Gluten Free & God Seeking

Showing posts with label Life Study of Galatians. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Life Study of Galatians. Show all posts

Sunday, July 14, 2013

How Does Galatians 4:5-6 Show the Intention of God's Creation of Man?


     God has an intention in His creation.  Whenever I'm walking at the beach or hiking a mountain trail with my family, I can tell that creation wasn't a random series of events.  God must have had a purpose behind it.  So what is it?  A few weeks ago when when I attended the Crystallization Study of Genesis, many of the messages were about God's intention in His creation. 

       I enjoyed hearing again how God created man in His image and likeness (Genesis 1:26) in order that man could contain God's life.  That's why God placed Adam in the garden where the tree of life was.  Because God gave man a free will, He didn't force Adam and Eve to eat just the tree of life. He wanted them to willingly choose Him. The serpent (Satan in disguise) might have thought that he had ruined God's intention in creating man, but actually he just gave God a way to destroy him (Go read Hebrews 2:14; I love this verse!). So this week I finished the Life-Study of Galatians, and the last message concluded with a section on God's intention.  It was an excellent recap of what I had heard at this conference. Here  it is from Chapter 46, page 416:
According to the revelation in the Bible, God's intention is to make us His sons.  In His creation of mankind, God created man in His image and after His likeness.  He designed and created man as a vessel to contain Him.  Because we became fallen, God sent His Son to redeem us.  When we believed in Christ, God sent the Spirit of His Son into us to regenerate us and make us sons of God.  Now the Spirit, the ultimate consummation of the Triune God, dwells in our spirit to work, move, act, and anoint us that we may be sons of God in a full way" (Lee, Witness, Life Study of Galatians. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1980, Print).
But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under law;  That He might redeem those under law that we might receive the Sonship.  And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts crying, Abba, Father!     Galatians 4:4-6
Blog update 11/3/13:  If you'd like to listen to some sharing on Galatians you can listen to   the Life Study of the Bible with Witness Lee. 
Posted by at 10:24 PM 0 comments
Labels: ,

Sunday, July 7, 2013

How Do We Practically Enjoy Grace in Galatians 5:18?


 
I like to read on the plane.  And that’s what I was doing this morning on an early flight out of Southern California where we had spent the week in a Bible study on Genesis.  I'm almost done with the Life-study of Galatians so I pulled it out.  My heart gets touched when what I read overlaps with a message I’ve recently heard. One of the messages on Genesis talked a bit about Enosh, a grandson of Adam and Eve. 

Here’s a short background so you get where I’m heading with this:  After Adam and Eve ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil which signified Satan’s evil nature, they were sent out of the garden.  Their first two sons were Cain and Abel. It’s alarming that Satan’s evil nature within man caused Cain to kill his own brother.  I’m sure Adam and Eve were heartbroken as are all families who know dysfunction. 

I learned more this week that Satan hates the purpose of God seen in Genesis 1:26 that man was  made to express and represent God. Because of that  Satan’s always trying to damage God’s plan.  The Bible says in Genesis 4:26 that Eve's son Seth gave his son the name Enosh which means in Hebrew frail, mortal man. I like this part of the verse "...At that time men began to call upon the name of Jehovah."

       As I was reading this morning, I came across a section that talked about calling on the Lord. The last verse in Galatians says, "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers, Amen."  I chose out these excerpts from chapter 43 of the Life-Study of Galatians because they show clearly how calling on the Lord helps us to enjoy God's grace:
Grace here is Christ Himself as our enjoyment.  Today Christ as the Spirit is in our spirit for our experience and enjoyment….We  may enjoy the  Lord in our spirit simply by calling on His name....I have come to the conclusion that the best way to enjoy the Lord is to call on Him….We know that this was a mark of believers in the first century by the fact that Saul of Tarsus was given authority by the chief priests to bind all those who called on the Lord’s name.  Calling on the name of the Lord Jesus should also be a mark of believers today….But just as we cannot stay alive if we “graduate” from breathing, so we cannot live spiritually if we stop calling on the name of the Lord? (Lee, Witness. Life-Study of Galatians. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1980, Print).
When I read what I was writing to my husband this morning, he told me that it reminded him of that verse in Romans 10 that says, "Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."  And this salvation is not once for all but something we can experience day every day! 

