Category Archives: Devotional thought

June 1, 2011

Galatians 1:15 – What’s your purpose?

By Chris Lewis

“…when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles…” – Galatians 1:15-16a

One of the most common questions I hear as a pastor has to do with people seeking purpose in their lives. Actually, it usually comes as a statement, but it points to a bigger question. It goes something like this:

“I just don’t know what I’m supposed to be doing!”

Ever felt that way?

On a very basic level, God has designed each of us with an ultimate purpose. This purpose never changes and contains the full measure and totality of God’s plan for your life. Do you know what it is?

You were created to bring God glory.

Simple. Yet complex.

Easy to say. Difficult to apply.

Ultimately unique. Particularly varied.

Your Purpose

I can tell you with authority about your ultimate purpose, because that’s the purpose of all things in the universe – God’s glory. It really is all about Him! Every fiber, molecule, and particle in all of creation points to the glory of the creator.

But there’s a difference in your ultimate purpose and your specific path. That’s what Paul is so secure about in this passage. He knows what he was born to do. Peter and John too, were absolutely secure in their calling to preach the gospel (Acts 4:19-21). I can relate to that. Sometimes I feel like I will explode if I don’t get the message out God has placed within me.

But that’s not everyone’s specific purpose. We know the church is a body made up of a lot of different parts – all with different specific functions. Some of you would be as out of place if you tried to preach as I would putting on a pair of ballet shoes and attempting an arabesque penchée!

We have to know where we are going before we can choose a path to get us there. Failing to realize our ultimate purpose is God’s glory, keeps us from settling on a particular plan to do that in our lives because we don’t have a clear destination in mind.

The exchange between Alice and the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland sheds light on this (paraphrase):

Alice: Would you tell me please where to go from here?
Cat: That depends a good deal on where you want to go.
Alice: I don’t much care where.
Cat: Then it doesn’t matter much which way you go.
Alice: As long as I get somewhere.
Cat: Oh, you’re sure to do that if you walk long enough.

If all you want to do is get somewhere, eventually you will. But we aren’t aiming for somewhere! The opposite of that is true too. If you don’t know where you’re going, then you’re sure to never get there. You have to keep the destination in front of you at all times.

Conflict

Conflict arises when our aim gets skewed in our ultimate purpose. Many times we find ourselves out of position in our particular plans because of this gross error in defining our ultimate purpose:

We make it about our glory – not God’s.

That’s why many people feel so disconnected and why I have the same conversation again and again. We want to substitute our glory for God’s…and that’s not a fair exchange…not even close!

I can’t begin to give an opinion on what your specific plan is in God’s economy. That’s why it’s so important to walk in community with other believers who can affirm the specific gifts evident in your life. Everyone needs encouragement!

We need help in another area also. A community of peers can also caution you from attempting something God never wired you for. The idea that you can do anything you want to do is a huge myth! Just look at some of the people who audition on American Idol.

You can’t do everything. But you can do something. Set your ultimate sights on glorifying God. He’ll clarify the details.

It’s a great place to start.

1 comment   |  tags: , , | posted in Devotional thought, Galatians, My Thoughts - Chris

May 25, 2011

Galatians 1:10 – What’s your aim?

By Chris Lewis

“For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.” – Gal 1:10

Every day, most of us face a multitude of choices. What time do I need to get up? What will I wear? Do I take a shower (hopefully an easy decision)? Breakfast bar or cereal? Interstate or backroads? All this before we even make it to our first destination!

Some of these are pretty trivial. Do I take the elevator or stairs? Some choices are much weightier. Can I forgive this person? What will they think if I attempt to share my faith? This is a risky decision, what if I fail?

The lynchpin of this decision making process rests with this question: what’s your aim?

Desire vs. Motive

Discovering the nature of our aim really gets down to a question of desire vs. motive. Desire is fleeting. Selfish. It changes with circumstance. Motive is much deeper. It’s the driving force behind our desires. Motive influences and shapes our desires. Our desires will ultimately determine our actions.

What we want to do in any given moment is deeply dependent on what we treasure most. It is what we treasure that determines the decisions we make. Jesus said our heart follows our treasure (Matt 6:21).

In this passage, Paul is talking specifically about the desire to seek the approval of man or the approval of God. Are we more concerned with what people think or what God thinks? With what he wants or what I want?

Progression

The more intimate our relationship with God, the more our  motives are conformed to his image, thus influencing our desires, which leads to action. It looks like this:

God -> Motive -> Desire -> Action

It won’t work the other way (which is normally what we try). We try behavioral modification. Jeremiah said our hearts are deceitful and wicked (Jer 17:9) and we must deal with that if we have any hope of change.

We make futile attempts to change our actions without dealing with the underlying heart issue. That’s like trying to fix a piston in my car’s engine by putting Armor All on the tires!

New Desires

Thankfully, God is in the business of heart change! One of my favorite verses in the whole Bible is:

“Delight yourself in the LORD,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.“
Psalm 37:4

This is amazing stuff! As I become more satisfied in him, he shapes the desires of my heart. But, this verse gets misapplied often. We want it to say, “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you what you want“. That misses the point completely!

God does much more than giving us WHAT we desire…he gives us NEW desires! And that really is so much better.

