From the Kitchen Table

The Kitchen Table            Galatians Day 23

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love. Galatians 5:6

This life is about love, not law.  It was always about love until man couldn’t figure it out without the law.  This life is NOT about breaking the law, we’ve already got that handled, it’s about breaking the heart of the Holy Spirit.  It’s about falling in love with God through faith and loving His word, word, will, and way rather than ours.  Be careful, this new way of living is not about focusing on self but focusing our lives on Him.  HE takes care of the rest.  This life is about love, not the law.  Let your faith let you fall in love with Jesus.  That’s all that counts.  Love the Lord you God will all your heart, with all your mind, with all you soul, and with all your strength and love your neighbor as yourself.  It’s about love but it takes faith to love.

The Kitchen Table             Galatians Day 22

You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace Galatians 5:4

There are these moments in life when we must decide to go with the crowd or Christ.  This is that moment when we decide to believe in Christ and His word or belong to the crowd and do things as they do.  At that moment we walk away from the power of God for the pleasure of others.  God doesn’t work through the flesh but through faith in Him and His word.  This isn’t about being bad and doing wrong, it’s about doing life like others and for others rather than for Jesus and like Jesus.  It’s that moment when we rely on anything other than the leading and longing of the Holy Spirit.  Remember, this life in Jesus isn’t about breaking the law but breaking the heart of the Holy Spirit.  Only the Holy Spirit will lead us in the freedom to live in what’s good and right and true and give us the power to do so.  You’ve been called to lead today, don’t just fall in line with what everyone else is doing.  Live in the supernatural, not  just the natural today by the grace of God. 

The Kitchen Table            Galatians Day 21

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Galatians 5:1

It was for freedom that God made us free and Jesus set us free.  The law doesn’t set us free, the law shows us that we are not free, on our own, to live free.  The law points out our sin of selfishness, stubbornness, and skepticism.  The law shows us our frustration, but love shows us freedom.  Don’t let anyone steal this freedom.  This freedom is our’s by faith that works through love.  Love God and His word, His ways.  Let your faith cause you to fall in love with God and you will stand firm in His light.  By faith we learn to hear the voice of God and we learn to love the presence of God.  Let your faith let you fall in love with God’s word, work, ways and will.  You’ll find out what it means to be free from the fear and frustration of the law.

The Kitchen Table            Galatians Day 20

Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise.

Galatians 4:28

A child and not a curse; a son and not a slave.  That is who we are!  We are who God promises us to be, not what the past or even the present might say we are.  Can that be drilled any further into our hearts and heads?  But it’s a love thing, not a law thing.  We see sonship in love, not the law.  This relationship is seen in how we “love” God.  Love changes our mentality about life, living, money, freedom and so on.  The law controls how we think about those things.  Love promises and the law pushes.  We can see the difference and the difference can be seen in us.  We are loved and His promises are part of His love for us.  Live a child of promise today.  Hold on to and hold out for God’s promises in Christ.  Don’t let anyone use the law on you to live in God’s love for you.

The Kitchen Table            Galatians Day 19

What then has become of your blessedness? Galatians 4:15

Hold on to what you’ve got in Jesus.  You’re a child, not a curse, a son not a slave.  You are blessed to be a blessing in Christ.  Don’t give this gift away, it’s yours.  There are a lot of people who have been forgiven but don’t live free.  It happens!  It’s happens as we get caught up with life and living and slowly but surely we let go of our gifts from God.  But the Bible says, “So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.” Galatians 3:9  It all begins with our thinking.  Think blessed to live blessed.  Many won’t agree with that and denigrate those who do but this life isn’t about pleasing others, it’s about believing God.  You are blessed!  Believe it!  The Bible says so.

The Kitchen Table            Galatians Day 18

Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods.  But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? Galatians 4:8-9

Everybody needs God but many will choose a god to bring some sort of meaning and purpose to their lives.  Elementary things are earthly things and thoughts we can use to define and direct our lives.  But we can’t have eternal peace, power, and perspective without an everlasting partnership.  Jesus is that partnership and that power for our lives.  And not only do we know God, but He knows us.  It’s personal and it’s powerful.  These elementary and earthly things can’t promise an eternal life of love.  Living knowing and being known by God is the most freeing and fulfilling love anyone can ever know and it frees us from elementary and earthly fears, frustrations, and failures.  Yes, God knows everybody but He knows us as His.  There are great promises and privileges in that relationship that this world cannot offer.

The Kitchen Table            Galatians Day 17

And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” ⁷ So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.

 Galatians 4:6-7

This life with Jesus is about a relationship, not rules.  Jesus has fulfilled all the demands of the rules for us.  What we couldn’t do, He did for us.  Those who believe in Jesus are now called sons.  Once again, this life isn’t defined by laws but by love.  When we have faith to fall in love with God, He sends His Spirit to live in His love and to everything about His love.  We are sons and not slaves.  We now know Him as Father and call Him Father.  And the Spirit of our heavenly Father now lives and moves and defines our being.  Only God can change our predicament and He has.  We are sons of His love and not slaves to the law.

The Kitchen Table             Galatians Day 16

In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world

 Galatians 4:3

God created us to rule and reign with Him over the earth and creation.  There’s that saying that God can do anything He wants without us, but He chooses to do everything He wants with us.  God created this universe to rule with us not just over us.  Sin put a big dent in that plan but that didn’t stop God.  He came and paid for our sins so that we could again rule and reign with Him.  The law was our nanny to teach us what is good and right and true, but love came to make us good and right and true.  Anything but God Himself enslaves us to elementary principles such as people who are not God and things that don’t have the power of God.  We believed and were born-again to live blessed and to a blessing.  Don’t give up the blessing to live bound by the failures and forces of man’s fantasies about life.  You are blessed to be a blessing today!

The Kitchen Table            Galatians     Day 15

But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, ²⁶ for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.                                        Galatians 3:25-26

We all need something to live for, not just live from.  Faith for what is ahead has come because love has come.  Love creates hope that inspires faith.  Faith has come because we ran into the love of Jesus that created hope for a better and different life which then inspired faith in us to believe in Him.  The law showed us our failure and need for someone like Jesus but love, His love, created the hope to live by faith for the future, favor, and fortune of God.  The law looks back, but love looks ahead.  We can go on because Jesus took care of was, what is and what will be.  Now that faith has come, His love has come and created hope and inspired faith to live in Him, for Him, and with Him.  We can live in the favor, freedom, and fortune of God and not the fear, failure, and frustration of the law.

The Kitchen Table            Day 14

Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary.   Galatians 3:19

The law, written on the walls of our minds and monuments, is good but it’s not God.  This life that Jesus gives us through faith is lived in relationship to His Holy Spirit, who is God.  The law was and is given to reveal our disbelief and disobedience.  The law of God was given by angels; the love of God was revealed by God Himself.  That’s why this relationship is a face to face experience with Jesus that each of us must know personally.  Now sin for us is anything that grieves and quenches the Spirit of God in our lives.  And there are promises in this relationship that give purpose, power, and passion  to this life.  Don’t make this about rules, make it about your relationship with the Holy Spirit.  That’s where life is.