Keep The Main Thing - Day 254 Month 9-10 Week 35-2
2 Kings 8:16-9:26, Proverbs 30:15-23, Ezekiel 46:19-47:12, Galatians 4
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Kings%20%208%3A16-9%3A26%2C%20Proverbs%2030%3A15-23%2C%20Ezekiel%2046%3A19-47%3A12%2C%20Galatians%204&version=NASB1995
Keep The Main Thing
Last weekend I attended a Men’s retreat at a camp approximately a 45 minute drive from my home. This was my first time attending. Those in attendance ranged in age from early twenties to late seventies. As I looked around the group, I realized I was one of the older men and I’m certainly not used to that. The weekend was a “poor weather” weekend so few were able to participate in outdoor activities even though the camp is located on the shore of a beautiful lake that is great for fishing and boating.
Many people brought their own accommodation because the camp bunks are designed for children, not adults, particularly older adults such as myself. So personal accommodations were a camper, tents and one hammock. I had a poor sleep in a camp bunk. I will likely take our RV in future. I’m sure I will sleep better. A funny story though. The person in the hammock slept on a bunk the second night. His intention was to sleep in the hammock both nights. However, when he went to take a nap during the day he was suddenly awakened to a tree branch that snapped in the wind. It fell down on the tarp that was spread over top of the hammock. I suspect the tarp only slowed the fall of the branch and it actually hit him in the hammock. Apparently, it caused his nap to be cut short and he wisely decided to sleep indoors protected from the wind the second night.
Because most activities were indoor there were a lot of good conversations and card games were plentiful. I had a spirited conversation with one gentleman as he gave me a tour of his camper. Now if you read this blog regularly, you’ll know that I don’t tend to go deep on heavy theological discussions.
In this discussion though, it went deep and he was quite educated in theology while I am not. During our talk, I found out he is Complementarian while I am Egalitarian and he is a Calvinist while I am an Arminian. I am not going to get into the deep weeds of these theologies but I’ll simply say that one regards the role of women in spiritual leadership and the other relates to whether people are predestined for God’s kingdom or not. Because of his extensive education, he spoke circles around me in ways that I was unable to respond. I knew I was not fully prepared to clarify my reasoning. I also knew that just because he could talk theological circles around me does not mean I will change my stand.
His camper is really nice and efficiently designed. The discussion was a good and fun discussion because we were both in agreement on three things. We both believe we are instructed as Jesus followers to love the Lord our God with all our hearts, our minds, and our souls and to love our neighbour as ourself. The third thing is that we are to make disciples.
It’s important to keep the main thing the main thing.
Paul, in his continued discussion, is more or less pleading with the Galatians to not make requirements of the faith greater than they are. To include keeping the law in salvation minimizes the value of what Jesus did by dying on the cross and then His resurrection. He is continually reminding them that they are children of the promise and the law is not a requirement any longer.
There is nothing a person can do to give them the right to God’s kingdom. There is only one action required. Believing in Jesus is all that’s required (John 3:16). Believing in Jesus, recognizing our inability to do it on our own, turning to Jesus and receiving the gift of faith causes a reaction. You will remember from physics classes that every action causes a reaction. So the authentic reaction to receiving the gift of faith is a changed life. We love the Lord our God with all our hearts, minds and souls, we love our neighbours because we understand love differently and finally we want to share what we’ve found out. We make disciples. It’s no longer a command, it’s done out of gratitude for the life we’ve received.
Have a great day!
Steve
You can subscribe to this blog and receive an email each day or week. Just visit the following link. https://follow.it/my-faith-view-from-here-daily-readings-and-thoughts?leanpub
Comments
Post a Comment