Adopted - Notes on Galatians Chapter 4

Today we are going to hang out with our favorite tent maker. Paul in Galatians chapter 4

(My approach is a little different, I love bringing the bible to life in its cultural context. But if you will allow me, I’d like to share with you some of the things I observed studying this scripture.)

First our author the tent maker.  I find it interesting that the type of tent Paul made him an ideal candidate for his work in ministry.  He made prayer tents, now called prayer shawls or tallit, an essential part of the payer life of any male Jewish believer of his time.  Paul made sure that a believer was covered in prayer; and that seems to foreshadow his later spiritual covering and guidance over many churches such as Galatia.

Being in the world but not of it. Few people understood this better than Paul (Saul of Tarsus) A Jew who grew up in the Diaspora.  Born in Tarsus he is a Roman citizen able to call upon the authority of Caesar. If he had born in Judea he would not had immediate access to citizenship.  He would have been born in a land, but not a part of the empire designed to be oppressed.  Instead Paul has rights, privileges and promises provided to a citizen of Rome.  Yet he was not truly a Roman, He was a servant of the one true God and could not adopt their ways.

He dwelt in two worlds just like any modern believer - a Kingdom citizen dwelling a sinful world system.

Tip on the tight rope

Sometime it feels like you are walking a tightrope when you dwell in two worlds. There are days when you fit and days when you don’t. Hardly ever do you feel as if you belong in both places at the same time.  We dwell on earth, but we belong to a Divine Kingdom where our Lord is King. Everything about the world system we live in is different from the plan our King designed for us to live in. His Kingdom is different.  His timing is different. His justice is difference. His grace is different.  Yet we live here in a flawed place preparing for a time when we will be forever in His Kingdom without confusion or distraction.

Why am I talking about this in relation to Galatians 4?  Because when tippin’n on the tightrope between these two worlds it is easy to forget who we are and what our position is.  Paul comes to remind us of our place – we are all adopted.

Paul calls us slaves, but he also calls us sons.  (I will tend to use the term son more than the term heir because there were rules at that prevented a daughter from inheriting when there were sons in the family to inherit. Though you maybe female- in this context, you are a son.) 

The Roman Empire had a strict class system and one of the few ways that a slave could move up from his station was to be adopted by a wealthy master/benefactor. There were special slave-made-son adoptions.  In this set up the Father asks the slave to become his heir and the slave has to agree (or choose) to accept this new position.  The formal adoption is done in a public ceremony before witnesses.

These adoptions were allowed when a natural born was estranged from the Father or disowned by the Father (or there was no son at all).   The change in the slave’s social standing is immediate and permanent.  The son becomes patria potestas, the power of the father.  Everything the Father has; is now the new son’s without restraint.  We can eat from the Master’s Table as heirs.  We are family –and can call Him Abba- on day one.

 A natural born son could be disowned at any time by the Father; but an adopted son could never be disowned or put aside in favor of another child – even if the natural born son is restored.  The adopted son’s position in the family and as an heir was secure and could not be taken.

Does this sound familiar?  Our Father chose each of us to be His heirs and He give us the option to say yes.  Yet sin was in the way of harmony and Christ chose to become estranged (separated) from the Father so that we can have access to everything the Father has for us.  He saved us without breaking His principles or the law of the age.

No matter what we have done or said; how terrible we think the situation we find ourselves; The Father can never says to us – the adopted son – “I no longer want to be your Daddy”.

Thoughts on the New Year

Happy New Year!

 Well kind of.  It is indeed January 2014, the start of a new year on the Gregorian secular calendar. And yes I am happy that God has allowed me to see a new day and year.  But…. May I share with you my dilemma?

 I live in a secular world that honors a calendar that its leaders came up with more than millennia ago.  However, though I live here I am not from here.  I am from a Divine kingdom whose ruler is the Almighty God that I worship.  His rules and calendar are different from the place in which I dwell. 

My life in this world and my challenge navigating its rules is a temporary condition. One day my life here will end. However one day I will dwell in the Divine Kingdom of my Creator forever and I want to be prepared for that eternal life.  So here comes my issue… whose calendar should motivate my choices and how I spend my time?

I have always had trouble with time.  It is my most valuable resource and how I spend my time- and with whom- give the casual observer a picture into what I consider important.  I only get twenty-four hours per day (hopefully eight of them I will spend sleeping) and none of them can be saved or reused at a later date.

