Be Still and Know Daily Bible Devotion

Galatians 6:18 Dear brothers and sisters, may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen. The story of John Newton is well known. He first went to sea with his father when he was eleven years old and soon became deeply involved in working on slave ships. It was a terrible experience and, after falling out with the crew of the Pegasus in 1745, he even found himself in slavery. Three years later, he was rescued, and on his return home, he read the Bible and became a Christian. He became a Church of England vicar and famously reflected on his conversion in his hymn ‘Amazing Grace’. His life was completely transformed, and he knew that it was entirely down to God’s gracious gift to him. In his latter years, he fought for the abolition of the slave trade. The apostle Paul often reflected on the amazing grace of God. The word grace takes us right to the heart of God’s nature. He is a generous God who loves to share his gifts with us, and he did that supremely by sending Jesus into the world to be our Saviour. When he wrote to the Ephesians, Paul said: “We praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son. He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins…God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God” (Ephesians 1:6-7; 2:8). God has given us the best gift imaginable, and there is nothing we can do to pay for it or deserve it. If you have lived a good life, I’m delighted, but you will never live a life that is so good that you will deserve or earn salvation. It cannot be done. All we can do is recognise that God is incredibly generous and willing to give salvation to anyone who will receive it. No wonder Paul finishes this letter by longing that his friends in Galatia will experience the grace of God for themselves. Question In your own experience, what is so amazing about grace? Prayer Loving God, thank you for your incredible generosity. Help me not only to receive your gift but to pass it on to others. Amen

Galatians 6:17 I bear on my body the scars that show I belong to Jesus. Alan Paton wrote a book called [itals]Cry, the Beloved Country[end itals] (Vintage) and was a fierce opponent of apartheid in South Africa. He once wrote about his death: “When I go up there, which is my intention, the Big Judge will say to me, Where are your wounds? and if I say I haven’t any, he will say, Was there nothing to fight for? I couldn’t face that question.” If we are willing to stand up for truth and justice in this world, we will pay a price for it. That was certainly the apostle Paul’s experience. He was thrilled with the new life that Christ had given him, but he had to pay a very high price. When he wrote to the church in Corinth, Paul recounted the many occasions when he had suffered physically. He states: “I have…been whipped times without number, and faced death again and again. Five different times the Jewish leaders gave me thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. Once I spent a whole night and a day adrift at sea” (2 Corinthians 11:23-25). There is no doubt that his scars revealed the depth of his commitment to Christ. When Paul wrote to the church in Rome, he spoke of himself as a slave of Christ, and he knew that slaves were normally branded. The mark of the owner was clearly placed on the body of the slave. Paul’s scars were the clear signs that Christ was his master. I don’t believe that we should ever deliberately seek to suffer for Christ. However, I do believe that we shouldn’t be surprised when serving him is tough. Perhaps the reason that we haven’t suffered is because we have refused to stand up for the weak and vulnerable in our society. Perhaps it has been easy for us to serve Christ because we have ducked when more challenging roles have been offered to us. We all need to share Paul’s sense of privilege that he was called to do demanding work for the Lord he loved. Question How willing are you to do difficult work for Christ? Prayer Lord God, I thank you for the privilege of serving you. Help me never to flinch when the going gets tough. Amen

