So, last week we studied the book of Galatians.
As I was writing our lesson, I found a couple of verses that stuck with me.
Galatians 6
vs4 ‘…You should each judge your own conduct. If it is good, then you can be proud of what you yourself have done, without having to compare it with what someone else has done…’
vs5 ‘…For each of you have to carry your own load…’ GNT (Good News Translation)
Sit back and just take a look around this world that we live in today …
There are people that claim they were born the wrong sex … they are changing themselves from boys into girls and from girls into boys.
In essence they are saying … God made a mistake.
There are hundreds of thousands of people having plastic surgery today. Their breasts are too small, their nose is too big, their whatever.
Again, they’re saying … God made a mistake.
People are having surgery because of skin cancer.
There are people that get upset because they’re approaching the age when their parents passed away, they’re worried their time might be coming to an end.
There are so many individuals living today, that are basically ‘putting the cart before the horse.’
I stopped worrying about my tomorrow. I made sure all my bills are currently paid, I’ve crossed all my ‘t’s’ and dotted all of my ‘i’s.’
I’ve made sure all my relationships here on this earth are close but MOST importantly … I’ve made sure my relationship with Jesus Christ is strong and secure.
I cannot do anything that is going to prevent me from one day dying. It is one of those FOR SURE THINGS, that one day, is going to happen.
Our relationship that we have with Jesus Christ should be our ONLY priority that remains. It should be our ONLY concern that we have.
We should be so certain in our relationship with Jesus that we can calmly sit back and relax and know that God is walking with us in our every step throughout our day.
Here are those verses again I found in Galatians.
Galatians 6
vs4 ‘…You should each judge your own conduct. If it is good, then you can be proud of what you yourself have done, without having to compare it with what someone else has done…’
vs5 ‘…For each of you have to carry your own load…’ GNT (Good News Translation)
OPEN your Bible and strengthen your relationship with Him.
Allow His Word to creep into every crevice of your life.
Here is some Scripture that should comfort you.
Philippians 4
vs6 ‘…Don’t worry about anything, but in all your prayers ask God for what you need, always asking him with a thankful heart…’
vs7 ‘…And God’s peace, which is far beyond human understanding, will keep your hearts and minds safe in union with Christ Jesus…’ GNT (Good News Translation)
1 Peter 5:7 ‘…having cast all your anxiety on Him, because He cares about you…’ NASB (New American Standard Bible)
Matthew 6:34 ‘…Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own…’ NIV (New International Version)
Psalm 55:22 ‘…Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved…’ AKJV
Calm down and be comforted.
Keep your thoughts and your prayers in Him.
OPEN His Word and STUDY.
Ask yourself: are you following His lead or are you repeating and breaking new trails?
God wants for us to have eternal life after this world is completed … I reckon we need to ask ourselves the question: do we want to spend Eternity in Jesus, or do we want a future of eternal punishment?
Matthew 25:46 ‘…These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life…’ NASB (New American Standard Bible)
After this world is completed, do we want to be in Jesus’ presence forever, or do we want an endless life of torment and destruction?
Once again, the CHOICE is ours … it’s called our free-will.
ONLY God the Father knows when the end will come.
All we can do is be READY.
Just as we can learn in the Bible of the women with 10 lamps (MAT25:1-13).
We have been taught to be prepared.
I remember when I was a young boy, I was a cub scout, and our motto was to be prepared.
We prepare ourselves by knowing what is going on around us.
We prepare ourselves by knowing what God wants and expects from us.
The way we find out what God wants and expects from us is not learned by listening to a pastor or a priest preach to us a sermon that they’ve written, we find out what God wants and expects from us by READING and STUDYING His Word that He has given us.
We have ONLY gone through 4 of the 13 books that Paul has given us.
We are told in the Word that Jesus CHOSE Saul of Tarsus to be our teacher … I think we should ask why do our man-made religions direct us in other places?
Here to me is the most powerful and pivotable verse in the entire Bible. If we were reading a ‘RED LETTER’ Bible, this verse is written in RED ink.
Acts 9:15
‘…But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel…’ AKJV (Authorized King James Version)
‘…The Lord said to Ananias, Go! I have chosen him to tell foreigners, kings, and the people of Israel about me…’ CEV (Contemporary English Version)
‘…But the Lord said to him, Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel…’ ESV (English Standard Version)
‘…The Lord said to him, Go, because I have chosen him to serve me, to make my name known to Gentiles and kings and to the people of Israel…’ GNT (Good News Translation)
‘…But the Lord said to Ananias, Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel…’ NIV ( New International Version)
‘…But the Lord said, Go, for Saul is my chosen instrument to take my message to the Gentiles and to kings, as well as to the people of Israel…’ NLT (New Living Translation)
The above verse is from the mouth of the crucified, resurrected and ascended Jesus Christ.
Jesus CHOSE Saul of Tarsus to teach the entire world what God wants for us to know.
Here is another important verse from the book of Acts.
Acts 13:9 ‘…But [a]Saul, who was also known as Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit and led by Him, looked steadily at Elymas…’ AMP (Amplified Bible)
Footnotes
[a]Saul was the apostle Paul’s Jewish (Hebrew) name. As his ministry to Gentiles began he became known by his Roman (Latin) name, Paul.
I copied this verse from the AMP version on purpose, because of the attached footnotes.
In our lives, we have been given the opportunity to use the free-will that God gave to each one of us. This is just one more time when we get to decide for ourselves.
We are going to choose to live our life the way that we want to live our life … we are going to choose if we are going to believe in God or not … we are going to go to a man-made religion every Sunday morning and listen to a made up sermon by another human being or we are going to sit down and READ the Bible.
We don’t need to worry about tomorrow; God has taken care of that for us.
All we need to do is make sure that we are READY for when God calls us home.
I deviated this week, a little, next week we are going to get back into Paul’s writings, studying the book of Ephesians.
One of my favorite verse is found in the book of Ephesians.
Ephesians 2:8 ‘…For by GRACE are ye SAVED through FAITH; and that not of yourselves: it is the GIFT of God…’ AKJV
I don’t care if your one year old or one hundred and one, every one of us loves to get a GIFT.
Y’all be blessed … I’ll be back next week.
I want to invite you to follow me in my pursuit to follow in Jesus’ footsteps.
I love ALL of y’all.
Here is a reading plan I’d like to suggest for the one searching to find God in the 21st century:
Day 1 – Galatians 1-6, 1Thessalonians 1-5
Day 2 – 2Thessalonians 1-3, 1Corinthians 1-8
Day 3 – 1Corinthians 9-16
Day 4 – 2Corinthians 1-13
Day 5 – Romans 1-10
Day 6 – Romans 11-16, Philippians 1-4
Day 7 – Colossians 1-4, Ephesians 1-6
Day 8 – Philemon 1, 1 Timothy 1-6, Titus 1-3, 2Timothy 1-4
Day 9 – Acts 1-7
Day 10 – Acts 8-13
Day 11 – Acts 14-20
Day 12 – Acts 21-28
The entire Bible, ALL SCRIPTURE has been given to us by God (2TIM3:16), but NOT ALL Scripture has been meant for us ALL to follow … we are told we MUST know how to RIGHTLY DIVIDE the truth of God (2TIM2:15).
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