Daily Word

We all know that it is more blessed to give than receive…but sometimes it is harder to receive than it is to give. 

Receiving implies needing…and we often don’t like to be needy. 

But Grace requires it. 

And God gives it. 

Don’t be bewitched! 

Here is a question: what kind of car did George Washington drive? 

Silly question, right? 

Cars weren’t invented then…but this is the same type of error the Galatians were making. 

In these verses, Paul argues that faith MUST proceed any type of work because this is how God has always worked. And he looks to the example of Abraham to prove his point. 

Here are a few questions to consider: 

• What were the Galatians doing which led Paul to call them ‘foolish’ (3:1)? 
• What in their experience should have led the Galatians to know that they had gone wrong?
• Can you think of similar situations in your own life?
• What had the false teachers been arguing? How does Paul respond?

Don’t be bewitched! 

Here Paul challenges the Galatians with one forceful question: did they receive the Spirt by works of the Law or by hearing with faith? 

As far as Paul is concerned every aspect of the Christian life grows out of and revolves around the cross, this “event,” this gift. 

Our new life revolves around this event, Christ being publically portrayed as crucified and our hearing with faith, and they are in danger of losing sight of it. They are in danger of giving up the greatest gift. 

Today we move into a new section: chapters 3-5. 

In the first two chapters, Paul has argued that grace is the gift of Christ. It is the amazing self-giving of Christ who has given himself for me, and now I no longer live but it is Christ who lives in me.  And this gift gets worked into our lives through the:
– call fo God 
– the creation of new life
and now we are told about the gift of the Spirit.

And this gift was given to both Jews and Gentiles regardless of “merit” or of “works.” And this gift radically reorients and reorders the identity and the allegiance of believers.

Now we move into chapters 3-5, and they are an intricate discussion of law and promise, with a very complex weave of Scriptural quotations and personal experience. 

Here we see how the concept of grace, of the gift, of the gospel, is essential to making sense of both our own personal experience and the Bible. 

Reading Challenge: 

• Read through chapters 3-5 several times. Make a note of the back and forth between their experience and the Scriptures. 

The restoration of Jerusalem after the exile happened in three key phases:

• Phase 1: The rebuilding of the temple (536-516 BC) 
• Phase 2: Ezra’s ministry of teaching (468 BC) 
• Phases 3: Nehemiah’s rebuilding of the walls (445 BC) 

During the first phase, when they were rebuilding the temple, they stalled. 

A remnant had returned to Jerusalem to undertake the temple building project. They got off to a good start but they have flagged, their energy has failed and they need to be rejuvenated. 

God sent Haggai and Zechariah and it was their preaching that motivated the people to keep going, they had to remind them that God has begun a good work through them and He will be faithful to bring it o completion. 

Today we will focus our praying around three of the visions God sent through Zechariah to motivate the people to keep going. 

Prayer Point 1: Zechariah 2: The young man with the measuring line. 

• The focus of chapter 2 is that they will not begin with the wall but with the temple. 
• God’s presence is the point. 
• God’s presence is their protection. 

Prayer Point 2: Zechariah 3: Joshua the High Priest 

• The focus of chapter 3 is on the priest. 
• Satan’s accusations must be silenced 
• God’s people must be purified. 

Prayer Point 3: Zechariah 4: Zerubbabel the Governor 

• The focus of chapter 4 is on the civic leaders. 
• They have a great work to do and the resources God has given are more than enough. 
• They must focus on the Spirit of God- that will be their strength. 
• They must focus on the small things for God- that will be the way the kingdom is built. 

“So, tell me about the day you died.”
Has anyone ever asked you that…me neither.

But here, Paul tells us about his death. He actually died with Christ and now lives a new life. 

Today we think about that new life and what does it mean to “live to God.” 

Today we see that the most important thing about us…is not about us! 
And we begin to answer the three Massive questions that will shape, at the very least, how we understand Galatians…but also will shape how we understand all of life and reality: 

1. What does Paul mean by “works of the law?” 
2. What does Paul mean by righteousness?
3. What does Paul mean by “faith in Christ?”

Today we dive into Galatians 2:15-21. This is one of the most compressed and dense sections of all of Paul’s letters. 

