

    We often think of Peter as being brash and arrogant at times, for good reason. Yet there is someone else whom we might not think of that way: the Apostle Paul. It’s not something that leaps out to most people, possibly because the epistles don’t appear in chronological order, but are arranged by size (largest to shortest). If we read them in the order they were written, we see it more clearly.

    Chronologically, they read Galatians, 1 & 2 Thessalonians, 1 & 2 Corinthians, Romans. Ephesians, Colossians, Philemon, Philippians, 1 Timothy, Titus, and 2 Timothy.

    Let’s look at how Paul identifies himself in his letters.

    Paul, an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead. Galatians 1:1 ESV

    Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God Romans 1:1 ESV

    I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service, though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. 1 Timothy 1:12-15 ESV

    Everything Paul claims is true, but he moves from seeing himself as an exalted apostle to a servant (more properly translated as a slave). By the end, he fully acknowledges that he is a sinner saved by grace, undeserving of the role God has placed on Him.

    The more he knew Christ, the longer He knew Him, the less Paul exalted himself and the more he magnified Jesus. He grew in humility.

    It’s a lesson I’m working on. What about you?

    Be blessed today,

    Kevin

    SUMMARY

    I’ve always been a confident man, sometimes too confident, tipping over into arrogance. Tracing Paul’s letters in the order he actually wrote them shows me something convicting: the longer he walked with Christ, the more his self-description shrank from apostle to servant to the foremost of sinners.

    TAKEAWAY

    Reading Paul’s epistles in chronological order (not the order they appear in Scripture) reveals a clear pattern in how he identifies himself

    Paul moves from calling himself an apostle, to a servant (slave) of Christ, to the foremost of sinners saved by grace

    The more Paul knew Christ, the less he exalted himself and the more he magnified Jesus — he grew in humility

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