Category: Devotions

PETER RANDOLPH, a slave in Prince George County, Virginia, until he was freed in 1847, described the secret prayer meetings he had attended as a slave.

“Not being allowed to hold meetings on the plantation,” he wrote, “the slaves assemble in the swamp, out of reach of the patrols. They have an understanding among themselves as to the time and place. … This is often done by the first one arriving breaking boughs from the trees and bending them in the direction of the selected spot.

“After arriving and greeting one another, men and women sat in groups together. Then there was “preaching … by the brethren, then praying and singing all around until they generally feel quite happy.”

The speaker rises “and talks very slowly, until feeling the spirit, he grows excited, and in a short time there fall to the ground 20 or 30 men and women under its influence.

“The slave forgets all his sufferings,” Randolph summed up, “except to remind others of the trials during the past week, exclaiming, ‘Thank God, I shall not live here always!’ “

And if you would even describe your situation as slavery, this is not where you sit today. I have good news in our next 2 verses which is one sentence in the original Greek. 

“ I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. “I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!” Galatians 2:20-21 NIV

But I rather like the KJV:

“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.”

Galatians 2:20-21 KJV

Why do I like it? 

For one thing it translates Paul saying, ‘nevertheless I live …’ he knows he is still a Jew, he is still a former Pharisee, he is a man and he still is a living being. We don’t get that from the NIV. 

It heightens the hidden reality that:

• he has died to the law (trying to please God)
• but he is very much alive
• what you see isn’t now me but Christ in me.

How beautiful is that?!

We carry the name above all other names.

The Apostle Paul tells us, “We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body”. 2 Corinthians 4:10

A Saviour is one who intervenes, who steps in and rescues from either physical or spiritual suffering. We carry His name and His presence in our lives today. We may not have done much in our lives but He has done it all!

We believe that the Saviour can rescue us from the prisons and plans of our enemy: “My times are in your hands; deliver me from my enemies” Psalm 31:15

He is with us! Our Saviour is ready to save us time and again.

Thank God, I shall not live here always! But I shall live!

So in the Christian league of Christians are you nearer the top or the bottom?

I have never met a joyful legalist only prisoners.

The proof of your maturity is not in disciplines, the beatitude check-list or the law/Torah. But it is in the awareness of your own impurity, that you cannot fulfil the laws and everybody’s personal lists of acceptability, but you need Him and you need a community that will hold you accountable and ask you the hard questions. This is spiritual maturity and it is achievable.

In the next few verses we have the heart of Paul’s message to the Galatians. Here is the firt very important key point.

“For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God.” (Galatians 2 v 19)

• It is difficult for us if we have never had the Torah/the Law as a benchmark for our life within our culture to truly understand the importance of this. Paul did have this. If you have been brought up as a child in a Christian home you might understand it more than those who haven’t. But it isn’t long down the Christian road that we can all feel the weight of continuing to be a good person no matter what our upbringing or culture is. The Church can subconsciously give us a list to follow. If my Christianity is about keeping to the rules then all that will lead to is finding myself in a place where I feel ultra-good about myself or feel utterly worthless!
• Being made right before God is never achieved by working at being right or good or the best you can be. To die to the law means to have zero confidence in my ability to be right with God.
• There is nothing wrong with the standard/rules (the law/Torah) of engagement with God. That is still there. It hasn’t died. It reminds us that we will never achieve that standard. We will always fall short of being good enough. We will never feel that ‘I am a good Christian’ based on our accomplishing the rules.
• All the law does is remind you that you are not good enough. To die to it means I refuse to listen to its loud voice that reminds me what I already know, I have sinned and I will sin, in fact, I am a sinner. It will tell me nothing new. But in order to live for God I choose to ignore that condemning voice, I am deaf to it.
• The problem at the time were the people surrounding Paul influencing others to keep acknowledging the law. They wanted people to keep striving to keep the rules as a means of being acceptable to God. They are still amongst us. Watch out for them. If you can’t see them they are very much speaking into your mind.

Die to trying to be good in order to please God and others. You will find that you live better.

