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Word from Scotland
by Sandy Shaw
Galatians 3 and verse 1 - what a verse! Paul is writing to those fairly new believers in Jesus who have been duped and deceived. It is a tragic situation - a situation which is presently confronting the visible church. This letter is so relevant to what we are currently facing today.
These Christian Fellowships had turned away from their initial desire to serve Jesus Christ in the Power of the Holy Spirit, and flow in that anointing of living water. They were slowly turning to rules and rituals and regulations. Trivial matters were becoming important. Irrelevant issues were dividing people. These believers were even questioning the credentials of Paul the apostle. (I learned an interesting thing from Martin Akumu, in Kisumu, Kenya - do you realise that he is never called the ‘Apostle Paul’!)
We have seen how some people put pressure on another leader, Peter, to compromise, and follow certain rules and patterns of behaviour, which had nothing to do with our liberty and freedom in Jesus Christ.
O you don't believe that Mary was a virgin when she gave birth to Jesus, do you?
You don't really believe that the dead buried Jesus actually rose from the dead?
This story of Jesus ascending - come on - you surely don't go that far?
Creation - in six days - with all that the scientists have been saying over the past 100 years - surely you are not that narrow and blinkered? Compromise?
Whether it is adding circumcision or subtracting truths from the Word, it is the same thing!
"You foolish Galatians!" What makes Paul speak so strongly? "Who has bewitched you?" What is he asking? Who has deceived you? Who has put you under a spell? Who has dazed you? The word means "to smite with the eye".
There was a woman in Auldearn who used to do that - maybe more than one!
Who has looked at you in such a way as to make you recoil and withdraw, and be quiet and silent, when you were about to speak up! As a consequence, you have fallen back into the very things from which Jesus Christ set you free.
Definition - "Witchcraft is the attempt to control people and to get them to do what you want by the use of any spirit - other than the Holy Spirit!" And - the three words which feature prominently are - Manipulate - Intimidate - Dominate. That is the classic hallmark of witchcraft. God never does any of these three things. If you meet these you know what you are up against.
Manipulation - uses illegitimate authority - sulking - temper - emotionalism - what we call blackmail - if you do this I'm resigning. BYE! I have witnessed that in Kirk Sessions.
Intimidation - threatening language - shouting - stamping your feet - lifting a chair. And - another thing - God will never make you feel guilty. The Holy Spirit may convict you of SIN - that is very different - but if you have that guilty feeling - that gets you down - that is NOT of GOD.
Legalism is an expression of carnality - the flesh - pride - wanting to win favour with God by our own merits and actions and deeds and life. This always happens when the work of the Cross is OBSCURED.
I remember being invited to take a wedding in Insch Church building - I was there early - and people were fussing over the flowers - and John Lyall, who was minister then, came over to me saying - "They are more interested in their flowers than their faith!"
Now that is the type of thing Paul is dealing with here.
Remember the lace handkerchief? A lady dropped a lace handkerchief on leaving a service, and a young man picks it up and runs to the lady, and she is effervescently pleased to receive her lace hankie, and appeared more pleased about that than anything she had heard during the service.
God has made provision for our every need - physical, spiritual, emotional, mental, material, financial - in time and in eternity - by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the Cross.
The enemy will do anything to obscure, to those in the Church, what was accomplished on the Cross, at Calvary.
In this letter God is teaching us how to be protected from witchcraft. One of the consequences of witchcraft is rebellion - and the person who rebels will never do anything for God until that is dealt with.
I have been waiting for years for certain rebels to repent and return - they don't need to stay if they don't want to - but they do need to repent and return - before they die!
The root problem with humanity - with mankind - is rebellion - rebelling against God.
"REBELLION is the REJECTION of the righteous government of God." Another authority takes His place.
The enemy is a life taker. Jesus Christ is a life giver!
These are two opposites - we have that in John Chapter 10 verse 10. The thief comes to kill, steal and destroy, and that is what he had been attempting to do in these Galatian fellowships. The thief does not come and announce why he has arrived. No, you wake up in the morning only to realise that perhaps your most treasured possessions have gone!
This is not religious fiction. We have to get the life taker out of our lives and get the life giver into our lives!
These are some of the favourite tactics the enemy uses to attack the people of God.
Is it not shocking to remember that these were 'Charismatics' or Pentecostals - but they had lost their vision of Jesus Christ, crucified, and risen!
Alexander 'Sandy' Shaw is pastor of Nairn Christian Fellowship in Nairn, Scotland. Nairn is 17 miles east of Inverness - on the Moray Firth Coast - not far from the Loch Ness Monster!
Gifted as a Biblical teacher, Sandy is firmly committed to making sure that his teachings are firmly grounded in the Word.
Sandy has a weekly radio talk which can be heard via the Internet on Saturday at 11:40am, New Orleans time, at wsho.com.
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