Coach’s Corner

Today we kicked off a brand new series called “You’ve Got Mail”.  We all love to get personal mail.  In fact, if you go to the mail box and find a personal letter, it’s the first thing you’ll open.  We love personal mail for a variety of reasons, but I think there are two main reasons.. 1) It’s actually for us personally & 2) It’s almost always from someone we know and care about.

What I find interesting (even in my own personal life) is how anxious we are to read personal mail, but how often we’ll ignore some of the most important personal mail we will ever hold in our hands.. the letters of the Bible.  The letters of the Bible convey deep truths and very personal encouragements for us.  To read these letters is to hear God in deeply personal ways.  I’m always surprised by how willingly we will ignore something so personal and so important.

We launched out today by taking a look at Paul’s letter to the Galatians.  Throughout the week, I posted  a sort of on-line Bible study.  You can read those chapters by clicking on these links.

• Chapters 1 & 2
• Chapter 3
• Chapter 4
• Chapter 5 ….. (chapter 6 is on your own)

Since this was 4th of July weekend in which we celebrate our freedom and liberty, no book/letter of the Bible could be more appropriate than Galatians.  Paul reminds me of one of our Founding Fathers in his passionate urge to embrace the freedom that is found in Jesus Christ and to settle for nothing less.  I can imagine Paul coming across to the Galatians much like Patrick Henry who famously said, “Give me liberty, or give me death.”

(If you watch this clip, notice how many references are made to faith and God and tell me our our Founding Fathers were not men of faith)

There is a word of caution to go along with Paul’s impassioned call to liberty though.  This liberty is not a license to live any way we’d like too.  It is not a permission slip to then live as you wish with no thought of consequences.  There are many who would pervert this liberty by suggesting that it allows us to do just that.  But Paul warned against that in Romans 6:1-2, 15.

No, the liberty that Paul calls us to in Jesus Christ is not just a freedom from sin and past failures, it is a freedom to live for Jesus and for others.  We can’t do that in our own power.  But the power of God in us allows us to live a life that is otherwise unavailable to us… a life of true freedom and true liberty.

One last thing… Paul harshly condemned the legalistic chains that others were trying to place on the Galatians.  Legalism is the mixture of faith and works that is so easy to fall into.  It’s much easier to check yourself through a checklist of do’s and don’ts than to simply walk in relationship with Jesus and rely on wisdom.  And that is exactly the kind of faith that Jesus Christ came to abolish (remember the Pharisees?) and it is still the kind of faith that is repelling people from walking with Jesus.  That’s why our church needs to be the kind of church that extends a genuine Second Chance to others to experience the kind of faith that Jesus came to call us too… a faith of liberty and freedom.