Galatians 2:11-3:14.  Wow.  Wow.  There is so much in this passage.  I’m not so surprised by Paul getting in Peter’s face, after all he did run around killing Christians before Jesus change his life.  But look at Peter.  Evidently he had come to Antioch to visit Paul and while he was there joined right in with the gentile believers in their lives.  Can anyone say, pass the ham please”.  Well I don’t know exactly how he participated with them but Paul indicates that he was not being very Jewish in whatever he was doing.  Then some guys come up from Jerusalem and right away he drops the piece of bacon, jumps back, and starts acting all Jewish again (well at least the last part, again I don’t know exactly what form his hypocrisy took).  A little surprising for the guy who cut off the ear of the high priests servant in the Garden of Gethsemane (John 18:26).  Of course after that he did deny Jesus three times.  But still a little surprising.  Peter was very bold in the first chapters of the Book of Acts though so again a little surprising that he is so wishy washy here. It just shows me that we all fall short in our relationship with God, even the best leaders.  In the rest of the section Paul really lays it on the line about the Law (the customs given to the Jews by God).  He makes it very clear that we cannot earn our way to Heaven.  Like I pointed out in the “Old Testament Connection” page the Law shows us that we are failures in our relationship with God.  As we have been discussing in Sunday Scripture Exploration (Sunday School) we need help and that is what the Holy Spirit is in our lives.  The last two verses todays reading (Galatians 3:13-14) really make that clear.  Jesus took our punishment, he suffered not only physical death on the cross but was separated from God the Father (Spiritual death) for a time so that we could receive a part in the promises made by God to Abraham.  We would receive favor or goodness from God. How would you like to be taken care of by God?  Check out the world He made and owns and controls.  Even in it’s cursed form it’s amazing.  Yea I want to be, and am, on god’s team.  I’ve put my faith for eternity in Jesus and he has given me the Spirit as a helper as the first part of “blessing” my life.  Have you done that too?  Think about it.  Do you want to try to get to Heaven on your own?  That’s an impossible mountain to climb the whole Old Testament history and actually all of history shows us that we fail.  Jesus took the punishment for you.  If you haven’t already, let Him have your life and eternity.  “”But as many as received Him, to them he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12).  God help us all live by faith in what you have given us.  Help us all listen to your Spirit.  Thank you for looking on us with kindness.  Help me live an honest life for you and not one of hypocrisy.  Thank you God.

Galatians 2:1-10.  It’s interesting the tension that seems to be in this passage.  Paul had been ministering for fourteen years before he went to Jerusalem in any sort of official way to talk to the original leaders of Christianity.  His goal was to make sure that he was giving good information to the people he was preaching to.  According to verse 6 the leaders of the church in Jerusalem didn’t change anything.  Back to the tension though, the tug of war in Paul’s life.  He certainly felt that what he was doing was from God and that God was the boss but he also eventually checked in with other reputable Christians to see if what he was doing was right.  But then he says that their reputation really wasn’t important to him.  While he had this internal tug of war going on there was an outside struggle too.  Some people, that he called false brothers, were pushing for them to observe the Jewish customs, which he did not do.  So we need to realize that god gives us a ministry and we need to be faithful to it but we also need to look for confirmation from others.  If I had to pick one verse that stands out though it would be Galatians 2:10.  “Remember the poor.”  The leaders were probably referring to the poor members of the Jerusalem church.  Remember that the population of Jerusalem was not friendly toward Christianity and the Jewish believers there were probably suffering economically.  So really verse 10 is the leaders asking for Paul to get others to help them out, which Paul does.  According to 2 Corinthians Paul takes an offering among the church he started and brings it to Jerusalem.  So although Paul felt somewhat independent in his ministry he also realized that the church is connected and that we need to care for each other even if we have different ministries.  God help us be more of a family.  Help me remember that I am not is competition with other Christians.