I'm an HEIR, baby!

Okay, so I know this is quite a bit of ground to cover, but I am so stoked to be going over Galatians 3:26-4:31 today!  It all goes together and it is all SO AWESOME!  So go, read it!  And be ready to share it with me.  (p.s. for those of you who have had trouble leaving a comment in the comment section it has been really cool to hear from you through Facebook and text.  You girls rock the house! Love you!)

As far as an update on us....oh man pray for us.  Jesus is wanting to do some crazy awesome stuff.  Like outside of the box kind of stuff.  Like crazy, we have to know this is Jesus kind of stuff.  And we are amped!  Sorry for being cryptic.  We are still praying, so when we hear from the Lord I will totally let you guys know what's up.  But pray for us, for wisdom, for open doors, for Christian.  This opportunity to work for My Green Home has really taken off and we are totally buying groceries regularly again and thats great!  But it does take a lot of his time and he wants to be sure he is dedicating time and prayer and energy into the vision God has given him for this place.  So yeah, your prayers are WAY appreciated.

Alrighty, lets dig in!

So this part is probably my favorite in like the whole Bible.  Okay, maybe it ties with a few other spots but it is definitely top ten.  This whole section is just so life changing!  We're talking about the difference between a son and heir...and a slave.  The difference between the access we have as a kid to cry out Daddy! and the contrast with the nasty slavery to legalism that we place ourselves under again when we lean on our works.  AGH!  SO MUCH GOOD STUFF IN HERE!

3:26-27 is the beginning of it all.  Through faith we have put on Christ and we are now His kids.  That's the beginning.  Not a cleaned up life.  Not a broken addiction to drugs, sex, alcohol.  The beginning is just what Jesus did!

vs 28 places us all on the same playing field.  There is no Jew nor Greek, no slave nor free, no male nor female, can I add in there that there is no "good enough"  "cute enough" "has well enough behaved kids"  "has a clean enough life".... we are "...all one in Christ Jesus."  Oh man, the freedom in that!  This is an area where I tend to fall down in.  Like I said in my last post, I tend to fall into the trap of comparison and man! that's an ugly place to live!  I want to live right here, at the foot of the cross where everyone is level.  Everyone is just loving Jesus and it is all GOOD!

vs29 is some GOOD STUFF.  I AM AN HEIR!!!!!!!!  I read that verse and I feel like I just won a million bucks.  I feel like those lame commercials that were on during daytime TV when I was a kid for the publishers clearing house (am I remembering that right?) when they knock on the door and say "you've won a bajillion dollars!  Here's your check." and the people look all shocked and surprised.  Dude, thats me with this verse!!!!  I am an heir.  And its according to His promise, not my works or worth apart from Him.  Oh man, I am one of those people who never wins games at a baby shower, my ticket is never called at a raffle, and I NEVER got picked for sports.  (I am lame and awkward so I don't blame anyone out there who didn't pick me for their team.  Im totally secure with my non-sporty self.)  But DUDE!  I am an HEIR!!!!  That means I am in line to receive the best stuff ever!  No check from publishers clearing house can touch that baby!  And it is apart from my own works.  It is according to HIS PROMISE which so rocks because then it is unchanging.  Completely outside of my messing up.  Cause I mess up.  A LOT.  Oh man, Jesus is so cool.

And then there's 4:6-7....
Because I am His kid, which I didn't make happen He did, He has given me His Spirit and the access to cry out to Him...Abba...which you guys know means the equivalent of Daddy.  Um yeah.  I could just stop right there.  I have a heavenly Daddy whose lap I can crawl into anytime I want...who is never too busy...who is never harsh...who longs to hear my heart and spend time with me...who has given me ACCESS into His presence.  Awe yeah! The End right there........ Except theres more!  It's like that box from Gramma at Christmas (or the one from my friend Ashley send that comes packed with Trader Joe's stuff)...there seems to always be more stuff in the box no matter how much cool stuff you pull out!  I'm no longer a slave!  I spent so many years being a slave to sin.  YUCKO.  just plain yuck.  Seriously, if you guys knew all the junk I did, you wouldn't let me near your kids.  Praise God for His redemptive work!!!!!!!!

BUT, don't we tend to do 4:9???  I know I have this tendency.  To return not to the vomit that was my old life, but to the weak and beggarly elements of bondage.  Not to my former yuck, but now I have the tendency to want to yoke myself under a bondage of slavery to performance.  It's not that doing well is bad.  But basing my standing before God on my performance is WAY BAD.   I love how Paul puts it there...weak and beggarly.  But dude!  We've been given all things that pertain to life and godliness!  Let's not sit near the ash heap!

Oh and vs 23.....Which do I want to be?  Of the flesh or of the Spirit?  Kind of makes it an easy choice, ya?

But vs28!  Oh beautiful vs 28!
I am not an Ishmael but I am an Isaac!  Oh I am so thankful!

And vs 30 rocks my world....Cast out the bondwoman....this is some sketchy ground to cover.

 Give me your thoughts, okay?  I'm feeling like it says that we have to cast out the things that aren't of the Spirit.  Be willing to be harsh with your fleshly tendencies.  Don't coddle your flesh!  Abraham was like the Bill Gates of his time.  He had tons of wealth, and he could have sent Hagar and Ishmael out with enough to set them up for life.  But he didn't.  He sent them out with a bread and a skin of water (Gen 21:14).  Seems kinda mean, ya?  But that is how we are to deal with our flesh.  Harshly.  Cut off the ties with it.  Burn bridges, so to speak.  Not in a legalistic way for sure.  I mean, duh, Galatians is fighting legalism.  But, by the power of the Spirit, CAST OUT THE BONDWOMAN.  That's going to mean something different for each of us.  I am praying in what that means for me right now.  I know for sure it means that as soon as I have dumb comparative thoughts, I have got to hand them over to Jesus and not coddle and nourish them in my mind.  We each have areas.  I remember when I was newly saved, I had the tendency to flirt with guys when they came through the line at Starbucks.  Sorry, is that too honest?  Well, anyway, I was newly saved and had come out of a life of desperately wanting a mans love and approval.  So, on the mornings I wore make up, I found myself flirting.  On the mornings I had forgotten to wear any, I found that I didn't flirt so much.  I kind of hid.  And I knew the flirting was wrong.  God had convicted me for sure, but I found I couldn't get myself to stop.  And the Lord said, deal harshly with it.  How about no make up?  WHOA right?  Cause make up isn't wrong.  In fact, to this day, I wish I knew how to put it on better.  I'm so lame at it.  But there isn't anything wrong with make up.  Isn't that legalistic?  No.  It wasn't.  It was a choice I made in order to deal harshly with my flesh.  It wasn't forever.  It didn't make me more godly.  In fact, it showed how NOT spiritually mature I was.  But it was one of the first times I ever made the decision to deal harshly with my flesh.  Am I making any sense?  I so don't want to come across legalistic.  Cause that's not cool.  But what are your thoughts?