Galatians 6:14 As for me, may I never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. There was clearly a lot of boasting going on among the Galatians! There were those who boasted of the fact that they continued to keep the Jewish law. They continued to practice circumcision and to stand by the Old Testament law. They were convinced that they were doing extremely well and looked down their noses at Paul, who was firmly opposed to circumcision for Christians and who spoke constantly about the inadequacies of the law. Paul was keen to do his own boasting, but focused entirely upon the cross of Christ. For him, what Christ had done on the cross was all-important. Through the cross, he had found true freedom and a wonderful new life. I wonder when you last boasted. You were so proud of something that had happened in your life, or in someone close to you, that you just couldn’t wait for the opportunity to tell other people about it. My wife and I have become grandparents over the last couple of years, and we are eager to seize every opportunity to speak about our granddaughter and to show the latest pictures! Boasting is a natural activity when we are thrilled about something, and that describes Paul perfectly. He was so thrilled about the new life that he had found in Christ that he was eager for everyone to hear about it. Boasting is encouraged in many parts of the Bible. In Jeremiah, we hear God saying: “But those who wish to boast should boast in this alone: that they truly know me and understand that I am the LORD who demonstrates unfailing love and who brings justice and righteousness to the earth” (Jeremiah 9:24). In Psalm 34:2, King David proclaimed: “I will boast only in the LORD.” Boasting of how wonderful we are and of our great achievements is always foolish, but boasting of the Lord is always a blessing. Question How could you become better at boasting about the Lord? Prayer Lord God, thank you for all that you have done for me. Help me to become increasingly proud of all that you have done. Amen

Galatians 6:7-8 Don’t be misled – you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. The principle of ‘you reap what you sow’ is both obvious and profound. If you sow a field full of wheat, you would be crazy to expect a crop of potatoes. It’s so obvious, but the message fundamentally challenges the way in which we live every day because each word that we speak and action that we perform will have consequences. If we are kind, gracious and loving, there will be one kind of outcome, and if we are spiteful, angry and destructive, there will be a completely different result. Paul drew the conclusion that we should therefore not become tired of doing good things, knowing that sooner or later there will be a good harvest. Of course, the problem quite often is that it takes a long time to see any positive outcome from doing good. It is possible to work in a children’s or youth club for years before you see any positive outcomes. I have known people work in local churches for decades without seeing any tangible successes. Indeed, sometimes people are unkind and critical of the things that we do, and it all feels like terribly hard work. All of this means that we need to focus our energies on ensuring that we plant good seed. That was precisely Paul’s situation with the Galatian church. He faced fierce opposition, and many people wanted him to believe that he had got it all wrong, but he knew that the seed he was planting was the best. The good news of salvation was a message of hope and liberty that would never let people down, so he kept preaching it, however cruel and resistant people might be. Similarly, we will often find ourselves in situations that are tough and unrewarding and, if we are convinced that we are doing God’s good work, he will always encourage us to hang in there, knowing that a good harvest will definitely result one day. Question In what situations or relationships are you needing to ‘hang in there’ at the moment? Prayer Lord God, thank you for the work that you call me to do. Help me to keep doing good even when it is tough and unrewarding. Amen

Galatians 6:6 Those who are taught the word of God should provide for their teachers, sharing all good things with them. It’s not surprising that Paul spoke so clearly about the need to care for teachers in the early Church. They had a crucial role, and if they were not supported by the financial gifts of the church members, they would starve. The Galatian Christians needed to be reminded of their responsibilities. When Paul wrote to his young colleague Timothy, he referred to the need to show respect for church leaders and to ensure that they were well paid. He used an interesting verse from the Old Testament to support this view: “You must not muzzle an ox to keep it from eating as it treads out the grain” (Deuteronomy 25:4). Perhaps you hadn’t thought of comparing your church leader to an ox, but the point was clear – the church members needed to accept the responsibility to provide for their teachers and leaders. Churches are far more organised these days, and most churches have a very thoughtful and responsible way of financing and supporting their ministers, but it is still important for church members to be alert to their responsibilities. I have known many ministers suffer significantly because of the thoughtlessness of church members, who have simply assumed that their leaders were well provided for, unaware of financial and housing needs. Some have even thought that it was appropriate for their church leaders to suffer as part of their Christian calling. Such immoral thinking is deeply shocking and, happily, I sense that it is increasingly rare. Everyone, whatever their work, needs to be well cared for in order to be truly effective. Christian teachers and leaders are no different. We all need to accept our part of the responsibility for ensuring, in the words of the apostle Paul, that all good things are shared with them. Question Are you convinced that your own church leaders are well provided for? Prayer Lord God, I thank you for my church leaders. Help me to always do what I can to ensure that they receive all the support and encouragement that they need. Amen

