Living in a nation that is full of rancor, rage, anger, and agitation, where everyone seems MAD, we could use a healthy dose of peace! Peace is not only the absence of conflict and animosity. It is rest, quietness, harmony and safety. Peace comes when you allow Jesus the rightful place of your heart. When you embrace the Prince of Peace, He leaves His peace with you!

Doubt dominates us when we have lived long with disappointment and disgrace. Yet this is the time God loves to intervene and replace disappointment with hope and replace disgrace with dignity and destiny. Even when we doubt.

The Apostle Paul addresses the churches in the area of Galatia and snaps them back into alignment of faith in Jesus Christ crucified. They were being swayed, ‘bewitched,’ by false teachers who were saying things that sounded great, but were not in line with the Word of God. Just like then, we still must not allow seeds of err to be planted in our heart by charismatic teachers or cute quotes on social media. They will grow.

When we care more about what people think, we misrepresent the grace of God. As we continue in Galatians 2, Paul addresses the actions of Peter and Barnabas who distanced themselves from the Gentiles when Jews from Jerusalem showed up. Paul's correction reminded them we are justified by faith in Jesus, not by what we eat or who we eat it with.

When someone is in crisis, what do you say? Or not say? Or do you not say anything at all for fear of saying the wrong thing and inadvertently keep your distance? It’s a dilemma that most of us, even with the best of hearts, get wrong. Dr. Grose addresses the four major blunders we tend to make and shares from the book of Job what is the most effective way of dealing with someone in crisis.

A sign is some subtlety which gives us advance notice about something hidden, distance or future. We must 1. Know the system and 2. Observe a signal. The Apostle Paul said Jews request a sign and Greeks seek after wisdom. His answer to both was “We preach Christ crucified."

Have you ever had anyone call you out on an inconsistency in your life? Who hasn’t? Yet, how you handle it and the course corrections makes all the difference.

One of the main emphases of Galatians is liberty. Freedom that comes from knowing you are right with God based on relationship and not performance. In Galatians chapter 2, the Apostle Paul continues his defense of the Gospel and his calling.

You can look at any news channel, watch social media, or check out the internet any day of the week, and see it’s clear our national leaders have adopted the habit of name calling and making false accusations. This is nothing new! In the Apostle Paul’s day, false teachers in Galatia were trying to undermine him as well. Paul bluntly accuses them of abandoning Jesus for a false gospel and then explains he proclaims the divine gospel.

Today, you can get knockoffs that look like the originals. Handbags, sneakers, watches…they all have knockoffs, but they are still fakes. In Galatians, false teachers had entered the churches and were teaching a false gospel, an imitation gospel, a knockoff gospel. Although we might laugh at a friend’s $30 Rolex watch, what Paul encountered was no laughing matter. He knew that souls were at stake if the false gospel took hold. Be on guard of knockoffs!