Good morning. Back to
Galatians. Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then
an heir through God. It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep
standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery. Christ set us
free; so we do not need to come back under a set of rules and regulations made
by man. It's good to have guidelines; but all too soon guidelines become Commandments
(usually more than 10). Paul says that they were seeking to be justified by
law, and that they had fallen from grace. That does not necessarily mean they
were no longer saved. It means that they were no longer walking by the
loftiness of grace but by their own power. If you have rules and regulations,
then perhaps you can do it all on your own without the grace of God. For we
through the Spirit, by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness. You
were running well; who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion did
not come from Him who calls you. Here is where he says a little leaven leavens
the whole lump of dough. It only takes one who persuades another - who
persuades another… so that a whole congregation becomes filled with error. In
their case it was about circumcision. People were trying to get the Gentiles
who became Christians to also become circumcised. But today it can be about
some other topic such as the manner in which you were water baptized. If they
did not use the "right" word formula when you were water baptized,
then you need to be water baptized all over again. How are we to live the
Christian life? But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire
of the flesh. We don't need a big set of rules and regulations to follow – we
simply need to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit. Of course it takes time
for that to happen; and we want it right now! That makes it easy and hard at
the same time to live the Christian life. We need to let go and let God. Father
thank You that the reader walks by the Spirit. He/she walks daily in the grace
of God. He/she is a great example to those around him/her.
When considerable time had passed and the voyage was now dangerous, since even the fast was already over, Paul began to admonish them to not continue, because he perceived that not only would there be a loss of the cargo but also of their lives.
Good morning. When it was decided that we would sail for Italy, they proceeded to deliver Paul and some other prisoners to a centurion. Notice that “we“ returns. Luke has not been mentioned during the entire two years that Paul was at Caesarea. I guess it is safe to assume that he was in the area during this time. We will leave out the names of a bunch of places where they passed. They had sailed for a good many days and began to have trouble with the wind. This was a warning of what was about to happen. When considerable time had passed and the voyage was now dangerous, since even the fast (Day of Atonement) was already over, Paul began to admonish them to not continue, because he perceived that not only would there be a loss of the cargo but also of their lives. The centurion was more persuaded by the pilot and the captain of the ship than by what was being said by Paul. They did not want to get stuck for the winter in the port where they were located. They actually were only g...
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