Missions Paul

I think you must be a hermit if you have got through life without knowing a lie has been told about you. It can be the most traumatic time for you. When someone is speaking lies about you or when they believe things about you that are not true it can send you into real anxiety. These next verses reveal that Paul knew that lies were being spoken about him.

^“I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. The one who is throwing you into confusion, whoever that may be, will have to pay the penalty. ¹¹ Brothers and sisters, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished. ¹² As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!” (Galatians 5 v 10-12)

We don’t know if Paul knew the person who was spreading the lies. But it is interesting that though he knows of the false teachers that actually there is one particular person where the lies originate from. There is usually the one person fuelling the lies. Maybe they are not known by anyone but the lie can be traced back to that person. Paul has heard the lie. Incredulously it is that he is preaching circumcision as the need for Christians to prove their salvation. It hurts when the lie is sitting close to the truth but is 100% not the truth.

Paul is not far from the Lord. It is the only way through the lies to stay close to Him who knew also this experience of being lied to. In Luke 23 the lies about Jesus were that he was subverting their nation, opposing payments of taxes to Caesar, claiming to be the Messiah and stirring up the people all over Judea by his teaching.  Again the lie is sitting close to the truth but it isn’t the truth. You can see elements that are true but they are packaged in lies. Distorting the truth. Misrepresenting the accuracy of the situation. It is what the father of lies specialises in. All that needs to happen is to convince others to see just a glimpse of the accusation and then the lie has worked.

Here is what I have come to believe:

• What is spoken against you is not as established as it may look.
• What is spoken to you about someone else is not the evidence of the reality.
• The lie against you can lead you into the destiny God has for you, it can become a servant.
• It takes wisdom to dissect a lie.
• It takes courage to walk through a lie.

I have found the above 5 statements of great comfort to me.

How does Paul handle this lie?

• He has evidence for the truth. There are times when you cannot go round your world trying to rectify the lies that have been spoken. It is then that to copy Jesus is what you must do and be silent, let the liars have their day. There are moments when what you say is not as important as what is being said about you. Resist all attempts to defend yourself. You have nothing to hide. Your attitude becomes, “Let the liars speak. I serve the ‘I am the Way, the TRUTH and the Life’.” But if you are given the opportunity which Paul has then take it to set out the truth clearly. I’ve got proof. That’s what Paul says. He points to the fact that he has evidence that he can show them of his persecution for holding to a non-performance salvation message! If he was teaching circumcision as a need then why is he also being persecuted for teaching the opposite? A convincing argument!
• Secondly and soberly, hand the person over. Hand the liar to the Lord for they will pay the price for such maliciousness. There’s nothing more to say about that. It’s a dangerous thing to mirror the devil.

Finally, you can get past this lie. That’s what you must hold on to. You walk in the light and you serve the TRUTH. He has you. He is not anxious about the lie being told about you. I hope that brings comfort to someone today.

You can start the race but never complete it. Why? Somewhere along life’s path you can begin to disbelieve what you had been taught. Something or someone can get in the way and get you to run differently or even stop completely.

Ever been cut up? Driving your car and someone overtakes you and then swerves back into your lane and you have to slam on the brakes? You know the feeling!

“You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth? 8 That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. 9 “A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.” (Galatians 5 v 7-9)

The biggest crash of the Olympics 2024 came in the first of two men’s 5,000 heats when Britain’s George Mills and France’s Hugo Hay traded elbows, triggering a pileup involving Mills and three others who came crashing down like dominoes. There was a lot of angry voices!

The Apostle wants to know what has happened to these people who were doing so well. He uses the analogy of a race of which is familiar to him. In Acts 20: 24 “ I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me – the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.”

Paul was born for the gospel of Jesus. He ate, slept, breathed and talked all the time of the gospel of Jesus. His every waking moment was spent thinking about the impact of the gospel of Jesus. When he went to sleep he dreamt of the gospel of Jesus. He was consumed with the gospel of Jesus.His only aim in life was the gospel of Jesus. Nothing mattered, no other interests or concerns even for his own life because his only want and need was the gospel of Jesus. He cannot understand why anyone would want to go back to a lifestyle of works when the gospel has been understood by them.

