Galations #7: Battle Within Us
November 10, 2024Pastor Patrick presented today's message, "Galations #7: Battle Within Us." A video of today's message is here on YouTube.
In passing, Patrick mentioned that he had talked about the Fruit of the Spirit in a series last year. It may help to go back and look at that. The series was referred to as "The Life You've Always Wanted" and ran from January 29, 2023, through April 2, 2023. Start here: The Life You've Always Wanted: Introduction. The series goes through all the fruit of the Spirit, one each week. Reviewing that material is more than enough commentary from me on this week's message.
But as for the Greek... I was curious about the double negative in the Greek that Patrick mentioned. In Galations 5:16, "So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will definitely not gratify the desires of the flesh." It turns out to be even more interesting. In the Greek, the more negatives the stronger the negative. Two negatives are just the beginning. In Hebrews 13:5 there are five negatives! God will "never not" leave you and "nor (oud', οὐδ) never (ou, οὐ) not (me, μή)" forsake you! Clearly, God will not leave/forsake you! Who knew! There are about 100 of these multi-negatives in the New Testament.
Bonus
Caring for the Orphans - Fostering Hope Foundation
From their website: "Fostering Hope was established in 2006 after four years of research into the foster care system. Our goal was to better understand the plight of children in foster care and the challenges of foster parents who step up to provide them with a home. What began as a little more than a hunch and a heart for helping these families is today an organization impacting hundreds of lives."
"In partnership with faith communities, businesses and other nonprofits, we support some 40 foster families in the Pikes Peak region, as well as dozens of teens and young adults who are emancipating, or aging out, of the child welfare system. Our network of volunteers act as the extended family these kids missed out on, and that the foster parents need to keep going."
TimberCreek Church (TCC) is one of those community partners. This year, TCC is collecting gift cards (in $10 increments) to be placed in the Best Boxes Sunday mornings to be given to Fostering Hope to distribute to fostering family parents for groceries and other household needs. TCC will be collecting through November 17th.
I started to write on this topic, but found an article that did it for me: Exploring the Biblical Stories of Orphans by George Hendricks.
The closer you read Old Testament verses to their original Hebrew, the more likely you are to encounter "the fatherless" as a translation instead of "orphan." This is because in the Ancient Near East (ANE, late Bronze Age), the father was the principal means of economic support for the family. The typical group you'll see referenced is "the sojourner, the widow, and the fatherless child." In our parlance today, that's "the stranger, the widow, and the orphan."
In addition to the various instructions that teach directly about caring for these three categories of people, there are other laws, like the laws regarding gleaning of the fields, that identify these three groups as the principal examples of who will be helped. Here's an example:
Deuteronomy 24:19-21: "When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. When you beat your olive trees, you shall not go over them again. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not strip it (the vineyard) afterward. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow."
Our Family Dinner (that I like to think of as our Sabbath Dinner) this past Saturday focused on praying over the gift cards we got for Fostering Hope. TimberCreek Church actually suggested praying over the cards as a family activity, so we did. Our lesson/exercise for the evening was identifying what we might ask in prayer for these children and their families and filling up the "Shoutout Board" (pictured) with those ideas. Then, we went around the table and each person got to pray for their one favorite prayer item on the board.During our exercise, I forgot to mention that there were many famous orphans, including: Alexander Hamilton, J.S. Bach, Buffalo Bill, Julia Roberts, Babe Ruth, Isaac Newton, Steve Jobs, and Jim Lovell, to name just a few. Orphans in the Bible include Moses, Ruth, Esther, and David.
An article at ShowHope.org identified four Biblical truths about orphans:
- All Waiting Children Have a Father
- That There Are Children Who Have Been Orphaned Is an Injustice of This World
- The People of God Will Care for Orphans
- The People of God Share Their Resources With Orphans
Bonus2
Meet Me Next ChristmasYou can always find Christmas movies to watch, all year long. But this time of year is the best. It's the time when networks and producers start dumping (i.e. releasing) all their latest Christmas movies to the viewing public. Starting last week sometime, the release began in earnest. I've probably watched a couple dozen or more brand new ones already!
So far, Meet Me Next Christmas is my favorite. It's a fun story, well-acted (IMHO), and includes a thread throughout involving the Pentatonix, one of our family's favorite music groups (which we saw just a little while ago at the new amphitheater, see here). They are a significant part of the movie.
The plot reminded me a bit of the movie, Serendipity. Is it just fate, or do we play a role in our own futures? Yes.
Enjoy!
Bonus3
Veterans Day
Always glad to hear/see the church acknowledge Veterans Day! This Sunday happened to be the Marine Corps' Birthday (November 10th) and the following day is Veterans Day (November 11th).
Bonus4
The Torah Part II: Cain & Abel to Joseph
Dennis Prager just dropped Part 2 of his 5-minute video series on the content of the Torah: Cain & Abel to Joseph.