Galatians 2 April 5th

Hey guys, as you know, we will be having 30 hour famine and I highly encourage ALL of you guys to attend.
It'll be a good experience.
I recently learned, you don't fast for the sake of starving yourself.
That's not what fasting is about, it's about taking that time and effort to pray for something.
We always fast for SOMETHING.

For instance, if we are praying for our spiritual life, maybe someone else, whenever you feel hungry during the time of fasting, take that time to pray for that someone or yourself. (Or whatever it is that you are praying for)

That being said, reflect on what you want to pray for!

nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
i wrote out my whole devo and then i pressed the backspace button or soemthing and it wennt to the previous paaageeeeee
basically i was saying how it is important for us to spread the word of god because we want other generations and under priveledged people to get to know god and his gospel. i also said that we shouldnt' care about what others think because then people whom are interested in getting to know god and being christians, will follow us, when it is the wrong thing to do. the final thing i said was the last sentence in this whole passage was eye opening!
yeahh
sighh,,,, so annoyinngg,.. anywhoo!
have great tomorrows guys!

6Some of them were supposed to be important leaders, but I didn't care who they were. God doesn't have any favorites! None of these so-called special leaders added anything to my message.
We should never feel like we are superior, better, or more special than others because of special titles.
This is something we all need to know as praise team members.
Being worship leaders, does not make us any higher than the rest of the congregation. We are soley doing what God wants, and leading his people into worship the way we should.
God loves us all the same, and in his eyes we are all the same.
We must always remember to stay humble. Our titles do not define us. At the end of the day, all that matters is what God wants and what HE will make happen. We need to please him and do what he sends us out to do. All of the glory goes to God, how can we take all of the credit when it was God who provided us with these skills and talents, how are we so mighty when it's all of God's doing? We need to be His humble servants. remember that.

16But we know that God accepts only those who have faith in Jesus Christ. No one can please God by simply obeying the Law. So we put our faith in Christ Jesus, and God accepted us because of our faith.
To God, it's not about how good you are at following the rules.
I realized that through Christ during his time on earth.
The accusers only had one defense. And that was "but these set of rules said this..." They were not listening to what Christ was saying!
It is your faith in Christ that matters, it's not just about how good of a citizen you are.
Some of us may be distracted from this right now.
So caught up in doing good deeds and following all of the rules. Thinking that the more involved you are, and the more good things you do for the world, the more God will accept you. But what we TRULY need to do.. is get back to the basics. Re-focus on your relationship with God you guys. Refocus on your own faith. It's not about pleasing the world, its about pleasing God. If you want God to accept you, have faith in Christ, love everyone, the way Christ loved us all.

Wow... I'm impressed at my classmate's response to the 30 hour famine . Practically my whole class is donating. Im so happy!

God isn't impressed with mere appearances, and neither am I.

So what i got from this chapter was pretty much the same as yesterday, so there's not much more to say, but I wanted to reiterate how important it is that our image should never be raised up to where its not. Our reputation should never be of fame or popularity, or even exclusiveness, but I want to say how important it is that we maintain the reputation as a Christian praise team rather than a band that just plays every Sunday.

And of course these leaders were able to add nothing to the message I had been preaching.

This verse is important because I think it puts us in our place. We're leaders, but we don't change a thing unless we mean to. Paul wrote that because he knew that the church leaders ways of teachings, or even the teachings themselves were not effective or applicable. Paul made ripples throughout different churches because he knew how to get to the, and I think it's time for us to step up. Instead of just being on stage and not making a difference, if we all shape up bit musically, personal relationships with God, and our role as both the praise team and part of the congregation, I think we can make the impact that will promote God and Christ. We obviously won't help people get closer to God if we just go about as we do now. It should always be about what we can do better for God, our selves, and for our relationship with the congregation. If we do that, I think our messages and our intents will get across to the congregation much easier because then we are on personal levels with God and the congregation. All we have to do from there is link them. So we should all work towards improving our relationships with the church and God, because it'll help others become close to God as well.

im really stressed for several reasons.
ill psot tomorrow.

Hey guys! I'm pretty exhausted from doing a load of calculus and an annotated bibliography... and now's a good time of rest. Great post Kevin about the fasting thing - I'm surprised that Moses gave up many things for Lent. I wasn't too sure what Lent really was, but I'm partaking in it next year, probably going to sacrifice facebook and my BlackBerry hahaha. Maybe it'll be for the good when I head off to university. But keep on praying... and praying! You guys might not like me for supporting the fasting thing, but I think it's right to do this at least once a year.