He says to the Galatians the person who has misled you is not Christ. This is not the gospel, He goes further and says that now they’re wandering away from the gospel, it is like yeast, the influence will spread and who knows where they will end up.

The Suffering Church do not have the luxury of leadership conferences and worship-fests. They don’t have the shelves of books and the access to the latest ideology. They only have the gospel.

I think of one of our Pastors who works in a desert and who walks 20km every day in extraordinary temperatures with a book of drawings that illustrate the bible stories (a book that when I saw it was falling apart!), he does it because he considers his life worth nothing to him compared to being a gospel worker. He has nothing. He doesn’t have qualifications. He has no transport. He has very few possessions. In the eyes of the world and even the Western Christian world he is nothing. But this beautiful man would agree with that opinion. He has become nothing for the gospel. But this amazing gospel-carrier is richer, more experienced and effective than many. 

When the gospel consumes us then nothing else really matters. It is the gospel of Jesus and He becomes all in all. We keep to it. We run this race. We don’t allow any elbowing to knock us off course. If people cut us up we adjust and we keep going. Our eyes are on what Christ has done. We run the race!

Let me tell you a love story from a not very successful preacher who married the love of his life. He had high hopes for this new chapter. They would share everything together. They would dream together, walk hand in hand into their future they would build together. But it wasn’t long before his loved one began to break his heart. She chose another man to be with. In fact she chose not just one. Were the children she bore his? He couldn’t be certain. But he turned from being a struggling preacher to a broken-hearted father, a betrayed husband and an embarrassed Pastor. But it got worse for him. His wife was taken by the men she cavorted with. Was this God’s judgment on her? Was it God’s mercy on him? More questions raged in his mind until he was left with one conviction. He had to go and get her. He had to buy her back from the slavery she had got herself into. He had to redeem her.

Their names? Hosea and Gomer. A story of undying love. A picture of God and His people.

God loved us though we were unfaithful. God loved us though we wandered away. God rescued us when we got ourselves into trouble. God redeemed us when we found ourselves trapped. God loved us when we stopped loving Him. God’s undying love.

The Apostle has grasped this. He has immersed himself into the death of Christ. He knows love flows not from performance. But it flows from faith in the death of Christ, God’s act of love. 

“For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” (Galatians 5 v 5-6)

Faith for righteousness and faith expressed through love.

Nothing else matters. It is all of no value. What does count is faith in the righteousness that will be fully realised when we meet God and faith which can be seen now in the way we love. This love is not a performance in order to gain. Rather it spills out of our faith in Christ who was God’s greatest example of love. 

The word is Agape. The pinnacle and the foundation of everything. Without it nothing makes sense. This is not a feeling towards the person you are loving but it is a strong commitment that will not let go until that person understands, receives and prospers from the purpose of your love. It is the highest form, of sacrificial commitment love. The cross is how God demonstrated Agape to the world. 

This agape is the highest form of love. It is the agape that God has for us and the expectation that we should have for each other. We love each other how God loves us. It isn’t easy. People can be difficult. However agape isn’t based on what we get back in return. We show kindness, speak kindness, respond kindly, we agape every person we come into contact with. Why? Because He first showed agape to us and it flows out of our faith in Him.

We need to keep on being blown away by Jesus’ love for us.For then this faith will be expressed not by a performance to gain or be approved but it will copy God’s act towards us, that being love.

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!’ “ (https://www.christianitytoday.com/2014/02/inconceivable-start-of-african-american-christianity/)

And however bleak you would describe your situation today, this is not where you truly sit. It wasn’t for Paul and the Galatians and it isn’t for you. You have been saved by grace, rescued and raised with Christ! You shall not live here always!

“For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope. ⁶ For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” (Galatians 5 v 5-6)

Faith for righteousness and faith expressed through love.

