Thought for March 11, 2024

•  1669: Mt. Etna erupts killing 15,000
• 1774: Sotheby's holds first auction
• 1824: Bureau of Indian Affairs established
• 1892: First public basketball game
• 1918: Private Albert Gitchell is first documented case of Spanish Flu
• 1942: First deportation train leaves for Auschwitz
• 1958: Charles Van Doren loses on "Twenty One" after winning $129,000--turned out to be fixed
• 1958: American League requires batting helmets
• 1983: Scott Hamilton wins World Figure Skating Title
• 1986: NFL adopts instant replay
• 2020: Covid declared a pandemic
• Born: Shemp Howard, Ralph Abernathy, Rupert Murdoch, Bobby McFerrin, Doiglas Adams ["A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"], Becky Hammond
• Died: Alexander Fleming [penicillin], Oscar Mayer, Earl Stanley Garner, Whitney Young, Vince Edwards, Betty Hutton, Merlin Olsen

Thought:

Well, our pastor has been teaching a series on Colossians and a former pastor has been leading a study on Friday mornings in the book of Galatians. This study made me think about how few sermons I have heard from Galatians. Most of the time we go to Galatians 5:19-26--the deeds of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit. Studying this book again has been good for me. I am thinking about those portions of the book that I have gone back to look at again. 

Today I am reading one verse--1:4. This is part of Paul's greeting to the churches in Galatia. As is his custom, Paul begins with grace and peace in 1:3. This is always a reminder to me that without grace there is no peace. Grace restored my relationship with God and grace gives me peace for this walk. It draws me back to that great hymn "Amazing Grace." Grace taught my heart to fear and grace my fears relieved. Grace taught me that I was separated from God, a sinner. And grace restored my relationship eliminating fear and replacing it with awe. 

Now look at 1:4--our peace is from God the Father and Christ His Son. God so loved that He gave His Son. And the Son so loved that He gave Himself in my place. That is all grace--God's unmerited, unearned favor. The remainder of the verse is what I am dwelling on this morning--"that He might deliver us out of this present evil age." I often praise Jesus as Redeemer, Deliverer. But this verse causes me to think more about deliverance. How does Jesus deliver me out of this evil age? A couple of thoughts:

• This is an evil age. Think about that. We live in an evil age. In history we read about the Dark Ages, the Middle Ages, the Age of the Renaissance, the Industrial Age, the Modern Age, the Jet Age. But all of those were evil ages. Because of sin, we live in an evil age. Makes me think about the introduction to the Shadow radio show--"what evil lurks in the heart of man? Only the Shadow knows." I look around amazed at the evil in the world. We call it inhumanity. But really it is humanity--the flesh with its desires that are described in 5:19-21. 
• Jesus delivers me from this evil age now through the process of sanctification---becoming more and more like Him. He directs my thoughts and attitudes to His thoughts, delivering me from this evil age. He helps me respond to evil with good, delivering me from this evil age. He helps me love those that hate me or persecute me, delivering me from this evil age. When I am totally aligned with Him, I walk through the evil age, but am not part of the evil age. Delivered.
• Jesus will deliver me from this evil age. When He comes again, He will deliver me from this age to His kingdom where there is no darkness and no evil. He will deliver me.

So I am praising Jesus this morning--the Great Deliverer. He has transferred us from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. Delivered. I think about how the Israelites felt on that morning as they marched out of Egypt--delivered. I think about the Jews liberated from the concentration camps--delivered. What joy, what relief, what hope. May I proclaim the One who delivered me. 

Blessings

Larry