Todays readings.. 1 Chronicles 16, Ezekiel 28, Galations 1&2
Paul’s letter to the Galatians is both challenging – and inspiring – and has been for all generations since it was written by him in the 1st century. We know how Paul was dramatically converted and how wonderfully true are the words we read today. We must each ask ourselves are they true as applied to me personally. There are words which particularly challenge us!
“It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” [2 v.20] The longer we live (in Christ) the more we should be able to say this of ourselves – being said from the heart.
How are you feeling in your heart? Depressed? Exalted? Or somewhere in between? We meditated on the various conditions of our heart’s emotions and of David’s as we read last week of his efforts to stir the people into a spirit of thanksgiving. They were bringing the sacred ark of the covenant into the tent (presumably to some degree a replica of the tabernacle) David had set up in Jerusalem. He had recently made the city his capital – it was thereafter called “the city of David.”[1 Chron. 11 v.5,7] We read today, the wonderful song David wrote for that occasion. What an example to everyone since then – and no less so to ourselves. Consider the words, “Oh give thanks to the LORD; call upon his name, make known his deeds … Let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice!” [v.8, 10] Surely David could have echoed the words of Paul, “It is no longer I who live.”
David learnt the ‘hard’ way – through the weakness of the flesh – but this inspired him to write some remarkable Psalms of contrition (especially Psalm 51). Our final thought today is ‘inspired’ by the last verse of ch. 3 in Galatians “if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise” With this promise in our minds and hearts – may we each be able to say, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”
