1 Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.
1הוֹד֣וּ לַיהוָ֣ה כִּי־ ט֑וֹב כִּ֖י לְעוֹלָ֣ם חַסְדּֽוֹ׃
Let Israel now say,
“His mercy endures forever.”
Let the house of Aaron now say, “His mercy endures forever.”
Let those who fear the LORD now say,
“His mercy endures forever.”
--
I called on the LORD in distress..
6 The LORD is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me? 7 The LORD is for me among those who help me; Therefore I shall see my desire on those who hate me.
Oh those Romans, how WE hate their rule over US.
And Herod? What an impotent king collecting favors and taxes for a foreign Governor Pilate.
10 All nations surrounded me, But in the name of the LORD I will destroy them.
They surrounded me, Yes, they surrounded me; But in the name of the LORD I will destroy them.
They surrounded me like bees; They were quenched like a fire of thorns; For in the name of the LORD I will destroy them.
You pushed me violently, that I might fall, But the LORD helped me.
21 I will praise You, For You have answered me, And have become my salvation.
from the Lord’s teaching later in the week:
Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:
‘The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone. This was the LORD’s doing, And it is marvelous in our eyes’ ?
Premise: The Apostle Paul likely received one or several letters to which the Apostle responds with Epistles to several churches and certain important persons.
Who wrote to the Apostle Paul?
Think about this —
Paul and other Apostles come into your town or city, proclaim some Good News, build a church of Christ followers, establish some local leaders. AND then after some time these missionaries leave to go somewhere else into all the world.
ACTS of the Apostles details some of these encounters which occur after numerous encouraging visits of various apostles sent out to them.
Many apostles and letters communicate Good News of one faith in Christ for all the world.
Although we have no preserved documentation of any messages or letters delivered to the Apostle from the Gentiles, I suspect that Paul perceives a crisis of faith in the churches of Galatia — a crisis conveyed to him by faithful disciples of the risen Christ and perhaps even believers considering IF they should abandon The Way of the Lord for a more prevalent cultural Judaism.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
The Apostles, including the Twelve and Paul, James and other church leaders communicate in person and by messenger by the Spirit who has sent them out into each mission.
Who are the Galatians?
In Paul’s day, the word Galatia had two distinct meanings. In a strict ethnic sense, Galatia was the region of central Asia Minor (modern Turkiye) .. a Celtic people who had migrated to that region from Gaul (modern France) .. (in) 25 B.C. when Galatia became a Roman province, incorporating some regions not inhabited by ethnic Galatians (e.g., parts of Lycaonia, Phrygia, and Pisidia). In a political sense, Galatia came to describe the entire Roman province, not merely the region inhabited by the ethnic Galatians.
Paul founded churches in the southern Galatian cities of Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe (Acts 13:14–14:23).
You will recognize these Galatian cities from Paul's early missions into all the world.
WHY did Paul write to the Galatians?
Regardless of who founded any of the Galatian cities in the A.D. first century Roman Empire, every town had an ethnic challenge common to all churches established by the apostles in every Roman province.
Proselytes – Judaizers fleeing Persecution for the Cross of Christ
The covenantal culture of the Jews opposed the pagan practices of peoples of other cultures. SO the Jews insisted on certain traditional identifications of Jewish men such as circumcision.
Even as Paul, Barnabas, Silas and other apostles had encountered opposition from Jews seeking their own disciples, so had the Lord Jesus.
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel around on sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.
Gospel of Matthew 23: 15 LSB The Lord Jesus Christ describes the culture of Judaizers rejecting their own Messiah
An Apostolic Urgency to Write to the Galatians
PAUL must urgently address the concerns of those men in Galatia struggling in the faith
AND like all Christians, pursued by the Jews.
TWO QUESTIONS HERE:
WHO represents the earthly authority of GOD?
IF it is CHRIST, what is PAUL’s authority over the JEW and non-Jew?
Later, I will get to a Twenty-first century C.E. challenge
of this AUTHORITY in Christ which has now challenged the Church for some 500 years.
How will the Apostle answer?
“Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.”
The Apostle begins his Epistle to the Galatians by firmly establishing his authority and leadership of the churches.
Paul, an apostle—not sent from men
nor through man,
but through Jesus Christ
and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead—
and all the brothers who are with me,
Pretty convincing.
Paul opens fire against familiar enemies of Christ (Judaizers).
6 I marvel that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ for a different gospel, which is really not another, only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.
Paul clearly states that the Galatians must choose:
– between him as a representative of God the Father and Christ Jesus OR
– teachers of a false and distorted gospel
(which is not good news but a Jewish tradition chained to the Law and regulations of the flesh).
Paul defends not only his credentials and calling by Christ, but once more presents his case of Christ’s freedom to these gentile believers caught between the Gospel and the yoke of the Judaizers.
2:17 But if, while seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have also been found sinners, is Christ then a minister of sin? May it never be!
I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly.
PAUL goes straight to the QUESTION of deceitful men claiming a GOSPEL other than Christ crucified and risen -- Judaizersseeking to lure these Galatian Christ-followers back to a Law of social Judaism.
3 O foolish Galatians, who bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified?
THEN the Apostle clearly asks these men of the church a key QUESTION of their calling.
2 This is the only thing I want to learn from you:
Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law,
or by hearing with faith?
“The righteous shall live by faith.”
What does Paul seek to prove here refuting Judaizersrequiring circumcision of gentile proselytes?
And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, proclaimed the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying,
“All the nations will be blessed in you.”
Galatians 3:8 LSB
The Apostle QUOTES Hebrew SCRIPTURE from BEFORE the LAW.
“By Myself I have sworn, declares Yahweh, because you have done this thing and have not spared your son, your only one, indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of his enemies.
