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For I know the plans I have for you,declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jer 29:11 |
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| Archived Manna: | |
Dear
Friend,
If you do not already have a habit of gathering daily manna the first thing in the morning (we can look at the example given to us in Exodus 16 and find the pattern for make it a habit. Establish your life and your schedule to allow you the necessary time to do your daily collection first thing every morning to give you the strength to make it through the day. And remember that today’s manna will not be sufficient for tomorrow; tomorrow’s manna must be collected tomorrow morning. Friday, November 7, 2025
Today's Passage : Today's Passage :Pleasing God, not Men (Galatians #5) Bible Verse: Galatians 1:9-10 (DP Bible) " I have said it before and I will say it again, in writing: those who teach a different Gospel from that which they have received are accursed [literally anathema]. Perhaps they tell you what you want to hear. But I live to please God, not men. Pleasing an audience is not my goal. I will not compromise the truth, for if I did, I could not call myself a servant of Christ." Message:
Paul’s statement here is brief, but it is bursting with power. He lives to please God, not people. Of course, he is trying to bring the message of Christ to those he addresses and hopes that they will receive it. But what does he do if someone says or thinks, “I like most of what you say, but I cannot accept _____________.” Does he say, “Well, better that you believe 98% of it”? Does he say, “I’m a grown-up. I think we can compromise on that one small issue”? No. He says “I will not compromise the Gospel of Christ. I seek to please God, not my human listeners.”
There is no compromise in the Bible. God is an absolute; He is not going to change depending upon the thoughts of human beings.
Paul
Paul
Working backwards from Paul’s statements, we might infer that this is a problem in Galatia: preachers of the Gospel, in order to attract more followers, are telling them what they want to hear instead of the Word of God. They are making compromises in order to enlarge their groups of followers.
Everyone has parts of the Gospel that they do not want to hear, that they would like to change. But if we look just one verse back, what is the status of these preachers in the eyes of God? Both they and the compromised Gospel they preach are accursed. “Anathema.”(Anathema, oddly, is a perfect transliteration of the Greek word used here and in v. 10. It means to be the object of God’s disfavor. Paul comes as close as possible to saying “damned” without foregoing the possibility of repentance.)
Reading this, we can make a distinction between Paul, the apostle of Christ, and the false apostles who have infiltrated the Galatian churches. Paul certainly wants to grow the church of Christ, but his first principle is that the church must be pure and in complete acceptance of the Word of God. He will not compromise the Gospel, no matter how few the people who believe. The false apostles’ first principle, on the other hand, is apparently acceptance. If they can say something that will increase the size of the church, they will modify their message.
Paul emphasizes his own integrity, saying “I could not call myself a servant of Christ” if he compromised God’s truth in order to please his listeners.
The modern world is no different. A servant of Christ will accept His Word, whether they like it or not. A minister — priest, bishop, pastor, deacon, or whatever title by which they are called — who preaches variance from the Bible is not a servant of Christ, and by telling people what they want to hear instead of the truth, he is not doing his congregation a favor. Pandering to the secular opinions of church members has, unfortunately, become the rule rather than the exception in many (if not most) churches.
So we must examine our own beliefs, testing them against the Gospel (1 Thess. 5:21); and if our beliefs and the Gospel differ, it is our beliefs that we must understand to be in error.
Meditation : “A great many people mistake opinions for thoughts.” ~ Herbert V. Prochnow Prayer : May the God of endurance and encouragement grant us to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together we may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. |
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