Yes it is true. You are free.
You are free from every power that sin, flesh, the world will throw at you.
You are free from every addiction. You are free from every fear and phobia.
You are free from all guilt and shame.
You are free from the past. You are free in the present. You are free tomorrow.

Remaining free means you will have to let go of pleasing man and the rules that supposedly protect your status with God. Every generation has to ask ‘what kind of Jesus will we follow?’ The one that keeps you free or the one that entraps you again? 

Paul confronted Peter for withdrawing from the Gentiles because of his fear of the team of Jewish leaders that have come to Antioch from James in Jerusalem. 

And now Paul tells us what he said to Peter, “We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no-one will be justified. “But if, in seeking to be justified in Christ, we Jews find ourselves also among the sinners, doesn’t that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not! “If I rebuild what I destroyed, then I really would be a law-breaker.” Galatians 2:15-18

What does that mean?

1. He and Peter (plus Barnabas and those that have come down from James) are Jews by birth, they are not the sinful Gentiles. We had thought that because we were different by birth and culture we were made special and righteous because of our Torah, our ancient story of life and who we are.
2. But Jesus has shown us that all of that carries no weight at all. What matters to us as children of God is what Jesus the Messiah has done and what He offers to all. It is not our birth or how we have lived our life under the Torah. It is the partnership we bring to His work by bringing our faith and trust in Him.
3. So actually though we are Jews we are also equal to the sinful Gentiles. We don’t become sinful by eating with the Gentiles (and other things), we were already because we did not have faith in Jesus.
4. If you want to be a true follower of Jesus then we must eat with all Jesus-followers whether Jew or Gentile.
5. Don’t build any more dividing walls. If you return to that original position (point 1) then the Torah will declare you sinful and for you Peter the Torah will ask why for you Peter you had even started to eat with the Gentiles in the first place (Acts 10-11).

Paul had foresight that prejudice and racism must be ejected and inclusivity and diversity be embraced within the Church Christ is building.

Does this sound familiar?

• God only really dwells with certain Christians and churches.
• Those who are not Pentecostal/Charismatic are better Christians and churches.
• My church is the best church in the town.
• I know where God dwells and where He doesn’t.
• The town has room for other Christian denominations but if people want the true experience of God they have to come to my church.
• In my church there are some people I choose not to fellowship with, they’re just not my type of people.
• People should become Christians because their lives are a mess and they have sinful habits and they need to clean their lives up and get right with God.

Let’s remind ourselves as I close on this. Paul, a leading Jew, the Apostle was saying all these things: this was not a Gentile with a placard demanding to be heard.

This was a Jew doing all he could to bring about change, to disturb the status quo, risking offence in order to speak the message of Christ, to protect the gospel in its early years.

Today, social media, Christian websites, books and magazines and in every possible media along with conversations in coffee shops and wherever possible people will be speaking their views on their world from their perspective. Division through ethnicity, culture and religion, deep generational racism, condescending economic differences revealing who is truly blessed will be suggested.

We need more than ever men and women of God to step out of their comfort zones and to speak well of those people who are different to them. To say and to demonstrate through words and decisions how God has a plan for all mankind and that is to dwell in each one of them through the presence of Christ and for Him to be seen in all people.

Who is God calling you to share this message with? It starts closer to home than perhaps you would care to admit.

Paul may well have heard rumours of what had happened. After all it was a big moment between two giants. It is fresh in Paul’s mind, it was not long ago and he needs to set the record straight.

What went wrong?

“When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. ¹² For before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. ¹³ The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray. ¹⁴ When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?” (Galatians 2 v 11-14)

What went wrong was that Peter visited Paul and Barnabas in Antioch and Paul noticed that he had resorted to his old nature.

He had stopped eating with the Gentiles when Jewish leaders who worked with James came down from Jerusalem. Peter stepped out of being in alignment with the gospel of Jesus Christ. The life-transforming gospel made the ceremonial laws as a means of entrance to the presence of God obsolete. Paul’s letter is centred on this major truth. This is why he has written to the Galatians and he starts with this fall-out.

There was so much going on in Peter’s mind which resulted in this change of behaviour and Paul sees it.