“In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have listened to My voice.”
LATER comes THE LAW of Moses by which the Christ was crucified on a Cross as a redemptive Sacrifice for our sins. (It was NOT ONLY for the Jews, but for ALL the seed of Abraham — every sinner.
The Apostle makes further legal arguments and adds an allegory comparing:
The Galatians and every other culture encountered by the Apostles —
~ ano Domini 49 – 50
~ A.D. 49 Paul has just written to the Galatians out of the Apostle’s concern for their failing faith being replaced by a false gospel.
NEXT: Paul will also write to the THESSALONIANS out of his same love for the children of Christ Jesus the Apostles have led so far.
WHERE could other gospels lead these Christian flocks of the Empires?
A fall of Rome, a division with an Orthodox New Rome (Constantinople) and Western father of Bishops and Princes competing for pawns of populace.
New temples built as CATHEDRALS for poor pilgrims to look up to God and well-mannered robed men who could actually READ the Holy Bible of God…
And then printing presses and challenges by Reformers pointing to Scripture in place of the yoke of Law and even Church law.
In my heart reigns this one article, faith in my dear Lord Christ, the beginning, middle and end of whatever spiritual and divine thoughts I may have, whether by day or by night.
Last time I strongly suggested thatScripture has NOT changed.
We looked at several Scriptures from Before Christ and in New Testaments from the years of our Lord written during the A.D. 1st century.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
Neither did the Holy Spirit change in the six decades since the 1960’s.
Doctrine of God in a Common Era of christianity-lite
NO Doctrine of the COMMON ERA or any other millennia will stand the test of time without defining GOD truthfully.
Scripture of the New Testament since the A.D. 1st century Gospel always points to the Trinity of God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost (Holy Spirit).
GOD IS!
The LORD reveals Himself through His creation, the Holy Scriptures, the HOLY Spirit and IN THE PERSON of His Only Son JESUS CHRIST.
WE THE COMMON ERA CHURCH drift dangerously with the chaff of every worldly sin upon prevailing cultural winds of these last days.
“His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
You can preach in the Holy Spirit and shout out in the Holy Ghost! (Preach it, pastor.)
– BUT – is the word of the Spirit truly that from Almighty God?
– OR – is the preacher moved by a different spirit, perhaps a ghost of the past or demon opposed to the angels of the Lord God and Jesus Christ?
I have witnessed the Holy Spirit for a time with a woman preaching or by a man sharing the cup of communion with the beloved saints. Yet it's mysterious power wandering flocks will follow. Beware if false preachers who also claim power from the pulpit or aisles of cloaked darkness.
Test the spirits and quantify their truth by the Word and by Scripture. - RH
For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.
‘Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me. He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.
Revelation of Jesus Christ to John 3:20-21 LSB
Will preaching any imagined Jesus do?
‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’” – Rev. 3:22
The Apostle John preaches Jesus Christ as ‘the Word in the flesh.’
YET even from the apocalypse of the risen Word many churches of the Common Era will preach and imagine ONLY those events which draw in the crowds.
.. I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne…
What a gracious and POWERFUL KING Jesus HE is! And just so WE Common Era christians can claim our part of this inheritance.
Jesus welcomes ALL sinners with the love of a friend. This Common Era king embraces sinners of ALL cultures and beliefs without requiring any turn toward His righteousness and away from The Life of this world.
JESUS did many miraculous things for real people when He came to earth.
And now that HE is in heaven after he died on a cross for ME and MY sins, all is well with MY faith.
In the years of our Lord prior to this Common Era a remnant of pastors
have preached JESUS in the context of Scriptural exhortation to every believer. For the 'knock at the door' passage of Christ's Revelation is a call of repentance to a lukewarm church.
‘Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline. Therefore be zealous and repent.
Revelation 3:19 LSB (the Word to those on the other side of the door)
Many worshipers lack the Spirit and christians of every era fail to have ears to hear the very breath of the Word.
Will your Common Era Pastor preach that some standing inside the door on which your ‘king Jesus’ knocks ‘do not know that you are wretched and pitiable and poor and blind and naked‘?
And there YOU stand without His white robes believing HE is ready to embrace YOU!
Through all the years and recent decades of our Lord, few 21st century christians have a problem with JESUS..
since by omitting the hard parts WE can preach his gospel with so many variations.
Our estranged Father in Heaven
Common Era christians ESTRANGED from fathers
What changed (in Common Era preaching)?
If not our worshipers lifting up with the chaff in the Holy Spirit
— if not our re-imagining a jesus to our liking —
THEN certainly our all-too-common era trouble with the Trinity must lie in a single broken relationship: that of Common Era christians with God the Father.
Revealed Honor to God the Father of Glory
“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which Yahweh your God gives you.
‘You shall rise up before the gray-haired and honor the aged, and you shall fear your God; I am Yahweh.
From the Book of the Law – Exodus 20:12; Leviticus 19:32 LSB
“I kept looking Until thrones were set up,
And the Ancient of Days was seated;
His clothing was like white snow And the hair of His head like pure wool.
Do YOU know? Can YOU contribute a comment with YOUR opinion?
The 1960 Census showed a record proportion married, 67.4 percent, among persons 14 years old and over.
In 2022, about 132.3 million or 49.3% of Americans age 15 and over were unmarried, according to the Current Population Survey. [compared to ~33% in 1960]
JULY 2023 C.E.
Of the 63.2M parents living with their children
<18, 76.1% lived with a spouse,
15.1% had no spouse/partner present.
The rest [~ ONE in TEN PARENTS] lived with a cohabiting partner.
Note: Direct identification of both parents began in 2007, resulting in the ability to identify children living with two unmarried parents.
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