Author: Carolyn

I am a Christian, a sinner saved by God's amazing grace. Much like my life, my blog is a work in progress. The main objective I have for this blog is to "proclaim the praises" of the One who called me out of darkness and into His marvelous light! (1 Peter 2:9)

Why Verses for the Day?

Carolyn

The “Verse for the Day” blog posts began as notes of encouragement each day to my children. I was choosing select verses that God had used in my life and sharing those with my children.

I became convicted that perhaps I should put the verses more in context and decided to choose a book of the Bible to go through, which might also teach my children about more in-depth Bible study. The first book I chose was Galatians, and this has turned out to be far more challenging than I anticipated! I can’t share what I don’t know, and so I have to study and read a good bit more. In the process, I’ve been the one encouraged.

I continue to post these here as a record for my children. However, I don’t pretend to be a Bible scholar! I’m not. In fact, I’ve encountered challenges to getting through Galatians, but want to persevere with what I started. And hopefully by sharing this with my children and here, I am simply sharing what any of us can do when we open up the Word of God each day, study it, and ask Him to lead us by His Spirit. God and His Word have the power to change our lives, and that’s the biggest message I want my children and anyone else to know!

Verses for the Day – Galatians 3:1-5

Carolyn

The verses for the day are from Galatians 3:1-5:

“O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. 2 Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? 3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? 4 Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? 5 Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?—

Those words ring in my ears again and again as I ponder this passage: “O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you?”

“Bewitched” means to cast a spell, to charm, to fascinate or enchant. If these Galatians — who lived so close to the time of Christ, whose eyes had seen Jesus Christ publicly portrayed as crucified (verse 1) — could be bewitched, don’t you think it’s possible that we who live 2000 years after His death and resurrection are likewise in danger of it?

This is why Paul writes – to give them again the truth of the gospel, and this is why we read the Bible – to be reminded of truth that will keep us from being bewitched, foolish, or led astray. We need our daily bread, our time in the Bible, as much if not more than our literal daily bread of food and drink. We need it to be reminded of truth. It’s so easy for our hearts to be fooled.

What had bewitched them? It sounds like the idea that they could be made righteous through works of the law instead of through faith. This is a timeless issue that can challenge every one of us. The Galatians who had begun by faith in Christ, begun in the Spirit (v.3), were now beginning to turn to works of the law, believing they could be perfected in their flesh. This could again be a reference back to circumcision and looking to a certain work to gain them righteousness.

Paul asks them how they received the Spirit (v.2)? Through works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?

Works righteousness seems to be the default mode of our lives. Can we do enough? Can we maintain what God has started?

We do obey Him out of love for Him. We are saved by faith and want to live for Christ, our Savior. But these works show our love and devotion to God; they do not make us righteous. We cannot add to the work God has done on the cross. We would be silly to try. We would be bewitched.

Likewise, just as our righteous works cannot add to our salvation, our sin also cannot take away from our salvation! Rejoice in this! We can’t add to it or take away from it! Our pastor pointed something out like this on Sunday during our study of Romans. If you believe your sin is too great, or that it is something that would separate you from Christ, you don’t understand that your good works are not good enough to bring you to Christ. Jesus and His grace do it all! The law shows us this.

Rejoice! Repent! Turn to Him. Seek Him. Obey Him. Not so that your works will save you, but so you can say, “I love You, Jesus, and I thank You for what You have done for me, and I give my life to You!” Let Him bless you as you follow and run hard after Him. Study the Bible, know the truth, that you may live in Him, your crucified and risen Savior and King, each and every day.

PRAYER: Father, thank You for the cross where our sins were covered by the blood of Jesus. Nothing we bring, nothing can we add. We would be foolish to try. You have paid the price and done it all. The law shows us our need for you, it does not save us. Let us not believe that our good works could ever save us or add to our salvation. You provided for our salvation and you provide for our sanctification. We want to walk in the Spirit, not in the flesh. Show us where we might be bewitched, and let us walk in faith. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Verses for the Day – Galatians 2:17-21

Carolyn

Today we come to a typical question that arises when people consider that we are saved by faith in Christ, not as a result of our works. The question that Paul lists here in verse 17 is similar to other ones that he writes about in Romans (See Romans 3:5-8 or 6:1-2, for example).

The question here is that if we are justified by Christ, made right with God through Him, and yet are sinners, is Christ a minister of sin – and Paul exclaims, No!

17 “But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is Christ therefore a minister of sin? Certainly not! 18 For if I build again those things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. 19 For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. 21 I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.”

The law was given not to make us righteous (v.21), for it cannot do so, but to make us aware our sin (as we break the law) and our need for Christ as our Savior from those sins.

But once we receive Christ by faith, see verse 20 – we are crucified with Christ, and it is no longer we who live, but Christ who lives in us. The life that we then live is by faith in Jesus who loved us and gave Himself for us. After we have been justified through Christ, made right with Him, through His death and resurrection, we are in Christ, and He is in us. This is the power we are given in Christ to live a life of obedience, not of sin, so sin does not continue to have the same power over us. Christ would never be a minister of sin or promoting sin!

As our pastor pointed out Sunday as we studied Romans 3:5-8, Christianity is the only faith that asks these kinds of questions. Anything else tells you that you have to be good and do good works to earn something – so you would never ask these kinds of questions because you are of course working hard to attain something (you think).

