GraceCreates

By Jon Walker

I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? Galatians 3:2–3 (NIV)

The apostle Paul, who struggled with legalism, taught the Galatians that the law was only put in charge to “lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law” (Galatians 3:24–25 NIV).

The law is not in charge of our lives; it is meant to show us the futility of trying to earn our way into God’s good graces. The sooner we realize that, the sooner we begin living by faith and not by sight, the sooner we’re guided by the Spirit of God within us and not by a list of rules or religious traditions.

We are transformed, not by the law, but by the Spirit of the living God writing his will in his own hand upon our hearts, where it cannot be lost, diminished, forgotten, or ignored (2 Corinthians 3:3).

This isn’t some heady, intellectual argument. When we think and act and live like people who have to earn the favor of God, then we’ve re-written the gospel and declared the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ invalid.

We declare the gospel invalid when we give the lists more authority than the Lord, or when we focus on the how more than the “wow!” We declare the gospel invalid when we give the letter of the law more authority that the Holy Spirit of God, or when we live independent of the Holy Spirit, rejecting any commandments at all.

We are fools, like the Galatians, who are cleansed by the blood of the Lamb and embedded with the Holy Spirit only to return to the errant belief, exposed by our behavior, that godly goals are reached by extra-human effort (Galatians 3:1–5).

If you’d like to receive these devotionals regularly, you can sign-up at www.gracecreates.com/subscribe/. Jon Walker writes from www.gracecreates.com. He is a Zondervan author, and the former writer/editor of the Purpose Driven Life On-Line Devotionals. This devotional is copyrighted 2008 by Jon Walker. Used by permission.

By Jon Walker

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:34–35 (NIV)
 
Love is salt to the thirsty. People don’t become thirsty for rules; they become thirsty for the streams of living water that flow from Jesus through those who carry Christ within (John 7:38; John 4:10).

We are the salt of the earth, but we lose our saltiness when we lose our love (Matthew 5:13). And the whole world is watching how that love plays out, particularly from one believer to another. If people filled with Jesus-life can’t get along and show the most basic tenets of love for each other, then why should the world be interested in having Jesus in them?

If we let Jesus-love flow through us, flooding the lives of those within our Christ-community, then the world will see a love so authentic and contagious that it attracts them to the Jesus in us.

We prove Jesus-life is in us by the way we love one another, not the rules we keep. The people of this world are thirsty for love, not lists. They’re thirsty for acceptance, not condemnation. They’re thirsty for the love God gives through us.

There’s a tendency to teach that Christian saltiness is about preserving society from decay; therefore, we emphasize the rules and regulations. But salt is also a purifying agent: God-love purifies by using the blood of Jesus to scrub the nastiness of our sin away.

If you’d like to receive these devotionals regularly, you can sign-up at www.gracecreates.com/subscribe/. Jon Walker writes from www.gracecreates.com. He is a Zondervan author, and the former writer/editor of the Purpose Driven Life On-Line Devotionals. This devotional is copyrighted 2008 by Jon Walker. Used by permission.

By Jon Walker

Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. Colossians 3:2 (NIV)

For the sake of discussion, let’s assume there’s a long, thin line threaded across reality. My friend, Steve Pettit, suggests this imaginary line divides what we can see from what we cannot see; the temporary from the eternal; the things above from the things below.
 
Paul, valedictorian at the school of Christ, says we should set our minds on those things above this line and not on the earthly things below it.
 
With our minds set on the things above, we live in the truth that there is more to reality the things right in front of us. We live in the truth that people are eternal beings and decisions that seem insignificant, when seen in the fullness of reality, are of eternal significance.
 
When our focus moves below this line, we start living in the mythology that the things right in front of us are the only things true and real. We live in the mythology that the things of life are of temporary significance, if they have any significance at all, and we live out the lie that people are temporal beings whose lives end when their hearts stop beating.

Truth says: Expand your reality. Realize there is more to reality than just the things you see and that what you feel is not an accurate of Truth. Ask God to help you look into the eyes of Truth.

Eugene Peterson, in The Message, paraphrases Colossians 3:2 this way: “Don’t shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ – that’s where the action is. See things from his perspective.”

If you’d like to receive these devotionals regularly, you can sign-up at www.gracecreates.com/subscribe/. Jon Walker writes from www.gracecreates.com. He is a Zondervan author, and the former writer/editor of the Purpose Driven Life On-Line Devotionals. This devotional is copyrighted 2008 by Jon Walker. Used by permission.

By Jon Walker

I myself am convinced, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, complete in knowledge and competent to instruct one another. Romans 15:14-16 (NIV)
 
Every day we teach people about God. We may teach Truth or we may teach mythology; either way we teach. We teach others that God is faithful or we teach them he can’t be trusted. We do this by living like we have faith in God, or by behaving as if God can’t be trusted.
 
As if.
 
We avoid a confrontation with the truth by keeping a myth-movie running continually in our minds; a faithless flick, where the only people who can teach are those cast in specific roles, such as gifted or professional, or pastor.

But that smoke you smell isn’t the popcorn burning; it’s the breath of hell permeating the myth in your mind, produced and directed by the father of lies.

God declares you competent to teach — Our loving brother and seasoned warrior, Paul, says the Jesus-life in us makes us competent to teach: “I myself am convinced, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, complete in knowledge and competent to instruct one another.” (Romans 15:14-16, NIV)

God gives you wisdom to teach — Paul says let the words of Christ live in your heart, allowing them to take root. This will give you the wisdom to teach on behalf of Jesus. (Colossians 3:16, Romans 15:14)

If you’d like to receive these devotionals regularly, you can sign-up at www.gracecreates.com/subscribe/. Jon Walker writes from www.gracecreates.com. He is a Zondervan author, and the former writer/editor of the Purpose Driven Life On-Line Devotionals. This devotional is copyrighted 2008 by Jon Walker. Used by permission.