Anyway, I'll head off to my devotion...

Verse 5 was something that made me see determination and true devotion to God. It says, 'But we did not yield in submission to these people for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain for you.' Christians were persecuted more often in the earlier days (note that Christians are still persecuted today, just not as visibly), and to avoid pain was to simply refuse the gospel... but Christ compels us to follow in his truth regardless of what happens. And in many circumstances, that could be life-threatening. Paul decided that the truth of the gospel (the good news) was so precious to the point where he would give up his life for it.

I'm sure I can talk about a whole other number of verses, but I'd like to discuss verse 21. It says, 'I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.' It made me think about how the law isn't always our source of morality and what we should truly follow. Laws are just a set of rules that change to make sure nothing in society is chaotic - in the bible, I believe the law would refer to the 10 Commandments as well as the Pentateuch. It made me remember that life isn't just about following the rules and doing 'right' things... after all, no one is truly innocent or truly 'bad', since all of us fall short of the glory of God. Remember this, I guess - being a Christian isn't about following the regulations and all that bureaucratic nonsense, but rather it is that willingness to repent for our sins and admit that we're sinful in the first place, turning to Christ in the process. That's what came to my head.

Take care all, and have a great night. God Bless!

Rehearsal at 7:30 AM... and leading an ensemble from 4 to 6:30 PM... gonna be a long day tomorrow. -___-

Jules.

woahhhhh, so much stuff going on eh Julian?
Good luck with all of that~



And josephhhhhhh, hope everythings okay

17 But suppose we seek to be made right with God through faith in Christ and then we are found guilty because we have abandoned the law. Would that mean Christ has led us into sin? Absolutely not!

Man, I really liked this verse ahahha.
It speaks how just because Jesus Christ pardons us for our sins of disobeying the law, it doesn't mean he's the reason as to why we sin more.
I thought about it and we should NEVER think of Christ as an excuse to sin, but as a rescue to the death that would be brought upon us because we sin. Lots of us probably live our lives more leniently just because we know that Jesus has our back but that should never be the case. We should live our lives just as strictly because we know that Jesus had came to our rescue and because he has done so, we can honour him by living a life that both satisfies and pleases him.

Have a great wednesday tomorrow

Hey guys, how are y'all??? Meh, I week hasnt been the best but it hasnt been bad either.. Such a boring week...

16 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[d] Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.

What can I say about this?? We can only be justified through christ. Think about it, We might break the law and be arrested but in the end, Just because we broke a rule doesn't mean that's the end of us. If things worked that way, we would all be in hell for all we care. Just know that because Jesus died on the Christ so that he can be the right hand of God and be the one to judge us in the end. not the prosecutors, or a judge of the supreme court or even a school teacher. Yea sure that the actions we do are some of the things that we will be judged for but that does not prove that we belong in hell. We need to have Jesus in our hearts to be righteously justified. If not, then we can just rot in hell aha.

20 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 LOVE this verse. This is such a powerful verse. It means what it means, nothing too complicated to understand but it sums up basically everything Christ did for us. It says "I" have been crucified, and this really got to me. Nobody was crucified but Jesus but why does it say "I"? What I think is this. Jesus died for OUR sins. Sin is a big part of our lives and before Christ died, sin WAS US. and Cause Christ descended into hell along with our sins that we can start a new life. A life where Christ is our lives, not Sin. Man this is such a powerful verse!!!!!

well that basically sums up everything. Have a good night niggas

ugh, posted and it got erased because I forgot about the new post page.
Anyway, I did it. I'll post it again tomorrow with the next one.
See you guys.

BTW, I hope everyone is going to the 30 Hr Famineeee! (:

back!
thanks grace!

20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

This really spoke to me because when Christ was crucified to save us, we were also sacrificed too. This is because God took our sinful life away and gave us another one basically being sacrificed. Obviously we still sin but just like what Moses said, God wants us to sin. As we live, Christ lives with us and everything we do and the decisions we make, Christ makes it with us so every decision you make has its own purpose in life. You should always live for God and have faith because he loves you and he gave his only son for you. You should be grateful

This chapter, nothing really stood out for me.
I did get that even the best of the best and the most faithful can become on unsure and lose faith at times. I thought the message of the passage was that age does not define your dedication and love for God.
You can't assume that the older you are, the closer you, automatically, become to God.

Those were the main things anyway.
The paper I wrote it on has mysteriously disappeared. haha ):
okay, next one!