This is a sure and certain guarantee that one day we will be with God. We will not be battling any more with this human weak body with all of its sins and failings. We will be with God. How is this possible? For we know our sins and failings. How will any one of us stand before a Holy God?

It will not be through our efforts, our performance, circumcision and the Torah! But by His Spirit! This is not a hope that the world has. In that I hope today it doesn’t rain! This is an unwavering guarantee. I know it will not rain. I know I will be with God.

Since the first lie in the garden the enemy of our soul has been continually working at destabilising our identity as children of God.

Every bereavement he has exploited; every accusation he has magnified; every mistake he has echoed; he has continually worked at reminding you of what you don’t have and who you are not; you have fallen short and do not make the grade; you are not good enough for God and for this world; you need to work harder and be better; you need to follow this and that; you need another baptism; you need to wander, search until you find because what you think you have is not enough.

This is the work of the father of lies.

You were outside; worshippers of idols; ignorant to the purposes of God; every part of your life was a distorted image of Christ; you were out of alignment in your minds and behaviour.

BUT NOW.

That’s not your location now. That’s not where you stand. So you need to know this. When people come and say you are not what you should be remind yourself where you now stand. When the voices of doubt say you need to perform and prove yourself in order to be accepted by God then it is a complete lie. Do not listen to that lie. It is a falsehood. Ignore it.

You are complete in Him; you are alive in Him; you are free and not afraid; you are a child of God and belong to Him; you are without blame within His love; you have peace with God and the peace of God in your mind; you have the Spirit of God hovering over your life and dwelling in you; you have the Spirits wisdom and understanding for every situation you face; you have the powerful strengthening enabling to be and do whatever needs to happen; you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you; you are chosen by God for this moment; you have everything you need for this life because you have Him; you are a temple of the Holy Spirit; cleansed, forgiven and set aside for a holy life; you are saved by the grace of God.

Do you understand this? Are you reminding yourself daily of these truths? You have another place!

Christ is all and if somehow you find yourself hearing it is Christ plus then Christ is less than all.

In an interview with a long-time friend, U2’s Bono, responded to the sometimes-stained reputation of the church throughout history:

 “Religion can be the enemy of God. It’s often what happens when God, like Elvis, has left the building. A list of instructions where there was once conviction; dogma where once people just did it; a congregation led by a man where once they were led by the Holy Spirit. Discipline replacing discipleship”.  (Michka Assayas, Bono: In Conversation with Michka Assayas)

Our enemy is performance. Performance will never lead to true discipleship.  The church has rules. Christians have rules. Things we have learnt over the years that if we do them prove we are good.

 We step into performance the moment we behave as if Christianity brings man to God. Even that sentence may cause some of us to have to read it again as it appears correct! But central to Christianity is the truth that it is the story of God coming to man, every other religion has it the other way round. Sadly the church sometimes follows suit. For we all like a good performance.

“Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. ³ Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. ⁴ You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.” (Galatians 5 v 2-4)

The teaching that there needs to be circumcision or whatever else in order to be truly saved is actually a teaching that is saying His coming, His death, He himself, Christ, is of no value at all. To fall from grace is not that we become unsaved after being saved because it works the same way in that our actions/works not only cannot gain but they cannot lose salvation. To fall means the person never experienced grace in the first place.

Grace is only experienced when we let go of trying to accomplish our salvation. If Christianity is based on us and how we live then no one will be saved.

Grace exposes the dark side of our lives, it is for Judas and Peter to say “yes I did that” but one of them could not accept that they had done such a thing and made things worse; the other accepted it and found their identity in grace. To live by grace means you are not denying or trying to forget the dark side of your life, but by allowing grace to expose it you find who you really are.

Grace opposes self-pity. Not that we end up depressed and whipping ourselves in a frenzy of guilt and shame over our sinful lives. Self-pity will never motivate you. Self-pity will not move you to grace any more than the victories, visions, successes and miracles will. Self-pity will keep you locked in failure, away from your home. Grace calls you to keep coming back to Jesus, let Jesus bind up the wounds, don’t let your self do it.

