Galatians 5
22 When the Holy Spirit controls our lives,
He will produce this kind of fruit in our lives:
love,
joy,
peace,
patience,
kindness,
goodness,
faithfulness,
23 gentleness,
and self-control.
There is no law against these things!
(dan note: Most days, I wonder if I'm showing any of these fruits to people.)
Galatians 4
4 But when the right time came,
God sent his Son,
born of a woman,
subject to the law.
5 God sent him to buy freedom for us
who were slaves to the law,
so that he could adopt us as his very own children.
6 And because we are his children,
God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts,
prompting us to call out,
“Abba, Father.”
7 Now you are no longer a slave
but God’s own child.
And since you are his child,
God has made you his heir.
Galatians 3
26 For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
27 And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ,
like putting on new clothes.
28 There is no longer Jew or Gentile,
slave or free,
male and female.
For you are all one in Christ Jesus.
29 And now that you belong to Christ,
you are the true children of Abraham.
You are his heirs,
and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you.
I grew up on a small farm in southern Ohio during the 1950's & 1960's.
We raised sheep.
All of Jesus' illustrations about sheep & shepherds is spot on.
John 10
1 “I tell you the truth, anyone who sneaks over the wall of a sheepfold, rather than going through the gate, must surely be a thief and a robber! 2 But the one who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep recognize his voice and come to him. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 After he has gathered his own flock, he walks ahead of them, and they follow him because they know his voice. 5 They won’t follow a stranger; they will run from him because they don’t know his voice.”
6 Those who heard Jesus use this illustration didn’t understand what he meant, 7 so he explained it to them: “I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who came before me were thieves and robbers. But the true sheep did not listen to them. 9 Yes, I am the gate. Those who come in through me will be saved. They will come and go freely and will find good pastures. 10 The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.
11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd sacrifices his life for the sheep. 12 A hired hand will run when he sees a wolf coming. He will abandon the sheep because they don’t belong to him and he isn’t their shepherd. And so the wolf attacks them and scatters the flock. 13 The hired hand runs away because he’s working only for the money and doesn’t really care about the sheep.
14 “I am the good shepherd; I know my own sheep, and they know me, 15 just as my Father knows me and I know the Father. So I sacrifice my life for the sheep. 16 I have other sheep, too, that are not in this sheepfold. I must bring them also. They will listen to my voice, and there will be one flock with one shepherd.
It took me a LONG time to understand this...
God the Father's job is to judge.
God the Son's job is to redeem.
God the Holy Spirit's job is to convict & empower.
Our job?
I think Jesus mentioned it quite a few times.
Our job is to "love God & love others" (LGLO).
I believe we've forgotten this these days in all the chaos that surrounds us...
Jesus is talking here in these 3 separate verses that pack a lot of punch...
John 8
31 Jesus said to the people who believed in him, “You are truly my disciples if you obey my teachings.
36 So if the Son sets you free, you are truly free.
51 I tell you the truth, anyone who obeys my teaching will never die!”
2 Corinthians 12
1b I will reluctantly tell about visions and revelations from the Lord.
2 I was caught up to the third heaven fourteen years ago.
Whether I was in my body or out of my body, I don’t know—only God knows.
3 Yes, only God knows whether I was in my body or outside my body.
But I do know 4 that I was caught up to paradise
and heard things so astounding that they cannot be expressed in words,
things no human is allowed to tell.
5 That experience is worth boasting about, but I’m not going to do it. I will boast only about my weaknesses. 6 If I wanted to boast, I would be no fool in doing so, because I would be telling the truth. But I won’t do it, because I don’t want anyone to give me credit beyond what they can see in my life or hear in my message, 7 even though I have received such wonderful revelations from God. So to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud.
8 Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away.
9 Each time he said,
“My grace is all you need.
My power works best in weakness.”
So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses,
so that the power of Christ can work through me.
10 That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses,
and in the insults,
hardships,
persecutions,
and troubles that I suffer for Christ.
For when I am weak, then I am strong.