  Here's a song that I like to listen to  that's a prayer for daily grace, it's called, Lord, Grant Me Today's Supply of Grace.
Posted by at 8:41 PM 0 comments
Labels: ,

Sunday, June 30, 2013

Have You Seen Regeneration in Galatians 4:5-6?

   

       Have you ever heard that there is no greater miracle than regeneration? When I read that sentence, it made me go wow inside.  I think when you read the paragraph from Chapter 32 of the Life Study of Galatians that this sentence comes from, I think you will say wow, too.
Being cleansed is not the highlight of God's salvation.  The highlight is that God has regenerated us, that He has actually imparted His life and nature into us to make us His sons.  Now we are not God's sons-in-law--we are the sons of God in life. Certainly there is no greater wonder in the universe than that sinful men by being regenerated can become sons of God.  Many today are seeking wonders and miracles.  But they do not realize that there is no greater miracle than regeneration.  By regeneration fallen people become sons of God (Lee, Witness. Life Study of Galatians. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1980, Print).
      This sharing was given on Galatians 4:5-6 at a conference following the summer Life-Study training on Galatians.  In these verses the apostle Paul speaks about the divine sonship. The biblical truth is when we were regenerated, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our spirit causing us to be born of God!  Look at these verses:  That He might redeem those under law that we might receive the sonship. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father! Whenever I hear a word about regeneration, I go back in my mind to John 3 where the Lord talked with Nicodemus. Here is the part in John 3:4-7 on this: 

   Jesus answered and said to him, Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God (the footnote says, "It is a divine realm to be entered into, a realm that requires the divine life").
   Nicodemus said to Him, How can a man be born when he is old?  He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, can he?
   Jesus answered, Truly, truly I say to you, Unless one is born of water (baptism in the footnote of the Recovery Version) and the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
   That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
   Do not marvel that I say to you, You must be born anew.
  
Doesn't this make you want to pray, Lord keep my regeneration always fresh and new? May it always be the greatest miracle of all to me! Don't ever let me lose that sense of wow!

 Blog update 11/3/13:  Program 22 on Life Study of the Bible with Witness Lee is on the Spirit of Sonship.
Posted by at 4:45 PM 0 comments
Labels: ,

Sunday, June 23, 2013

How Do You Walk in Spirit in Galatians 5:25?

     “It is crucial to realize that the Christian walk is simply a life in the spirit” (Lee, Witness. Life Study of Galatians. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1979 Print).  Wow, that amazing statement on page 258 boils the entire Christian life into one sentence!  This is based on Galatians 5:25, "If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit." In order to help his readers get this spiritual truth, Witness Lee shares in these chapters about the organic union that took place when we were regenerated.  If you're like me, this term may sound a bit unusual to you. 
       And like so many biblical truths, you have to piece verses together to see this truth clearly.  An important verse that gives light on what happened at our regen-eration is in 1 Corinthians 6:17: "He who is joined to the Lord is ONE spirit."  This oneness denotes a union, and because we are living, this union must be organic!!   This Life-Study said that the Lord Himself alluded to this organic union when He told the disciples in John 15 that He was the vine and they were branches abiding in Him.  Surely the branches are in an organic union with the vine; they are not merely taped onto the vine.


   In chapter 27 of the Life-Study of Galatians he provides a very short and clear explanation on page 239 about this organic union and our walking by the Spirit:
Paul speaks of the Spirit and our spirit again and again.  Apart from the Spirit, there can no Christian walk.  When we are in our spirit, we are simultaneously in the Spirit, because the Spirit is one with our spirit.  When we first began to appreciate the preciousness of the Lord Jesus and to call on His name, an organic union took place between the Spirit and our regenerated spirit.  This organic union is described by the word mingling (Lee, Witness. Life-Study of Galatians. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1979, Print).
Seeing my relationship with the Lord this way has really helped me!  

