Day Thirty-three

Psalm 114, Leviticus 20, Isaiah 25, Galatians 5

Psalm 114

I did not add any notes to this chapter of my Bible.

Leviticus 20

God give his children specific rules regarding a number of sins in Leviticus 20. The key to the chapter is that God has called us to be holy. He is a holy God and expects the same from His children.

Isaiah 25

Is. 25:1 - O Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you; I will praise your name, for you have done wonderful things, plans formed of old, faithful and sure.- Does God know the future? Yes! His plans will unfold, be sure of that. They always do. And, God's plans are good. Are there difficult things that come? Sure. But, ultimately, God is glorified in His plans.

Galatians 5

Gal. 5:1 - For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. - So many people that I talk with say that they won't submit their lives to Christ because they don't want to be controlled by someone else. The sad thing is, they are controlled by something else -- sin. Christ desires to set us free from bondage to freedom in Christ.

Gal. 5:22-23 - 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. - These verses are so key to the Christian faith. If the Holy Spirit dwells within us, this is the fruit that we will produce. When I began my ministry as Senior Pastor at Woodbury Community Church I preached a nine week series through these two verses. There is so much to be learned about living our lives in the Spirit way. The fruit of the Spirit is everything mentioned here. We can't pick and choose which of the fruit we want to display in our lives. It is all important and a true believer displays all of these characteristics.

Here is how I defined each of the virtues when I preached my series.

Love is the relentless pursuit of teh lifting up of others.

Joy is the result of living our lives with God's priorities.

Peace is the ability to recognize the sovereignty of God in life's ups and downs.

Patience is extending to others the grace that God has shown to us.

Kindness is knowing and acting upon the truth that small things done with great love will change the world.

Goodness is love in action directed towards God.

Faithfulness is following God no matter the cost.

Gentleness is the ability to love those who don't love you or God so that they might be drawn to Christ.

Self-control is when we yield control of our lives to God.