Grace is honesty. An honesty that says we keep breaking the rules. An honesty that says “I am cautious to say God told me … Because I could be wrong.” An honesty that displays character and silences the tongue. An honesty that says I may never be the person I want or should be but God loves me now as I am.

Those who look like they are going to drop. Those on the verge of giving up. Those who have no answers. Those who are tired of it all. Those who want to run away. Those who are at their wits end. Those who cannot change their circumstances. Those who are weary and burdened. I have good news! This is the key verse of the Galatians letter. It is the whole thing.

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” (Galatians 5 v 1)

You are free!

The enemy of your soul has nothing on you. He cannot hold you once Jesus has freed you. He cannot put you out on bail saying he hasn’t finished with you yet. John 8:36 “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”
You are free from trying. Free from the lists and rules of man. You are free to approach God as you are not how you should be. Ephesians 3:12 “In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.”
So don’t let the enemy of your soul put conditions on your freedom. He has no authority in your life. He is defeated. There is no bail. You are not out temporarily waiting for further investigation. You are out totally.

So how do we stop ourselves from sliding from our freedom?

• We stand firm.

We stand in the truth of what Jesus Christ has done for us. This is our prayer: “Lord, you are my shield. The enemy doesn’t give warning of the attacks. I don’t see in advance where the next hurt will come from. It may happen today so I lift you up. Christ over me will extinguish whatever fiery attack that comes my way. I don’t need to ask ‘How will I make it through?’ or believe ‘I’m not going to make it.’ I stand with YOU covering me. When anxiety comes it is extinguished because I have lifted Christ over me. When condemnation comes I get my shield up. When doubt rages I will extinguish it and I will keep standing firm. Just as Roman soldiers saturated their shields in water to extinguish the fiery arrows so I also ask that you saturate my life in your presence and in your promise for my life. My faith is held high and covers my life completely. You empower me to stand against every attack on my mind and heart. When I don’t think I will make it, I will make it. When I feel alone, I am not. What you have said about who I am and my situation outweighs anything anyone else says about it. You are my shield and helper and my glorious sword. My enemies will cower before you and you will march all over them. (Deut 33 v 29)”

• We resist the yoke of slavery.

“… do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” A strange sight to see a harness put around the neck of a person then asking that person to pull farm equipment. A picture we do not see and if we saw it we would call it slavery. It is wrong.

Paul uses the picture for the numerous rituals, regulations and observances like circumcision that are placed on new believers which are just incapable to be carried. “Don’t go back to the Torah, to circumcision etc. It is definitely going to make you feel you are not free.”

The yoke of Jesus is easy and light, the yoke of man is difficult and heavy.

What happened to the Galatians has been repeated throughout the generations, by the Church. We created new commandments from this verse and that verse. Biblical principles became Church commandments that if kept brought you in and if lapsed kept you out.

Many have left us because the yoke was too heavy. We don’t insist on circumcision but we insist on other things.  The irony is that not one person in the Church has been able to accomplish its demands.

In the bustle of all this performance we have lost or killed grace, but we have kept the yoke, but the yoke doesn’t bring life.

In contrast, Jesus invites those who are weighed down by the numerous rituals, regulations and observances that the interpretations of the Torah inflicted on people, to come and take his yoke. To be harnessed to Him.

My life with Christ calls me not to focus on being what others want me to be, holy, blameless and a good man in order to be acceptable but to be who He has made and continues to make me.

I have found my life with Christ is about Him and not me. I feel free in that. I am free.

The Key to Living is not found anywhere else but in you aligning yourself up with what God has said and what God has done.

The Key to Living is to return to our calling towards His glory so that people see Christ in us. This is where we must continually be. This the call above all callings. This calling is not to a place, people or platform but to Him and His presence in our lives. To decrease so that He will increase. To let His brightness and majesty be seen in our lives. It is not about me but about others seeing Him in me. It is not about my achievement but His.

