God's At It Again!

I'm really excited and really challenged by our current study of Galatians at Hope. As I shared last Sunday, I had a unique encounter with God in the development of the message. It led to a really long sermon, but I am convinced that the message came directly from God's Spirit in a powerful, compelling way. I've been excited by the feedback I'm hearing, because I was just as impacted by this truth of God's grace as everyone else.

Well, God's at it again. Just shortly after 5:00 AM today, I was suddenly wide awake with this "aha!" moment related to where we're going this week.

One of the most difficult aspects of the letter to the Galatians -- at least for preachers -- is the rather lengthy discussion of Paul's own spiritual journey. He recounts his experience as evidence that the gospel he has been teaching came directly from God and not from man. Certainly there are some great moments in the story that can become foundational for whole sermons (his butting heads with Peter, for example), or the whole story offers a nice framework for a history lesson on the early church. But it can be a bit of a challenge to move from his story into practical, contemporary, relevant application for the congregation and still remain true to the point Paul was trying to make about his authority. (And, as we all know, accurate exegesis of the text cannot be compromised!)

But I was awoken today with another perspective of Paul's experience and how it relates to God's grace. It feels like the Spirit is revealing something to me that I would never have seen for myself, and yet it is so obvious. What's more, it's so convicting!

You see, yesterday I had a couple of experiences that scratched at old wounds and ended in ways that are not at all what I would desire. Personally, I would never have seen a connection between my disappointments and Paul's converstion and apostolic authority, but then God did his thing. It's like he held up this lense that I could look through and see things differently. As I look at my experience through the lense of Paul's experience, I suddenly discover something amazing about grace -- something that should affect every one of us every day.

And I'm excited about sharing more on Sunday!