Mocking God.

Firstly, let me thank Lily for sharing her “listening prayer” on the group’s Watts App platform. She shows she is grasping and practicing this wonderful way of interacting with God. I hope that many of the rest of you are also learning to enjoy the same sort of interaction.

This morning as I was listening to the beautiful song by Bill Gaither, “Worthy is the Lamb”, In my mind’s eye I felt I was being buoyed up on the voices – a billion voices singing together – I see a myriad of faces – golden crowns and the song swells and rises Worthy, worthy worthy is the lamb that was slain.

“Think back where the picture of a slain lamb comes from – when my people were being released from captivity in Egypt – a lamb had to be slain so that they could be set free from captivity – remember that it wasn’t just any lamb – they had to take a lamb into the house and make it into a pet – they would grow to love it over a few weeks – that was the lamb – perfect – without blemish, loved by the owners which was the one that was to be slain to set them free – that picture in a very small way showed my Son – whom I love dearly, not just a random person – a Son going to the cross voluntarily for the sins of all people -to set them free from captivity – of sin, Satan and the world. As you look at the multitude singing ‘worthy is the Lamb’ – you may not be able to grasp it all – but there is a place kept for you amongst the billions – because each person there is special to Me – so just absorb that picture and the knowledge of My love for you – and let that be he driving force in your life”.

As we come now to the last chapter of Galatians, Paul gathers some important applications for the readers. Just reading the first paragraph there are 5 separate instructions which are nevertheless linked integrally. These are quite clear to understand but perhaps worth spending a quiet time on each to work out with the Lord how you can implement them in your life.

I want to come to the statement in vs 7 “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked.” I struggled for a while to understand what Paul was getting at, then it struck me. What Paul was saying is basically “You cannot fool God. You may think that He is not perceiving your behaviour, but the attitude which you have towards Him will show in your behaviour. Maybe just in a small way at the beginning, but if you continue in that behaviour the seed you have sown will grow bigger and bigger till it takes over your life and can ultimately be an indicator of whether you were ever saved in the first place. In other words your actions and behaviour will ultimately show what is going on in your mind and the more you feed them the bigger they will grow. So let the harvest in your life, says Paul, be doing good to all people, that will reveal that you are being led by the Spirit and walking with Him.

I shared this with our morning prayer group and one person remarked that Paul says we should not become weary of doing good. So there is a possibility that we can become weary of doing good. Some thought heh?

So, as we come to the closing remarks in Paul’s own handwriting, he repeats a statement he made in ch 5:6 “neither circumcision or uncircumcision has any value”. What is unsaid is the towering statement of the gospel in 2:20. If that is placed central in everyone of our lives, thoughts, minds bodies, souls hearts etc we will not drift away into the clutches of the wrong teachers which abound today.

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