Guard Your Hearts
Notes from a Bible Study led by Suhasini Sabrina

Reference: Galatians 5

Questions

Finding answers to the questions below will help you to understand the text better.

• Who wrote the Galatians, to whom and why?
• What is the only thing that matters in Christ?
• What happens when you use your freedom to please God?

• What are the two things that Christ has given us freedom from?
• What are the two things that are in conflict in us?
• List out the fruit of the Spirit?

• What is Christ’s gift to us and how can Christ’s gift lose its value for us?
• Why is it impossible to keep the Mosaic laws?
• Who kept the Galatians from following the truth?Why?

• What is it you give up on,trying to be righteous by keeping the law with all your strength?
• How can one misuse the freedom given by Christ?
• Sum up God’s word in a single sentence.

• Concerning the Galatians, what is Paul confident about through the insight he has from God?
• How can one escape from the strange power of law-dominated existence?
• What happens if you misuse the freedom from the law and sin against Christ?

The book of Galatians is one of the doctrinal foundation-stones of the New Testament. The book may be second in importance only to the book of Romans. It is said that Martin Luther lived in Romans and Galatians. The material may seem difficult to understand at times, but we must face the hard cold fact: without an understanding of this book, regardless of the difficulty of its' concepts, one would build his Christian doctrine on shifting sands.

We have been set free from the law by the salvation we have received in Jesus Christ. We have liberty, not that we have the right to do anything we want but that we have the right to do right. Our service and daily walk is motivated by love rather than fear of impending judgment. Verse thirteen tells us that in being called to liberty that we have not received a license to sin but that we are to use this liberty for spiritual things, serving each other motivated out of love.

Paul exposes in the last section of chapter five the arch-enemies of the Christian walk, the works of the flesh versus the fruit of the Spirit.

Making the Word a Part of You

Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Joshua 1:8

Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life. Proverbs 4:23

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Philippians 4:4

• Talk to yourself. Talk positively; think along God’s lines.
• Don’t self pity.
• Read the God’s Word.
• Choose to be happy, positive.
• Be consistent in your faith.

(Photo by pluuuis)

An excerpt from an article by Charles R Swindoll

Entertainment is everything today. So important, in fact, that we have television programs and magazines devoted solely to the subject. All of which makes it real difficult to be committed to substance rather than the superficial. This includes reading widely, probing deeply, seeing with discernment, rejecting the false, learning the facts. In short, thinking! What I’m pushing for is more who know what they believe, and why. Folks who can spot phony baloney before it hits the headlines … Folks who don’t wait to be told every move to make, who are challenged within to grow, to study, to learn. Such discernment never comes automatically. Thinking is hard work, but, oh, so rewarding. And so essential for survival…

Commentary on the article above by Abhishek Scariya

Let’s stop and think. Seriously. Think about how much we actually think these days! Much less than we ought to. A huge chunk of the information we consume comes through audio-visual media; television and the internet in particular. Something that relies on quick and perky content. There’s hardly any room here for any serious or truthful analysis. Added to that, as the author notes, entertainment has overshadowed all other forms of content that it’s not uncommon for a person to view everything in the world through its lenses. Ultimately what we know, say or do go through almost no filtering because it comes to us in the form of entertainment.

Take any movie for instance, or a TV show or popular song. Knowingly or unknowingly, the philosophy behind them (good or bad) creeps into our understanding of the world and inevitably plays an important factor in the decisions we take. For example, I saw the ‘The Expendables’ the other day. The bad guys are well established in the movie and as it progresses the brutal violence seems so ‘needed’ or ‘fulfilling’! or say the lyrics of a song which glorifies rebellion or hatred towards authority. Or even something seemingly trivial like the TV series ‘Friends’. What message does it convey? I must admit a lot of it’s humor is great but it’s underlying worldview leaves much to think about.

Culture and entertainment are married to each other in an awkward vicious cycle. Culture influences what goes into entertainment, and the message given through entertainment flows back into culture and so on. Being as callous as it can get, entertainment today tries to bridge fantasy and truth in an unhealthy manner. Take the very word ‘reality-show’ which supposedly shows truth but the pretense is that it’s taken as entertainment. Isn’t it mutually contradictory? In effect, it’s not enough for us to take things ‘as is’ assuming that their purpose is solely for entertainment. In a larger scheme of things entertainment is good. We all need it and there is nothing wrong with it. The Bible never teaches us not to be entertained but on the other hand, it should never be an end to itself; the reasons being: 1. It takes us away from the more important things in life 2. The messages it propagates directly influence our lives

Thoughts

• After watching a movie or tv show or listening to a song, analyze what it’s trying to say. Take a step further; don’t just go with the flow, but think about it’s context, content and message. Stuff that is not directly apparent from the plot, but the ideology that the plot itself is based on. Can this message be used positively? Or does it have a negative effect on our hearts and minds?
• Make a written list of the positives and negatives of a movie/song
• Keep a track of the number of hours spent on entertainment daily or weekly.

Original article: www.insight.org/library/insight-for-today/wanted-thinkers.html
Photo by Wasfi Akab

Dare to be a Daniel
Notes from a talk by John K John

Reference: Daniel 1:3-9; 3:1,4,7,12

Daniel was taken captive by the Babylon’s along with three of his friends. He was far, far away from home; he even lost his identity – the king changed his name. But not once did he think twice about being unfaithful to the God he served. He was still obedient, praying to God not paying heed to orders from the King. God, in turn, delivered him from the fiery furnace and the lions' den.

As Jeremiah says , God looks after every minute detail. Till date, scientists are puzzled about the migration patterns of Arctic Terns. Arctic Terns travel 19,000 kilometers from the Arctic to the Antarctic and back every year during migration. In its life time, it would travel a distance equal to travelling to the moon and back! But the Bible tells us, in Jeremiah 8:7, God knows every little detail:

Even the stork in the sky knows her appointed seasons, and the dove, the swift and the thrush observe the time of their migration.

In our day to day world we face a cultural war. Sun Tzu, in his The Art of War says:

The Art of War is governed by five constant factors:

• Moral Law
• Heaven
• Earth
• The Commander
• Method & Discipline

Moral Law? Here, that means living in harmony. People being in complete accord with their ruler; following him regardless of their lives; not afraid of danger. We being Christians have our Bibles to follow. We have the 10 Commandments to guide us.

Here’s the story of Eric Liddel

During the summer of 1924, the Olympics were hosted by the city of Paris. Liddell was a committed Christian and refused to run on Sunday. He was forced to withdraw from the 100 meters race, his best event, which took place on a Sunday. The schedule had been published several months earlier, and his decision was made well before the Games began. Liddell spent the intervening months training for the 400 meters, an event in which he had no previous experience. The day of 400 meters race came, and as Liddell went to the starting blocks, an American masseur slipped a piece of paper into Liddell’s hand with a quotation from 1 Samuel 2:30:

“Those who honor me I will honor.”

He not only won the race, but broke the existing world record with a time of 47.6 seconds. A few days earlier, Liddell had competed in the 200 metre finals, for which he received the bronze medal behind Americans Jackson Scholz and Charles Paddock, beating Harold Abrahams, who finished in sixth place. (This was the second and last race in which these two runners met). His performance in the 400 metres in Paris remained a world record for four years, and a European record for 12 years

God wants each one of us to honour him in what we do, whatever that may be.

Pray for these important decisions that shape your life:

• Selecting good friends
• Choosing your career
• Finding the right person to spend your life with

(Photo by Etrusia UK)