“At that time the son born according to the flesh persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now. ³⁰ But what does Scripture say? “Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman’s son.” ³¹ Therefore, brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.” (Galatians 4 v 29-31)

Ishmael will always persecute the Isaac’s. Those who pursue God’s approval through obedience will always oppress those who don’t and accept salvation by grace alone. Paul now answers his rhetorical question of v21. The answer is, ‘we are free so don’t go back to the Torah’. Until Isaac, the son of the promise, was born Sarah could live with Ishmael in the same house. But with the arrival of Isaac, Ishmael had to go. In the same way we must now get rid of all the rule-keeping as the means to approach God and have His approval. That is the Key to Living.

When you allow voices either those from within you or even those from ‘Christians’ to belittle you because you haven’t made the standard you are allowing Ishmael to mock you. When your mistakes and failures are too much for some that you are ostracised from their approval or maybe that person in the mirror does that work for them, then you are allowing Ishmael to mock you.

Get rid of Ishmael. Live with Isaac. That is the Key to Living.

Ishmael drives you to work, strive and do more to please God. The conclusion to those efforts is always failure and disappointment and beating oneself up. But if Ishmael sees Isaac living by faith and not seemingly doing anything to try and earn salvation then it stirs hatred within him.

The Key to Living is to recognise our calling is found in His goodness. He is good and everything He does is good and for good. Within this goodness we find courage to face the battle; self-discipline to resist temptation; generosity of hand; surrendered ego; a desire for truth.

Our prayer is this: May Christ be found in me; may Christ be formed in my living; may my intimate knowledge of Him grow not by works but by His grace alone.

This prayer is the Key to Living. The removal of Ishmael is the Key to Living. To be and not to do: is the Key to Living.

For you today, whether in a painful reality that doesn’t look like changing or maybe you have failed God and others, Sarah is your hope. This is the Bible story throughout. This is the gospel. Do not be deceived into thinking by your own efforts you can change a thing. It is all of Him and all because of Him and His promises for your life.

“For it is written: “Be glad, barren woman, you who never bore a child; shout for joy and cry aloud, you who were never in labour; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband.” 28 Now you, brothers and sisters, like Isaac, are children of promise.” (Galatians 4 v 27-28)

But how do you live in such a circumstance? 

I am pausing for a few days to meditate on Isaiah 54 before we continue in Galatians 4 to try and answer that one question. For there are many in exile, whether as a victim or because of their own sin. There are many in situations where they have done nothing wrong to equal their predicament. How do you live? 

• Make the right Choice

How did Sarah move from Genesis 11:30 “Now Sarai was childless because she was not able to conceive” to 21:1-2 “Now the Lord was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what he had promised. 2Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him.”? She got there by making wrong choices. Yes that’s right! It wasn’t by her own achievements. It wasn’t because she was righteous. It was because God was gracious. This has always been the gospel. 

Genesis 16:1-3 “Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar; 2 so she said to Abram, ‘The Lord has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her.’ Abram agreed to what Sarai said. 3 So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. “

What did she do with the painful reality of her life?

V2 she blamed God; V2 she spoke negatively and influenced Abram; V3 she moved in her own strength to fix her painful reality.

There are choices to make in a place where choice seems limited. Wrong choices and right choices.

Job 13:15 Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him;

Etty Jillesum, a Dutch Jewish girl in Amsterdam in late 1930s had an ambition to be a writer. She was captured by the Nazis, she could have gained freedom but she stayed with her people to help them. Her journals record a woman who on the outside was nothing but her inner soul was everything that beauty could bring. She gave herself to prayer. She no longer had an ambition for fame, now she was to create beauty in the hell of a concentration camp. She wrote, “nothing can happen to me … Sometimes when I stand in some corner of the camp, my feet planted on Your earth, my eyes raised toward Your heaven, tears run down my face, tears of deep emotion and gratitude.”

The more Etty’s plight became hopeless the more hope shone within her. She wrote, “by excluding death from our life we cannot live a full life, by admitting death into our life, we enlarge and enrich it.”

Her final words were written on a postcard she threw off Wagon Number 12, the train she rode to what she knew would be to her death in Auschwitz. She wrote, “We left camp singing.”

That’s a choice made in a painful reality. That’s a choice we must make.