• There was fear.

The weakness of our souls is that we can promise but not follow through. “I will never disown you” is promised with the background noise of the sound of the rooster and we have done it countlessly. It isn’t that we didn’t mean the promise. But the fear of offending important people overcame the fear of breaking the promise. If these leaders from James saw Peter mixing with the Gentiles as equals in the gospel they would be offended. Offending the gospel was not as feared as what people think.

Is there anyone who intimidates you? You know who they are if when they speak you begin to shrink, your vision and joy moves into diminishing mode and their thoughts of you matter more than the mission God has given you for this life.

• There was hypocrisy

The strangeness of this account is that Peter had already had a battle with the Jerusalem church. In Acts 11 he was chastised for going into the home of the Gentile Cornelius. He stood up against them explaining the vision he had on the roof and how the entire family had come to Jesus and been baptised in the Holy Spirit. But because of resident fear it led to hypocrisy within. Fear will cause us to act out what we don’t really believe. The outward appearance disguising the inner reality. Peter behaved in a way that he knew wasn’t right and Paul called it out. We all have done this. Actually we have all been guilty of calling it out in others and at the same time committing the sin of hypocrisy! We have no place or position to think we are better than anyone else.

Do you know the horrible feeling of having to compromise because you didn’t want to offend some important person? You see even though we have experienced salvation and been filled with the power of God there is still that part of us that wants Jesus not to go to the cross because it is dangerous for us too and when we see him going that direction we decide to cut ears off people. We compromise for all kinds of reasons. And when it is public we begin to influence even the loveliest of people. Even Barnabas …. Yes even him. The one who had brought Saul from Tarsus to the Church in the first place. The one who had joined Paul in teaching and preaching and seeing the hand of God perform miracle after miracle. Yes him! Your team member, your friend, your loved one. It is heart-breaking.

Yes there are times when even senior church leaders end in confrontation.

But before you start the day perhaps saddened about this story I just have to remind you about how Peter reflects on it years later.

“Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him…” (2 Peter 3:15)

‘Dear brother’!

Paul called him a hypocrite! Years later Peter calls Paul ‘dear brother’ or ‘beloved’.

Would you be able to say ‘I love that person’ when that person had hurt you years earlier? Or would you write that person off. Burn the bridge. Never to let that person near you ever again. You might be forgiven for thinking like that. But not Peter. He loved Paul.

That doesn’t just happen does it? It takes a deep self-awareness; facing the truth and maybe even admitting to the truth and changing one’s way because the truth can hurt before it sets you free.

Are there any prisoners in your heart today?

A long, slender, vertical structure used to support a superstructure; a column.

Yes we know what one is.

We also know this too:-

A few years ago I had the immense joy and privilege to return to pastoring a church for 4 months. It was simply the best of times. I recall this morning how one Sunday I approached 2 ladies and said, “you are real pillars of this church aren’t you?!” Their response was to laugh and call themselves something else humorously.

In calling them pillars I was pointing them to how the church (the people) are really the building of the Lord. They are as the Apostle Paul calls them the Temple in progress (Ephesians 2) rising to become a dwelling place for the Lord. These 2 ladies were part of the main support structure of the church that I was pastoring.

Of course I have known many over the years of pastoral ministry. These names come rushing to the forefront of my mind this morning; some were leaders some not, some were intercessors and some unsung wonderful servants. They supported, held together, stood for the church in all seasons without fail.

In these next verses this morning Paul uses the term pillars for 3 leaders in the church at Jerusalem.

“James, Cephas and John, those esteemed as pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised. ¹⁰ All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I had been eager to do all along.” (Galatians 2 v 9-10)

These are great verses to see the insight on how important strategy is for the church. They agreed on a course of action. The gospel needed to go to the circumcised and the uncircumcised. Whatever that actually meant we don’t really know because it didn’t actually stop Paul preaching to the Jews in the synagogues. Perhaps it was a geographical strategy it is hard to determine. But it was a strategy with one condition. Paul and Barnabas had come to Jerusalem with a gift of money from the Church in Antioch to be given to the poor. The condition was not that they told the gentiles that they also needed to be circumcised (which is what the false preachers in Antioch were calling for) but that they continued in showing the heart of God towards the poor, something which is timeless.

