In contrast to yesterday’s thoughts on liberty, what does it mean to say that legalism puts people under bondage? Legalism is an attitude, a mentality based on pride. It is an obsessive conformity to an artificial standard.
Read MoreTag Archives: Galatians
Claiming the Package
This day—this very moment—millions are living their lives in shame, fear, and intimidation who should be free, productive individuals. The tragedy is they think it is the way they should be.
Read MoreA Sobering List
Following is an incomplete list of what you have in store after your immorality is found out: Your mate will experience the anguish of betrayal, shame, rejection, heartache, and loneliness. No amount of repentance will soften those blows.
Read MoreThree Promises Regarding Our Faithfulness
In several places through the New Testament, there are statements of promise from God to faithful servants. I’m thinking of three in particular.
Read MoreThree Basic Ingredients of Servanthood
The Word of God lays a solid, biblical foundation for what it means to have a servant mentality. But let’s get some handles on what’s involved in pulling it off. For starters, let me suggest three basic ingredients of servanthood.
Read MoreSelf-Control
Willpower is a forgotten word amidst most Christian circles today. Many of us are soft, flabby, and fat either outwardly or inwardly . . . or both. The overindulgence and underachievement of our age have created a monster whose brain is lazy, vision is blurred, hands are greedy, skin is thin, middle is round, and seat is wide. Color him baby blue!
Read MoreInsensitivity, Part One
My kids pulled a fast one on me one Christmas years ago. They teamed up, pooled their vast financial resources, and bought me a little motto to set on my desk. It was more than cute . . . it was convicting. In bold, black letters it read: DIETS ARE FOR PEOPLE WHO ARE THICK AND TIRED OF IT. At first you thmile . . . then it makes you thad. Especially if you’re not thick of being thick!
Read MoreThe Fullness of Time
ANY SIGNIFICANT BIRTHS IN the year 1809? Here’s a list of a few: William Gladstone was born in Liverpool. Alfred Tennyson took his first breath in Lincolnshire. Oliver Wendell Holmes cooed in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Edgar Allan Poe began his brief but tragic life in Boston. A physician named Darwin named his firstborn son Charles.
Read MoreFor Generating a Gentle Spirit
If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another. Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ. (Galatians 5:25–6:2)
Read MoreA Rare and Remarkable Virtue
THE RARE AND REMARKABLE VIRTUE OF patience is within the and-so-forth section in Galatians chapter 5. You know how we quote that passage . . . “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, and-so-forth.” That lazy habit has caused a very important series of virtues to escape our notice. Let’s read it together as a refresher: The Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives:
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