Let us not be afraid to focus on the contradiction of our lives, let us not bury our head in the sands or even have false faith. When we have changed our perspective and hold on to hope because of it (see yesterday) then we are ready to make the right choices of what to do now in our painful reality. The choice is not try harder. The Apostle uses this story to say that the choice is not for the Galatians to become Jewish to be accepted by God. The choice is to sing. The choice is to be of a generous heart towards life, even towards the hatred you face and the impossibilities of anything changing for you. Sing.

For you today, whether in a painful reality that doesn’t look like changing or maybe you have failed God and others, Sarah is your hope. This is the Bible story throughout. This is the gospel. Do not be deceived into thinking by your own efforts you can change a thing. It is all of Him and all because of Him and His promises for your life.

“For it is written: “Be glad, barren woman, you who never bore a child; shout for joy and cry aloud, you who were never in labour; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband.” 28 Now you, brothers and sisters, like Isaac, are children of promise.” (Galatians 4 v 27-28)

But how do you live in such a circumstance? 

I am pausing for a few days to meditate on Isaiah 54 before we continue in Galatians 4 to try and answer that one question. For there are many in exile, whether as a victim or because of their own sin. There are many in situations where they have done nothing wrong to equal their predicament. How do you live? Paul is using this story to say to the Galatians that the gospel is for the barren, the failed, those who have been put down or made to feel like they’re not good enough for God. The gospel is for those who cannot change their situation. Those who have made it, those who are fertile like Hagar, those who are spiritually entrepreneurial are actually those who are the slaves. So back to the question, how do you live?

• We need to find a different perspective so that we can dig out hope in the contradictions of our life.

• Make the right choice

And also …

• Have confidence in the grace of God to see what cannot be seen

“shout for joy, you who were never in labour; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband.” Can you see the reality of the invisible?

Hebrews 11: 27 “By faith Moses left Egypt, not fearing the Kings anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible.” The king and Egypt were the seen. But Moses had his hope in the One who is unseen and as a result confidence rose within him.

An intriguing painting was once displayed at the Louvre art museum in France called “Checkmate”, painted by Friedrich Moritz August Retzsch. It is now said to be in private hands after being sold at Christie’s in 1999. This painting depicts 2 chess players, one is Satan whom appears arrogantly confident, and the other player is a man who looks forlorn. If Satan wins, he gets the man’s soul. According to legend, a chess champion visited the museum once and after studying the painting, noticed that the arrangement of the chess pieces were incorrect. According to him, the devil who thought he was winning, was in fact not winning. The man, who thought he was losing, was winning, because according to the pieces left on the chessboard, his king had one more move left, which would make him the winner of the game! He called the curator and they determined that the title didn’t fit the scene because the forlorn-looking player actually has the ability to defeat his opponent, though he obviously doesn’t realize it. The painting is a lie. His king can still make another move!

Those who live with confidence in the grace of God know that their king always has one more move.

A 17 year old called Joseph was set on by his own brothers and threw both into a disused well. He was then sold into slavery. Its check mate. But the KING still has one more move.

The widow of a man from the Elisha school of prophets has lost everything and the creditors are not satisfied. They took everything apart from one small bottle ofoil and now want the sons as slaves. Its checkmate. But the KING has one more move.

Thousands of people have walked miles and miles from home just following the Jesus’ team. They are now in danger of suffering through hunger. No one has enough money. There is only 5 loaves and 2 fish. But the KING has one more move.

On some people today checkmate has been declared. The person who wrote that is a thief, liar and a killer. But the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords has one more move.

Those who hope in the Lord will not be disappointed.

There is still a move the King can make. It’s not over.

It is possible to thrive in your painful reality. There will be some things that you just will not be able to fix. You may not be free of that physical pain. That situation just may not change. You may be a Gentile and not be circumcised or follow Jewish practices. But the Apostle uses this story to demonstrate that it is often those who have it all together (or it seems so), it is those who haven’t sinned (or they would like to demonstrate that) and it is those who appear free and pure and everything else that you are not who are actually Hagar people, they are the slaves, they are not free.

