A Fresh Look at Galatians - Part 1: The Flesh

We are all familiar with some of the key verses in Paul’s letter to the Galatians. The fruit of the spirit vs. the works of the flesh, being set free for freedom, not using our freedom to indulge our sinful nature and Paul’s well known exclamation: “You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you!”

Traditionally these scriptures have been understood to talk about sin in the sense of ‘doing bad things’ like lying, fornication or idolatry, etc. However, I’ve decided to take a fresh look at these verses, with a special focus on their context.

The Moral Law

I have heard it taught many places that the Law, as in the law of the Old Covenant, given under the leadership of Moses by God, is split up into 3 parts: There is the moral law, the ceremonial law and the civil law. The moral law is the Ten Commandments, the Ceremonial Law is all the priestly stuff, and the Civil law is all the stuff relating to running a country.

This is all very interesting and for the sake of scholarship and study, I’m sure it is very useful. The thing is, usually when talking about the parts of the law, we get told that as Christians, the moral law is still in force and we are expected to live by it. “Of course!” we all say, and who wouldn’t? Isn’t it a fearful thing to fall into the hands of an angry God?

A Door No One Can Shut!

Have you noticed how our worldview affects our interpretation of things? Certainly in my case, I have seen how the revelation of peace with God and his good intentions toward man because of Jesus are changing the way I understand the bible. If it is true that God is perfect and cannot contradict himself, then the revelation of God through Jesus should be our guide for interpreting Scripture. Jesus is, after all, the exact representation of the Father. He said that if we have seen him, then we have seen the Father.

The devil's gospel.

The last 4 years of my life have been spent largely in retraining my mind: Since I started listening to Rob Rufus' message on the Grace of God, I have been in a non stop process of seeing Truth revealed and then re-aligning my thinking. So many (probably most) of my assumptions about things have been based on erroneous or incomplete data and although it has been hard to see the huge, gaping holes in the foundations of my life, it has been wonderful to see them being filled in.Even the word for this process, "repentance" has had to be redefined in me!

World Cup 2010

So...... FIFA World Cup 2010. WOW! Already we're well into the tournament. I must say that I'm so pleased to see SA hosting so well. The stadiums look amazing and the infrastructure is incredible. SA really does shine in the context of Africa. Last year Aug when visiting SA we experienced a little of what it has cost the nation in terms of disruption to get this country to be ready for the World Cup. I hope it was worth it, many hours stuck in traffic during road construction does take its toll! So thank you SA for making this such a success!

So, it's been a while...

So, it's been a while... Since that last tally ho, the cares of the world have really been doing their work.... BUT NOT ANY MORE!
Having a blog has been on my heart for a while, but we all know how it goes, at least for me: I start something all excitedly, and then lose interest really quickly. The story of my life....
Fortunately since coming to Hong Kong in September '09, God's been uncovering so much in me that has been left dormant for a really long time. I'm seeing his goodness manifesting into my thoughts and changing my outlook and perspective on life. Everything has been "ground under repair" since coming and it really is good to see the repairs coming to fruition and completion.  I'm looking forward to actually maintaining this blog thing, there's so much to share!

So, finally I decide to step into the modern world and set up a blog of my very own...
(I wonder how many blogs start like this....)

OK, it's not a great start, but a small beginning is a beginning nonetheless!

I thought I'd mix in some personal stuff, a bit of work related stuff and some input relating to what my life is about: Jesus; living for Him and becoming someone who is truly consumed by Him. Hopefully there'll be something worth reading, although I get the feeling I need to write down some of what's happening more for the sake of perspective than anything.

So this blog has begun.
Tally Ho!