Who was at this meeting giving these instructions? 3 pillars of the church. James, Peter and John. From the many names floating through my mind this morning and how God used them I am reminded of the role that these 3 men played in the life of the Jerusalem church. The question is that will I/you be remembered for being a pillar in the Church and in His Kingdom?

So are there traits that can be seen in a pillar? Here are a few but only based on the verses we have read. There are more I am sure.

• A pillar stands and carries the weight of the season that the Church is going through.
  • They encourage even though others may be criticising.
• A pillar is open to new things that the Spirit is doing.
  • They see God in people and open doors for them to thrive. They are not controllers dominating what God is doing. They are sensitive to the Spirit’s agenda.
• A pillar is recognised for grace, they look for grace, they speak grace, they call out grace when they see it.
• A pillar realises that the church is not centred around them, though they are important, they are keen to give ‘the right hand of fellowship’ meaning they see others as their equal, everyone belongs and everyone is needed. They welcome others.
• A pillar is generous.
  • They look to those outside the church within the city, towns and villages who are in need and they take action to do something about it.

Do you know these people? Are you one of them? Pillars of the Church, thank God for them!

We are going to read some beautiful verses that Paul unpacks for us. There is one gospel and both he and Peter have been given this gospel for the Jews (Peter) and for the Gentiles (Paul). Paul recognises that it is God who is working in both Peter and himself.

“As for those who were held in high esteem—whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not show favouritism—they added nothing to my message. ⁷ On the contrary, they recognized that I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been to the circumcised. ⁸ For God, who was at work in Peter as an apostle to the circumcised, was also at work in me as an apostle to the Gentiles.” (Galatians 2 v 6-8)

At work is actually one word where we get the word energy from. But this is more than just the energy to get through the day but it is the divine energy, the power of God at work in and through us. Paul would always testify to what God had done when He worked miracles through him.

Today, the same God, the same work, the same gospel is at work in and through your life.

You have not been put here to simply struggle, to be overwhelmed by life’s predicaments.

God has a purpose for your life and it is to do good works.

The ultimate is not just faith in Jesus, following Him and going to heaven. It is also to do good to those here on earth.

Imagine for a moment if every disciple of Jesus woke today with one thought only and that is to do good. To alleviate someone’s hurt, to listen to someone, to kneel before a sword-wielding child with the soothing words to heal that troubled soul.

The immature enter ‘their’ church and are more interested in ‘serve us’ than ‘service’. After a while they begin to say ‘it’s not working for me here.’ NO. The church was never meant to work for you.

The mature follower of Jesus stops asking ‘who’s going to meet my needs?’ and starts asking, ‘whose needs can I meet?’

You don’t need a title or a trophy to do a good work. You don’t need training to be nice to someone, to help them smile and to make life a little easier. You just have to think less of yourself.

Wherever you are you can do good to others and that is the calling on your life. Many years ago I buried a man who thought he would be healed because ‘God has something for me to do, I don’t know what it is yet Pastor but I know He will tell me.’ I buried him with regret that this man had not recognised that God was already at work in his life.

You don’t get this life again and it will be over sooner than we think so we must use it for His glory. Come Spirit of God and work in me today! That is our prayer.

Comparison has been the key disqualifying voice of the first part of my life. I compared myself with what I saw and what I heard in others. As I got older and came closer to those heroic figures I soon realised that they had the same character flaws as myself and some had worse ones! Superstars are usually people we don’t really know.

Today you can walk into any situation and have confidence no matter who is in the room. You have every right to be there. You may be dwarfed by educational qualification, beauty, wealth and experience yet still feel this is the place where you should be. You belong here. It is not because of your own ability, title or prestige but because of Jesus and your confidence to be anywhere is always found in Him.