 Blog Update 7/30/13:  Today I listened to a song on Youtube that a brother wrote based on Galatians 2:20--I like this part of the verse--"and the life  which I now live in the flesh, I live in faith, the faith of the Son of God, who  loved me and gave Himself up for me."

 Blog Update 11/3/13:  I would encourage you to listen to Programs 27 and 28 that covers Galatians 5 on the Life Study of the Bible with Witness Lee. 

Posted by at 5:12 PM 0 comments
Labels: ,

Sunday, June 16, 2013

How is Christ Formed in the Believers in Galatians 4:19?


   Some verses are hard to get at first. This week I read a Life-Study that covered a verse like that. It's Galatians 4:19:  My children, of whom I am again in travail until Christ is formed in you.  Have you ever thought how's that supposed to happen? 

   When a person is born again like it talks about in John 3, the Lord's life within him is just like that of a newborn babe.  Just like for our physical existence, spiritual food is all that new life needs in order to grow. Year after year this eating causes us to go through stages of growth that very much mirror our own human growth.  These lines about this process stood out to me  on pages 204-205 of my reading in chapter 23:
 Paul was in travail that Christ might be formed in the Galatians....Christ was born into the Galatian believers, but not formed in them, when they were regenerated through Paul's preaching the gospel to them the first time. Now the apostle travails again that

Christ might be formed in them.  To have Christ formed in us is to have Christ grown in us in full. First Christ was born into us at our conversion, then He lives in us in our Christian life (2:20), and He will be formed in us at our maturity" (Lee, Witness. Life Study of Galatians. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1979, Print).
  Reading this made me think the Lord's life doesn't want to stay shriveled up within us. He wants to grow and spread in our hearts until Christ is fully formed within us. And that's what everything in our lives are helping accomplish!

 Update 11/3/13:  You can listen to fellowship on Galatians 4:19 on Program 23 called The Need for Christ to Be Formed on Life Study of the Bible with Witness Lee.
Posted by at 10:05 PM 2 comments
Labels: ,

Sunday, June 9, 2013

Why is Faith like a Camera in Galatians 3:6-9?

                          
       Most believers know what faith is because after all that's what saved us.  But I read a definition of faith in chapter 18 of the Life Study of Galatians that touched me in a new way. "Our faith is the reflection of the grace of Christ" (Lee, Witness. Life-Study of Galatians. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1979, Print).  

 I've been reading through the book of Genesis, and Galatians 3:6 is a quote from Genesis 15:6. The background of this verse is Abraham is old and without a child, and God tells him to look at the heavens and count the stars and tells him that's how many descendants he would have. The very next verse is:  "And he believed Jehovah, and He accounted it to him as righteousness."  

    Where did Abraham's faith come from? As Witness Lee shares in these marvelous Life- Study messages, Abraham was actually under a hearing of faith like Galatians 3:2 talks about (that was last week's blog). God's speaking infused faith into his heart to believe God's promise.  I have always enjoyed Witness Lee's illustration in Chapter 20 page 175 of how a camera describes our faith:
"We may also say that faith is a photograph of the divine scenery.  Through such faith we become true sons of Abraham.  When we believed in Christ, an organic union took place. The divine life entered into us, and we were born of God through faith.  As our faith photographed the divine scenery of grace, something of a real and substantial spiritual nature was infused into us" (Lee, Witness.  Life-Study of Galatians. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1979, Print). 

   I really like this illustration because it makes faith something real and active. Whenever we hear or read God's word, our spirit of faith is going click, click--it's taking pictures like a camera of the spiritual scenery.  Something is getting impressed into our heart that literally infuses us with faith in what God is speaking.  This never becomes old to me, it amazes me.  This is why it's so important for each of us to read God's word every day and be in fellowship with other believers!!  


Posted by at 7:39 AM 0 comments
Labels: ,

Sunday, June 2, 2013

Why Did Paul Emphasize the Hearing of Faith in Galatians 3?

