I remember one of the very first times that I knew God was at work in my life. Not just generally - but in that vert moment, in the experience I was having.
I was at a youth conference in late high school. I was with a group of teenagers and we were in songs of worship at the time. For some time I had been on a journey of learning about following Jesus through a good high school friend. But I was yet to find it personal to me.
That night, in that moment of worship however something changed. I can only describe things as God coming to me by his Holy Spirit. In my seeking, learning and growing he showed himself to me in a powerful and personal reality.
It was also tangible, it was like I was in an embrace with God as my Father, my Creator, my Savior. I knew that God had loved me before I even knew I was so loved, before I ever truly understood that I was on this planet with a Creators Design, intent and purpose.
Each of us has a testimony just like this - mine and yours are distinct but equally powerful. It is necessary for each of us - not to have the exact same testimony - how could we when we live different lives - but to have a story about how you got to know God personally. Its a story about the building story of God's personal presence coming to you, God speaking to you, God guiding your life and decisions, God working through your prayers and life.
For a month now we have been working our way through the book of Galatians, taking select passages and allowing this letter, written to a bunch of Gentile believer in modern day Turkey, ancient Galatia and allowing it to speak to us.
At this time the church in Galatia had been invaded by agitators who have questioned Paul's gospel and his apostleship. It seems that some in the church were on the verge of capitulating to them, and this sparks from Paul a vigorous defense of his gospel and his calling.
One key to the agitation was a desire to restore core Jewish practices - like the practice of circumcision and observing Jewish festival days as core to their understanding of a Christian life. So much so that for them practicing these 'laws' was essential evidence of salvation.
Paul is having none of it. Paul instead asks a powerful question of the believers in Galatia.
Paul wanted to know if they were willing to have God be a part of their daily lives.
As we read through Galatians :1-14 we see that Paul is not mincing his words.
'You fools' he cries. He is very deeply moved on their behalf and his concern is that they would believe foolishly - in the biblical sense of the word which means: to be fixed in a false opinion and as a result a way of life. The fool sees things the wrong way and is settled in this view.
The fool sees knowledge in ignorance and usefulness in harmfulness.
Paul is clear, the Galatians are beginning to settle into a wrong view of life.
Why? Here again he is clear:
The Holy Spirit of God came to the Galatian Christians simply because they believed the message they had heard about Jesus. That Jesus was the Savior of the world, come to Earth, the Son of God come to deliver us from sin through His sacrificial death and empower us in a new way of life through His victorious resurrection and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
God had begun to work powerfully in their everyday lives and they were at risk of losing him.
Paul's warning in this passage comes down to this: 'What do we rely upon in daily life under God'
We make decisions about what we rely upon each day - when we sit, when we tell a friend important information, when we vote, and we use our credit card.
In essence, reliance is about what we put our trust in.
We trust in the good design of the chair under us, we trust our friend to keep our confidence, we trust in the integrity of our democratic systems, and we trust in our bank.
Paul says in verse 9 'rely on faith' and in verse 10 he warns 'all who rely on the works of law are under a curse'.
Basically Paul is asking 'Is your trust in Jesus?' or is your trust in the observation of a whole range of rules, ceremonies and perhaps keeping what you view as religious purity. It seems that the agitators that Paul was speaking with had focused on believing a Jesus + rules (in this case the ritual of circumcision).
Today we are presented with the same choice - either we receive God and know his personal presence in our daily lives or we WORK for God's presence and miss him.
It is either Jesus-Reliance or Self-Reliance. God's way starts and continues in faith - in trusting in Jesus.
Our way starts and continues in self-reliance. Based in religious laws or human efforts to impress God. Even when this law was historically given by God, all is outdated because of the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Which way we choose has two huge consequences.
We will either experience the real presence of God at work in our daily lives AND this continuing presence into a perfect and complete eternity.
OR
We will try and achieve the conditions by our own efforts that create this on a daily basis AND in the end find ourselves to be fools, having lived in vain, without God's real presence.
One of these ways is a tragedy and the other is our destiny.
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