Galatians 6:4-5 Pay careful attention to your own work, for then you will get the satisfaction of a job well done, and you won’t need to compare yourself to anyone else. For we are each responsible for our own conduct. In the previous couple of verses, Paul spoke of the importance of helping other people to carry their heavy burdens. Now, he reminds them that they have got their own burden to bear. The word he uses is also used of a soldier’s pack. We all have a certain amount that we have to carry by ourselves. We have specific responsibilities to bear, and we just need to get on with it and do the very best that we can. When our lives come to an end, the Lord will not ask us whether we lived like Abraham, Moses, Elijah, Martin Luther or Mother Theresa. He will ask us whether we lived the lives that he called [itals]us[end itals] to live. Perhaps you have the awesome responsibility of being a shop worker, a cleaner, a teacher, an accountant, an MP or a carer. Whatever it is, God wants us to be the best that we can be. Comparing ourselves to other people totally misses the point because the Lord is not calling us to be anybody other than the person we are. Spending energy comparing ourselves with others or feeling we’ve failed because we are not more like someone else is a complete waste of time. Each of us has our own pack to carry. Imperfect as it inevitably is, we need to get on and make the most of what God has put in our hands. That’s exactly what the apostle Paul did. He was faced with a continual barrage of criticism, and sometimes violent opposition. He had to live with his thorn in the flesh, which was a continual burden for him, but he knew he had a job to do and he got on with it. May God bless us today as we seek to do just the same. Question What is the work that God has called you to do? Prayer Lord God, thank you that you are with me every moment of every day. Help me to always give my best to you. Amen

Galatians 6:2-3 Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ. If you think you are too important to help someone, you are only fooling yourself. You are not that important. We live in a society that appears to be far more interested in rights than responsibilities. Rights are clearly crucial. The right to free speech, health, safety, care and justice are fundamental to society. However, none of them will ever happen unless we are all willing to take responsibility. As Rabbi Jonathan Sacks powerfully put it: “Without responsibility, rights are a cheque on an empty account.” Here, Paul describes the Church as a community of people, each of whom needs to take responsibility for carrying other people’s burdens. He had no thought of the Church as being there for us to gain inspiration and support so that we can live independent lives. Sharing other people’s burdens doesn’t happen quickly. It is a tragedy that for so many people, the experience of Church is confined to attending worship services. Good as it is to worship with other people, such occasions are rarely an opportunity to get to know people well, let alone learn what their burdens are. Having refreshments and meals alongside worship can start to open up opportunities to get to know others, but it is normally only in small groups or one-to-one conversations that such deep sharing takes place. I am delighted to hear that some people are using these daily devotional thoughts as a basis for meeting with a small group of people. As they meet, it gives an opportunity to share the joys and struggles of life and to give real support to one another. Paul identifies one of the reasons why you might not want to help someone else: you think you are too important. However, there’s another reason why you might not feel able to help, and it’s probably more common: you think you are too unimportant and assume that you would never be able to help. We all need to be willing. Willing to listen and to learn and to stretch out a hand to help. Question In what ways are you able to bear other people’s burdens? Prayer Loving God, thank you for those people who have been so willing to support me. Help me to always be willing to stretch out a hand to help others. Amen

