Be Still And Know

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 ser

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

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

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 li

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 ou

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 knowle

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 exp

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 b

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,

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 r

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 t

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

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 t

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 h

Isaiah 5:7 The nation of Israel is the vineyard of the LORD of Heaven’s Armies. The people of Judah are his pleasant garden. He expected a crop of justice, but instead he found oppression. He expected to find righteousness, but instead he heard cries of violence. There is only one reason why you would plant a vineyard: because you were wanting grapes. You certainly wouldn’t plant one for the vines’ natural beauty or because you want to make use of their wood, which struggles to burn. This chapter poignantly describes God’s desperate disappointment with his people. They were planted to be fruitful and he had gone to great lengths to prepare his vineyard. He planted it on a fertile hill. He ploughed the land, cleared its stones and planted one of the best of the vines. However, the outcome had been appalling – the exact opposite of what God had been looking for. Instead of the justice that he longed to see, he saw oppression, and instead of righteousness, there was murder. God had given his people free will

Isaiah 2:4 The LORD will mediate between nations and will settle international disputes. They will hammer their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will no longer fight against nation, nor train for war anymore. This beautiful verse gives us an insight into the heart of God, who always longs for world peace. In this passage, we are given a vision of what the world will look like at the end of time. With God in charge, there will be complete peace. The instruments of war will become useful agricultural implements, all war will cease and there will be no longer any need to train people to fight. It’s a stirring vision and one that needs to thrill us all. Our present world is continually in the grip of violence and war. They are characteristics of a world that lives in rebellion against God, but as we worship him, we need to remind ourselves of his longing for peace. It is so easy for us to feel that world politics and historic rivalries between nations are so complex that we

Isaiah 2:2-3 In the last days, the mountain of the LORD’s house will be the highest of all…people from all over the world will stream there to worship. People from all nations will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of Jacob’s God. There he will teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths.” Isaiah 1 makes for scary reading. God is hopping mad at the unfaithfulness of his people. They have comprehensively let him down, and they are paying a terrible price for it. God’s blunt language is enough to make anyone blush as he comments: “See how Jerusalem, once so faithful, has become a prostitute. Once the home of justice and righteousness, she is now filled with murderers. Once like pure silver, you have become like worthless slag” (Isaiah 1:21-22). It was a very grim predicament, but God still had a vision for how things could be in the future. The vision in Isaiah 2 focuses on Jerusalem as the place which would transform everything. It would be the focus of peace an

Isaiah 1:18 “Come now, let’s settle this,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, I will make them as white as wool.” If you want to know what God is like when he’s in a rage, read through this first chapter of Isaiah. He was fuming. He simply couldn’t believe that anyone could treat him like this. After all he had done for his people, it was as though they now didn’t even recognise his existence. God pointed out that even an ox and a donkey know who their owner is, but Israel didn’t seem to have a clue who their master was. The country was lying in ruins and beautiful Jerusalem had been abandoned. The situation was disastrous, and yet, amazingly, the people continued with their religious practices. However, God was repelled by their worship because he knew that it didn’t come from their heart. He asked them to stop making their sacrifices and offering their meaningless gifts and assured them that when they prayed, he would ref

Proverbs 29:25 Fearing people is a dangerous trap, but trusting the Lord means safety. The posh word for fearing other people is ‘anthropophobia’, and it can happen for all sorts of reasons. Perhaps other people are threatening us. The psalmists often spoke of the people who were out to get them. They seemed to be surrounded by people who were trying to trip them up and make their lives a misery. Fearing other people might also be based on our fear of what they might think of us. It’s very easy for our lives to be controlled by our desire to please other people. We can become fearful of what they might think of what we are saying or wearing, or where we are going. There is no doubt that it is easy for fearing other people to become a dangerous and depressing trap. The writer of Proverbs provides an alternative. There is a way out. Rather than using other people as our reference point, we could turn to the Lord instead. When we trust him, we are entirely safe for a number of clear reasons. Firstly, God alwa

Proverbs 29:23 Pride ends in humiliation, while humility brings honour. William Hazlitt, the brilliant 19th-century writer, put his finger on the problem with pride when he observed that it “erects a little kingdom of its own, and acts as sovereign in it”. When we are puffed up with pride, we take total charge and push God out, together with everyone else. The proud person might look impressive for a while but, as the writer of Proverbs observes, sooner or later they end in humiliation. The alternative way is humility. This is the key to all of God’s blessings, so we need to be absolutely clear what it is. The trouble with the word humility is that we often confuse it with false humility, which is horribly unattractive. Anyone who claims to be humble is almost certainly false. The humble person doesn’t expend energy thinking about themselves, and if they were ever identified as being humble, they would deny it. True humility is not about denying that we have gifts and abilities, but having a readiness to a