Paul walked into a private meeting with the most influential Church leaders of his day and said this:

“As for those who were held in high esteem—whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not show favouritism—they added nothing to my message.” (Galatians 2 v 6)

His private meeting was with the original friends of Jesus. They had been with Jesus for 3 years. Yet Paul was able to say they added nothing to his message meaning he was not operating a faulty message. He was not disrespecting them. Rather he was defending his position to the false teachers by saying there had been no editing, no reworking and no fine-tuning of the gospel he was preaching.

But it is true that Paul was not overawed by the presence of these friends of Jesus. For Paul was now also a friend of Jesus too. These apostles were of great standing in the community of Jerusalem, they were the heroes of the faith and yet Paul was carrying the same message and the same authority. Let’s be careful how much we puff up these men and women of God. Honour yes. But worship and tip-toeing around NO!

A cult-figure cannot be spoken against; A cult-figure is never wrong; A cult-figure has an attraction either in appearance, riches or displays of power; A cult-figure is not God but is the way people grow and experience God; A cult-figure will always want to remain in place; Every man of God is a man; Every prophetess is a woman. God is God.

The higher they are built up the harder they will fall when you come to the realisation they are only human after all.

The red carpet always belongs to God.

A few weeks ago after I preached I called people forward for prayer and thankfully there were many needing prayer. It actually went on longer than the service time and still people were queuing to be prayed for. This may seem very strange but it absolutely true. I need to point out that my message was in no way connected to doing better or pleasing God it was actually about what Christ has done for us. However apart from a couple needing prayer for healing the vast majority, I would say over 90% of the people I prayed for asked for the same thing. “I want to be a better Christian; I feel so guilty that I have let God down; I don’t feel I am a proper Christian; I want to please God but I cannot.” It was actually devastating. How had these people come to such a place? They believed what they did was more important than what Jesus has done for them. They had not understood it is never what I do but who Jesus has made me that counts.

I say all that because it leads us into the challenge Paul walked into when he visited Jerusalem and had a private meeting with the apostles. He brought Titus, a gentile and uncircumcised and yet a Christian brother and leader. Paul obviously brought him purposely. He needed to show an example that converted gentiles are as much in the family of God as Jewish believers.

“Yet not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek. ⁴ This matter arose because some false believers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves. ⁵ We did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you.” (Galatians 2 v 3-5)

Paul describes how ‘false believers’ crept into the meeting unseen, infiltrated, by stealth, doing what they thought was important work for God. They wanted to bring this new movement back to the Torah. But Paul saw that as a step back to slavery.

Stealth has been used all our life and we often don’t even recognise it is happening.

Stealth is used in war. The US arguably have the best stealth bomber planes in the world. They are created so as to get into enemy territory unnoticed deflecting or absorbing radar signals.

Stealth is used by the enemy of our soul, the great infiltrator, coming as an angel of light even.

The false believers were believers and that is what made things difficult. If only our greatest threat is obvious. It isn’t. It is deception. The false believers wanted to bring the movement back under the Torah. The Torah supernaturally given by God on Mt. Sinai which had served the generations of God’s people.

The Torah showed us we could never be perfect and acceptable to God. The false preachers taught the opposite that if we obeyed it we could.

The big challenge was this: how big is your vision? Could God do this? Could the family of God become international with none of the Jewish conditions?

Could this new movement realise it is not what I do but who I am and that is the truth of the gospel?

These are questions still being asked today.

There is nothing you can do to cause you to be saved, not one thing, it is total grace. Not one performance, not one sin-free day, not one commandment or act of purity or sacrificial giving, nothing. Get rid of the whole notion.

These next few verses are interesting and reveal what went on in those private meetings in Jerusalem. Here is the opening line:

“Yet not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek.” Galatians 2 v 3

Before we go further into the controversy let’s pause and remind ourselves on the needless compulsion for most things in order to be seen or to know we are His.

Circumcision is so important to the Jew. In fact it is the rite of passage. It is easy to imagine Jewish teachers imposing this requirement on new followers of Jesus.

Baptism is not the outward sign of belonging to God nor is the Lord’s Supper or witnessing or church attendance etc. These are never enough. There is always more things that are needed. Don’t be friends with Pharisees because you will lose the one thing that is of all importance, grace.