Galatians 6:1 Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself. Sadly, in every organisation of human beings, things sometimes go wrong. I love the gracious and positive way in which Paul addresses this issue. When someone sins, it’s not the end of the world and we don’t need to make a drama out of it, but action needs to be taken, quickly. The goal is always restoration, but that needs to be done really carefully. The three major qualifications of people who help with restoring someone who has done wrong are these: godliness, gentleness and humility. A godly person has their mind fixed on serving God and not themselves. They get involved in helping someone who has slipped up because of their love for God and their desire for his honour and glory. Clearly, it would be disastrous if a person got involved because they were looking for their own glory, or because they just loved being part of the action. Gentleness is a crucial quality. Strong-arm tactics will never achieve God’s purposes. Gentleness might at times be thought of as weakness, but it is in fact enormously strong. Frances de Sales got it right when he said: “Nothing is as strong as gentleness, nothing so gentle as real strength.” Possibly the most vital quality is humility. The only real way to help someone who has sinned is to remind yourself not only that you are a sinner, but that you are vulnerable and could fall into exactly the same sin yourself. Restoration is a wonderful blessing, so we need to give thanks for those godly, gentle and humble people who are willing to bring it about. Every church and organisation needs them. Question Who do you know who could be described as godly, gentle and humble? Prayer Lord God, I thank you for those who have the gift for bringing about restoration. Help me to recognise and celebrate their gifts. Amen

Galatians 5:25-26 Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives. Let us not become conceited, or provoke one another, or be jealous of one another. Living in step with the Holy Spirit sounds wonderful, doesn’t it? Just imagine a life which is full of love, joy and peace, and all the other beautiful fruit of the Spirit. This must surely be life at its best, but, as the apostle Paul knew, the life of the Spirit has to be lived out in a world in which sin is still alive and well. I often hear people express disappointment about their church. They have found that there is a big gap between the pure life of the Spirit and the attitudes and actions of their Christian brothers and sisters. Paul was clearly well aware of this, and it is significant that he follows this challenge to live by the Spirit with the reminder that the Galatians needed to stop being conceited, provoking or jealous. We cannot be sure what was in Paul’s mind as he wrote these words, but he was likely concerned about those who had become conceited because they believed that they were more spiritual than others. Those who continued to obey the Jewish law strictly looked down on those who, like Paul, believed that all that was necessary was to have faith in Jesus. Tensions easily spring up in any community, and Paul knew how important it was to act before they became totally destructive. Paul had his feet firmly planted on the ground. He knew both how wonderful it was to live a life directed by the Spirit and, at the same time, how easily that life could be disrupted. We need to be alert in just the same way. Question What are the challenges you are facing as you seek to live in step with the Spirit? Prayer Loving God, thank you for the strength you give to me day by day as I seek to live in step with the Spirit. Amen

Galatians 5:22-23 The Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. These beautiful spiritual qualities are the inevitable result of the Holy Spirit taking control of a person’s life. You can be sure of the genuineness of a person’s spiritual experience when you see these qualities in evidence. It’s interesting that Paul speaks here of the fruit of the Spirit but not the gifts, which are also the result of the Spirit being at work in someone’s life. Perhaps this is because the gifts of the Spirit can be mimicked, but the fruit cannot. Jesus spoke of those who, on judgment day, would say: “Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.” Jesus commented that he would have to reply: “I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws” (Matthew 7:22-23). Nobody would doubt the beauty of the fruit of the Spirit. We would all want our lives to be characterised by these qualities, and whether or not we display them is in our hands. The Holy Spirit wants to give us this wonderful fruitfulness – the question is whether we are willing to open ourselves up to the Holy Spirit. Paul was clear that our lives will be a battleground as long as we live and breathe on this earth. The voice of the Spirit will not be the only one that we hear, so we need to spend our days deliberately tuning in to the Spirit amid the clamour of other voices. Spiritual fruit is crucial in our own lives, but it is also an important way of recognising those who are genuinely working for God. The Galatians heard many false teachers and needed to be able to tell who they could trust. Jesus had addressed exactly the same situation in his Sermon on the Mount, when he helped people to recognise the difference between true and false prophets, saying: “You can identify them by their fruit” (Matthew 7:16). Question How are you seeking to grow the fruit of the Spirit in your own life? Prayer Loving God, thank you for the gift of your Spirit. Help me to open more of my life to his influence each day. Amen