        There are two sides to everything.  Even the Bible has two parts--the Old Testament and the New Testament. Have you ever thought that these two testaments show two different ways of relating to God?  In the Old Testament man's relationship with God was centered on his keeping the law, but in the New Testament man's relationship with God is based on his having faith in Christ.

  I learned from my reading Chapter 14 in the Life-Study of Galatians that covers chapter 3 of this Epistle.  In verses 2 and 5 Paul is contrasting these two dispensations:  This only I wish to learn from you, Did you receive the Spirit by works of law or by the hearing of faith? And then a few verses later Paul says:  He therefore Who is supplying to you the Spirit and doing works of power among you, is it by the works of law or by the hearing of faith?  Witness Lee points out on page 119 that in these two verses you can also see the two sides of God’s New Testament economy:
God’s New Testament economy is a matter of supplying the Spirit and receiving the Spirit.  On God’s side, He supplies the Spirit; on our side, we receive the Spirit. The supplying of the Spirit and the receiving of the Spirit do not take place once and for all.  On the contrary, they are continual.  According to 3:2 we have already received the Spirit. But according to 3:5, God continues to supply the Spirit to us.  Day by day God supplies the Spirit, and day by day we receive this supply of the Spirit” (Lee, Witness. Life-Study of Galatians. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1979, Print).
     I really like that it is a continual receiving, it is not a once for all event.  As I was thinking about this, I realized God's always supplying, but am I receiving?  In both of these verses I'm seeing that both my initial receiving of the Lord and my daily receiving a supply of grace hinge on my hearing of faith. From my experience I know that when I read the word or hear a word of ministry, I come under a hearing of faith. Something sparks in my heart.  In this message Witness Lee shares that when we hear the word of God, faith is infused into our heart and we spontaneously believe it. This word showed me how critical our hearing God's word and ministry are!!

Posted by at 4:10 PM 0 comments
Labels: ,

Sunday, May 26, 2013

Reading the Life-Studies of Galatians: What is the Contrast Between the Law & Christ in the Book of Galatians?

      History gives perspective.  And this is also true for biblical history.  Its always helped me when Witness Lee would give in the opening messages of his Life-Studies a background of the book he was covering.  Last Friday I started reading chapter 3 of the Life-Study of Galatians, and in this book knowing the background really helps you understand why Paul’s so fired up.  

       Take a look at Galatians 1:6-7 which says,  I marvel that you are so quickly removing from Him who has called you in the grace of Christ to a different gospel, which is not another; only there are some who trouble you and desire to pervert the gospel of Christ.   Paul's talking about the Judaizers in these verses--people who went around teaching the new believers that it wasn’t good enough to just have faith in Christ but they also needed to follow the law.  

     

 This particular background gave Paul the opportunity in this Epistle to give a stark contrast between God’s Son and Judaism. So Paul opens up by telling the Galatians  that as a top Pharisee he persecuted the believers until the day the Son of God revealed was revealed to him on the road to Damascus (Gal 1:15-16).  And that caused him to ask the question, "Who are You, Lord?" (Acts 9:5). I heard a brother say once in a message  that through the rest of Paul's Christian life,  the Lord answered that question. 
     Paul wanted the Galatian believers to see who Christ is--He is not a doctrine or someone distant in the heavens, but He is a living Person who indwells all the believers. I like these excerpts from pages 22, 23, and 25 because they explain why there's such a stark contrast between Judaism and Christ:
  As the Son of the living God (Matt. 16:16), Christ is far superior to Judaism and its traditions (Gal. 1:13-14). The Judaizers bewitched the Galatians so that they considered the ordinances of the law above the Son of the living God….In his experience, Paul realized that there is no comparison between the Son of the living God and Judaism with its dead traditions from his fathers….Therefore, what Paul preached was not the law, but Christ the Son of God….Instead of focusing his attention on this living Person, man has a natural tendency to direct his attention to religion with its tradition....The focal point of the Bible is not practices, doctrines, or ordinances—it is the living Person of the Son of God. (Lee, Witness. Life-Study of Galatians. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1979, Print.) 
Posted by at 4:39 PM 0 comments
Labels: ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)