I’m not talking about whether or not to celebrate a new year but whether in my daily life which calendar is the one that transforms my life and my future.  Yes I stayed awake with my family to watch the ball drop in Times Square and I watched the people in the square so full of excitement and expectation for a new beginning.  But as I looked out of the window and into the night’s sky at nature I realized nothing had altered. It was still a cold dark winter night (well its winter in my hemisphere)

You see in this Divine Kingdom I come from when my Creator says “Behold I make all things new” things change – His words are powerful and just His voice is enough to speak worlds into existence. When He simply speaks nature and the atmosphere begin to alter and make accommodation for what my God is about to do. When His new year comes nothing remains the same.

My God is so sweet He actually gives us more than one New Year a civil and a scared but I will stick with the civil year.  The Biblical civil New Year begins around September or October and three major feasts are celebrated during this time - the feast of trumpets, the Day of Atonement and feast of tabernacles.  A time of pronouncement, a day of restoration and a time of refreshing.  These feasts coincide with the fall harvest season.  A time when life’s cycle begins again.  The land releases its bounty and prepares for rest.  The Creator releases peace into my life and gives me another moment to rest in Him.  God pronounces blessing over my life; restores our relationship; and refreshes my soul, body and physical needs.  He takes the time to fill me until my cup runs over and I do not have room for any distraction. It is a time when He chooses to overwhelm me with His love for me. It’s a date I cannot miss.

You see, if you have said yes to Jesus Christ you are from the same Divine Kingdom that I am. The bounty He gives each New Year He wants to give to you.  He wants us to be fully satisfied; resting in Him.  He wants to recharge and restore you before you move out into your next season.

If you want to understand why He moves the way He moves you have to look at the way He chose to divide time and understand time on His terms.  Understanding His timing makes a new year fresh and full of expectation and a Sabbath rest more peaceful. As my music teacher always taught me, “Practice does not make perfect, practice makes permanent.”  Let us practice now for the eternal life we crave.

Be Blessed

xylia

Treasures in Jars of Clay - 2 Corinthians 4:7

by Xylia Sparks-Davis on 03/26/13

Treasures in Jars of Clay

2 Corinthians 4:7

I’m a student of Biblical History and am absolutely fascinated with the First century, the century in which Jesus lived and the church was born, its politics and culture and how those influences that surrounded the new believers affected the Jesus Movement and the growth of the church. So when I study the New Testament this happens to flow out of me whether I want it to or not.

Let’s read some of assignment together - 2 Corinthians chapter 4

4 Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart. 2 But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. 3 But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, 4 whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. 5 For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. 8 We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed— 

In reading our text, a certain verse rang true with me and I am going to park there for a minute.  Verse 7.  Here it is in the New International version.

7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.

When I read this verse, two things come to mind – one is an experience and the other is an image.  Do you mind if share them with you?  Thanks.  First the experience. A few years ago, I had the opportunity to see the Dead Sea Scrolls when they toured North Carolina.  In fact, it was my engagement present from my husband. 

These scrolls of Holy Scripture were persevered by a group called the Essences who lived in Qumran in the Judean desert.  They took upon themselves the task of copying the word of God with excellence. If a scroll had even one mistake, the entire scroll was banished to the fire. It had to be destroyed so it could not be later read and compromise the accuracy of the word of God.  When a scribe had completed a scroll without errors, the scroll was stored in a clay jar. 

In the Essences day as well as Paul’s, a clay jar was where a person would hide their dearest treasures. Clay jars were the ancient equivalent of safe deposit boxes.  Whether it was wine, oil, or jewels -  anything of high value was placed in a clay jar.  These jars were not adorned. The jars were chosen not because they were beautiful. You could walk right past these jars and never know there was a treasure inside.  It was what was inside the jars that solely gave them value.

We are jars of clay.  Our true beauty does not come from our outward appearance, but from the indwelling of the Word of God (who is Jesus) and the Holy Spirit.  Though the clay jars of the first century were meant to hide treasures, our prized possession, the word of God, is meant to be seen, touched and felt.  Our jars our meant to be cracked.