Galatians 5:16-17 So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. It’s always refreshing when you meet someone who is completely honest. The apostle Paul was such a man. In Romans 7, he gave an astonishingly frank account of how he ticked. He talked about struggling with his sinful nature. He summed it up in this way: “I want to do what is right, but I can’t. I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway” (vv18-19). That all sounds rather bleak, doesn’t it? Whoever we are, we all know how easy it is for our selfish nature to dominate our lives, even when we know that that’s the wrong way to go, but we don’t need to despair because God offers to lead us by his Holy Spirit. He is able to give us the wisdom and strength to choose a better way. Paul then gave an agonising list of the destructive consequences of leaving our selfish nature in the driving seat. What’s fascinating is that he wouldn’t need to come up with a different list if he were addressing us today. “Sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarrelling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties and other sins like these” (Galatians 5:19-21). Paul’s excitement was that it doesn’t have to be this way. The Holy Spirit has set us free so that we can live a new life characterised by love and all the fruit of the Spirit. Such a life is open to all of us, but only if we are willing to be, like Paul, absolutely honest about our own weakness and our complete dependence on the Holy Spirit to help us to live this new life. We will never make it by ourselves. Question How will you deal with your natural desire to be selfish today? Prayer Loving God, I thank you for the gift of your Holy Spirit. Help me to put him in the driving seat of my life today. Amen

Galatians 5:7-9 You were running the race so well. Who has held you back from following the truth? It certainly isn’t God, for he is the one who called you to freedom. This false teaching is like a little yeast that spreads through the whole batch of dough! We all know what is to be disappointed. It may be that someone has let you down, or that things just haven’t worked out in the way you had hoped. Paul’s letter to the Galatians is dominated by his deep and agonising disappointment that his readers had allowed false teaching to mislead them. He wondered whether his ministry to them had been a complete failure. This was clearly intensely painful for Paul because he longed to see them become joyful and fruitful Christians, and all seemed to have gone horribly wrong. They had gone back to following the rules and restrictions from which Christ had set them free. It’s easy to understand how quickly and easily false teaching spread in the early Church. Christianity was new and very few people had a deep knowledge or experience of it. Many people came from a Jewish background and found it very difficult to understand the radical nature of the changes that Christ had brought about. Others came from a background in other religions and were easily persuaded by the latest eloquent speaker. Paul was eager to help them resist false teaching and to stand strong in the freedom that Christ had brought them. Our context is very different from the Galatians, but we should be no less concerned about false teachers. Paul describes their teaching as being like yeast. It may seem small, but it can have a huge and damaging effect. These days, false teaching can spread instantly around the world through the internet, so we need to be even more on our toes. The very best way to prepare ourselves is by sticking close to the Bible’s teaching. By spending time reading, reflecting and praying through the Bible, we arm ourselves to face the latest false teaching. Question What have you found to be the most helpful ways of getting to know the Bible better? Prayer Loving God, thank you for the gift of the Bible and for the way in which its light shines on my life. Amen

Galatians 4:6-7 Because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, “Abba, Father.” Now you are no longer a slave but God’s own child. And since you are his child, God has made you his heir. When I hear the word ‘father’, I immediately think of my own father. We probably all do. I think of a gentle and kind Christian man. He was a businessman and a busy member of our church, and he was always absolutely devoted to my mother and his four children. He died a few years ago, and I thank God for him. I am well aware that the word ‘father’ can trigger completely different reactions. For some people, it reminds them of someone who was cruel, dismissive and rude to them. Does that mean we should stop referring to God as a father? I don’t believe so. A number of people who have had a bad experience of fatherhood have told me how they desperately needed to know that they had a father, a heavenly Father, who was completely faithful and loving to them. Whatever experience we have had of human fatherhood, our fathers have not been perfect. Only God himself offers us that kind of fatherhood. Now that we are fully a part of God’s family, we have the incredible privilege of calling God Abba. The word comes from Aramaic, Jesus’ mother tongue, and is a word of extreme intimacy, similar to ‘daddy’. How amazing that we can address the creator of the universe with such familiarity, but that is the consequence of being children of God! We have a completely new status and security. It’s helpful to think of our relationship with God as forming the foundations of life. No building can stand for long if it hasn’t got firm foundations, but if they are in place, the building can grow strongly and securely. Life is no different. When we are clear about our unchangeable relationship with God our Father, we can build all other relationships and plans with confidence. Question How helpful do you find it that you are able to call God ‘Abba’? Prayer Abba Father, thank you for the love and security that you give me. Help me to build the whole of my life on the relationship that I have with you. Amen