How’s your aim? Maybe it’s time for a heart check.

Leave a comment | posted in Devotional thought, Galatians

May 18, 2011

Galatians 1:1 – Paul the Apostle

By Chris Lewis

“Paul, an apostle— not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead” – Gal 1:1

Qualification
Paul had a unique qualifier that we don’t have today (at least not in the exact sense he was speaking). He was an Apostle – with a capital “A”.  Paul listed himself as the last Apostle in 1 Cor 15:7-9. Apostles in this sense can be compared to the Old Testament office of Prophet and they had the ability, responsibility, and calling to write Scripture. To be considered an Apostle, general orthodoxy through the ages contends that the individual must have seen the risen Christ with his own eyes and be commissioned specifically by Jesus as an Apostle (literally meaning ‘sent one’).

Authority
The basic authority of the office of Apostle is rooted in the power of the resurrection. Paul demonstrates this and it was the single biggest emphasis of his preaching. Repeatedly, he was received well by the Jews in a town – until he brought up the resurrection. The resurrection still stirs up visceral emotions today! People are fine with you talking about the moral teachings of Jesus (even in other religions), but the resurrection forces us to contend with the divinity of Christ.

Mission
Paul was a man on a mission. He purposed in this letter to his friends in Galatia to deal with the issue of legalism. With the risen Christ in full view, how can some claim justification by religious ritual or demand that others observe ceremonial tradition? Simply put…they can’t! This is the thrust of this short letter and Paul begins with his credentials – not his earthly accomplishments or his vast knowledge of the Scriptures, but with his calling as an Apostle. This is equivalent to Paul saying, “Thus saith the Lord…“


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May 12, 2011

Galatians: Intro

By Chris Lewis

Have you ever felt like you just don’t measure up? No matter how hard you try you just don’t cut it? Yes, I love Jesus and do my best to follow him, but the truth is, I mess up all the time! I spend a good portion of my life as a Christian feeling like a failure and have just realized I’ll never be as good as some of the ‘super-Christians’ I look up to in my life.

Sound familiar?

The letter Paul wrote to the Galatians between his 1st and 2nd missionary journeys is a fascinating and valuable read for any follower of Christ. And it deals directly with this kind of attitude. It was his earliest letter, but it dealt with an issue that plagued the church early and still exists today: legalism.

Does God love me more because of the ‘things’ I do for him? Is his love diminished when I stumble and fall? The answer to both is a resounding “NO“!

FREEDOM is the battle cry that leaps off the pages of Galatians!

An excellent commentary on the subject says:

Throughout the history of the church the message of Galatians has been needed to free men from chains of false doctrine. When the early Judaizers tried to bind men to the old commandments from Sinai, Galatians set them free. When the apostate church of the Dark Ages tried to bind men to a papal system of salvation by penance and works, Galatians set them free. When modern legalists try to bind us to a joyless religion of superior “rightness,” Galatians sets us free.[1]

I completed a study of Galatians last August and I’d like to share with you some of the things God taught me during my walk through his word. If you, like me, struggle with feeling inadequate and ‘less than’, maybe you will find some truth that can set you free!

[1] Boles, K. L. (1993). Galatians & Ephesians. The College Press NIV commentary. Joplin, Mo.: College Press.

Leave a comment   |  tags: , | posted in Devotional thought, Galatians

January 25, 2011

Look what I made!

By Chris Lewis

“Daddy, look what I made!” That’s what my 8 year old daughter said as she ran into the den this past Sunday to show me this creation she had been working on.

My nephew had been over and he had this really, really, really cool Lego model of an X-Wing fighter from Star Wars.

I made a big deal out of it with my nephew, and Gracie couldn’t wait to show me what she could do with the toys she got from her Zaxby’s kids meal. She didn’t have the same tools to work with as my nephew, so she couldn’t duplicate his creation.

What she ended up with was several objects randomly clipped together (that were originally intended to build a bicycle) in an effort to form this spaceship with lasers that would shoot in every direction at the same time, with sensors to pick up any enemy ships approaching.

It was AWESOME! As her dad, I was proud of her effort. As an intergalactic spacecraft inspector…well…it left a little to be desired.

I was so proud of her efforts and made a big show of it. She beamed…and then…I showed her how to use the materials she had to build what they were intended to be. She was able to make a bicycle AND a person to ride it. They looked natural and all the pieces fit together – like they were meant to. She lit up when she saw the pieces fit together as they were designed to do.

That’s when it hit me.

God brought this verse to my mind from Eph 2:10 “For we are his workmanship (masterpiece in NLT), created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.“

We spend so much time as believers, trying to build or create our own masterpieces, all the while overlooking the fact that we are already his masterpiece! We waste resources and gifts in an effort to duplicate someone else’s work or mimic an individual we admire, rather than realizing God has declared YOU his handiwork (NIV).

Is he finished yet? I hope not. But if we are his, then we are his to build.

He planned you and what you would become beforehand and just like my daughter learned, when we try to be something other than we were designed to be, we end up looking awkward and out of place.

As our Father, God may smile at our efforts, but I’m certain the desire of his heart is that we embrace who he created us to be – and walk in that!

Who has God created you to be?

2 comments | posted in Devotional thought, Family, My Thoughts - Chris, Personal - Chris

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