Here Paul explains why he publically rebuked Peter and gives us the key steps to relational reconciliation. 

Step 1: Embrace the “we” 
Step 2: Confront what is really at stake 


3 Massive questions to answer: 

1. What does he mean by “works of the law?” 
2. What does he mean by righteousness?
3. What does he mean by “faith in Christ?”

Key Point: the defining thing about you is not something about you! It is something that has happened to him: your relationship to him; with him; in him… 

One of our primary goals for our Friday prayer time is not only to pray but also to point you to resources to help you pray. 

And one of the best is Matthew Henry’s A Method for Prayer, where he weaves together hundreds of scriptural phrases into a seamless garment of praise and petition.

In today’s prayer, we will follow along with him in two prayers that he wrote for the children of his church to learn. 

I have included his version below (remember he wrote these in 1712, so the scriptures are from the King James Version of the Bible. (In the audio I update the language to flow a little smoother.) 

O God, thou art my God, early will I seek thee. Thou art my God, and I will praise thee; my father’s God, and I will extol thee.

Who is a God like unto thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?

Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee. When my flesh and my heart fail, thou art the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

Thou madest me for thyself, to show forth thy praise.

But I am a sinner; I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.

God be merciful to me a sinner.

O deliver me from the wrath to come, through Jesus, who died for me, and rose again.

Lord, give me a new nature. Let Jesus Christ be formed in my soul, that to me to live may be Christ, and to die may be gain.

Lord, I was in my baptism given up to thee; receive me graciously and love me freely.

Lord Jesus, thou hast encouraged little children to come to thee and hast said that of such is the kingdom of God; I come to thee: O make me a faithful subject of thy kingdom, take me up in thy arms, put thy hands upon me, and bless me.

O give me grace to redeem me from all iniquity, and particularly from the vanity which childhood and youth is subject to.

Lord, give me a wise and an understanding heart, that I may know and do thy will in everything, and may in nothing sin against thee.

Lord, grant that from my childhood I may know the holy scriptures, and may continue in the good things that I have learned.

Remove from me the way of lying and grant me thy law graciously.

Lord, be thou a Father to me; teach me and guide me; provide for me and protect me and bless me, even me, O my Father.

Bless all my relations (father, mother, brothers, sisters), and give me grace to do my duty to them in every thing.

Lord, prepare me for death and give me wisely to consider my latter end.

O Lord, I thank thee for all thy mercies to me: for life and health, food and raiment, and for my education; for my creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life; but above all for thine inestimable love in the means of grace, and the hope of glory.

Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift; blessed be God for JESUS CHRIST. None but Christ, none but Christ for me.

Now to God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, that great name into which I was baptized, be honour and glory, dominion and praise, forever and ever. Amen.

Our Father in heaven, we come to thee as children to a Father able and ready to help us.

We beseech thee, let thy name be sanctified; enable us and others to glorify thee in all that whereby thou hast made thyself known, and dispose of all things to thine own glory.

Let thy kingdom come; let Satan’s kingdom be destroyed, and let the kingdom of thy grace be advanced; let us and others be brought into it, and kept in it, and let the kingdom of thy glory be hastened.

Let thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven; make us by thy grace able and willing to know, obey, and submit to thy will in all things, as the angels do in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread; of thy free gift let us receive a competent portion of the good things of this life, and let us enjoy thy blessing with them.

And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us. We pray that for Christ’s sake thou wouldst freely pardon all our sins, and that by thy grace thou wouldst enable us from the heart to forgive others.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Either keep us, O Lord, from being tempted to sin, or support and deliver us when we are tempted.

For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever. Lord, we take our encouragement in prayer from thyself only and desire in our prayers to praise thee, ascribing kingdom, power, and glory to thee: And in testimony of our desires and assurance to be heard through Jesus Christ, we say Amen.

Today we look at verse 11-21. These are some of the most debated and difficult in all of Paul’s letters. 

So, I am not sure how deep we will dive in, but for today, lets focus on the dynamic back and forth between the “we” and the “I.” 

Read through this passage and ask yourself: 

– Who is the we? And who is the I? 
– What was the big deal? 


And we ask: where does real unity come from and what does it look like? 

Reading Challenge: 

• Read through chapter 2 and insert your name everywhere you say an “I.”