Galatians 3:11 So it is clear that no one can be made right with God by trying to keep the law. For the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.” For the apostle Paul, this was the crunch issue. The only way to be made right with God is through faith. He was addressing many people who believed that obeying the law was crucial for all Christians, but he argued that however well we live, we will always fail. We will never be able to put our relationship with God right by our own efforts. Coming from a strict Jewish background, Paul knew all about the significance of the law. From his earliest days, he had been taught that he needed to obey the letter of the law in order to please God. He had then been taught by the Pharisees, who were meticulous in their adherence to the law. Paul knew exactly what he was talking about! He knew that the law could only ever be a burden, and that’s why he was so excited that Jesus came to set us free. Because of the impossibility of pleasing God by our hard work, all we can do is receive his salvation as a gift. This all sounds so simple but, interestingly, we find it surprisingly difficult to receive free gifts. We instinctively suspect that there must be a catch. When someone offers the most precious thing in the world, we assume that it cannot possibly be true, but it is! Paul knew for himself how wonderful it was to live in the freedom that Jesus gives, and he longed for his friends in Galatia to have the same experience, but they needed to know exactly what kind of freedom this was. In chapter 5, he spelled this out. We have been set free not to do whatever we like, because that would be incredibly destructive. Christ has set us free so that we can “serve one another in love” (Galatians 5:13). It’s impossible to think of a world that is better or happier than one that is shaped by love, and that’s the gift we have been given, if only we will accept it. Question How has Christ’s gift of freedom affected your life? Prayer Lord Jesus, forgive me for those times when I have fooled myself into thinking that I could please you by my own efforts. I thank you for the free gift of salvation. Amen

Galatians 2:20 My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. In these first two chapters of Galatians, Paul gives a fascinating summary of his life story since he became a Christian, reminding his readers of his background. He had been so deeply committed to his Jewish faith that he had done everything possible to destroy the Church. Paul makes it clear that when he started following Christ, he didn’t rush to Jerusalem, where the first church was formed. First, he went away into Arabia, and only after three years did he go to meet the leaders in Jerusalem. The point he was making was that his new life as a Christian hadn’t been shaped by other people and their traditions, but only by Christ. It was another 14 years before he returned to Jerusalem and the church leaders recognised him as the one God had sent to preach to the Gentiles. The Jerusalem church was, not surprisingly, focused on people from a Jewish background. Paul’s life was completely defined by Christ, not by any humans or their traditions. His new life was no longer his own but Christ’s, and he was certain that he had found the best life imaginable. He had long since learned that living for himself wasn’t worth it. In Romans chapter 7, Paul reflected on the struggle inside him when he lived life by himself. He tried to do the right things but consistently failed. He exclaimed: “Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?” He triumphantly concluded: “Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 7:24-25). To give up his entire life to Christ might sound an incredible thing to do, but don’t miss the punchline. He was delighted to give himself completely to Christ because the Son of God had loved him and given up his life for him. Living for Christ, whether in the first century or the 21st, is purely and simply a response to God’s perfect love for us in Christ. Question How do you understand the expression “crucified with Christ” for you personally? Prayer Lord Jesus, I thank you with all my heart that you love me and gave yourself for me. Amen