Just our Creator commanded light to shine out of darkness so are we to shine as light in a darkened world. The cracks in our jars allow His light to be revealed.  What cracks our jars?  The challenges of life and the persecution of the adversary.  Poor Satan, he thinks that when brings trouble into our lives to weigh us down and make us give up on Christ. Instead the issues our allowed in our lives to reveal the glory of God under pressure and unblind the eye of the unbeliever.  We can say like Paul that

We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.

The treasure inside us is too precious for us to let go.

I want to leave you with the image I spoke of at the beginning. Click the link to see the image http://www.umilta.net/veneranda1.jpg. The photo is of a wall relief found in the underground catacombs of Domatilla in Rome.  Domatilla’s husband was a Christian and was martyred by her uncle- the Emperor Domitian. Her catacomb was place where the early church hid from persecution.  The painting in her catacomb dates back to that era.  The woman on the right is believed to be Petronilla, the daughter of the apostle Peter. Scrolls were usually painted in the types of artwork to state that the person was a teacher or proclaimer of the message of Jesus. 

Pertornilla was a believer in Christ, just like you and me.  She witnessed the change that Christ had in the life of her father. She knew of His healing power through the restoration of her grandmother. Just as we have seen Him change our lives and the lives of people, we love.  She did more than take her family’s word for it; she stood for Christ on her own and shared His goodness to those she encountered.

Why am I telling you about Petronilla? Because she did not hold high office in the church neither did she have any secret knowledge about God that we do not possess.  She did not say that because “I am not a leader” that my testimony is less valuable.  She just shared what she knew about her Jesus. Like Pertonilla, it is our personal testimonies that make the life changing power of God real for others.

We speak not of ourselves but of Christ. We are called to do the same as Pertonilla. It is because of her testimony about Christ that Petronilla is remembered.  That painting is the one that covered her grave for 8 centuries To embrace the Great Commission that she embraced to tell to others the story of the Christ who changed our lives. The treasure inside us is too precious to keep to ourselves.

Pausing to Give Thanks

by Xylia Sparks-Davis on 11/21/12

This holiday season is already becoming challenging for me.  The materialism of my society grates on my nerves on any given day but from October to the end of the year, it is especially painful. It is as if advertisements move from promoting Halloween straight into pushing the must have gift for Christmas.  We move from give me candy to give me  gifts.  Black Friday sales are now starting on Thursday evening to insure as many sales as possible. Thanksgiving is run over in the process.  It seems that there is an incessant need for more without true satisfaction or contentment in what we already possess. When did we stop giving thanks? 

Thanksgiving is not a one day event filled turkey and all the trimmings but a way of life.  It is the way of the content.  Giving thanks and celebrating others places us on the path toward fulfillment.  True satisfaction comes from Jesus.  True peace comes from releasing  our problems to Him and exchanging them for His joy.  When our burdens are lifted, we feel grateful.  It is better than any gift exchange policy that Macy’s can devise.  The woman with the issue of blood used this exchange policy. She didn’t even need a receipt. She just touched the hem of Jesus’ garment and sickness was exchanged for wholeness and joy.  David learned this lesson. He praised his way from his father’s sheepfold all the way into a kingdom of his own.  He saw his cup run over with God’s blessings and mercy follow him to the end of his days.

Filling our cup with joy starts with counting our blessings.  What or who are you thankful for this year?  Write them down and see how fast they begin to flow. As we navigate through this holiday season let us not forget to thank the source of all of our blessings.

Lord as I move through this holiday season, let me not take you for granted. You are the source of my joy. I am thankful for You this year and every year.  Thank you for the opportunities You sent me so I could grow and change. Thank you for the restoration of my health.  That you for saving my life when I didn’t know it was in danger.  Thank you for letting me know that no matter how devastating the problem that You are bigger than my issues.  Thank you for letting me know that through you I can overcome anything and through You I am truly blessed.

 (That is my list; you’ll have to write your own.)

Happy Thanksgiving

Until next time

Xylia

My prayer for you today

by Xylia Sparks-Davis on 11/02/12

O Lord God, King of the Universe, be with my sister today. Overshadow her with Your love. Heal her deepest afflictions. Place upon her Your balm of Gilead and bind her ever wound. Refresh her thirsty soul.  Protect her from her enemies as she walks in Your way. Increase her faith. Restore her joy this day and every day.