You can find a different perspective so that you can dig out hope in the contradictions of your life. You can make the right choice and you can have the confidence in the grace of God to see what cannot be seen. 

 

For you today, whether in a painful reality that doesn’t look like changing or maybe you have failed God and others, Sarah is your hope. This is the Bible story throughout. This is the gospel. Do not be deceived into thinking by your own efforts you can change a thing. It is all of Him and all because of Him and His promises for your life.

“For it is written: “Be glad, barren woman, you who never bore a child; shout for joy and cry aloud, you who were never in labour; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband.” 28 Now you, brothers and sisters, like Isaac, are children of promise.” (Galatians 4 v 27-28)

But how do you live in such a circumstance? 

I am pausing for a few days to meditate on Isaiah 54 before we continue in Galatians 4 to try and answer that one question. For there are many in exile, whether as a victim or because of their own sin. There are many in situations where they have done nothing wrong to equal their predicament. How do you live? 

• We need to find a different perspective so that we can dig out hope in the contradictions of our life.

“For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds”Hebrews 12:3.

The cross is 2 pieces of wood running contrary to each other. The cross is our thoughts crossing God’s thoughts, our will crossing His will and our desired answers crossing God’s given answers. It is this cross we are called to carry, “not my will but yours be done.”

It seems God allows contradictions in our lives. Will we become broken under the hand of God, a surrendered servant, or will we fight against it and become bitter?

Stephen was stoned and died, but Paul was stoned and lived.

Philip was supernaturally transported, but Paul was shipwrecked and snake-bitten.

Peter walked on water, Paul floated on the water for 3 days.

James was beheaded while Peter was released.

How do we explain these things?

Jeremiah 8:15 “We hoped for peace but no good has come, for a time of healing but there is only terror.” That can be said of us all. We all hope for the best. We all want our situations to be perfect, to be better at least. 

It is true of what we want for each other. We don’t want one another to face painful reality and so we speak ‘faith’ over one another, ‘you will be healed’ ‘you will get this’ ‘you will prosper’ etc. But what if we are wrong? What if God wants us to live in a contradiction for a while?

Jim Collins in his book, Good to Great, describes a conversation he had with Admiral Jim Stockdale, the highest ranking US military officer in the ‘Hanoi Hilton’ prisoner of war camp during the Vietnam War. In his 8 years of imprisonment, he and others were appallingly treated.

He asked the question of Stockdale: “Who didn’t make it out?”

“Oh that’s easy, the optimists,” was the reply.

“The optimists? I don’t understand.”

The optimists were the ones who said, “We’re going to be out by Christmas” and then Christmas would come and go. Then they’d say “We’re going to be out by Easter” then Easter would go. And then Thanksgiving and then it would be Christmas again. And they died of a broken heart.”

Stockdale then turned to Collins and said, “This is a very important lesson. You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end – which you can never afford to lose- with the discipline to confront the brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.”

It is a similar story told by Viktor Frankl of one of her inmates in Auschwitz who was dying of an illness but because she had been told they would be freed by Christmas was holding on to life. She died on Christmas Day when they were not freed. 

Paul says in Philippians 2: 12 “continue to work out your salvation.”

Dig out hope from a reality that we cannot be blind to, that needs sorting out.

So the contradiction that you find yourself in is a painful reality that you cannot ignore nor simply complain about. But you need to dig deep because inside that contradiction is a hope and a realisation that you can find a way even though it looks impossible. In order to find that hope then we must find a different perspective from the viewpoint of ourselves. How do others see my situation? How does God see my situation? What are the benefits right now? Are there opportunities because of this situation?

I recently saw a short video on social media of a lady with severe disabilities. She was being supported to stand by a friend behind her. From one perspective she was helpless, weak and didn’t have anything to offer. Until she began to sing! She has the most beautiful of voices and it brought tears to everyone who was listening including myself.

You can sing even though you are barren and have nothing to sing about. There is hope in the contradiction of your life. Change your perspective.