Galatians 1:4 Jesus gave his life for our sins, just as God our Father planned, in order to rescue us from this evil world in which we live. Every now and again, we hear about rescue missions. Brave soldiers are put down behind enemy lines, often in a low flying helicopter, and set some prisoners free. It’s all very exciting and impressive. Here, the apostle Paul talks about us being rescued, and it sounds as if God is coming to transport us out of this world, but that isn’t his purpose. His desire is to leave us in this world to do his work. What we need to understand is that the Jews thought in terms of two ages. There was this present evil age and then there was the age to come. This present age is dominated by the devil and is characterised by sin, death and brokenness, and the age to come is marked out by love, harmony and life. The age to come is what the New Testament writers refer to as eternal life. Because it has its roots in God, it cannot and will not come to an end. When Paul talks about the rescue mission that Jesus brings about through his death on the cross, he is saying that we are transported from one world to another, but for the time being, we stay exactly where we are! Our calling is to experience eternal life and to live for God amid all the challenges and difficulties of a world that is firmly opposed to him. We might often wish that God would relieve us from all the pressures and brokenness of our sinful world. Having met Christ, we know that the world doesn’t need to be like this. However, for now, our calling is to stay where we are and to serve God faithfully, encouraging and helping other people to have the experience of being rescued by Jesus. Question In what ways have you experienced God’s rescue through what Christ did for you on the cross? Prayer Loving God, thank you for rescuing me. Help me to become increasingly eager to help others to find the eternal life which you offer. Amen

Galatians 1:1 This letter is from Paul, an apostle. I was not appointed by any group of people or any human authority, but by Jesus Christ himself and by God the Father, who raised Jesus from the dead. Yesterday, we were reflecting on the call of Isaiah. He was absolutely clear that he was called by God to his challenging ministry. Today, in this reading from Galatians, we meet the apostle Paul hundreds of years later making it clear that he was appointed by God alone. This was no human appointment, but one that God had decided to make. As this letter unfolds, it will become increasingly clear why he needed to make this point right at the beginning. It’s a strong letter in which he shows his severe disagreement with many people. They needed to know that he was acting purely and simply on the orders of God himself. There is nothing more important in life than to know that we are doing what God wants. Too often, people have got the impression that only ministers and mission personnel are called by God, but that isn’t the case. Each day, God calls all of us to work for him. In our schools, offices, colleges, hospitals, factories, homes, communities and friendships, we are living and working as God’s representatives. That might sound rather overwhelming. We are all keen to emphasise how frail, failed and unimportant we are, but God always equips the people that he calls. We frequently face situations that are outside our experience or expectation. In those moments, we need to remind ourselves why we are there in the first place! We are there because God has placed us there, and we can confidently look to his Spirit to equip us to be who and what he wants us to be. Throughout Paul’s ministry, there were people who looked down on him. He hadn’t spent time with Jesus like the other apostles, and he was often seen as an outsider. He also doesn’t seem to have been a particularly powerful preacher, and that didn’t go down well. However, he knew he was called by God, and that gave him the steel to stand up for his faith in the most testing of settings. Whatever others think of us, we all need to keep focused on what God thinks of us and what he has called us to do. Question What is God calling you to do for him today? Prayer Lord God, thank you for equipping me to do whatever you call me to do. Amen

Isaiah 6:8 Then I heard the Lord asking, “Whom should I send as a messenger to this people? Who will go for us?” I said, “Here I am. Send me.” Isaiah’s encounter with God in the temple was so intimate that he was able to overhear God having a conversation. God was wondering who he could send as a messenger, and Isaiah immediately put up his hand and offered his services. Isaiah’s response stands in marked contrast to others, such as Moses and Jeremiah, who offered God reasons why he had chosen the wrong person. Isaiah was willing, and God took him at his word. Willingness is a wonderful quality. When gifts were given for the building of the temple in Jerusalem, the people were incredibly generous. They gave 170 tonnes of gold, 10,000 gold coins, 240 tonnes of silver, 612 tonnes of bronze and 3,400 tonnes of iron. We read that: “the family leaders, the leaders of the tribes of Israel, the generals and the captains of the army and the king’s administrative officers all gave willingly…The people rejoiced over the offerings, for they had given freely and wholeheartedly to the LORD, and King David was filled with joy” (1 Chronicles 29:6,9). Isaiah was willing to serve God, but that doesn’t mean that life suddenly became easy for him. Far from it. He was given a desperately difficult task to perform. God assured him that people wouldn’t want to hear his message. They would “plug their ears and shut their eyes” (Isaiah 6:10). Even this discouraging information didn’t undermine Isaiah’s willingness. He simply enquired of God how long this would go on, to which God replied that it would carry on until the land had been turned into a wasteland and the people had been carried off into exile. It was a tough message, but Isaiah’s willingness was undiminished. Isaiah knew that the greatest thing he could ever do was to serve the living God. Question Are you willing to do whatever God asks you to do? Prayer Lord God, help me to always be willing to serve you in whatever way you choose. Amen