But when faith is given to us as a free gift of God’s grace and mercy, this incredible gospel we are studying about in Galatians, the natural question is, “Wait, but if it’s free, do we just continue to sin and that’s okay?” or ones similar to this.

As we come to understand that God’s gift of salvation frees us to not sin, to serve Him, to love Him, to live in joyful obedience, by the power of Christ in us, we begin to understand the gospel, and it truly causes us to stand in awe of our God. Jesus, who loved us and gave His life for us, then gives us everything we need for godly living – His strength, His power, His Spirit – Praise God!

Prayer: Lord, thank you for giving us the law to see our need for you. We are powerless and desperate without you. Praise you, Jesus, for your death and resurrection, taking our sins on the cross, that we might be crucified with you and be raised to life in you so that we have power through you over sin in our lives. Please cause us to live in this freedom today that you have accomplished for us. You do it all! Praise you! Free us from sin that entangles us and help us to fix our eyes on you, the author and perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12:2), in Jesus’ precious name, Amen.

Verses for the Day – Romans 12:1-2

Carolyn

I found a slip of paper this morning in my Bible. It’s been there for a number of years, though I don’t often look at it. There were some notes on it that I wrote down one time when I had to give a brief testimony years ago.

It said, “What drew me to God?”

And I had written, “The Word and His Spirit.” Then I explained with this sentence, “Started with diligent study [of the Word] and led to His supernatural invasion [by His Spirit].”

That pretty much sums it up. I remember moving in 2002 to where we live now and starting Bible studies that took me to study the Bible each day. It was regular, it was consistent. I was learning and growing. There wasn’t anything earth-shattering or emotional. It was just consistent, deliberate study of the Bible every day.

Over time, God’s Word began to take root in my life, and He by the power of His Spirit made all that I had studied and was studying come alive to me. Indescribable joy and blessing followed.

The Lord showed me that if I loved Him, I would obey Him (1 John 5:3). But I wouldn’t obey Him and His Word if I didn’t really believe Him. These things (faith, love, obedience) were all connected.

My faith and belief in God would lead me to obey Him which would show my love for Him, and that would lead to blessing.

FAITH leads to—-> OBEDIENCE which shows my —–> LOVE for God, which ultimately brings —-> BLESSING and great JOY.

Maybe it sounds complex, It’s not. This is why I encourage you to read the Bible because that’s where truth is and that’s where these things will begin to grow. You may not see it or feel it at the start, but you keep doing it because you believe that it matters and that it changes you. And God by His Spirit will do the work.

I end this post this morning with two verses from Romans 12:1-2. I looked up the word “beseech” at the beginning, and it means beg eagerly, implore urgently.

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

PRAYER: Father, we see that transformation comes by the renewing of our minds. As we renew our minds in Your Word and truth, our lives are changed by the power of Your Spirit and Your Word, leading to joyful hearts and great blessing. Help us today to believe You and that these things are true, to obey You, to love You, to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, pleasing to You. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Verses of the Day – Galatians 2:15-16

Carolyn

Today’s passage picks up in Galatians 2:15-16 where Paul was confronting Peter about not being straightforward about the truth of the gospel:

We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, 16 knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified. (NKJV)

Here Paul seems to be contrasting the sin of the Jews and Gentiles, but he is not saying that the Jews are without sin. (His words in Romans 3:23 make it clear that “all” have sinned.) Perhaps the Jews had been given the law and tended to live with more moral restraint and discipline, yet still were with sin. The Gentiles did not have the law and lived in more obvious sins of wickedness with less restraint. Perhaps it’s the contrast of a life well-ordered, yet still sinful through pride or hypocrisy, and the life lived with willful abandon and more obvious, outright sin.

My Bible notes say that Paul isn’t saying the Jews are without sin, but he is implying that Jews enjoy spiritual privileges (see Rom. 9:4-5) that should make them more knowledgeable about how to be justified before God.

We then come to this marvelous verse 16 which is a key verse in the book of Galatians. Paul states that justification (being made right with God) comes by faith in Christ, not by works of the law. He actually states it three times over (“a man is not justified by works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ”; “we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law”; “for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified”).

Paul is clearly pointing out that we are not justified by our works, but by faith in Christ. Maybe the works we are depending on today do not include circumcision, but other religious acts or ceremonies (baptism, communion, confirmation, etc.). Perhaps it’s tempting to think our works could earn us something – by being good, doing right, helping others, living a good life of moral restraint and self-discipline in hopes that it will save us or merit us something. No matter how we have lived or what good we have done, we all have sinned, and we all need to be saved from sin and its power.

Our good works cannot save us; only Jesus can. Only His death and resurrection on our behalf and by faith in Him can we be saved from our sins and made righteous before God. This glorious gospel truth will lead us then to do good works, but the motivation is different. We aren’t doing good works to be saved (for we could never do enough to cancel out our sins on our own); we are doing good works out of love for Jesus who has saved us through his death on the cross and out of love for and obedience to Him which brings us great blessing.

PRAYER: Thank you, Lord Jesus, for making a way for us to be made right with God, that we can be justified through you, Lord Jesus, not by anything we do. Thank you for your death on the cross where you bore our sins and the penalty for them so that we don’t have to. We are not saved by religious acts or ceremonies, but by confession of You as Lord, believing in our hearts that God raised You from the dead. Open our ears to hear, our eyes to see, and our hearts to understand that we might then live our days in full faith, believing, following and pursuing You, loving and obeying You, our Savior and King. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.