Moses called for people to circumcise their hearts. Jeremiah called for people to circumcise their hearts before the Lord and Paul agreed (Romans 2) that circumcision is one done by the Spirit.

I have found the cut of my heart continually happen throughout my life and so have you. Sometimes the pain of circumstances are used to make the cut and sometimes it is the pain of conviction.

It will mark a new day, a new journey, a new direction, this is a moment of change, you will never be the same again and all that sounds wonderfully exciting, but it begins with a cut. It hurts. This is life. This is what makes the beautiful you that you are!

However, I don’t have to do one thing to prove to anyone what Christ has done for me or who I am in Him. He has my heart and He continues to circumcise it.

I have found the Bible to be the best text book for leadership lessons. This morning I am again thankful for seeing 3 new lessons in handling difficulty, whether you are a leader or not.

Barnabas had gone to Tarsus to look for Saul/Paul and they had gone to Antioch to work the gospel for a whole year. It was here that the followers of Jesus were called Christians (Acts 11).

Paul is defending his apostleship to the false teachers who had been saying he had got his gospel from man and had got faulty thinking. He is writing informing the Galatians of his calendar. He went to Jerusalem for only the second time within 14 years after meeting Jesus Christ. His was a personal revelation he had received.

“Then after fourteen years, I went up again to Jerusalem, this time with Barnabas. I took Titus along also. ² I went in response to a revelation and, meeting privately with those esteemed as leaders, I presented to them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. I wanted to be sure I was not running and had not been running my race in vain.” (Galatians 2 v 1-2)

So here are the 3 lessons for handling difficulty:-

1. Take the opportunity when it is presented to you to deal with the important matters.

Paul, Barnabas and Titus went to Jerusalem in response to a revelation which was probably the prophetic message from Agabus about the global famine. In Acts 11:29-30 “The disciples, each according to his ability, decided to provide help for the brothers living in Judea. This they did, sending their gift to the elders by Barnabas and Saul.” Barnabas and Saul/Paul were trusted with the money. They were handling the offering raised and would carry it to the leaders in Judea. 

This was of huge importance. The fledgling church were keen to give to the poor and also to support one another across their known world. But that was not the real outcome of them going to Jerusalem.

• If you are meeting someone, make sure you take the opportunity to discharge everything you have that needs to be said.

Whilst Paul was there not only did he hand over the money (the reason for going) but here in these verses 1-2 we see that what was central to Paul’s mind was to tell the leaders the gospel he was preaching in Antioch. He had been obedient to God in taking the gospel to the Gentiles. It is an important lesson. Don’t leave stones unturned. Expose elephants in the room.

• Talk privately – don’t be quick to make public your conversations, not everything needs to be a social media post.

Paul didn’t know beforehand if the apostles he would meet would need to be corrected. He didn’t know if his conversation would turn into a confrontation, we seldom do. What he did know is that he was meeting esteemed leaders, people of reputation and he didn’t want to be accused of tarnishing that.

The temptation to be rude is ever before us.

Our aim must always be to protect the credibility of others. Paul didn’t shed doubt on them before the meeting. No one knew the meeting was happening. It was private. Where has ‘private and confidential’ gone to these days?

• If you are arranging a meeting make sure it is a safe place; work at creating a better meeting for all; keep it safe for everyone, esteem them.

The need to talk privately, safely and respectfully is probably one of the greatest needs today. Everyone in the meeting needs to know they are protected because you value them.

3. Test the perceived reality – not everything that looks real is.

For Paul this one family, the Church, cut across every divide, supporting and encouraging one another in this new creation order that Jesus as the Messiah had begun. That’s what he was preaching and he needed to know Jerusalem were also on the same page.

• Place a review for everything. It all needs testing. Are we going in the right direction together?

The servant, Isaiah, said in 49:4 ““I have laboured in vain; I have spent my strength for nothing at all.” Paul follows suit and said, “. I wanted to be sure I was not running and had not been running my race in vain.” He was not afraid that his work would collapse because he would continue regardless. But he wanted to make sure they were all sharing the same gospel.

3 lessons from Paul for every one of us, not just leaders, who handle difficulty regularly.

Which one do you need to focus on today?