Isaiah 6:5-7 [Isaiah] said, “It’s all over! I am doomed, for I am a sinful man…” Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal he had taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. He touched my lips with it and said, “See, this coal has touched your lips. Now your guilt is removed, and your sins are forgiven.” You may have had the experience of cleaning a window with great care. The last smudge has been removed and you are convinced that you’ve done an excellent job, and then you sit down and see the sunlight streaming in and you cannot believe how dirty and smudgy it still looks! That was Isaiah’s experience in these verses. He came into the presence of a holy God and the brilliant light of God’s presence shone on the inadequacies and failings of his life. He felt doomed. His predicament seemed completely hopeless, but it wasn’t. God did for Isaiah what Isaiah could never have done for himself. He forgave him. Isaiah recognised that he had filthy lips and lived among a people with filthy lips, so the seraphim touched his lips with a burning coal from the altar. His guilt was removed and his sins were forgiven. His life was transformed from one of hopelessness and defeat to one in which he would be able to carry God’s word to his people. Forgiveness was the turning point in Isaiah’s life, and that is the experience of every Christian. Until we come to that point of recognising our sin and seeking God’s forgiveness, we will inevitably be weighed down by our sin and guilt. Only God can set us free, and he does so by totally removing our sins from us. David described the experience in this way: “He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west” (Psalm 103:12). Question How has God’s gift of forgiveness affected your life? Prayer Holy God, I worship you and praise you for your love for me. I recognise my need of your forgiveness, and thank you for your willingness to set me free from my sin. Amen

Isaiah 6:1 It was in the year King Uzziah died that I saw the Lord. He was sitting on a lofty throne, and the train of his robe filled the Temple. Uzziah had become king when he was 16 and reigned for 52 years. For much of that time, the kingdom of Judah had thrived. Uzziah had listened to the prophet Zechariah and walked in the ways of the Lord. However, later on in his reign he had become arrogant, and on one occasion, he went into the temple to burn incense, a task which only priests could perform. Uzziah was struck down with leprosy and lived in isolation for the last years of his reign. The death of King Uzziah after such a long reign was clearly a turning point for Isaiah. His world had suddenly changed. I wonder what his mood was when he entered the temple. He likely felt confused and insecure as the nation faced a major time of change, but in that moment, God met with him in an amazing way. Suddenly, he was overwhelmed by the majesty and holiness of God and forced to take a completely new look at his life. God meets with us in an amazing variety of ways. He can do so when we are in a church building or a garden. He can speak to us as we read the Bible or the newspaper. He can reveal himself through a friend or a stranger. The main question is whether we are ready to meet with him. Celtic Christianity speaks of thin places, where heaven and earth seem to meet and where it can be particularly easy to meet with God. The islands of Iona and Lindisfarne are two places that have been identified as thin places for hundreds of years, but you may well have discovered somewhere else that is a thin place for you. The ways in which God might meet with us are many and various. What matters is that we should, like Isaiah, be ready for that moment. Question Have you discovered any thin places where it seems particularly easy to meet with God? Prayer Lord God, thank you that you want to speak with me. Help me to always be ready to hear your voice. Amen